Rwanda’s Radical Transformation Since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi 3031370104, 9783031370106

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Rwanda’s Radical Transformation Since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi Sheriff F. Folarin

Rwanda’s Radical Transformation Since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi

Sheriff F. Folarin

Rwanda’s Radical Transformation Since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi

Sheriff F. Folarin Department of Political Science Texas State University San Marcos, TX, USA Center for Conflict Management University of Rwanda Kigali, Rwanda

ISBN 978-3-031-37010-6 ISBN 978-3-031-37011-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37011-3 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

To all genocide survivors, liberators, and the good people of the Land of a Thousand Hills, for rising, in firm resolute, to turn tragedy into triumphs, thus producing one of the finest places on earth.

Foreword

Africa is a continent rich in natural resources, solid minerals, and agricultural production, so much that it should not only be self-sufficient, but also be wealthy enough to help other continents or peoples around the world. From Cape Town to Cairo, Dakar to Mogadishu, or Casablanca to Dar es Salaam, lies a humongous amount of wealth that should catapult Africa to the First World. Crude oil, gold, diamond, copper, tin, cobalt, coltan, manganese, magnesium, limestone, uranium, and so much more. Cash crops such as cocoa, coffee, and palm oil from Africa are in high demand and large consumption through finished products such as chocolates, coffee drinks, and butter, to mention a few, in the western world and other continents. However, Africa remains economically and financially challenged and the destiny of being part of the Industrialized North has so far, been unreachable. Conflicts (many of which are caused by struggle for resource and wealth control among tribes and ethnic leaders), mismanagement of resources, and corruption largely account for the lacuna. Leadership issues have led to frustration and aggression and explosions of these have resulted in intractable conflicts, which in turn lead to decimation of populations, refugee crisis, destruction of economies, political instability, and ultimately, stagnated growth. These attributes have featured prominently in the civil wars in Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Libya, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Somalia, and in recent times Sudan and South Sudan. These leadership ineptitude, power struggle, ethnic extremism, and resource conflicts have been the bane of vii

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peace and security in many post-colonial African states. Some of the characteristics have also featured in the Burundi and Rwandan civil wars of the 1970s through 1990s and genocides across the periods. To date, the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsis in Rwanda of 1994 comes across as the most horrendous because of the scale of killings of the Tutsis and moderate Hutus within a space of three months. Between April 7 and July 3, 1994, about one million Rwandans or more, were killed. For a country of less than 7 million and with about a million hacked to death with the use of ordinary weapons as machetes and clubs, it could have been worse than the Holocaust of 1941–1945, if the Rwandan episode had gone much longer or weapons of mass destruction were available to the Hutu extremists. Despite the big crash of the country, like Burundi and many other African states, Rwanda rose again and grew to better heights than she ever was before the great crash in 1994. These backgrounds obviously informed Sheriff Folarin’s Rwanda’s Radical Transformation Since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The argument that it is near impossible for African countries to stand on their feet after such a disaster as Rwanda’s in 1994 becomes valid when comparisons are made with other countries that passed through similar rough roads. Of the brilliant analyses and perspectives made in the book, the one that stands out is the comparison between Rwanda and her immediate neighbors, particularly Burundi and Democratic Republic of the Congo, which have had exact ethnic, political, and economic crises as Rwanda. Outlining the similarities, points of departure, and differences between the nations with compelling facts and figures and perspectives that cannot be discounted, are, for me, one of the standout parts of the book. These are in Chapter 7. Other striking areas are the accounts of those the author met in the field (Rwanda) and how their stories reflect the state or level of forgiveness, reconciliation, reintegration, and progress made so far in the reconstruction efforts after the genocide against the Tutsis. The author has done well with the photographic illustrations in Chapter 9 to prove that the transformation in Rwanda is evident and not farfetched. The foregoing and much more make the study quite original and distinct. Ultimately, the book will be a major contribution to the knowledge of Rwanda in particular, and post-conflict reconstruction and leadership dynamics in general. Rwanda’s problem before (and in) 1994 was not simply because ethnic leaders sought political power. Rwanda’s uniqueness as a homogenous

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society should naturally rule out the debate about ethnicities. There was (and is) no Hutuland or Tutsiland. These people have the same (one) land, language, religion, African or Christian culture. They are the same, “Rwandaland”, if there is anything like that. Yet they went to war against each other and one attempted to get rid of the other. How did one ethnic group (or “nation” as it is commonly called in that part of Africa) suddenly become multiple ethnicities and extremely hostile to each other to the point of elimination in Rwanda and Burundi? First, land hunger may have accounted for this. In a tiny country of seven million, where the fertile people keep birthing more children and the infant mortality is low, the small piece of land (10,347 square miles, which is about the size of Maryland State in United States), frictions over land ownership or grabs would persist and could escalate. Second but more importantly is the identity distinction and discrimination created from the onset by the German and Belgian colonialists. The lesson here is that, the western world may have done more harm than good to Africa from the colonial days, and should now take their hands off the continent’s affairs, except there are genuine intentions to help in critical matters, if invited. The western powers may have to redefine their interests in Africa and take off their sticky fingers from resources and resource conflicts on the continent. I completely agree with the author that Rwanda is a shining example to African people in general on leadership creativity and dynamism. However, I dare add that Rwanda is a shining example to the rest of the world, including political leaders in the so-called advanced democracies, about building an enduring national culture of resilience, hope, and unity. Constructing bridges to connect and unify, not walls of division or discrimination, should be the ultimate goal of leadership. This is the main lesson from Rwanda, which, I think, is also a premise in this book. Professor Howard Balanoff Fellow, National Academy of Public Administration Director, William P. Hobby Center for Public Service Texas State University San Marcos, Texas, USA

Preface

A lot in form of books and journal articles have been written about Rwanda’s genocide and post-genocide experiences. However, someone has to write about the current prosperous trends and challenges up to 2023 and tie them to the tragic past in a creative way and from a participationobservation (an eyewitness) perspective. This book connects the past to the present and tells the story from personal (close) encounters and in some cases, the benefit of hindsight. Rwanda’s contemporary history, particularly those bordering on development issues and the manner of troubleshooting knotty matters in a way that brings her out of the doldrums to the path of peace, security, and prosperity are the focal points of this book. The study identifies leadership as the main factor in the redemption, recovery, and prosperity of the country. The study also finds out that the people’s forgiving spirit (or culture), resilience, and allegiance to their country, against all the past odds have played a critical role in the Rwandan resurgence and renaissance. The study used oral submissions of persons in the author’s close circle, drew from a rich literature base, and reached conclusions from a close observation and witnessing in the society, to build the discussions, arguments, and perspectives. Chapters 1–4 present the author’s sentiments about the tragic times, and early knowledge as well as urge and quest to discover and do something unusual about the Rwandan genocide trajectory and the way she has managed to grapple with, and overcome the trials; while also presenting a

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historical, social, economic, and political profile of the country. Chapters 5–7 dissect the contemporary Rwandan society, identifying and discussing the leadership dynamics and national development strategies or programs that changed the fortunes of the country and brought her to the success she now enjoys. The chapter also identifies the reconstruction, reconciliation, and judicial measures to reassure the people, build mutual trust, reintegrate them, and create a new national identity. However, the trajectories in neighboring countries and the giant leap Rwanda has taken ahead of them are examined critically to determine the extent of transformation that has taken place in the latter. The same chapter attempts a sneak into the inter/intragroup relations to find out the level of reintegration and nationhood, reaching the conclusions that while reconciliation is evident, total integration is still work in progress. Chapter 8 examines other national development strategies that place Rwanda in a position of global patronage and discusses the annual security symposium, which, in its eleventh year, has become a robust diplomatic platform to harness global ideas on tackling African security issues and sell the country as a proactive and pan-Africanist one in the comity of civilized states. Chapter 9 comprises the author’s visual representation of the development and transformation from the grassroots to the national level as personally witnessed. Photographs of the author and the landmarks sighted are captioned to tell or continue the narrative and analyses by other means. Chapter 10 concludes the study, by attempting a recap of the narratives and analyses, and shares some of the author’s personal observations, perspectives, and recommendations about Rwanda and her ongoing transformation. The data for this study were obtained through the author’s private encounters, participation-observation and direct involvement in the society, chats with some citizens, and research while visiting. The presentations in the book were shaped by personal experiences and thoughts. The narratives were substantiated by documentary evidence and scientific facts from academic sources such as books, journal articles; and from creative but well-established factual materials from novels and films on Rwanda; as well as news media and governmental sources. The perspectives and conclusions are entirely mine. These conclusions are drawn from the variety of sources and my participation-observation in the society. All primary data obtained were from a close circle of friends, colleagues, students, drivers, hotel staff, restaurant staff, with whom the author had informal or semi-formal chats. This informal circle of acquaintances gave

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permissions for the use of their oral evidence and shared experiences and names. However, the author chose to not use the full or real names and only referred to their information to buttress the author’s eyewitness accounts or sharpen his perspectives. Despite the fact that this study, by nature of its methodology, would require no ethical clearance, the Directorate of Research and Innovation in the University of Rwanda, where the author partly serves, was duly informed and carried along. Almost all of the photos used were taken by the author’s camera lens. The other photos used, quite a few of them, were from online newspapers, national agencies, Wikimedia Commons, and the website of Ministry of Defense in Rwanda, which were not restricted or subject to copyright permissions. This is a non-fiction book. However, the presentation combines scholarly rigor with a narrative-analytical style characteristic of novel narrations. Analyses are made rigorously, yet personal stories are told in simple terms and creatively, which makes the book not only an easyread, but also a literature for all. This book will thus be accessible to anyone who researches on Rwanda, post-genocide/conflict rebuilding, African politics, development politics, and strategic studies. Indeed, it is a material everyone should find robust to know about that densely populated, geographically small but healthily ambitious nation that does mighty things. San Marcos, USA

Sheriff F. Folarin

Acknowledgments

My appreciation goes to Texas State University in general, and Political Science Department and William P. Hobby Center for Public Service in particular for giving me the auspicious environment to start this book. My urge to study Rwanda had always been there, but the engagement by the institution to expand the base and teach African studies (governance, politics, and public policy in particular), and Professor Howard Balanoff’s direct support and mentorship inspired me to sit down and write the book. He had challenged me to enrich our co-taught courses on international and comparative public administration readings with a book that would have African governance content, and the latent potential to do one on Rwanda immediately came to mind. It simply exploded. My debt of gratitude goes to the professor for the foreword and the immense support at all times. Special thanks to University of Rwanda, Center for Conflict Management, Ministry of Defense, and Rwandan Defense Force Command and Staff College (RDFCSC) for making my visits and engagements in Rwanda possible. In specific terms, my gratitude goes to the University of Rwanda’s Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Didas Kayihura; CCM Director, Dr. Aggee Shyaka Mugabe; and my good friend, Dr. John Peter Mugume, for their support toward the project and making my visits and intellectual enterprises a rewarding one always. I acknowledge the current and past leadership of the RDFCSC, particularly Brigadier-General Didas Ndahiro,

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Colonel Jean Chrysostome Ngendahimana and Colonel Frederick Itangayenda, as well as the other management staff and faculty/instructors for the personal/collective support and provision of the enabling atmosphere always for my teaching and welfare. Thanks to all my students in the Senior Command and Staff College Courses 8 to 11 and the PhD Peace, Conflict and Security Studies students as well, for all the intellectually stimulating times and perspectives. I thank Ms. Chantal Mushimiyimana, CCM’s secretary for facilitating the logistics during all my journeys and stay in Rwanda. I am indebted to my other colleagues (in and out of Rwanda), friends, hotel staff, drivers, regular people on the streets, and respondents, particularly Ms. H. Uwera and Mr. J. Claude Nyirinkwaya for agreeing to talk to me about their experiences during and after the genocide and for their influence on the book’s perspectives. Unarguably, Professor Femi Otubanjo of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in Lagos made the whole venture happen, when in 2019, he recommended me to the SCSC program operators to replace him as one of their professors. Without his role, I probably would not have executed this project. My eternal gratitude to him. I thank almighty God most profoundly for the opportunity, safe travels, and successful execution of the project. And for the auspicious environment created at home in Centerton, Arkansas to read, think, write, and complete the second half of this book, I thank my darling wife, Oluwafunke, and my beloved children, Olorunfemi, Foladamisi, and Folademilade. Centerton, Arkansas, USA April, 2023

Sheriff F. Folarin

About This Book

The book assesses the state of Rwanda since the end of the genocide of the Tutsi. It examines the reconstruction process and progress made in rebuilding the country and redirecting her to the path of stability and growth. Scooping from the abundance of historical records, books, journals, news, and online resources as well as government records and mainly eyewitness accounts through the author’s direct participation, engagement, or involvement in Rwandan society, findings show that Rwanda has recorded much more than expected. Indeed, Rwanda’s level of development today defies all human logic or universally accepted laws for any country ruined by a horrific genocide. The study reaches some conclusions, including the fact that visionary, forward-looking, creative, dynamic, and forward-looking leadership, uncommon in African history, is directly responsible for the Rwandan rebound and indeed miraculous leap forward. Other factors are the people’s true forgiving culture (also entrenched by the kind of governance in the country), their resilience and resolve to rebuild and forge ahead. It identifies the current challenges, and highlights, critically, the tough times ahead, but outlines what may be the paths to solutions and prospects.

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ABOUT THIS BOOK

Rwanda’s Radical Transformation Since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi expands the bounds of knowledge in the field of postconflict reconstruction, conflict management, peacebuilding, and security. Furthermore, it builds on the frontiers of creative and transformational leadership and further adds to the growing studies on Rwanda, specifically bridging the gap in research on her radical development in contemporary times.

Praise for Rwanda ’s Radical Transformation Since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi

“The book is brilliantly written, and presented in a simple, easily readable style. The volume offers a pertinent and fascinating analysis of the key post-genocide peacebuilding actors, approaches, and themes in Rwanda. As such, the author provides an extremely valuable contribution to the work of peacebuilding in other violence and war-torn countries around the world.” —Aggée Shyaka Mugabe (Ph.D.), Director, Center for Conflict Management (CCM), University of Rwanda “My esteemed colleague’s innovative work blends classical social science methods with personal reflections, resulting in a vivid prose that is inspired by both strong feelings and a genuine scholarly quest robustly anchored on an intellectual service provided to students in Rwanda. Thanks to this book, readers from diverse horizons will get a better understanding of the reason why this country, deeply affected by a genocide of huge proportion in 1994, was able to recover so rapidly. The book suggests that the country’s resilience and strength can be attributed to, among other things, a strong leadership embodied by a president who may not be that popular among some western democrats, but who undeniably has offered an appropriate and effective response during a dire situation. The example of Rwanda could potentially inspire many countries in Africa and elsewhere grappling with challenges similar to Rwanda’s.” xix

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—Xavier Moyet (Ph.D.), University of Kent, United Kingdom; Former Director of the Institut Francais de Recherche en Afrique (IFRA), University of Ibadan, Nigeria; and Coordinator of Religion and Urbanization in Africa (RUA) Project “I have read a plethora of publications on Rwanda. This one, done by Prof. Sheriff Folarin, is different in terms of the motivation, contents, methods, and contributions to knowledge. The author visited Rwanda on several occasions and multitasked on each of the occasions. In addition to attending to his original assignment during each visit, Sheriff denied himself the leisure of savoring the lovely environment by engaging in the fieldworks leading to the present publication. My first lesson from this is that you do not need a fat research grant to do a good academic work. What matters most is your capacity to see a research opportunity and take full advantage of it. Reading the writing, one is fascinated by the ability of the author to bring events and scenarios in mission fields closer to the imagination of a third party (the reader). The fluidity of language, blend of tough scholarly language with simple literary genius, and the mix of secondary data and eyewitness accounts are quite commendable. This, definitely, is one of the finest pieces I have read on post-genocide Rwanda. It is a major contribution to the field of peacebuilding and strategic studies.” —Isaac Olawale Albert, Professor of African History, Peace and Conflict Studies; Former Director of the Institute of African Studies and Institute for Peace and Strategic Studies; and Pioneer Dean, Faculty of Multidisciplinary Studies, University of Ibadan; as well as the founding Director, Center for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, Nigeria “One of the exciting and incisive reads on revolutionary trends in the African public space. This is by far, the most recent of such stories about radical transformations initiated, spearheaded, and executed by Africans in Africa. The book presents spectacular details of the exploits of the political leadership of Paul Kagame and the people’s resilience that have prevailed even in times of deliberate external invalidation. When the author began this study, I knew that it was a promising venture, but did not suspect that it would turn out different from others and be as detailed, multi-pronged

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in delivery and creative as this. The book is highly recommended to all students of politics, governance, and public policy in Africa.” —Rotimi Ajayi, Professor of Political Science, Federal University Lokoja, and Former Vice-Chancellor of Landmark University, Omuaran, Nigeria “Professor Sheriff Folarin has brought to bear his deep analytical skills in crafting this exhilarating narrative of the emergence of a modern society in Africa, out of the ashes of genocide. The focus is on the force of leadership in creating the ambience for reconciliation, renewal, and revival, evident in the Rwandan miracle. I congratulate my long-standing colleague for this excellent historical account and political treatise that carries the rhythm of literary creativity.” —Charles Ogbulogo, Professor of Languages, Vice-Chancellor, Maduka University, and Former Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Covenant University, Nigeria “This piece takes the beautiful message of Sheriff Folarin’s about Africa’s huge potentials for a turnaround to the world. Using Rwanda’s transformation journey as an example, it underscores hope and possibility of a transformable African society. He writes that Rwanda, a developing country with a bad past transformed itself to one with a remarkable progress, thus demonstrating the power of peace, unity, hope, resilience, and leadership dynamics in building a sustainable progressive society. It’s a great contribution to the knowledge about contemporary Rwanda’s journey in building peace, enhancing security and prosperity. This is a commendable endeavor, which, despite his foreign sojourns, shows the author’s strong connections to his motherland Africa and Rwanda in particular.” —John Peter Mugume (Ph.D.), Center for Conflict Management, University of Rwanda “In a powerful blend of creative narration and intellectual savviness, Sheriff Folarin takes readers through a (re)discovery of Rwanda from the lens of an “outsider” who has had the opportunity to interact at different levels within the country. Reading through the pages, it is easy to see the author’s profound love for Rwanda and passion to tell the world of the remarkable journey of transformation that’s being perfected since the genocide based on his personal experience and encounters. I have no doubt that the book will surely stimulate the interest of anyone looking

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for an objective assessment of the post-genocide history of Rwanda and its path toward progress, prosperity, and stability that’s now become a template for many African countries to follow. The book’s unique storytelling approach makes it accessible not only to scholars but relatable for ordinary persons who are truly looking to connect the dots of Rwanda’s history with its post-war experience to gain a complete understanding of its path to greatness. A great strength of the book is the conceptual and empirical justification for an African variant of democracy that is exemplified in Kagame’s Rwanda, which is a model for African states.” —Olusola Ogunnubi (Ph.D.), Department of Political Science, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada; and Former Research Fellow, Center for Gender and African Studies, University of the Free State, South Africa. “I saw bodies flowing across from Rwanda to my native Uganda during those dark days of genocide against the Tusti in Rwanda. What is undeniable is the resilience of a people who are rising from the ashes to making a global mark in only few decades. This book by Sheriff F. Folarin does a good job at helping to change the negative narrative not only about Rwanda but really, probably indirectly, about Africa. Against many odds – landlocked, small, in a conflict-ridden region, and starting from a horrific genocide – surely the progress Rwanda is making is remarkable. It is evident that seeds of sustainability will be needed to keep this a glowing story for future generations.” —Ronald David Kayanja, Director, United Nations Information Center in Nigeria

Contents

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1

Introduction

2

A Factsheet on Rwanda

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3

It’s Getting Bloody: From Early Signposts to the Searing Images of Genocide

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4

Empathy, Love, and Personal Quest

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Tragedy to Triumph: Leadership, Military, People, and Reconstruction

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Forgiveness, Resilience, Exploits, and Challenges

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Radical Transformation, National Security Symposiums, and Future of Rwanda

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It’s Not Goodbyes but See You Again: The Allures of Rwanda

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A Pictorial Excursion on Rwanda’s Transformation

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Conclusions

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Index

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About the Author

Sheriff F. Folarin is a full professor of international relations, and a visiting professor in Department of Political Science, Texas State University, United States, and at Center for Conflict Management, University of Rwanda, Kigali. He has put in almost 24 years in the academy, starting from the University of Ibadan and proceeding to put in almost 19 years in Covenant University, both in Nigeria. Professor Folarin has since 2018 been on the faculty of Ife Institute of Advanced Studies, established and co-hosted by Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria and Professor Jacob Olupona of Harvard University in the United States. Folarin is a 2015 Fellow of Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program; a 2007 Fellow of Study of United States Institute (SUSI) on American Foreign Policy and a visiting fellow at the Walker Institute of International and Area Studies, University of South Carolina. In 2020, he won the Science Communication Award of The Conversation Africa, in recognition of his several insightful, mentally stimulating contributions that were adjudged the third most-read in Africa that year. At Covenant University, Professor Folarin had at various times, served as Chairman of the Management Board of African Leadership Development Center, Director of International Office and Linkages, two-time Chair of Department of Political Science and International Relations, University Orator, and founder of university tour guides, model United Nations and literary and debating societies. He was also the pioneer editor of Covenant University Journal of Politics and International xxv

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Affairs (CUJPIA) for which he produced eleven (11) editions. In addition to laying a solid foundation for the institution’s internationalization from 2007 to 2009 and from 2012 to 2014, he also initiated, pursued, and signed thirty-eight (38) MoUs with leading universities in the world, particularly in the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Nigeria, Malaysia, and South Africa. Between 2015 and 2022, he served in various positions nationally, including Southwest Coordinator, VicePresident, and President of the All-Nigeria Universities Debating Council (ANUDC). In the United States, from the period of his appointment as a visiting professor in March 2022, he has served as the pioneer and current editorin-chief of the Africa Symposia Issue of the Good Governance Worldwide, an open-access journal of the Public Management Section of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). At Texas State University, he teaches public policy, comparative public administration, and introduction to international relations at the graduate and undergraduate levels respectively. Folarin is an accomplished academic mentor, who has successfully supervised many doctoral candidates and sat on the doctoral dissertation panels of 53 PhDs around the world. With over ninety (90) scholarly publications, including books such as United Nations and Sustainable Development Goals (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022); Religion and Global Politics: Soft Power in Nigeria and Beyond (Lexington Books, 2022); and Visibility and Relevance in International Politics: National Role Conceptions and Nigeria’s Policy in Africa (Media Expressions, 2014), he has contributed significantly in the production and growth of knowledge in his areas of expertise. A professional with multiple peer recognitions, Folarin has given many public lectures around the globe. In 2020, he chaired the United Nations at 75 International Conference. In 2019, he was nominated into the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Education for Justice Scholars group. He has been on multiple panels of the National Universities Commission (NUC) for accreditation of academic programs in Nigerian universities. Among other professional bodies, Professor Folarin belongs to the Nigerian Political Science Association, US State Department Alumni in Nigeria, American Society for Public Administration, US Midwest Political Science Association, and Public Diplomacy Council of America’s Citizen Diplomacy International (CDI). His areas of research interest include international relations, foreign policies of the

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powers, soft power and foreign policies of African states, African politics and governance, genocide and strategic studies, international and comparative public administration, among others. As a public intellectual, he regularly expresses his strong opinions and perspectives through several windows, including local and global television and radio networks, newspapers, and on his social media platforms. He serves as a member of the editorial board of some Nigerian newspapers, including Nigerian Tribune, where he had worked over two decades ago. Apart from reading and writing, the author spends his leisure time in admiring nature, traveling, and listening to good music.

Abbreviations

ACFTA AFAFRICA AFCON ALiR AMIS ASPA AU BBC CCM CFE CHOGM CIDA CNN COMESA COVID-19 CULDS CV DRC EAC EASTC ECOWAS EDPRPS EFCC FAR FARDC

African Continental Free Trade Area US Air Force in Africa African Cup of Nations Army for the Liberation of Rwanda African Union Mission in Sudan American Society for Public Administration African Union British Broadcasting Cooperation Center for Conflict Management Common Framework of Engagement Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting Canadian International Development Agency Cable News Network Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Coronavirus Disease 2019 Covenant University Literary and Debate Society Curriculum Vitae Democratic Republic of the Congo East African Community East Africa Science and Technology Commission Economic Community of West African States Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Rwandan Armed Forces/Forces Armées Rwandaises Armed Forces of the Republic of Congo/Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo xxix

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ABBREVIATIONS

FEBA FLN FRODEBU GDP HEB HND ICGCR ICT ICTR ID JICA LBJ M23 MICE MIDEDUC MINADEF MISCA MRCD MTN NEPAD NGOs NRA NSS NSTI NUC PAUDC PHD PMASA PSO RANU RBC RDF RDFCSC RPA RPF RTLM RTP/R2P RWF SSS SUV SWG

Forward End of Battle Area National Liberation Forces/Forces de Liberation Nationale Front for Democracy in Burundi/Front Pour la Démocratie au Burundi Gross Domestic Product Howard E. Butt/Here Everything’s Better Higher National Diploma International Conference on the Great Lakes Region Information Communications Technology International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda Identity Japanese International Cooperation Agency Lyndon Baines Johnson March 23 Movement Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Engagements Ministry of Education Ministry of Defense International Support Mission to CentAfrique Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change/Movement Rwandaise Pour le Changement Democratique Mobile Telecommunications Network New Partnership for African Development Non-Governmental Organizations National Resistance Army National Security Symposium National Strategy for Transformation National Universities Commission Pan African Universities Debating Championship Doctor of Philosophy Port Management Association of Eastern and Southern Africa Peace Support Operations Rwanda Alliance for National Unity Rwandan Biomedical Center Rwandan Defense Force Rwandan Defense Force Command and Staff College Rwandan/Rwandese Patriotic Army Rwandan/Rwandese Patriotic Front Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines Responsibility to Protect Rwandan Franc Senior Secondary School Sports Utility Vehicle Sector Working Group

ABBREVIATIONS

THE UCJ UK UN UNAMID UNAMIR UNHCR UNMISS UNSC UPRANO UR US/USA USAID WFP

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Times Higher Education Union of Campus Journalists United Kingdom United Nations United Nations Hybrid Mission to Darfur United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees United Nations Mission in South Sudan United Nations Security Council Union of National Progress/Union Pour le Progrès National University of Rwanda United States of America United States Agency for International Development World Food Program

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

I have been to Rwanda only seven times. Ordinarily, this number of visits may not be enough to tell compelling stories about a country with a vast and well-documented past. The visits were official, at the invitation of the Rwandan government through its only national university and ministry of defense, and for the purpose of national capacity development. As a visiting professor in the Center for Conflict Management (CCM) of the University of Rwanda, which coordinates the PhD in Peace, Conflict and Security Studies on the one hand, and Master of Arts in Security Studies program of the Rwandan Command and Staff College, I am in Rwanda each year. First, to teach at the Command and Staff College, and second to attend the country’s National Security Symposium, and more recently, to teach the doctoral students in the university. If you know what working with the military implies, it would not be difficult to imagine how regimented my visit would be. Like the senior military personnel from across the African continent that come for the program each year, my life would be so timed that I could have little or no time to “discover” Rwanda. Looking at it from the regimentation point of view, no one would be able to tell stories adequate to describe the Rwandan society or history. However, no limitation of time could kill passion for knowledge. Once there is passion, there is a drive and with this, every time, no matter the limitation, you will reach your goal. Therefore, my case has been different. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 S. F. Folarin, Rwanda’s Radical Transformation Since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37011-3_1

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I am able to share so much about Rwanda for reasons bordering on a burning passion/interest, availability of literature, previous knowledge of the country gathered from news and television images, and of course the time during the visits when I had to interact with as many people as possible and with my students and colleagues. Other sources include my drivers on road travels, visits to the markets and shopping centers, interaction with restaurant and hotel staff, personal visits to memorials and parks, movies, video documentaries, and YouTube videos and skits on Rwanda. Class discussions with the Rwandan officers attending the Senior Command and Staff College program and the doctoral students in the university are one of the most reliable sources of understanding Rwanda, her history, culture, genocide narratives, governance, and ordinary life in the present. To be sure, most of the materials I had with which to share these compelling stories were from my private encounters, chats with some citizens, and research while visiting. The presentations are shaped by personal experiences and thoughts. The narratives are substantiated by documentary evidence and scientific facts from academic sources such as books, journal articles; and from creative but well-established factual materials from novels and films on Rwanda; as well as news media and governmental sources. The perspectives and conclusions are entirely mine. These conclusions are drawn from the variety of sources and my participation-observation in the society. This is a non-fiction book. However, the facts are presented in a more flowery way. Put differently, the style of presentation is such that scholarly analyses are blended with a language that is less formal, which makes the book easy to read and creative. The book will thus be accessible to anyone who conducts research on Rwanda, post-genocide/conflict rebuilding, African politics, development politics, and anyone who simply seeks a good book to read. Sometimes it reads like a travelog; yet it may be quite academic. However, it is a material everyone should find robust to know about that geographically small but ambitious nation that does mighty things. Let me make it clear, I love Rwanda. Everyone who knows me can tell how much I do. Why do I love the country? Why do I accept to travel thousands of kilometers to teach in Rwanda? When did I fall in love with her? Who are the Rwandan people? What do I dislike about the country? How is Rwanda changing the stereotype about Africa? What is

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good about President Paul Kagame? Is there any worries about his leadership style? What do I hope to see change in Rwanda? How can Africa learn from Rwanda and Paul Kagame? What can Rwandan learn from Africa and the world? My sentiments, strong opinions, and objections or reservations are put in context in this study. ----------I did not know much about modern Rwanda until April 1994. The only thing I knew before then was that Rwanda was in East-Central Africa and that Kigali was her capital. The first time I saw Rwanda in the news was in 1992, when the conflict between the Hutu-controlled government and Tutsi-led rebels reached a head and the international community desperately sought a truce. Mention had been made in history and political science classes of Rwanda and Burundi in my undergraduate days. I read about Ruanda-Urundi in my history books and how the Europeans redrew the boundaries and map of one homogenous people and culture. The Germans tried hard to differentiate the ethnic group and classify them into two or three, through all manner of ridiculous measures, and the Belgians completed the process—first, Rwanda and Burundi became two separate countries, and second, the three fingers of the same hand, AbaHutu, AbaTutsi and AbaTwa were classified as distinct ethnic groups. Rwanda and Burundi had a rich precolonial history. They were a Bantu kingdom with three groups complementing one another. The Hutu farmed the land, Tutsi reared cattle and livestock, while the Twa were famous hunters in the forest. An account posits that the Rwandan nation evolved from the fifteenth century, when a chiefdom in the landlocked region incorporated neighboring territories and created the Kingdom of Rwanda after the disintegration of the Bachwezi Empire, which was also known as Bunyoro-Kitara. The empire had ruled over most of what is now considered Rwanda. In a feudal system that evolved, the Hutu (who were about 85% of the population), had a handful of nobles but were largely farmers, while the Mwamis , from the Tutsi clan, ruled as kings. The king was known as Mutara. Legend has it that in the nineteenth century, the Tutsi wielded military power, while the Hutus possessed healing power and agricultural skills. For their healing and agricultural influence, the Abiiru or council of advisors was exclusively Hutu. However, before the end of the eighteenth century, the council’s influence had drastically eroded for political reasons (SAHO, 2021).

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According to an account by the South African History Online (SAHO, 2021), the first inhabitants of the area that is now called Rwanda settled there about 10,000 years ago. Further, They were hunter-gatherers and lived in the forests, being later identified as the Twa people. They were engaged in hunting and gathering of food and the crafting of pottery. By 600CE the people living in the area knew how to work iron, had a small amount of cattle and planted small amounts of sorghum and finger millet. Between 400 and 1000 CE, migrants from central Africa brought with them more extensive knowledge of agriculture and farming. They engaged in agriculture, had small herds of livestock and were later identified as Hutu people. The last wave of migrants were cattle herding pastoralists who were fleeing famine and drought (either from central or east Africa) and settled in Rwanda between 1400 and 1500CE. The last group were identified as the Tutsi people after the 1600s. These migrations arose in slow and steady waves and did not occur through invasions and conquest. There was also a great deal of cohabitation and intermarriage. To this end, there was a large degree of integration, acceptance and interaction between the different groups who arrived at different times. (SAHO, 2021)

The integration and complimentary roles among the three groups allowed for little or no competition. There was no basis for do-or-die competition, and if there were any kind of rivalry, it would have been a friendly and a healthy one. Each clan was doing well in their endeavors. The Twa, who are believed to have arrived before the other two groups, lived more on the mountains and were great hunters who fed the community with meat from the wild. The Tutsi were successful cattle herders who provided fresh milk, cheese, and cow meat and as cow was an important means of exchange and measure of wealth, used their cow wealth to rise to prominent positions. The Hutu were farmers, who fed the nation with farm produce. The implication of this was that each group was important to the other, a factor that was capable of furthering integration of the society. The arrival of the Germans marked a turning point in intergroup relations in precolonial Rwanda. German anthropologists and later colonialists who arrived tried their best in distinguishing Rwandans along ethnic lines. Using pseudo-scientific instruments and theories, they introduced stereotypes, including height, facial profile, complexion, and body fat/shape to differentiate Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa. In their findings, Tutsi were slim, taller, oblong-faced, and lighter (or could be sun-tanned) in

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skin. The Hutu were stumpy, short, round-faced, and darker in skin complexion. The Tutsi were also more likely to be thin-lipped, longnosed, and look more beautiful or handsome than the Hutu. The Twa were described as pygmies, much shorter, darker, and round-faced. For these Europeans, the Tutsis who seemed to have physical features that bore semblance with the Caucasians, were therefore closer to the Europeans, and could be more trusted to work with (English Wikipedia, 2007; Human Rights Watch, 1999). For the Belgians, anyone who was Tutsi would be someone with more than ten cows and Ethiopoid; anyone with less than ten cows was Hutu and Bantoid; while the Twa was Pygmoid. These ethnic distinctions and stereotypes, followed by the manner in which they were applied in the socio-political life of Rwanda during colonialism, were the beginning of the critical ethnic problems in the country. Rwandans began to see themselves as different and because of the manifest discriminatory colonial rule that targeted the fabric of ethnic cohesion, ethnic distrust, and animosity gained momentum in the society. The Twa were the worst hit in the discrimination chain. In a study by two social anthropologists in 1995, it is posited that neither the colonial rulers, the Hutus nor the Tutsis considered them important enough to be in the equation of things (Lewis & Knight, 1995). These suited the Germans and their Belgian successors, who prized divide and conquer as an administrative policy. Although the Human Rights Watch report of 1999 did make an excuse for the Belgians by claiming that they did not mean to use a “divide and rule” policy, but it was clear that the colonialists enjoyed the divisions that their discriminatory socio-political practices created. The seed of future discord and annihilations had thus been firmly laid in the colonial times. ----------That was all I knew of Rwanda before 1994. Her size and her being surrounded by bigger and wealthier neighbors could have made her exploits pale into insignificance at this time. No one really knew much about Rwanda. This trajectory was to change in April 1994. As a member of the university campus press union, known as the Union of Campus Journalists (UCJ) in the University of Ibadan, Nigeria’s premier university, it was my duty to see the pressboard every day. A colleague of mine and I were in the student union building sometime in early April 1994, when an article on the pressboard caught my

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attention: “Tension in Rwanda…Pandemonium in Burundi”. The presidential plane conveying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi from Arusha in Tanzania to Kigali, Rwanda’s hilly capital was brought down by a missile attack. Both presidents and all their entourage and cabin crew had died. It was more of a successful assassination of Presidents Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda and Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi. They were returning from the peace meetings in Tanzania. Before the accords, the global media had reported that while the Rwandan parties in Arusha and the international community were satisfied with the accords, the Hutu Power elements led by Rwandan First Lady Agathe Habyarimana and army Colonel Théoneste Bagosora were largely discontent at home. Agathe, wife of the Rwandan president and her collaborator, Théoneste were thoroughly dissatisfied with the Arusha accords, believing that the president had given too much in concessions to their enemies, the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Agathe was infamous for hating the way her husband was giving too much to the Tutsi, and the Tanzania meeting was the last straw. Disappointed and livid, Agatha’s militia, the Interahamwe in collaboration with the Hutu-led army and police, massed the cities, particularly Kigali and suburbs, armed and ready for an uncertain mission. The plane attack occurred in the night of April 6, when the semifinal game involving Nigeria and Ivory Coast of the 19th African Cup of Nations (Tunisia ‘94) was going on. Tunisia ‘94 was supposed to be an exemplification of community, conviviality, and height of African unity and solidarity, which the competition epitomized. AFCON—the acronym for the games—is one of the mechanisms by which African nations are brought together through sports to forge love, unity, and progress. That night, it was different in East Africa. Rwanda did everything possible to do the exact opposite of what AFCON typified or advanced—the Hutu extremists were going to go after their Tutsi compatriots and eventually bleed the nation through orgies of massacre in 100 days. These would culminate in the death of over one million Rwandans, mostly Tutsis and their Hutu helpers or sympathizers, who were called the moderates. While the United Nations and other western sources have over the decades maintained that the death toll was 800,000 or almost 1 million, government sources, corroborated by the Ibuka (umbrella of genocide survivors) and some scholarly research have put it at between 1,000,000 and 1,740,017 (Mugabe, 2009).

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I took time out to read the content of the news report on the campus pressboard. For Burundi, I gained some insight to the nature and dimension of the crisis. I understood the inevitability of conflict in Burundi—they were the same Hutu–Tutsi–Twa elements and their president was in that ill-fated plane, which was shot down by mysterious forces from the direction of the Kanombe military barracks. Let us get it clear—there had been genocidal attacks in Burundi from independence. In a series of ikizas or “the scourge”, Hutu elements in their numbers were targeted and killed. In 1972, an estimated 150,000– 300,000 Hutu and their Tutsi sympathizers were killed (Kiraranganya, 1985: 76). In an attempt to pull down an attempted coup, the minority Tutsi-led government put out the long knives and cut down whoever was in the enemy camp. Ordinary citizens took the swords too far as they saw tribal undercurrents in the insurrection to seize power. Burundi was the opposite of Rwanda in terms of who was the perpetrator and victim of ethnic genocide. However, the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda had no match in extents, scale of massacres, and degree of ethnic hatred. In view of the geographical propinquity, ethnic similarities, happenings across the border, and easy movement of nationals, it would not be surprising that the patterns of intergroup relations in both Burundi and Rwanda would be the same; or that one development in one country would not resonate in the other. On the night of April 6, 1994, both Rwandan and Burundian presidents were killed. The rude shock was that shortly after the plane was downed, what appeared to be a premediated and an organized killing followed immediately. There was no moment for waking up to reality, before the night of the long knives unfolded from Kigali to the rest of the country. The daily updates on Radio Nigeria and Sketch newspapers of the horrific happenings in Rwanda brought some fame—albeit infamy—to the country. Reports had it that at least 10,000 people were being killed on a daily basis. Most of these causalities were Tutsis and their sympathizers among the Hutu. I became interested in Rwanda and Burundi. I had a transistor radio with which I monitored the news. I used my paper map more to find Rwanda. I saw that it was a little country of 6733 million people in April 1994. You would almost not notice her on the map, as Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Uganda, which are her immediate neighbors, dwarfed her. How did the devil get into such a small country of just about 7 million people? What could

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be so bad to warrant a daily routine of murders in such large numbers? The Tutsis were only 14% of the population in 1994, compared to the Hutu’s 84–85%. The Twa constituted only 1% and could have been easily eliminated. Nevertheless, history had it that the Twa did not pose any existential threat to the Hutu and as such were largely ignored in the systematic murders of 1994. However, some Twa, for helping the Tutsi to escape, were killed, and in some exceptional cases, the Twa participated in the extermination of the Tutsi in order to earn the trust of the Hutu extremists and be spared. For someone like me, who loved digging into controversial social and political issues, the Rwandan crisis became a personal project. I wanted to know everything about the country—the Hutu, Tutsi, Twa; I wanted to know everything about the connection to their neighbors and indeed about East and Central Africa. I was a huge lover of knowledge. I still am, but there are many distractions and multiple assignments today. In our university days, there was no internet. No YouTube. No Google and no Yahoo search engines. You would have to make it to the library for everything and for events not yet captured in book chapters and journal articles, you would need the mass media and travel long distances to get your data. All the news were from Voice of America, Radio Nigeria, Voice of Nigeria, Sketch, and Tribune newspapers. We (campus journalists) by virtue of our news mongering activities became the sources of information and (mediocre) authorities on happenings in Rwanda and Burundi. We were in charge of the student union (also called “UCJ”) pressboard. It was apparent that our news reports and analyses on the genocide, informed by data from our daily monitoring of local and international media, were attracting members of the university community. They thronged the union building pressboard and gathered in droves to read the breaking news. People, particularly students from the science disciplines, began to know what Rwanda was and that there was such a country in existence in Africa. The article of “Major” (pen name of my fellow campus journalist) was the wake-up call for me. I had the pen name “BabSheriff”, and my friend, “Chief Justice” (now Dr. Ossai), and numerous other seriousminded campus journalists sought original and breaking news not only on Nigeria, but also on Africa. Nevertheless, at this time, Rwanda was the hottest news. Our feature stories and analyses of the situation became data sources for student union leaders, who added “Rwandan genocide

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against the Tutsi” to their political vocabulary and lingo in the speeches in their so-called political and pan-Africanist struggles. It was obvious that Nigeria was least interested in the explosion of ethnic massacres in Rwanda. The country was under siege at the time, with military dictators led by Sani Abacha being too engrossed in consolidating stolen power and political mandate that should belong to Moshood Abiola, who had won the 1993 presidential elections. The soldier-politicians were too concerned about their own survival and preservation, having seized power in spite of a subsisting electoral victory from a democratic process in 1993. Their acts had created a new chapter of Nigeria’s national question. There were upheavals here and there, students, along with civil rights activists were either rioting or being killed on famous Nigerian roads. Schools were often shut due to university staff strike actions or violent clampdowns by the state security personnel. Scores of political opponents were being hounded or hurled into jails without trial, and death squads from the state security services were on the prowl seeking and eliminating outspoken opponents of the military junta. At the height of the Nigerian crisis in 1995, the military had convicted and hurriedly executed nine Niger Delta environmentalists led by globally acclaimed novelist and playwright, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who were pronounced guilty by an irregular court set up by the military, for the certain murders of pro-Abacha chiefs in Ogoniland. The manner of execution and horrid treatment of the bodies thereafter attracted global condemnation and diplomatic face-offs with concerned states—allies and foes alike. The international community promptly isolated the Abacha regime, imposed sanctions on the Nigerian government and suspended Nigeria from some important international bodies, such as the Commonwealth of Nations. Nigeria was mired in real-time global issues caused by a massive local crisis. Her hands were full and could probably not accommodate the problem of another country. It was unusual though, because all her life from 1960, Nigeria was known for giving attention to a fellow African country’s crisis even if there was a huge crisis at home. Gored by an Africacentered foreign policy, Nigeria bore the burden of Africa at her own expense. However, in the case of Rwanda, it appeared this was not to happen. Like the rest of the world, Nigeria, Africa’s Big Brother, looked away. We did not really know the magnitude of the violence in Rwanda. Reports from western media, which were the most reliable at the time,

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played down the crisis. To us, we thought it was a regular armed conflict between two ethnic groups and that only the smarter and better equipped would prevail. In fact, we were made to believe that it was a continuation of a long ethno-political conflict in which government forces were trying to get rid of obstinate and dangerous rebels. In a way, this was correct in view of the 1990–1994 civil war involving the Rwandan Democratic Forces (FDR) and Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). We thought both sides were killing each other from April 1. Western media tried not to use the term ethnic cleansing or genocide. These western media narratives resonated in popular African media, which described the crisis as a “civil war”. The fact we unraveled later was that the crisis was anything but a civil war. It was a clear case of genocide. A group that believed it was different in ethnicity, the Hutu, who had the monopoly of the instrument of violence, used the army, police, state radio, and television, to incite a largely ignorant populace to go and wipe out members of another and unarmed, disadvantaged group, Tutsi. The RPF did not have an operational base in Rwanda; they were in neighboring Uganda. The people that the Hutu-led government was massacring were harmless members of AbaTutsi, who resided in the country side-by-side with the Hutu population, and not the RPF. 1994–1996 were busy years in Nigeria and the developments within this period were capable of erasing the memories of the sad realities in other countries. With time, particularly when killings of tens of thousands were a daily occurrence, thus seeming like the norm, Rwanda left my mind, like it did for many other people, nations and the international community. We were all guilty of indifference or looking away when it mattered most for that beautiful but embattled country. The tragic events in Rwanda soon paled away in my consciousness and I was never to pay serious attention to them again until 2005 after I got married. First, Togo was on my mind as a destination for honeymoon. News of her aquatic splendor were tempting. However, there was a crisis in Togo at the time. It was as my curiosity got aroused about happenings in Togo, a neighboring country to Nigeria that I suddenly remembered that there was Rwanda, a small and quiet nation like Togo, which had little beginnings in conflict until things escalated. Togo had gone into polls after the death of their maximum dictator, Gnassingbe Eyadema and after several decades of his leadership, there was no one else deemed qualified to rule other than his son, Faure. He had ruled in acting capacity and when elections were to hold, he had put himself up for elections. Faure, like his father was from

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Northern Togo. In a coup in 1963, Faure’s father allegedly murdered Sylvanus Olympio, the only Southerner who had ever ruled. Sectionalism, ethnicity, or tribal politics had always underlined African politics and had accounted for 67% of African conflicts. Other causes include scarce or abundant natural resources, religion, and of course, ignorance. The palpable tension in Togo was nowhere near the 1993–94 happenings in Rwanda, but the lessons from Rwanda should guide that nothing must be taken for granted anymore. Nowadays there are the internet, Google, and YouTube. I suddenly realized that I could know anything or everything that I had always wanted to find out about Rwanda. I began to read up articles on the genocide. Not too long after, video clips were emerging. In addition, the documentaries. The major tonic that fired my interest in Rwanda was the film, Hotel Rwanda. For the first time, I got a better insight to what transpired, how it did, and why. The film touched my soul. While still in the process of recouping from the nightmarish images in the movie, someone shared Sometime in April with me. My family and I settled to see these movies, one after the other. We were deeply touched. We wondered, wept. While others moved on to other movies, I was stuck to the Rwanda genocide against the Tutsi people. May be because of my line of occupation, a researcher and teacher of African studies, I wanted to find out more about the genocide and what had become of Rwanda since 1994. I dug up different slides and facts on the genocide, about the government of the day as well as the extent and course of development. The more I found books, journal articles, videos, and documentaries of testimonies and survivors of the genocide, the more my curiosity grew about Rwanda. First, I had become obsessed without realizing it, with a country that lost almost a million people and had stayed alive. I wanted to know more about the president, who led forces to liberate the country and grew from a guerilla war general to a fine president that brought her out of ruins to a glorious present. Sympathy and empathy would soon give way to admiration and fantasies. This was after finding out certain unbelievable developmental facts about a country that was once up in smoke. Rwanda became a passion. In 2015, in an attempt to take my family out on vacation, Rwanda was top on our list of preferred countries. Considering the distance and humongous resources involved, we settled instead for nearby and equally attractive Ghana, Togo, and Benin. Nevertheless, Rwanda never left my mind. However, when I did not even plan for it,

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the opportunity came to visit for the first time. This was in 2020, just before the global COVID-19 lockdown. The rest is history.

References English Wikipedia. (2007). Tutsi. Retrieved from https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/ ~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/t/Tutsi.htm Human Rights Watch. (1999). Rwanda. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/ reports/1999/rwanda/Geno1-3-09.htm Kiraranganya, B. (1985). La verite sur le Burundi. Sherbrooke. Lewis, J., & Knight, J. (1995). The Twa of Rwanda: An Assessment of the State of the Twa and Promotion of Twa Rights in Post-War Rwanda. World Rain Forest Movement and International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. Mugabe, M. S. A. (2009). Reparation and Reconciliation in Rwanda: Scope and Limits of Transitional Justice. Ph.D. thesis, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Faculty of Economic, Social and Political Sciences, Catholic University of Louvain. South African History Online. (2021).

CHAPTER 2

A Factsheet on Rwanda

Geography and Social Character of the Rwandan State The geographical size of Republic of Rwanda is 10,347 miles (26,338 kilometer square), with a population as 13,853,519 people as of April 2023 (Worldodometer, 2023). She is a landlocked country, bordered by Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Uganda. Because of her elevation, the country is dotted with mountains and hills from the north to the south and east to the west, which gives her a breathtaking scenery and accounts for her being called “Rwanda” or “le pays des mille collines” (a country of a thousand hills). The capital, City of Kigali is located in the center of the country. With a population of over 13 million sitting on a land of 10,347 square miles, Rwanda is considered densely populated and indeed has one of the highest population densities in Africa, south of the Sahara. Rwanda had a long history of monarchical rule. By the late 1700s, the region was the site of a Tutsi kingdom inhabited mainly by Hutu. In 1890, during the reign of Otto von Bismarck as Chancellor of Germany and just five years after the Berlin Act/Treaty, Rwanda became part of German East Africa and later in 1919 after the defeat of Germany and her allies in the First World War, Rwanda became part of the Belgian League of Nations mandate of Ruanda-Urundi. The territories of Rwanda © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 S. F. Folarin, Rwanda’s Radical Transformation Since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37011-3_2

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and Burundi were jointly administered as one by the Belgian colonial administration. Unlike what happened in Burundi, however, the demise of the Rwandan kingship came about through a grassroots Hutu-led upheaval that occurred before the country became independent in 1962. While the majority Hutu insurrection was brutally crushed by a Tutsi-led government in Burundi, the story was different in Rwanda. The Hutu got power at independence and crushed the Tutsi political structure and legacy, including their monarchy and dominance (Britannica.com). From time to time, Hutu groups unleashed terror on their Tutsi neighbors and massacred them in their thousands: acts that would later be the precursors in the episodes of Hutu genocidal acts against the Tutsi.

Eco-Tourism and Economy In the deep valleys of the hills and in the jungles of Rwanda live some of the last mountain gorillas on the planet. These gorillas, predominantly in Ruhengeri (now called Musanze), have attracted tens of thousands of tourists, animal rights, and environmental activists from across the globe. In addition, the Rwandan government has built a huge tourism industry, creating safaris and an attendant lucrative hospitality business that have boosted the Rwandan economy. Rwandan safaris before 1994 were not as popular because of the location of Rwanda, the ethnic conflicts, and the more alluring tourism sector in neighboring Kenya, Tanzania (Zanzibar), and Uganda. However, with the end of the genocide, with millions curious to know Rwanda and see things for themselves, the government leveraged on the development to build one of the finest tourism industries in Africa. From the colonial times through the early 1990s to date, the Rwandan economy has been primarily agricultural. Traditional farming and cattle rearing are a national culture. While corn (maize), dry beans, sorghum, bananas, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, and cassava are the primary crops grown; beans, sorghum, and corn are harvested seasonally at the onset of the two dry seasons. However, bananas, sweet potatoes, and cassava can be grown and harvested throughout the year. According to an account, “bananas are grown principally for the production of banana wine, a highly popular local beverage consumed in all regions of the country. Some banana varieties are grown in smaller numbers for cooking or direct consumption. Not only are bananas essential as a food source in Rwanda, but also as a broad-leafed perennial crop, they play a vital role in

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combating soil erosion on steep slopes throughout the country” (Britan nica.com). The main cash crops are Arabian coffee (which was introduced by European missionaries), tea, tobacco, and pyrethrum—a flower used to create the non-synthetic pesticide, pyrethrum. These cash crops are essentially the revenue earners for the country as they are export crops. Fertilizers and pesticides are not popularly in use by farmers. The main livestock are cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs and it is important to know that from colonial Rwanda to date, livestock husbandry has been an integral part of the farming system. Rwanda’s mineral resources include tin, tungsten, columbite, tantalite, beryl, coltan, and gold. From Lake Kivu, which runs through eastern DRC and northwestern Rwanda, methane gas is obtained, which is used as a nitrogen fertilizer and converted to compressed fuel for heavy-duty automobiles. The Mukungwa hydroelectric power installation is the major source of nationwide electricity. The manufacturing sector was not as robust as it is today. However, Rwanda boasts of thriving small-scale mining and consumer manufactures, including textiles, cement, paint, pharmaceuticals, soap, matches, furniture, beverages, and food products; and the processing of coffee, tea, and other agricultural commodities. Kigali is the industrial hub; while microenterprises, involving manufacturing of roof tiles, bricks, timber, handheld farm implements, baskets, and clothing; and the provision of specialized services such as masonry, carpentry, and metal works, spread across the country. In recent years, the major exports are coffee, tea, pyrethrum extract, tin, tantalite, and gold. Imports include machinery and equipment, petroleum products, and foodstuffs. Rwanda’s immediate neighbors and China are her primary sources of import. Through such regional bodies as the Economic Community of Great Lakes Countries, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, and the East African Community, Rwanda has over the years, built closer economic ties with her neighbors. Lake Kivu serves multiple purposes for Rwanda. First, it is a source of fish and seafood and helps boost the fishing economy. Second, it serves as a means of transportation between neighboring DRC and Rwanda and between some towns and cities in northwestern Rwanda. Third, the aquatic splendor of the lake attracts thousands of local and international tourists to the place and by extension boosting the tourism economy of the country. Measuring approximately 90 kilometers (56 miles) long and 50 kilometers (31 miles) wide and covering over 2700 square kilometers

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of surface, it is Africa’s eighth largest lake and is indeed one of the African Great Lakes. DRC takes a share of 1370 square kilometers (529 square miles) or 58 percent of the lake’s waters. The lakebed sits upon a rift valley that is gradually being pulled apart, causing volcanic activity in the area (Scheffel & Wernet, 1980). Furthermore, Idjwi, which is regarded as the world’s tenth-largest island on a lake, lies in Lake Kivu, within the boundaries of Virunga National Park. Settlements on the lake’s shore include Bukavu, Kabare, Kalehe, Sake, and Goma in DRC; and Gisenyi (now called Rubavu), Kibuye, and Cyangungu in Rwanda. As a landlocked country, the lake means so much to Rwanda. With limited waterways and the absence of rail transportation, Rwanda could only develop these waterways by creating small ports in Gisenyi (Rubavu), Cyangungu, and Kibuye around Lake Kivu, to complement her land and air transportation systems and support international movements facilitated by the major international airports in Kigali, Kamembe, and Bugesera. Lying up and down the hills all across Rwanda are greens. Trees, farms, and natural lawns dot the valleys and landscape. As you journey through the cities and villages on narrow but well-tarred and marked roads, from Musanze to Ngoma, or Kicukiro to Muhanga, or Huye to Nyagatare, the land on the two sides of the roads is green and cultivated. You would hardly find bushes on the land. Sitting atop mountains are farmhouses and regular homes. The intercity roads are curvy and sit on the edge of precipices of the hills. There are however steel guards beside these sharp bends to mitigate the impact of any road incident on these cliffs. The description above may suggest danger on the roads, but the danger is not as cryptic as the scenic beauty and allure for tourists, adventurers, and moviemakers. The outlay of the roads and cliffs are similar to scenes in Hollywood/western action movies such as in James Bond 007 or in romance films in which we see lovers drive through intersections of roads on a cliff in search of solitude. All the intercity roads, through the villages and farm settlements, are lit at night. There are functional road lights that illuminate the driveway for the motorists. Rwanda has four provinces and the City of Kigali. These provinces include Northern Province, Southern Province, Western Province, and Eastern Province while the City of Kigali is the capital of Rwanda. Hitherto, there were twelve provinces, but the government in a quest to make the country more culturally diverse and erase any character that culminated in the genocide, collapsed them into five provinces with each

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province having its own capital. The Northern Province, with a population of about 1.7 m has Musanze as its capital; Southern Province with 2.5 m people has Nyanza as capital; while Karongi is the capital of the Western Province, which has a population of 2.4 m. The Eastern Province with a population of 2.5 m has its capital in Rwamagana; while the City of Kigali, the capital has a population of 1551 million. Each province is divided into districts, and each district has many sectors. City of Kigali has three districts, namely, Gasabo, Kicukiro, and Nyarugenge, with thirty-five towns or sectors in all. Prior to and during the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, there were Butare, Byumba, Cyangugu, Gikongoro, Gisenyi, Gitarama, Kibungo, Kibuye, Kigali, Kigali-Rural, Ruhengeri, and Umutara Provinces. However, these provinces were clustered along ethnic lines, which promoted the genocidal ideology of 1994 (BBC, 2019). It is pertinent to note that, even the names of some major districts and sectors were changed deliberately, probably to obliterate the ugly memory of tragic incidents during the 1994 genocide.

Beautiful Mountains Too High to Climb Movement on Rwandan roads, as good as they appear, is however cumbersome. The limiting factors for a free-flow and enjoyable movement are the difficulty in overtaking slow-moving lorries and other vehicles due to the narrowness of roads, the speed limit indicators, which are religiously complied with by drivers and of course the cameras after every 2 or 3 miles, which capture every breach in driving or speed limits. On an occasion, a driver conveying me from Musanze to Kigali was penalized and fined RWF 25,000 for driving beyond the speed limit of 40 km/h. I had noticed a flashlight and an intelligible shot at a particular place. I asked him what that was and he lamented that he had just been “caught” over-speeding. He told me the camera by the roadside had just captured his car. Within minutes, a text message had come on to his phone— he would be paying the fine for breaking the law. I was dumbfounded. How was he over-speeding? The slow movement right from Musanze had bored me so much that I had wished the journey would end soon. I became familiar with the movement on the roads though, it is always slow and steady because of the rules and other factors mentioned above. It is fun to travel on Rwandan intercity roads. This is owing to the beautiful scenes you could capture with your eyes and camera. Nevertheless, it is

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also boring to travel on them, because of the slow movement. Overall, safety is what matters and as such, it is not regrettable to move slowly so long as you arrive at your destination safely. Intra-city streets or roads in Rwanda are not the same everywhere. In Kigali, there are many mountains to climb with your cars, lorries, trucks, motorbikes, bicycles, and legs. When descending, it is as if you are in biblical paradise; but when ascending the high hills, it feels like labor in the delivery room. For the chauffeured, the ascension and descent are enjoyable. But for the driver and the car, fun is not in the cards. Many of the SUVs and commercial vehicles use manual transmissions/gears and I often feel for them when climbing those hills or are on some traffic in central Kigali townships. Unconsciously, which was out of empathy, I match along with the drivers, imaginary brakes, throttles, and clutches. So many big places in Kigali sit on hills. The hotels such as des Mille Collines, Ubumwe, Hilton, Radisson Blu, are high up there. The main banks, government establishments, universities, and big hotspots in Kigali are right on top of mountains. They are like paradise on earth, with great sights and views of the enchanting city of Kigali; however, like paradise, you will have to “die” to get there. The twists, curves, and turns on those hills make the places look alike. Without the Google Map Lady as a companion, it could be paradise lost. Kigali is beautiful. Wherever one finds himself, there is a smart pictorial perspective of the city. The streets are clean and drainage system is well constructed to take care of the unfriendly rains that pour down from early April. Traffic lights for vehicles and pedestrians are within short distances, which sometimes give Kigali away as one of the cities in the Global North. The road networks are fantastic. There are multiple exit and entrance points to a neighborhood. This probably might have been informed by the experience of 1994, when neighbors and motorists were cornered, locked down, and killed because there were not alternative exit or escape routes. Kigali is not the only enchanting city or the only one with hilly neighborhoods. Everywhere in Rwanda is hilly. However, Kinigi and Nyakinama (in Musanze District) are hillier and have the Virunga Mountains with active volcanic rocks and abundant mountainous jungles for the famous East African gorillas. The roads are more leveled and passable. This is the same situation in Rubavu, a border city with DRC, and Cyanika, the town bordering Rwanda and Uganda in the Musanze District area.

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For me, Musanze District is more enchanting. Just two hours and thirty minutes away from the nation’s capital, Musanze in the Northern Province is more serene, has the volcanic mountains, more greens, has the gorillas, and is usually like winter all through the year. Sometimes, the temperature gets down to 7 degree Fahrenheit and in most cases when it is warm in the southern parts of Rwanda, it could go up to 18 degree Fahrenheit in Musanze. This is considered quite cold even in North America. Due to its tourist importance, particularly the safari that brings visitors from Western Europe and North America, Muhoza and other sectors in Musanze have some of the finest and most expensive hotels in Rwanda. Incidentally, many of them do not have air-conditioning system because of the elevation, high altitude, and very-low temperature in the region. Later, I will discuss the hotel in Musanze where I always lodge, Classic Resort Lodge; and we will get to know what life looks like in the country of one thousand hills. In the meantime, let us go back to the genocide story.

References BBC. (2019). Rwanda Genocide: 100 Days of Slaughter. https://www.bbc.com/ news/world-africa-26875506 Britannica. (n.d.). Kingdom of Rwanda. https://www.britannica.com/place/Kin gdom-of-Rwanda Scheffel, R. L., & Wernert, S. J. (1980). Reader’s Digest Natural Wonders of the World. Ground Zero Books Ltd. Worldometer. (2023). Rwandan Population 2023. https://www.worldometers. info/world-population/rwanda-population/

CHAPTER 3

It’s Getting Bloody: From Early Signposts to the Searing Images of Genocide

Europe’s Adventure, Africa’s Headache The 1940s and 1950s were particularly momentous in the history of Africa. They marked a period of acceleration in decolonization and indeed a turning point in nationalist movement. The Europeans had just come out of their second great war, in which they had involved Africans in their armies that prosecuted the war. There were many Africans schooling in Europe at the time too. These two groups of Africans had seen the European mindset, fears, and vulnerabilities from a closer perspective. The white people, who were their conquerors and lords back in Africa, were fearful of death and losses after all. In addition, beyond that, the Europeans, like all other human beings, were desirous and desperate for freedom, which led to the two world wars. The First and Second World Wars were culmination of struggles for freedom in Europe. Freedom from domination. Freedom from fear. Freedom to determine their own fate. Freedom from bully Germany and her allies. A people who wanted self-determination and all those other freedoms should not be in a compromising position, in which they were denying other people their freedoms.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 S. F. Folarin, Rwanda’s Radical Transformation Since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37011-3_3

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The world wars opened the eyes of African nationalists to the hypocrisy of the colonial lords. The nationalists returned home to strengthen the base of nationalism, self-determination struggles, and pan-Africanism. In Rwanda, there was a peculiar situation. The Belgians had taken over control from the original colonizer, Germany who had lost in the First World War and had her territories shared among the victorious powers, who later created the League of Nations. France and Belgium were some of the beneficiaries from Germany’s losses. It is pertinent to note that France and Germany had had a running battle since the era of Napoleon III who had challenged Prussia (Germany) under Chancellor Bismarck. The resulting conflict, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 ended in a heavy defeat for France and loss of vital territories such as Alsace-Lorraine and Metz to the victorious Prussia. The defeat would not be forgotten in a hurry by France, which was known during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte as the conqueror of continental Europe. There was a second, third, and fourth humiliation of France. First it was in North Africa in 1906, and then in North Africa (Morocco) in 1911, when Germany repeated another humiliating defeat on France; and then during the First World War, when Germany dealt France another excruciating blow. The most horrific humiliation would be in 1941 under Hitler’s Germany. In 1918 after the First World War, France rallied the allies and had one main goal: return the humiliation in kind against Germany and take the center-stage in European politics through the League. It was not surprising, therefore, that some of German colonies were handed out to France and her cousin, Belgium through the mandate system.

Colonial Administrative Convenience as Africa’s Albatross Belgium administered Rwanda in a Ruanda-Urundi administrative arrangement for her convenience. Administrative convenience was the critical factor in the configuration of colonial Africa. In West Africa, France, Britain, and Portugal simply shared the territories on a first-come, first-served basis, which was legitimated in Berlin through the Berlin Act or Treaty of February 1885. The partitioning of Africa by these European fortune hunters did not take cognizance of the original cultural or state and ethnic configuration of precolonial African society. The Europeans were simply interested in lands and resources, and as such cut the states

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or kingdoms through conflict or consensus between them regardless of the existing precolonial ethnic affinities or relationships between African cultures or states. Consequently, for instance, the Kanuri people who lived in a homogenous and cohesive Kanem-Borno Empire in the Lake Chad region found themselves in three different countries from 1900—Nigeria (British), Niger, and Chad (French). The Yorubas, who were unified under one cultural identity by Oyo, found themselves in four different countries namely, Nigeria and Ghana (British), Benin (French), and Togo (Germany and later French). Efiks and Ejaghams in Cross River have their cousins in Nigeria and Cameroon (which was first German, and then were split into French and English enclaves after the First World War). Confusion. The Ewes are in Togo (French) and Ghana (British). This kind of confused state of things and divisions are all over West Africa and other African countries. Tutsis, Hutus, and Twas, for the same colonial arbitrary boundary creation, are split into Burundi, Rwanda, and partly DRC. In precolonial Southern Africa, the Zulu people were unified under one massive and formidable empire under Emperor Shaka. They inhabited (and still inhabit) places that cover Natal in the southern tip of Republic of South Africa to present-day Malawi (formerly Nyasaland) with the Zulu capital situated in Bulawayo in present-day Zimbabwe. However, with the advent of colonialism, the empire was butchered into many states and now, the Zulu have different national identities as they live separately in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, and Malawi as nationals of those different countries. During the xenophobic attacks in Durban, South Africa, ethnic Zulu would attack Malawians and Zimbabweans, whom they consider as a nuisance, killing them in the process. They do not even realize that they are killing their kith and kin, Zulus. No thanks to the new identities, which colonialism has bequeathed to them. Egypt, formerly Arab came under Turkish rule for many years. The British incursions later changed the narrative and today, Egypt is notable for her cosmopolitan nature because of the cultural dynamics. While this is good for the optics and tourism, it is not so good for national integration or religious harmony. In Rwanda and Burundi, the same group of people have two different states and sovereignties. The same Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa live in Burundi and Rwanda (formerly German colonies and later Belgique); and they can be found in smaller numbers as nationals of DRC and Uganda (French and British respectively). Administrative convenience led to the former Ruanda-Urundi colony and later the separate administration of

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both territories as individual countries. Aside from the use of divide and conquer (a.k.a. “administrative convenience”) to destroy African harmony or nationhood, there were also the internal divisions to ensure ethnic groups were not united to form a formidable resistance. The British played the Fante against the Ashante in Ghana; Temne against the Mende in Sierra Leone; Urhobo against the Itsekiri; and Efik against the Ibibio in Nigeria. The French played the French-speaking part of Cameroon against the English-speaking part; and used the Muslimdominant North against Christian-predominant South. This was the same in nearly all Francophone countries—the French colonial lords deployed ethnic and religious sentiments to break the soul and cohesion of African states. The British were masters of divide and conquer rule. They upended the applecart as far as colonial arrangements were. The southern ethnic groups, which were most active in the struggle and voted early for independence, incidentally found themselves at the behest of the more passive and largely uneducated Northerners. The British colonial government loved the traditional political institutions in Northern Nigeria. Northern Nigerians were tied to the Islamic religion, which would not permit resistance to the rule or command of the “emirs” or kings. The colonialists simply used these emirs to perpetrate their policies and execute their agenda. No one would question the kings and as such, the indirect rule system would survive the test of time. For Southern Nigeria however, the case was not the same—the people here were stubborn adult deviants who would question every act of the colonial master and even subject their kings to peer assessment or scrutiny. Even in Yorubaland, the Oyo King (Alaafin), who was supposed to have absolute powers, could be questioned or curtailed through a coordinated system of checks and balances. The Oyomesi or Council of Chiefs had constitutional powers to stop the Alaafin or even depose him. Igboland in Eastern Nigeria was worse for the Europeans because it was least understood by them. They had no kings. They had a system similar to the Greek state of Athens, where an all-comers democracy existed. In Igboland, it was the age grade system of governance: the elders are the custodians of the society; the youth are the military class. People would meet in the village or town square with equal voice while the oldest members of the community would moderate and eventually take decisions based on the submissions of all. The British did not understand this system of government, as they wanted to see a clear

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leader who would be responsible to them. For this reason, they have described precolonial Igboland as “stateless”, acephalous, and segmented. In order to make administration easy for them, they destroyed the system by appointing “warrant chiefs”, who were often from the “outcastes” (osu) or even persons of lowly social background. This “warrant chief” phenomenon was disruptive and led to flares that engulfed the colonial society in Igboland. It led to extreme divisions and toxic relations among the people—one group saw themselves as the privileged class anointed by the revered white man; the other group felt hurt for having their heritage and rights taken away from them. This rancorous situation fitted the agenda of the British. The more divided you were the better for us to exploit you. In any case, the British liked neither the Yoruba political system in the Southwest nor the Igbo political system in the Southeast. They could only trust and work with the Hausa-Fulani political system in the North. At independence, they handed over power to the North, with those (the Southerners) that fought more aggressively for the independence of Nigeria being at the mercy of the pro-colonialism Northerners. This trajectory, the endless struggle for ethnic balancing in power has been the bane of national integration and by extension national development in Nigeria to this day. In Rwanda, the story was similar. The Germans had laid the foundation of ethnic divisions by their physical and body-profile classification of the people. The Belgians simply inherited it and used it to their advantage. The French took it to a completely new level before and during the genocide against the Tutsis of 1994. The Belgians trusted the Tutsis more for a number of reasons: they were more sophisticated or elegant in their political makeup, having wealthy kings and a monarchical system that seemed similar to Belgium’s system back at home. The king was the head of the nobility and was absolutely in charge: he owned the lands for grazing of cattle by fellow Tutsis, for farming by Hutus, and for hunting by Twas. The Tutsis were slim and tall like most Europeans and with their charm and authority, by order of natural selection, they would be in charge. In the course of this, the Tutsis amassed more power and wealth, which the Hutus despised from afar. However, there was little to do to stop this. Things later changed when, at independence, the Belgians, characteristic of their disoriented and clumsy style, could not sustain the political system they had created. They allowed the process to work according to numbers and expectedly, the Hutus, who were the majority, took over

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power. The Hutu hatred for the Tutsis was not caused by the Tutsis, but by their collaborators and enablers, the Belgians. Now the colonial lords were gone. It was going to be a forceful taking over of assets and political power. This berthed the Hutu Power movement, right from independence. It was slaughter time.

The Early Pogroms The 1994 genocide against the Tutsis was the climax of a long reign of killing orgies. There had been cases of attacks against the Tutsi but they were not on the scale as it was from April 7 to July 15, 1994. However, two significant events indicated that there would be mass killings in the future. In November 1959, there was a Hutu uprising that culminated in the killing of many Tutsis and displacement of 330,000 Tutsis, who sought refuge in neighboring countries. This was the pre-independence episode of the Social Revolution or Wind of Destruction (muyaga) or simply the Hutu Peasant Revolt, which ended in 1961 and symbolically ended the Tutsi monarchical rule in Rwanda. Thereafter, an ethnic ideology that celebrated Hutu Power began. There would be a systematic exclusion of Tutsi elite from political power as well as their social emasculation and general marginalization. The Hutu government that reigned from independence in 1962 would introduce a quota system that would not only bridge the social gaps with the Tutsis, but that would also give Hutus a vantage platform and work toward their complete supremacy. With the Hutu population at 85% and their elements in full control of power, it was going to be easy to erase Tutsi identity even before a genocidal mission. There had been a groundswell of propaganda that the Bantoid Hutu were the original inhabitants and owners of the land and that the Tutsis, who were said to be Nilotic and migrated from the northeast of Africa, were strangers and should not have control over their hosts (Hutus) any longer (Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, 2015). Another major incident was the post-independence killings of 1963. Among the 330,000 who fled Rwanda during the Hutu Revolt were Tutsi agitators, who sought a return to Rwanda and restoring the status quo. Some of these exiles created armed groups, which were described as inyenzis or “cockroaches”, by the Hutu-controlled government in Kigali. The Tutsi armed groups repeatedly launched attacks into Rwanda, but there was an ill-fated incident in 1963. The Hutu government suppressed

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that onslaught and launched a vengeful murderous campaign against ordinary Tutsi Rwandans, killing thousands of them (Prunier, 1999). A third incident was caused by developments between 1990 and 1993. By the attack from Uganda of the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) on October 1, 1990, a civil war began. The attack led to shocks and fears in Rwanda in general and for the Juvenal Habyarimana-led Hutu government in particular. Thousands of Rwandans had to flee to neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and Tanzania. The government immediately labeled Tutsis as enemies of the Rwanda state, and moderate Hutus who opposed the government’s extremist policies were tagged as Hutu traitors or friends of inyenzis . Aside from the ethnic stratification and dissemination of a horrific Hutu ideology during this time, there were some killings with Tutsis and some Hutus being the targets and victims. This was similar to the occurrences in the 1970s, when President Habyarimana had given orders that enemies of the state be eliminated (Prunier, 1999). An ethnic ideology underlined by hate and bloodshed had thus been ingrained in the fabrics of the Rwandan nation. The building blocks for mass murder in 1994 had been firmly laid from 1959. No wonder, when the Hutu Ten Commandments were outlined in 1990, an agendum for ethnic cleansing had been set in motion. The Ten Commandments of Bahutu read thus: 1. Every Hutu should know that a Tutsi woman, whoever she is, works for the interest of her Tutsi ethnic group. As a result, we shall consider a traitor any Hutu who: marries a Tutsi woman, employs a Tutsi woman as a concubine, employs a Tutsi woman as a secretary or takes her under protection. 2. Every Hutu should know that our Hutu daughters are more suitable and conscientious in their role as woman, wife, and mother of the family. Are they not beautiful, good secretaries and more honest? 3. Hutu women, be vigilant and try to bring your husbands, brothers, and sons back to reason. 4. Every Hutu should know that every Tutsi is dishonest in business. His only aim is the supremacy of his ethnic group. As a result, any Hutu who does the following is a traitor: makes a partnership with Tutsi in business; invests his money or the government’s money in a Tutsi enterprise; lends or borrows money from a Tutsi; gives

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favors to Tutsi in business (obtaining import licenses, bank loans, construction sites, public markets, etc.) 5. All strategic positions, political, administrative, economic, military and security should be entrusted only to Hutu. 6. The education sector (school pupils, students, teachers) must be majority Hutu. 7. The Rwandan Armed Forces should be exclusively Hutu. The experience of the October 1990 war has taught us a lesson. No member of the military shall marry a Tutsi. 8. The Hutu should stop having mercy on the Tutsi. 9. The Hutu, wherever they are, must have unity and solidarity and be concerned with the fate of their Hutu brothers. The Hutu inside and outside Rwanda must constantly look for friends and allies for the Hutu cause, starting with their Hutu brothers. They must constantly counteract Tutsi propaganda. The Hutu must be firm and vigilant against their common Tutsi enemy. 10. The Social Revolution of 1959, the Referendum of 1961, and the Hutu Ideology, must be taught to every Hutu at every level. Every Hutu must spread this ideology widely. Any Hutu who persecutes his brother Hutu for having read, spread, and taught this ideology is a traitor. The ten laws were toxic enough, but the ninth law encapsulates the murderous rage ahead: The Hutu should stop having mercy on the Tutsi. Nothing could be more compelling to cause a genocide.

The Bloody Rains from April 7 and Over 1,000,00 Graves Thereafter There is a saying in Yoruba (a large ethnic group in Southwest Nigeria), which goes like this: “aje ke l’ano, omo ku leni, ta lo wan di e?” (a witch cried yesternight and the child dies today, who wouldn’t know who is behind the tragedy?) The Ten Commandments were a call to action. The genocide was thus long in the making. The ingredients for mass murder were already mixed together for cooking; what was outstanding was to light the match. The trigger of the genocide were the events of April 6. According to various accounts, including from mainstream media, the plane conveying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi from Tanzania

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after the Arusha agreements, was fired at somewhere from the Kanombe barracks in Kigali. The big bird came crashing down just by the Kigali International Airport, killing the two presidents and all the passengers on board the flight. The flurry of killing activities that came immediately after showed that the events were long preplanned. Soldiers, police, and Hutu militia groups surrounded selected houses in highbrow parts of Kigali City, where Tutsi elite lived. Occupants were not arrested, but brutally murdered. If you were a Tutsi, you must die from that night. If you were a Hutu woman or man married to a Tutsi, you must die too, except you were willing to kill your spouse and the “cockroach offspring” you bore with a Tutsi spouse. The organized assassinations from the midnight of April 6 to the wee hours of April 7 culminated in the murder of the Prime Minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana in the presence of her children right in the official residence. The presence of the Belgian UN troops who guarded her did nothing to stop her murder. The Belgian soldiers, ten of them, were, in fact, seized and summarily executed by the extremists. Government forces and Interahamwe militia members worked hand-in-hand to track down all Tutsis and Hutu moderates that were on some “lists” for execution. Shortly after, ordinary Hutu civilians were mobilized and empowered with all sorts of weapons, particularly machetes to cut down the “tall trees” (this was another term for Tutsi people, who were assumed to be tall). With the ideology passed down through Radio Television Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM) (or “Radio Rwanda”), Hutu extremists indoctrinated ordinary Hutus to hate their immediate and distant Tutsi neighbors, and led them through up-to-date information and tip-offs, to Tutsi homes, movements, and hideouts. The average Hutu man or woman became a foot soldier and took pride in killing their so-called Tutsi enemies. Before the RTLM and other government agencies intensified their spread of ethnic hatred, there had been a bold definition by government in 1992 of whom the enemies of Rwanda were. In September 1992, Colonel Déogratias Nsabimana, army chief of staff, had secretly circulated a memo among military commanders, identifying and defining the enemy. Later that year, after the signing of the Arusha Accords between government and RPF forces, Colonel Nsabimana ordered the public dissemination of that memo, saying:

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You will distribute this document widely, insisting especially on the sections relating to the definition of the enemy, identification of the enemy, as well as the groups within which the enemy is recruited. You will inform me of the impact made by the contents of this document on the men under your orders. (Human Rights Watch, 1999)

That 14-page memo put the enemy in two categories, namely, the principal enemy and partisans of the enemy. The principal enemy included Tutsis within and outside the country that were extremist and nostalgic for power, and who had not recognized the realities of the 1959 social revolution and sought to retake power by all means. The partisans of the enemy were defined as anyone who supported the principal enemy. The document averred that political opponents who wanted power or the peaceful and democratic change of the Habyarimana regime were neither principal nor partisan enemies of Rwanda. The memo did not categorize Tutsis as an ethnic group, but simply as “the enemy of the state” like the RPF. Further, the document shied away from the growing corruption and repressive regime as the factors in the receding solidarity among the Hutus, blaming the Tutsis and RPF instead of manipulating the Hutus to be divided. Nsabimana’s toxic document finally asserted that the enemy and its partisans were recruited primarily among Tutsi refugees, the National Resistance Army (NRA) in Uganda, and Tutsis within Rwanda. In addition, it identified other sources of recruitment, including Hutus dissatisfied with the Habyarimana administration, unemployed people within and outside the country, foreigners married to Tutsi women, the Nilo-Hamitic people of the region, and criminals fleeing from the law (Human Rights Watch, 1999). This toxicity had been well ingrained in the minds of Rwandan Hutus before the genocide in 1994. As mentioned previously, the stage for ethnic cleansing had long been set, the weapons used to perpetrate ethnic hatred, and genocide would be varied and tortuous. During the genocide, rape was a weapon to inflict torture and injury on Tutsi women. These women were considered as sexually available and called “Tutsi cockroach prostitutes”. Husbands, fathers, and brothers (Tutsi or Hutu) were made to watch as their Tutsi wives, daughters, and sisters were being raped by Hutu genocidaires. It did not matter if the victims were of mixed blood (if there was anything like that). After the rape, the victims could still be killed anyway. Where possible, the victims could be spared and made sexual objects that would be serially used for sexual gratification from

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time to time. The results were unwanted pregnancies with children that were later born without any traces of whom the fathers were; and sexually transmitted infections, particularly HIV on a massive scale, which was another way to hurt the Tutsi population. These were aside from physical and emotional torture those acts of violation caused. The perpetrators were soldiers, police officers, militia group members, and ordinary citizens (old, young, men and women) of Hutu extraction (Gourevitch, 1998). The Hutu Ten Commandments were religiously upheld. The most easily remembered commandment is Number 9: Do not have mercy for a Tutsi! Hutus, who were renowned for farming resorted, for 100 days, to “harvesting” lives and not crops and sending them to their early graves. No Tutsi was spared, not even a toddler; not even a baby in the womb. With clubs, machetes, cutlasses, diggers, knives, rocks, anything, the genocide perpetrators killed their victims. Wombs of Tutsi women were ripped open and babies were forcefully brought out and smashed or cut into pieces. Toddlers were clubbed to death or had their heads smashed to the walls or floors until the heads of the poor things were broken into bits. The most common way of killing was inflicting multiple machete cuts all over the bodies of victims until they die. An entire family would be massacred in their homes and left to rot inside their homes. Home latrines, wells, small rivers, or streams in neighborhoods were graves. Open fields, soccer pitches, including the Amahoro Stadium in Kigali, church auditoriums, market squares, hilltops, valleys, farmlands, regular neighborhoods, roadsides, et cetera., were either killing arenas or places where bodies of victims were dumped to decompose (Sybille & Silke, 2010). Friends and acquaintances—some survivors, some liberators, and some bystanders during the genocide against the Tutsi—described how some places were littered with dead and decomposing bodies like huge harvests. In Kigali, the Remera sector, where a Christian religious center is presently situated, was mentioned as a horrific sight with human remains lying everywhere. Some other friends claimed that the Musanze District was “hot” during the genocide. Musanze was hot because there was preponderance of Hutus in that District and as such no Tutsis were spared, except those hid by moderate Hutus (Fieldwork, 2020). Government officials encouraged the killings and gave inducements such as alcohol, weapons, food, some monetary compensation, to ensure the massacres continued. Government troops and their militia foot soldiers marched into schools and churches to slaughter Tutsis. There

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were no arrests made. The children and church members were separated along tribal lines and the Tutsi or “mixed blood” were summarily gunned down or butchered to death. Teachers, priests, government workers who were Tutsi, mixed, or Hutu moderates were often identified by their national identity cards and killed. Another way of identifying a Tutsi was by physical appearance. With the German and Belgian classification fresh in mind, anyone who was good-looking, light-skinned or dark-skinned but with some facial profile that included a long nose and big eyeballs, tall and slim, was more likely a Tutsi. Hence, if an ID card could not be produced, there were the physical attributes that would give away a Tutsi (Horvitz & Cherwood, 2006). If you were wealthy or belonged in the middle class, you were more likely a Tutsi person and would be killed. Town dwellers with the supervision of councilors “visited” schools for “inspection” to determine the “welfare” and identity of Tutsi pupils. There were instances of children being locked up in classrooms or school halls and burned to death (Horvitz & Cherwood, 2006). Hutus moved rapidly across the length and breadth of Rwanda (in the cities, inner cities, small townships, country sides and rural areas, mountain settlements, riverine areas) in search of Tutsis to kill. The mission was to eliminate all Tutsis in Rwanda, a point that had been made clear by the Hutu leaders who unrepentantly advocated and vigorously pursued the cause of an “apocalypse” (Murray, 2001). There were cases of resistance by Tutsis in places where they had a predominant population. They put up some fight against their assailants. The Hutu government officials in such places, where there was considerable level of integration, tried to protect their Tutsi compatriots and openly opposed the genocide ideology. However, as the government superior force moved in, some caved in and led genocidal attacks, while others remained resolute and defended the Tutsis. These recalcitrant ones lost either their jobs or lost them and their lives as well (Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, 2015). “Do not have mercy on Tutsi”, that was Rule Number 8, which was the soul of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. There were four categories of people during the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi. The perpetrators were the main culprits. These included those that promoted the ideology of ethnic divisions, hatred, and cleansing. The Belgian colonialists had laid a solid foundation for future ethnic distinction and hatred; the Hutu elite and ordinary citizens

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had imbibed a culture of hatred and would obey the first—and not just the last—command to kill the Tutsi inyenzis . RTLM was a hate radio that disseminated, at the speed of light, hate news and sensitization to go after every Tutsi and kill them. These were, in my own assessment, the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi. During the genocide, however, the perpetrators were those that directly participated in the slaughter and according to Scherer, cited in Strauss (2004), “every fourth person in Rwanda’s Hutu population was probably directly involved”, which puts the number conservatively to about 1.2 million Hutus out of the total 6.7 million Rwanda population at the time. However, government sources cited by Strauss claim that the perpetrators were well over 3 million people, if not more. The RPF claimed that when they took over in 1994, they presided over a significantly “criminal population”, which implies that over 80% of the population was guilty of perpetrating genocidal acts, including killing, rape, torture, promotion of the ideology, or encouraging the acts (Strauss, 2004). The bystanders were those that passively participated: they knew what was wrong but could do nothing to stop it; they simply watched as the orgy of murders went on. Bystanders sometimes could campaign against the genocide, but fear of reprisals made them to stay away from any act that could stop the genocide. Some bystanders were simply relishing the moments and probably gossiping the death of their rivals or competitors. Some were vehemently opposed to the violence, but had no power to prevent or stop it. The bystanders in Rwanda were the Hutu nonperpetrators. Nevertheless, there were international bystanders. These international organizations and countries looked away when the genocide was going on. They pretended to be too occupied with domestic or other international issues that impinged on their national interest. They pretended that genocide was not the case in Rwanda, but mere civil strife. Sometimes, they sent armies to come and simply observe the violence or evacuate their citizens. These bystanders included the United States, Great Britain, and some African countries. Nigeria, the giant of Africa, which was known to pursue an Africa-centered and vanguardist foreign policy, did nothing. Few African countries joined the rest of the world in the evacuation of their citizens. The United Nations and Organization of African Unity (now African Union) were passive on the Rwandan genocide. There was no obligation, no responsibility to protect the hapless, helpless, and hopeless Rwandan Tutsi population and their Hutu rescuers, murdered on daily basis.

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To my understanding, there are two groups of rescapes. The first are those who survived the genocide and are either living abroad as part of the Rwandan diaspora, or the non-victims, who fled to northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo after the capture of Kigali from the genocide perpetrators and leaders. One group of the escapees, the liberators or freedom fighters are significant for the reconstruction of Rwanda after the genocide. The other group are the genocidaires, who are still campaigning for genocidal ideology and wish to return to Rwanda and kick Paul Kagame out of power. They want a return to Hutu Power era too. This brings us to the fourth group of people—the genocidaires. These were the members of the state elite, who ran the vision, ideology, agenda, mission, and execution of the genocide. They included the Hutu-led state, government officials from the top-down, army, national police, and leaders of the militia groups. They funded the genocide, sponsored the radio and television campaigns, armed the groups, and compiled the lists of persons for elimination. They gave the orders and compelled state institutions to make genocide a state policy. Felicen Kabuga, Madam Agathe Habyarimana, Théoneste Bagosora, Jean Kambanda, and Reverend Father Athanase Seromba, among others were the chief genocidaires. Genocidaire simply means a “mastermind” in genocide. They compelled, persuaded, or compromised priests, teachers, local leaders, and other well-placed individuals in society to give in those they oversee and supervise their killings. Genocidaires were the chief culprits in the Rwandan genocide. They made it seem normal and godly to kill others. Such acts would come with rewards: from such petty things as intoxicating wines; prostitutes; takeover of houses, shops, and property of perceived Tutsi devils; to serious things as keeping their lives, jobs or being promoted, and having some financial compensation. The priests were, most shockingly, the more susceptible. “Men of God” who oversaw congregations and should be the good shepherds after the order of Christ, led their Tutsi congregants to the slaughter slab, and in some cases, had to do the killing themselves (Lacey, 2006). Lastly, there were the victims. These included targets and victims of assassination, genocidal killing, rape, physical torture, et cetera. Among them were over 800,000 Tutsis, tens of thousands of Hutus who protected their Tutsi kinsmen or opposed the murderous policy, hundreds of Twa people who chose to be bystanders or help Tutsis, and others. Most of the victims are in their graves or still suffer emotional torture to this day. There are so many adults today, who are products of rape and

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who do not know who their fathers are. Some of the fathers may just be those next-door neighbors today, who cut down the lives of entire families and raped their mothers. Many fathers do not even know the children they father; they live in the same neighborhood or hop in to the same bus and know nothing about their children who may be their co-passengers (Katengwa, 2014).

Sunrise in Kigali From the hills of Rwanda came help and hope in July 1994. Soldiers of the RPF army emerged from hilltops, forests, bushes, and riversides. Well trained, adequately equipped, disciplined, determined, and skillful in the art of war, they moved into the country through the Uganda-Rwanda borders. They overpowered militia and government troops on their way. The RPF armed wing, otherwise known as the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) had a counter-genocide ideology. Their main goal was to stop the genocide and end the reign of the genocidaires. In addition, they wanted a return of normal life and all refugees externally displaced. Led by Paul Kagame, they had received most of their training in Uganda. Having participated in the Ugandan Bush War prosecuted by the National Resistance Army (NRA) of Yoweri Museveni, and adequately trained in guerilla warfares and organized way of dislodging status quos, Kagame had garnered all the tactics and discipline required to fight a rather disorganized government and disarticulated army. He had risen through the ranks under Museveni and reached the rank of a general in the Ugandan NRA, which eventually seized power from Milton Obote in Uganda. Kagame got the backing of Museveni’s Uganda in raising a disciplined army to fight the Hutu extremist government, remove it, and end the genocide. Let us attempt to properly situate the Rwanda-Uganda romance and put the Kagame-Museveni understanding prior to the 1994 RPF invasion of Rwanda in proper historical perspective. There had been a large number of Tutsi refugees in Uganda from the 1970s through the 1990s. Fleeing the pogroms of the 1970s and settling in Uganda, they had formed a significant group of Ugandan immigrants, playing some active roles in that society. Following the overthrow of Idi Amin in 1979, the Tutsi intelligentsia in Uganda formed a political refugee organization. The group, called the Rwandese Alliance for National Unity (RANU) explored, among other socio-political issues, a possible return to Rwanda.

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The forum soon became partisan and loud in opposition after the election in 1980 of Idi Amin’s archrival, Obote. The Tutsi intelligentsia were opposed to Obote’s style of governance and in the process joined the ongoing Ugandan Bush War of Museveni. This made Obote to denounce Museveni’s NRA as more Banyarwanda than Ugandan, and as such the government made an attempt to force Tutsi refugees into refugee camps in February 1982. The failure led to the purge of 1982, when 40,000 refugees were forced back to Rwanda. The Habyarimana government would not allow more than 4000 Tutsis enter Rwanda, with Uganda willing to take back just 1000 of the 36,000 displaced in the borders of both countries. With 35,000 stranded for years, things quickly escalated in the late 1980s, with a plethora of Tutsi refugees opting to join the NRA in fighting to remove Obote (Mamdani, 2002). Among these Tutsi refugee members of RANU, Fred Rwigyema and Paul Kagame stood out. Both had been nurtured in Kahunge refugee camp. By 1986, Rwigyema had become the deputy commander of the NRA and 16,000 other Rwandans were part of the armed group. After Museveni took over as the head of state, Rwigyema was appointed deputy minister of defense and deputy army commander-in-chief, second only to Museveni in the high command; while Kagame was made the acting chief of military intelligence. It can be argued that the Rwandan members of the NRA constituted about a quarter of the NRA and had definitely contributed significantly to the success of the Bush War and Museveni’s assumption to power. Aside from the experience the Tutsi leaders would have gathered, the Ugandan government would support their cause not only to return home, but also to take over power from the obviously irresponsible government in Kigali. It was going to be a case of one good turn deserving another. The Hutu government was bound to collapse. The armed forces and police were not well prepared for external aggression. They were weakened by lack of professionalism and indiscipline. A military that was equipped only for ethnic cleansing would not have a winning mentality against any attacks from outside the country. They were made to kill harmless civilians and provide protection for the murderers in the state house. Internal strife engineered by the government and its troops alone was capable of creating a weak military. When soldiers pursue hapless citizens from one corner of the country to the other, in search of inyenzis to kill, they would get used to squaring up against weaker elements. They

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would not even be ready for war. They would simply be busy killing cockroaches while a ferocious and more motivated army would be seeking their downfall. When the firepower of a more determined RPF came, therefore, the Rwandan troops could only flee, surrender, or be easily killed. The whole nation was drunk with the strong wine of slaughtering easy preys. Tutsis and moderate Hutus had no power of weapons to fight back. Their only “weapon” was hope, underlined by hiding or fleeing. This affected the makeup of the Rwandan military and police. When the RPF came in from July, the Rwandan government troops could do little or nothing to stop them from steadily taking over and controlling the situation. It was easy for the RPF to take control of the country methodically, cutting off government supply routes and taking advantage of the deteriorating social order. When the liberation troops entered Kigali on July 7 and killed some notorious genocide enablers near the Kabgayi church center, it was clear that Kigali had fallen into the hands of the liberation army. This particular incident had prompted some western observers to posit that the RPF gave more priority to taking over power, instead of saving lives or stopping the genocide (Dallaire, 2005). One other observer claimed that the RPF vowed to continue the war until they could take over the entire country (cited in Dallaire, 2005). Another observer, a senior Belgian peacekeeper in Rwanda, Luc Marchal had claimed that not only did the RPF not show the slightest interest in protecting Tutsis, it fueled the chaos, with the aim to have enough human casualties as justification for its war and occupation (Garrett, 2018). While these perspectives may sound apt, the allegations or claims can also be punctured by superior arguments. Genocide was a state policy and a societal ideology. It could only be stopped only when it ceases being a state policy or ideology of the people. This could be possible only when counter policy and ideology are pushed or put in place by a new government. Therefore, it made sense that the RPF would need to gain power, to upstage the status quo and put an end to the scourge of violence. On July 4, 1994, the RPF successfully threw out the Hutu-led interim government and captured power in Kigali. On July 15, the killings stopped and on July 18, the liberation forces effectively took over the rest of the country, thus putting an end to the genocide and reign of horror in Rwanda. There was the rising of the sun once again, as people could go about their businesses without let or hindrance, fear or trepidation. Although there were cases of violence after the genocide, marked

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by vengeful attacks by some members of the RPF troops, who launched attacks on the killers of their family members while away as refugees in Uganda, DRC, Burundi, and Tanzania; these were isolated cases. Nevertheless, the crisis created concerns for the new government; and the international community, a latecomer in the scheme of things; it promptly cast the RPF in the spotlight, with the world scrutinizing the government’s moves and intentions and determining whether the government sponsored or encouraged those flashes of violence (Rever, 2020). It is pertinent to conclude this chapter by stating unequivocally that, in the search for foreign intervention intended toward stopping the genocide, there was little coming from the western world. The United Nations (UN) did not commit itself with the responsibility to protect (RTP); some said the UN failed woefully. General Dellaire’s chronicles of his many limitations and manifest inadequacies of the UN (2005) within the 100 days of horror, are pointers to the failure of the international body in the Rwandan quagmire. The only places where some help came were Senegal, Ghana, and of course, Uganda. Help came only from Africa. However, the moment the RPF had firmly established themselves as the liberators of the country, the western world, through their governments, human rights bodies, and media became the moral judges of governance and human security in Rwanda. This is commonplace in Africa. When Liberia and Sierra Leone were burning during their civil wars, the international community ignored the crisis. The moment Nigeria and other West African countries rose to end the wars and restore peace and stability in the countries and sub-region, through the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), and democracy returned, the United Nations arrived with its troops and conflict resolution program. Soon afterward, the UN overshadowed ECOMOG and took the credit for restoring peace and stability. What more, the ECOMOG commanders and their troops were subjected to scrutiny and accused by the western media and human rights groups, of one gross act of human rights violation or the other. Ebola had hit the West African sub-region hard in 2013. Nigeria and some African countries tried so hard to obtain western medical help in tackling the scourge. However, it was not a global health issue—although it could, as it turned out, and as such little attention was paid by the west to Ebola. Although President Barack Obama has a Kenyan root, his American administration did little in stopping Ebola in Liberia (a former

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American territory), Sierra Leone, and Guinea. However, after Nigeria had led ECOWAS in tackling the Ebola scourge, the World Health Organization sauntered in majestically and became prominent enough to be mistaken for the savior of the sub-region. The western and global scrutiny on the RPF and Paul Kagame since 1994 is archetypal of a pattern—a hypocrisy that comes after initial negligence and downplaying of African tragedies. It was one major instance in a long history of abandonment of the continent in times of need.

References Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. (2015). Rwanda. Retrieved from https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-gui des/rwanda Dallaire. (2005). Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. Indiana University. Fieldwork. (2020). Participation-Observation Activities During Visits to Rwanda. Garrett, L. (2018). “Rwanda: Not the Official Narrative”. The Lancet. Gourevitch, P. (1998). We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda. Picador. Horvitz, L. A., & Cherwood, C. (2006). Encyclopedia of War Crimes and Genocide. InfoBase Publishing. Human Rights Watch. (1999). Rwanda. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/ legacy/worldreport99/africa/rwanda.html Katengwa, O. (2014). How Motherhood Triumphs over Traumahood among Mothers with Children from Genocidal Rape in Rwanda. Retrieved from https://ideas.repec.org/p/msm/wpaper/2014-03.html Lacey, M. (2006). Rwandan Priest Sentenced to 15 Years for Allowing Deaths of Tutsi in Church. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/ world/africa/14rwanda.html Mamdani, M. (2002). When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda. Princeton University Press, pp. 168–169. Murray, R. (2001). The Report of the OAU’s International Panel of Eminent Personalities to Investigate the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda and the Surrounding Events. Journal of African Law, 45(1), 123–133. Prunier, G. (1999). The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide (2nd ed.). Fountain Publishers Limited. Rever, J. (2020). In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front. Random House. Strauss, S. (2004, March). How Many Perpetrators Were There in the Rwandan Genocide? An Estimate. Journal of Genocide Research, 6(1), 85–98.

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Sybille, F., & Silke, S. (2010). Killing Sports Fields: The Amahoro Stadium Complex in Kigali, Rwanda. Stadium Worlds. Routledge. United Nations. (2005). Outreach Programme on the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda and the United Nations. Retrieved from https://www.un. org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/historical-background.shtml

CHAPTER 4

Empathy, Love, and Personal Quest

After seeing the movie, Hotel Rwanda along with my wife, daughter, and first son in the comfort of our sitting room that Saturday morning sometime in March 2009, the quest to know more about the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis gripped me. Overwhelmed by a mixture of emotions and curiosity, I began to comb the net for more. The movie was given to me by a student, who had listened to my lecture on ethnic politics in my “International Relations/Politics of Africa” 300 Level class. The class had been thrown into a frenzy and sadness after a graphic discourse of the gory instances of ethnic conflicts on the continent. The student had just seen Hotel Rwanda, released few years earlier. I took a copy of the film home and settled down to see it after breakfast that Saturday. It was gripping. The movie centers on Paul Rusesabagina, a Hutu manager of the hotel. He had worked as a supervisor at Hotel Diplomat before moving to Hotel des Mille Collines, where he had an upward mobility and became a manager at some point. In the movie, Paul is depicted as a smooth talker and a smart and charismatic person whose wittiness makes him to thread dangerous paths unscathed. He always has his way, even with all odds seemingly against him. He is married to a Tutsi woman, a taboo in a Hutu-dominated country in 1994. The Ten Commandments had forbidden any Hutu from marrying Tutsi cockroaches. Paul is therefore a © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 S. F. Folarin, Rwanda’s Radical Transformation Since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37011-3_4

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traitor because he had married a Tutsi and has had cockroach children by her. The Paul character is that who has a way of making Hutu generals, police chiefs, and militia leaders have some love or admiration or fear for him. Despite harboring hundreds of inyenzis in his hotel, he still would not be harmed or arrested. He knows how to pull the strings in Kigali and Brussels whenever luck runs out on him. Hotel Rwanda presents Paul Rusesabagina as a moderate Hutu and a savior of Tutsis during the 100-day genocide. His diplomacy and tact are the instruments to keep the Hutu killers away from his camp. Even when the soldiers, police, or militia members come around, he would cajole or deceive them and in the end, the refugees in the hotel would have been saved. Paul is therefore a hero character in the film. He is that superman in Rwanda who saved hundreds or thousands of Tutsi and moderate Hutus from the genocidal scourge. In real life, in 1996, Paul left for Europe and later settled in the United States, where he gives talks and receives awards for his superhuman acts of 1994. He won the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005 from former President George W. Bush and eventually became a US resident and Belgian citizen. The world celebrated him and he lived a life of a hero with a cape for a long time, until few years ago. We fell in love with that movie character. We wanted to know more about him and found out that he was doing well, traversing Europe, United States, and Africa with many organizations inviting and hosting him for public speaking engagements and discussions on the Rwandan crisis of 1994. We (my family and I) developed a lot of respect and admiration for Paul. We could imagine how many millions of families around the world would feel the same for him. In reality, Paul did most of what the movie portrayed him to be— smart, shrewd, diplomatic, friendly, and most times positively cunning. He saved lives of people using the hotel; he made calls across to Belgiumbased hotel owners Sabena to impress it on the Hutu government not to attack the hotel; protected his family and friends regardless of tribal affinities. In addition, he provided sanctuary for over a thousand who sought refuge in the hotel; negotiated with security and militia chiefs to spare lives; and worked hard with the UN troops to provide some safety nets for potential victims of genocide. Paul also did a lot to attract international and local sympathies and attention to the plight of internally displaced persons (Rusesabagina & Zoellner, 2007). However, there have been allegations that portray Paul as a villain at some points. The allegations include obtaining money from some rich

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Tutsi refugees to keep them safe; selling out some Tutsi women to militia members and soldiers to sexually gratify them and ward off attacks on the hotel; meeting the genocidaires and letting them know the sacred cows among his guests and those that should not be attacked. In summary, he was seen as an economic profiteer from the genocide. In more recent years, he has been accused by the Rwandan government of providing funding for terrorist and subversive activities on Rwandan soil (American Bar Association, 2023). After the capture of Rwanda by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), Hutu genocidaires and ordinary citizens fled in millions to neighboring countries, particularly Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Surprisingly, the genocidaires among the refugees reorganized themselves into an armed group, Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda or Forces Democratique des Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR). The group is active in the eastern region of the DRC. Their main intention is to seize power from Paul Kagame, remove all vestiges of Tutsi rule since 1994 and restore the same old Hutu Power (McGreal, 2008). The FDLR had the same toxic Hutu ideology of erasing Tutsis and enforcing the situation in which the Hutus will be the sole occupants of Rwanda. The FDLR, which incorporated other Hutu groups, including the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALiR) under Paul Rwarakabije, was birthed in September 2000. Today, the FDLR is estimated to be around 6000 or much more in size. They had led some campaigns, including shock attacks on Rwanda-DRC border towns, launching through Kivu, to Rwanda border towns. They reportedly have killed hundreds of civilians in Eastern Congo over the years, hacking them to death with machetes or hoes sometimes, or burning them in their homes (McGreal, 2008). Recalling an encounter, McGreal (2008), quoted a Hutu extremist in the FDLR as saying: The children born here are FDLR. The children born in Rwanda will be FDLR. My children will be FDLR. The conflict between Hutu and Tutsi is based on power. It’s not that we have to develop an ideology of hatred against the Tutsis. It’s just that people should see what’s happening. Just because the Tutsis were victim of a genocide doesn’t give them the right to take power.

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That sums it up. The FDLR members had been fed with a wrong doctrine founded on the ignorance of the members. The last sentence says it all. The members and leaders of FDLR are principally genocidaires: leaders of the genocide-era Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR), dislodged Hutu government officials, field commanders of militia groups, particularly the Interahamwe, and ordinary Rwandan Hutus, who participated in killing their neighbors and fellow citizens. The FLDR worked so hard between 2000 and 2009 to recruit more Hutu into the group. Feeding them with lies and the same hate ideology, they made ordinary Hutus who did not participate in the genocide to identify with their cause and join them in the mission to take back Rwanda (Combs & Slann, 2021). Backed by the Laurent Kabila government, which fell out with Kigali, the FDLR had a field day in DRC, acquiring weapons, training the armed wing in guerilla tactics, making local bombs and launching attacks against Rwanda. Sexual violence, cutting down victims with machetes, and burning people to death, among other vices, were the crimes committed by the group (UNSC, 2012). The Congolese government was using the FDLR as a counterforce to Rwandan Defense Force (RDF), which was obviously watchful, and gathering intelligence in Northern DRC to prevent external invasions or terrorist attacks from adversaries in an unstable neighbor. However, when the intransigence and excesses of the FLDR reached a head, and the group turned on the Congolese people, the Joseph Kabila government was forced to launch offensives against the group. However, these offensives ended when the DRC initiated a ceasefire, which drew the ire of Rwanda. General Nkunda, a Congolese Tutsi general had left the DRC government and recruiting Congolese Tutsi members of the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RDC), began his own offensives against the Hutu-led FDLR (Reliefweb, 2007). The US National Counterterrorism Center reported that the FLDR engaged in numerous terrorist activities in Eastern DRC, aimed at destabilizing Rwanda and upstaging Kagame. With their attacks reportedly culminating in the death of hundreds of civilians in Eastern DRC and some parts of Northwestern Rwanda, the US blacklisted the FDLR as a terrorist organization in 2005, and included it in the group of forty terrorist organizations wreaking havoc across the globe by 2004 (Karemera, 2005). Incidentally, these backdoor events in DRC were telling on national reconciliation and integration effort in homeland. Sentiments for or

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against the Hutu FDLR or Tutsi RCD were latently gathering and expressed, which could make rebuilding of Rwanda difficult. Paul Rusesabagina was indicted for being involved in the midst of all these onshore and offshore acrimonies. The Rwanda government alleged that in the years since he fled Rwanda, Mr. Rusesabagina had been an outspoken opponent of Rwanda’s ruling party and Kagame in particular. He had often had scathing criticism of the government and accused it of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Criticism was not enough; if it had ended there, that probably would not have caused any stir. But there are more grievous allegations. In 2018, Rusesabagina co-founded the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (Mouvement Rwandais pour le Changement Démocratique, or MRCD), which became a gathering or a coalition of opposition groups in exile. However, Rusesabagina distanced himself from the terrorism allegations, describing his MRCD as a group that used “diplomacy” instead, in pushing for the interest of millions of Rwandan refugees and exiles. However, the government identified an armed wing of the MRCD, known as the National Liberation Forces (Forces de Libération Nationale, or FLN), alleged to have perpetrated several violent attacks on Rwandan soil. Incidentally, in 2018 the Hotel Rwanda hero openly declared his “unreserved support” for the FLN, encouraging it to use any means at their disposal to change the government and political life in Rwanda (Davis, 2021). This kind of rhetoric was bound to create flares in a system, which was still grappling with fragile peace and working so hard on reconciliatory processes. Paul’s arrest and indictment, no matter how it is viewed by the world, were bound to happen. No society that had gone through such level of destruction caused by ethnic hatred and genocide would not be sensitive to inflammable remarks and creation of an organization to champion that cause. Paul was a hero, no doubt, as he saved over 1000 persons who mostly were Tutsis. He used his hotel to shield them. However, it was not impossible too, that he went a little over the top as alleged by some survivors and the government, by collecting money to harbor some of the Tutsis, or that he used a few of the girls to sexually gratify Hutu attackers so as to save the lives of the rest. In conflict, anything is possible. Even the movie, Hotel Rwanda, depicts him as a man of great IQ, who succeeded most times in tricking the bloodthirsty Hutu soldiers and militiamen to buy time and save the people. In the movie, he tries to bribe the soldiers and sometimes collects as much alcoholic drinks and money as

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possible from any source available, to protect his guests. What the movie does not suggest, however, is whether Paul extorted money from his rich guests to pay off the attackers, or whether he used some of the Tutsi girls to gratify and keep them away from his hotel. It can only be imagined or speculated. Stories from some survivors that I personally met, who would not wish to be mentioned, tended to claim that Paul went over the board sometimes. While those claims remain allegations or mere speculations, what cannot be denied were his creation of MRCD, support for FLN, and dangerous rhetoric that encouraged homeland violence, as established by the courts in recent times. This explains how our great hero declined, in some way, to the level of villainy. However, in 2021, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison on eight charges, including membership in a terrorist group, murder. In March 2023, the Rwandan government with warning that he distances himself from groups and rhetoric that could harm Rwanda’s integration commuted his sentence. The second movie that opened my eyes to the 1994 crisis is Sometimes in April , with British actor Idris Elba, Nigerian Oris Erhuero, and Rwandan Carole Karemera as the protagonists. The real-life locations used in the film made it even more compelling to pay attention to the details in the film. While the movie itself is more of a fiction, the storylines unveil the exact scenarios that characterized the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis. Captain Augustin Muganza, a Hutu man is married to Jeane, a beautiful Tutsi woman. He is a moderate Hutu, who has become so detribalized that he cannot understand the rationale for the ethnic hatred and blood mongering. Meanwhile, his brother, Honoré Butera is a hardline Hutu Power man, who is one of the forces in the hate radio that gores ordinary Hutu people to kill their Tutsi brothers and sisters. He does this with so much finesse and smoothness in his voice that it becomes the fine wine and tonic for early morning slaughters, afternoon murders, evening killings, and midnight long knives. Nevertheless, Honoré loves his brother and tries to persuade him to identify with the cause of Hutu Power in the army, so as not only to preserve his life, but to also retain his place and gain favors and rise in the military institution. As the genocide plot is unleashed, Captain Muganza notices that there are strange elements coming into the military barracks to receive unconventional training—hot to target people in the head with machetes and guns. These civilians trooping in for training are not going to join the

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army; he later finds out that, they are joining ethnic militia groups, particularly Interahamwe and that they are learning how to attack and slaughter ordinary civilians. Muganza later gets to know that the government, military, and police are working with these militia groups to unleash terror on the Tutsis at an appointed time. When certain “lists” begin to circulate in the barracks, Augustin Muganza then realizes that there is going to be an orgy of violence against his wife’s group in Rwanda. His superiors secretly pay attention and watch his moves. They know he is married to a “cockroach” woman. They want to test his loyalty and commitment to the Hutu agenda. Augustin is found to be “disloyal” and as such, his name and that of his army officer-friend, Xavier Miango soon surface in those “lists”. It is time to take his family away and escape from Rwanda. However, with all the roadblocks mounted by militiamen and soldiers, this mission is not going to be possible without the aid of his Hutu Hate Radio brother, Honoré Butera. Against his wish but with love for his brother, Honoré’s milk of human compassion plays out when he agrees to use his influence to drive Augustin’s family out of harm’s way and lead them out to a safe haven outside Rwanda. Before this time, soldiers, some of them under Augustin’s watch had stormed his home to search for his “cockroach” family and kill them. The leader of the troops, who happens to have known Augustin’s father in Gitarama as a good man, is kind enough to his boss, stylishly advising him to escape with his family before they return and are forced to kill them. Both Augustin’s attempt to protect his family through the aid of his younger brother, and his efforts to have him and his friend, fail. While driving through bends and hills, successfully fooling the persons at the roadblocks, Honoré runs out of luck just at the last block. Initially, the soldiers are satisfied and clear him to go. But then a supervisor wants more assurance and requests him to provide evidence that the occupants of his car are not Tutsis. Honoré makes a call across to his army commander friend, who rather disappoints him. The commander does not believe his claim that the occupants are his immediate family and gives the order that ends in fatality for Augustin’s children and wife. The wife manages to survive the multiple shots fired into the car at the roadblock and escapes to a Catholic church, which is considered a safe sanctuary. Unfortunately, it is in this same church that clergymen and soldiers collaborate to rape her serially. Eventually, she ends her life along with that of her assailants as she grabs a grenade from one of the rapists and detonates it inside the church.

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Sometimes in April shows the graphic details of the Rwanda genocide. These include horrific scenes, where schoolgirls are massacred in cold blood, murder of the Prime Minister Agathe, rape and killings in the churches and schools, and the use of radio to promote genocide. Other scenarios graphically portrayed are the complicity of the government and armed forces in the whole affair, America’s lame response—but the struggles of Ms. Prudence Bushnell of the American Department of State to compel the Clinton government—to end the genocide, and the crimes against humanity trials, and so forth. The movie is a classic. It provides useful information and ideas about what transpired in 1994. Other scenarios are how militiamen forced friends, couples, neighbors, and soldiers to kill one another; how interventionist troops came solely to rescue “whites” and other carriers of western nations’ identity or passports; and how terribly useless the mandate of the United Nations group was in Rwanda during the genocide against the Tutsis. While Hotel Rwanda and Sometimes in April charged me up for more information, I wanted the truth as well. History and Political Science methodology learnt from Ibadan Schools of History and Politics at my undergraduate and graduate levels in the prestigious University of Ibadan, had equipped me with knowledge searching skills and puts me in a position to seek scientific truth.

Search for the Truth The two movies described previously, set me on the path of fact-finding. I browsed the net for more scientifically verified information. This process took me to many books and journal articles, some of which are already referenced in this book. Then I went on to YouTube and got more perspectives to the 1994 genocide. I found Kinyarwanda, which shows initial bloody occurrences and the mediation and healing process after the genocide; 100 Days; Rwandan Genocide: 100 Days of Terror, two snapshots of the horrific events of April–July 1994; Ghosts of Rwanda; and The Genocides of Rwanda. Others included Rwandan Genocide: I Saw Armed Gang Murder My Family; Rwandan Genocide in 3 Minutes; Hunted for 91 Days; I’m Not Leaving; and so many others. Some of these films try to depict the incident as a kind of interethnic warfare; some portray a nation that had two ethnic groups fighting to gain power. The rest simply said it the way it was: AbaHutu wanted to get rid

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of their fellow Rwandans, AbaTutsi, due to historical hatred and misunderstanding, and with the aim of securing Rwanda for Hutus alone. The 1994 crisis was not an interethnic feud. It was the case of a group that had political power and monopoly of violence that tried to wipe out another group that was unarmed and helpless. True, there had been a power tussle before 1994 between the Hutu-led government and the Tutsi-dominated RPF seeking to return the exiles and have stakes in the politics of their fatherland. Before the genocide, there was a ceasefire and an agreement in Arusha, Tanzania, between the two sides to form a national government. In April 1994, everyone was shocked when the plane conveying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi after another peace agreement, was shot somewhere close to the Kanombe barracks in Kigali. There have been arguments that no one up till now can say precisely which group shot down the plane. This sometimes sounds ridiculous. Who could be closer to the major military barracks in Kigali, to have fired accurately from that distance at the plane? Who were the occupants of the Kanombe barracks? RPF rebels or Hut-led government forces? Are there records that show that the RPF had gotten so close by April 6, 1994, and could walk into Kigali and the military stronghold that easily to carry out that attack? Were there any RPF members arrested or was there any shred of evidence to show that the RPF rebels were culpable? Kigali was the center of Hutu Power and their military stronghold. Only the government soldiers could conveniently fire at any plane from that distance. Empathy, curiosity, and excitement at the thought of finding answers to these puzzles raised the urge in me to travel to Rwanda. I wanted to know more, and from my History classes, the best way to know the facts is to be at the center of events and gather information from a variety of sources: primary and secondary, including official records from the two sides.

Potshots at Finding Rwanda When would be the best time to travel to Rwanda? What would be the cost? How many days or weeks would be required? Would I go alone or with my family? These and more were the questions on my mind about going to Rwanda. Between 2011 and 2013, I toyed with the idea. The more I wanted to go, the more confused I was about the best time. At Covenant University, we operated tight schedules. More work days and

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fewer holidays. Covenant was a “ministry of works” of sorts. It was a field where hard work was rewarded with more work. However, it was a good one too, as this prepared me for the challenges ahead. I handle assignments now, like a slice of bread. No assignment is tougher than the ability to handle and execute it. Thanks to that great citadel of learning, where I rose from Lecturer I in 2004 to a full Professor in 2017. In 2012, I was appointed as the Departmental Chair, which meant, I would not be able to plan for such a big trip for two years. While I thought, that I could squeeze out time in the summer of 2013, I was appointed as Director of the International Office and Linkages of the institution, which I had to combine with the office of the chair in the department. Already, I was holding the position of media and editorial chair of my church, Living Faith Church Worldwide (Winners’ Chapel International). It was three big positions for one person. I would not be able to visit or travel for any serious research on Rwanda. In 2013, I visited the Rwandan High Commission in Abuja and met the High Commissioner, who later became my friend, the late Ambassador Joseph Habineza. We discussed a lot as I tried to get more information about the genocide, the post-genocide peacebuilding, the government of Paul Kagame, and many other things. He was kind enough to open up to me on many things that I know about Rwanda today. He was the first person to tell me that there is no tribal distinction in Rwanda anymore and that everyone was simply “Rwandese” and not Twa, Tutsi, or Hutu. He told me about the Gacaca trials and the forgiving spirit of Rwandan people. He encouraged me to visit Rwanda and get to see the transformation that had taken place. He warned that I might not see any evidence of one of the worst genocides in recent human history, except I visit the genocide memorials. These were the only relics of the sad incident that serve as institutional memory to future Rwandans, to desist from any act that could lead to a reoccurrence. My visit to Ambassador Habineza was like a major first step to visiting Rwanda. I shared my sentiments about the genocide and apprehensions about the future, particularly a post-Kagame era, which, incidentally, is what everyone fears too. Habineza assured me that there were succession plans that would stand the test of time and that Rwanda would become a place that many people the world over, would seek to visit and live in someday. Today, Rwanda is exactly what Habineza described to me in 2013.

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Our meeting did not end there. Aside from messages and phone calls that we exchanged thereafter, we discussed the possibility of him visiting Living Faith Church Worldwide and its president, Bishop David Oyedepo in Canaanland, the headquarters. We followed this through and I discussed with the Bishop, who agreed to meet him. Sometime after Kwibuka 2013, I brought Habineza to Canaanland to meet with the bishop and other leaders of one of the biggest Christian ministries in the world. The bishop reminded the Rwandan High Commissioner that the church was one of the first organizations in Africa to ship relief materials to genocide survivors and provide succor to the families of the victims. Habineza and Oyedepo discussed the possibility of establishing a mega church in Kigali and building primary and secondary schools in the country. I tried to convince the bishop that Rwanda was the safest place to build schools and churches and that the zero corruption tolerance, which the bishop was known for, was a major characteristic of the Kagame nation. Habineza departed satisfied with the arrangement, and reminded me that it was time for me to go to Rwanda and see for myself so that I could return to further convince Bishop Oyedepo on need to invest heavily in Rwanda. Two months after our meeting, Habineza called to inform me that he had been recalled to Rwanda to serve as a minister. The plan to visit Rwanda in 2013–14 was thus put on hold. In 2015, I told my wife that I would love us to embark on a summer vacation to Rwanda or Dubai (United Arab Emirates). Ghana was third on the list. We started checking out flight fares, hotel prices, exotic places to visit and by the end of our calculations, the family of five would require about N3.5 million for Rwanda, N4m for Dubai, and just N400, 000 for Ghana. Anyone can guess that Ghana would be the option. I had a N2m budget only. My wife agreed that we go to Ghana and use the rest of the money to purchase a plot of land that she had seen somewhere close to our place of work. I reluctantly agreed and purchased that plot of land. Our modest but beautiful family house lies on that plot today. However, the land and house were at the expense of a visit to Rwanda. No regrets, but I wondered when I would ever visit the country. As time went by, the thoughts of Rwanda were fading out. So many pressing matters took Rwanda off my mind. Togo, Benin, and Ghana became my vacation points steadily from 2015 to 2018. Then suddenly, I stopped going to Togo and Ghana. In 2019, I spent more time with my family in North Carolina, United States than usual. In May and December

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of 2019, I was with the family, and Ghana, Togo, and Benin faded out too. I never thought of anywhere else in Africa or outside to visit that year. I was quite busy with university accreditation assignments, nominated and mobilized by the National Universities Commission (NUC) on teams to Zaria, Lokoja, Gboko, and Maiduguri in Northern Nigeria. It was at one of the NUC accreditation assignments, in Lokoja precisely, that my former teacher and a senior colleague, Professor Femi Otubanjo told me about his intent to have me go in his stead in 2020 as a visiting professor in the University of Rwanda’s Center for Conflict Management. The Center coordinates the Master of Arts in Security Studies program for senior military officers, who come to RDFCSC from all over Africa. Professor Otubanjo asked if I would be interested in going for the assignment in 2020. It was an enthusiastic agreement to take up the challenge. Between November 2019 and January 2020, just before coronavirus outbreak in Africa, all plans had been concluded and I was invited to Rwanda by the University of Rwanda and Ministry of Defense. The age-long dream of visiting Rwanda was coming to a reality after all, in 2020. I could not wait to enter that country and fulfill an age-long. The opportunity to quench my thirst for knowledge about the country of a thousand hills had finally come.

From Lagos with Empathy and Love The first impression I had of Rwanda was at the Muritala Muhammad International Airport in Lagos. The Rwandair surprised me. I did not expect much from Rwanda in terms of air transportation or even any meaningful social infrastructure. When I got the ticket for a Rwandair flight, I expected to see some Tokunboh (imported second-hand) aircraft on their fleet. In fact, I was thinking that I would be served a ticket from the stable of Ethiopian Airlines or Kenyan Airways. I had thought that Air Rwanda (the name it bore before 1994) would have expired and like Air Afrique, the moribund—later expired—airlines in Francophone countries of Africa, would exhibit some really old planes. Surprisingly, I saw a brand-new, really good Boeing planes, both in Lagos and Kigali. In February 2020, Rwanda pleasantly shocked me! Nigeria, the wealthiest country and giant of Africa, could no longer boast of a national carrier. Corruption, mismanagement, poor maintenance culture, and policy somersaults had liquidated the Nigerian Airways, which was arguably Africa’s biggest airline in the 1980s. The national

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or international airports in Nigeria had become an eyesore and could no longer compete with airports of fellow developing countries. When Nigeria was struggling to get it right in the aviation sector, a country that was emptied in 1994, had, as of 2020, acquired over a dozen brand-new aircraft and an organized airline that could compete with members of the Star Alliance. The interior of the plane was exquisite, sparkling, and clean! The flight attendants were resplendent in their combination of green, yellow, and blue uniforms and their services were exotic. The foods and drinks were in abundance. However, I noticed that the plane was half-filled. Rwandair was just beginning to strengthen its Lagos route. I later learnt that they had commenced Kigali-Abuja-Kigali route and by 2021, when I was to return to Rwanda, I was in an Airbus, the type flown by Air France from Lagos to Paris. It is a mighty jet, with eight seats in each row. The flight was full to capacity and the return flight to Lagos after my assignment in Musanze, was equally full. The Nigeria (Lagos and Abuja) routes were profitable after all. The airline management must have done a great market survey and concluded that it would be a worthy venture. The Kigali International Airport is small, but has all the trappings of major global airports. The orderliness; security fittings; escalators; lighting of tarmacs, lounges, and halls; and the cooling system are features you will find in Amsterdam Schiphol, London Heathrow, New York JFK International, or Jo’burg Thambo airport. What I had not seen at these airports but which are installed in Kigali International Airport are vehicle scanners, which literally subject an entire vehicle and all the items within to scanning. The vehicles are railed from the point the driver and passengers disembark to the end of the scanning process. These are machines I was seeing for the first time; or may be that I never noticed until my first time in Kigali. Kigali is breathtakingly beautiful. Not only because of the numerous mountains, valleys, and vegetation; but also by the well-constructed roads, well illuminated streets, the good planning of the town, gardens, beautiful buildings, and cleanliness of everywhere in the city. The same applies to many other cities, including Musanze, Butare, and Huye. Traffic lights are at all junctions and they work effectively. Traffic in Kigali usually moves without too many delays or congestion. Kigali’s extensive road network means you can usually find an alternative route if you are stuck in a jam. Traffic can get dense during rush hours, around 7:30–8:00 a.m. and 5:30–7 p.m. when people are going to or returning from work.

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Traffic is congested when special events are happening, such as bicycle tournaments or during COVID-19 curfews. Road signs are present and drivers and pedestrians comply with them. All motorbike operators wear a helmet and have one extra for the one passenger they carry. Motorbike taxis (motos) are still the most popular form of transport in Kigali for most people. They are quick, cheap, convenient, and (mostly) safe. Moto drivers usually work from “stations” or junctions and roadside areas where they hang about and wait for passengers (Living in Kigali, 2021). Rwanda has one of the most organized transportation systems in the world. Good roads, decent traffic management, robust public transport, and the introduction of ride-hailing apps make getting around way easier than most major cities in Africa. Kigali has two taxi and ride-hailing apps: Move and Yego Cabs, which are available on apps on Android devices and iPhones. Buses are the most common form of public transport in Kigali. Buses are modern, comfortable, and run on set schedules and routes. Destinations and routes are marked by the colors of the buses and a screen at the front. Bus stations in Kigali are called taxi parks, which is in every neighborhood (Fieldwork, 2022; Living in Kigali, 2021). Bicycle transport is common. These bikes are usually for short trips, mountain hiking, or simply for physical exercises. In addition, many transport companies offer VIP or corporate transportation to organizations or persons. On their fleet are SUVs and exotic cars that are paid for on full-day services basis. They are between $80 and $100 per day (7a.m.–10 p.m. or 11.59 p.m.). In Rwanda, it is quite easy to be transported from one destination to the other. From personal experience, I find the transportation to be quite cheap and easily accessible. From the motorbikes to the taxis, from the VIP services to renting of cars, movement in Rwanda is orderly and pleasant. Compared to the transport system in advanced countries such as the United States, Rwanda’s system is tops. Water transportation is only common around the lakes and rivers. There is no rail transport, probably because of the mountainous nature of the country. However, the government hinted on a transnational rail line to commence soon. I left Lagos in February 2020 with mixed emotions. Excited to finally see things for myself on the one hand, with a lot of admiration for the people, who have shown resilience and forgiveness incomparable anywhere; on the other, I was full of sympathy and empathy for the people, particularly survivors and families of the genocide, as well as even some of the perpetrators who were simply fooled by their government to

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carry out such acts of impunity against their friends, neighbors, schoolmates, children, parents, in-laws, and spouses. My love for Rwanda even before traveling to the country was like that for my country, Nigeria. I just wanted to meet with the people, see the faces of the survivors and hear from them, meet and hear from the perpetrators too, to find out few things about their role in the genocide, what they did and why did they it. I wanted to see those hilly roads and terrains where acts of killing took place, and wanted to find out for myself the secret behind the radical transformation of a country, which, only in 1994, was in total ruins.

The Inspiration from San Marcos In March 2022, I resumed in Texas State University, United States as a visiting professor. Just as I was settling down, mails came from the Rwandan Ministry of Defense inviting me for the second time to the National Security Symposium. The 10th edition was to be held in Kigali. I could not attend the 9th edition in 2021, because of my tight schedules in the United States during that period. The 10th edition was going to help me get another perspective of the country’s system in general and governance in particular. I accepted the invitation and was therefore set for the symposium in May 2022. My family was living in North Carolina, so I stayed alone in the university town of San Marcos in Texas. One day, after an evening class with the graduate students on African governance, I retired to bed thinking about what my host had told me. Given my expertise in African governance and experience as a teacher in the RDFCSC, the professor of public administration had reasoned, it would be a brilliant idea to write a book on Rwanda. I started toying with the idea of Rwanda’s transition from a failed state to the “Singapore of Africa”. I shared my idea with some colleagues in the department in San Marcos and they expressed support for the title or something close to that. One Saturday morning, just after hitting the gym, I sat down to put up a draft outline of the book. By 1.00 a.m. the next day, I had written five pages of my introductory chapter. San Marcos is a sedate town. It is thirty minutes away from the state capital, Austin. The town is often quite in the afternoon and evenings. In the morning of the weekdays, the bustling is not comparable to the atmosphere in Houston, which is two-and-a-half hours away, or Dallas, which is four hours away from San Marcos.

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San Marcos is one beautiful town that boasts of mermaid statues everywhere. The San Marcos River is important to the inhabitants for swimming, canoeing, fishing, and sightseeing. Texas State University is one of the most significant landmarks in this town. This institution produced one of America’s fine presidents, L.B. Johnson (LBJ). The university (“Texas State” for short) is part of the Texas State University System (TSUS) and ranks high among institutions of higher learning in the South. The LBJ Library is quite resourceful a center for research, reading, and data collection. The commercial nerve center and fun place for inhabitants is Downtown San Marcos, which has numerous eating and drinking points, nightclubs, retail shops for all manner of products and services, and a theater. The most popular grocery stores are H.E.B, Sam’s Club, Dollar Tree, and Walmart. In addition, there are huge student housing facilities scattered around the town. The most common are UClub and The View on the Square. The View is particularly exotic and rich with all sorts of facilities. It is expectedly expensive. It is $1279 per month for a studio room. This was where I stayed for four months, before the university moved me to a bigger facility called Thornton House, a story building with adequate space for a family man. Surprisingly, this housing was much cheaper. There was little or no distraction for me in San Marcos. I had traveled to North Carolina to assist in relocating my family to Arkansas, a state bordering Texas. My wife had applied for jobs around Texas and Arkansas to facilitate our being closer or living together, and thankfully, she was appointed in Walmart as a project management specialist, having obtained another Master’s in informatics and analytics, after her PhD. The family in Arkansas, not too far away, my department and hosts being so understanding and cooperative, and San Marcos being a peaceful place, I had the most auspicious of situation to read, think, and write. In less than two months, I had written two chapters of this book. With a contract agreement sealed with Palgrave Macmillan, it was time to proceed in earnest with the research and writing. In May 2022, I returned to Rwanda for the National Security Symposium and on return to San Marcos, Texas later that month, I resumed putting down my thoughts. It was even easier to do so, having had new information and fresher perspectives from Rwanda in May. I would return to Rwanda in November 2022, February and May 2023. Working on an academic research on Rwanda had always been my desire, but I never got the real inspiration until March 2022. The inspiration came from San Marcos, where I led a quiet, solitary

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life and could reflect on a variety of areas of research in African studies to keep me busy and productive.

References American Bar Association. (2023). Rwanda: Background Briefing on Proceedings Against Paul Rusesabagina. Retrieved from http://www.americanbar. org/groups/human_rights Combs, C., & Slann, M. (2021). Encyclopedia of Terrorism (3rd ed.). InfoBase. Davis, N. (2021, September 26). East Africa: Rwanda. War Crimes Prosecution Watch, 17 (6). Fieldwork. (2022). Participation-Observation of Life and Times in Rwanda. Karemera, E. (2005). Rwanda: U.S. Govt Blacklists FDLR Terrorist Group. Retrieved from https://allafrica.com/stories/200505130061.html Living in Kigali. (2021). Transport in Kigali: A Beginners Guide. Retrieved from https://livinginkigali.com/transport-in-kigali/ McGreal, C. (2008). We Have to Kill Tutsis Wherever They Are. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/may/16/congo.rwanda Reliefweb. (2007). DRC General Turns Guns on Govt. Forces. Retrieved from https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/drc-generalturns-guns-govt-forces Rusesabagina, P., & Zoellner, T. (2007). An Ordinary Man: An Autobiography. Penguin Books. UNSC. (2012). Forces Democratique de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR). Retrieved from https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/sanctions/1533/mat erials/summaries/entity/forces-democratiques-de-liberation-du-rwanda-%28f dlr%29

CHAPTER 5

Tragedy to Triumph: Leadership, Military, People, and Reconstruction

The main resource and main asset of our country is really our people. So, we invest in our people, invest in skills, knowledge, information, innovation, and so forth. –President Paul Kagame

Nature of the Post-Genocide Rwandan Society An average Rwandan appears simple and unassuming. They speak softly and seem shy. Unlike their Congolese and Nigerian counterparts, Rwandans are generally not loud or aggressive. The Nigerian could be aggressive or edgy. Congolese are loud and showy in their public life. Let us not mistake the edginess of the Nigerian or loudness of the Congolese for bad attributes; they are the elements that contribute to their greatness. Nigerians are quite enterprising people and will stop at nothing to legitimately fulfill their dreams. This is the reason that they are probably the most successful black people on earth. The people from Democratic Republic of Congo are loud with their Soukous music and dance, as well as their dressing skills and colors, which is the reason for their being well known all over the world. Rwandans’ softness is probably the reason for their own success too. They talk less and act big. One of the attributes of a quiet person is that © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 S. F. Folarin, Rwanda’s Radical Transformation Since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37011-3_5

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he/she is more likely to be smart. One of our beliefs in human society is that smart people do not talk too much. Rwandans are predominantly a quiet people, but when they choose to speak, they have wise words to share. The president, Paul Kagame exhibits this most times. Sometimes, it is wondered why he maintains silence in the face of adverse comments on Rwanda’s alleged complicity in Congo’s instability, alleged human rights abuses, and hounding of opposition. Kagame would maintain silence for a long time, and observers like me would wonder why the propaganda and image-making arm of his government would not say anything to countermand the allegations. However, once Kagame eventually comes out to speak on these things, he does so at strategic times and forums. Softspoken as he is, the remarks are pungent and witty, drowning, most times, the allegations. I have met many Rwandans in my life. I have not seen anyone who sounds aggressive or is quick to rebuff your allegations. They will smile away your harsh remarks and respond only when you do not expect it. In my classes, the Rwandan members may not always want to speak, but when they do, they will speak so softly and yet smartly. Sometimes, you are not sure what their silence is pregnant with—anger, disagreement, or sublimity. A Rwandan gives you a smile whenever you greet him or her. They might be too shy to greet you first, but you can be sure that you will get a harmless and a genuine smile once you exchange pleasantries. Probably because of overwhelming Belgian and French influence, and their exposure to the western world because of the huge inflow of tourists for Tour de Rwanda, and to their gorilla parks, city gardens, and great lakes, an average Rwandan would easily prefer to call you by your first name, regardless of your age or high titles. Moreover, they do not see anything wrong with giving or receiving items from you (elderly or same age group) with their left hand. For most other Africans who celebrate seniority and believe that courtesy demands that right hand is used at all times to give and receive, this would be a culture shock for some time, before you realize that they do not mean to be rude. It is just a practice to which they are accustomed. Having gotten used to the western way of life, these practices should not be strange to me. However, because I have West African blood flowing in my veins, I hitherto was uncomfortable for a junior person to call me by my first name or for anyone to receive gifts from me or give me an item with the left hand. After a while, I was used to it and moved with them. Rwandans are the least to be impolite to you. They are quite respectful and choose their words carefully when

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interacting with you. You may do all the talking, but they are listening and internalizing all that you have said. The attribute of talking less might explain the post-genocide Rwandan society, which produces big things. The Rwandan military is a strong one. With 35,000 military personnel as of 2019, Rwanda does not have the largest armed forces in East or Central Africa. However, what she lacks in size, she makes up for in quality. The Rwandan military has done exploits—from keeping the peace in and out of Rwanda and not allowing external aggression or rebellion percolate the country, to warding off potential or real enemy strikes from the Northwest, the country’s military is an efficient one. The military had participated actively in removing bad leadership and creating stability in neighboring Congo (DR) and Central African Republic, and is currently stabilizing Mozambique. Rwanda has participated in several United Nations, African Union, and East African Community peacekeeping operations, where her personnel have distinguished themselves. Rwandans have produced one of the fastest-growing airlines in Africa, with superb planes and services. Rwandair currently has 13 planes, and serves 2 domestic destinations and 23 international destinations in 20 countries, as of March 2023. The aviation sector is a big boost to the burgeoning Rwandan tourist industry. With numerous high-budget hotels scattered around Kigali, Musanze, and Butare, Rwanda boasts of a huge hospitality industry, and coupled with her massive tea and coffee production, and her natural resources, which combine to boost her wellmanaged GDP, she has the capacity to execute big national projects and pursue an ambitious foreign policy. Rwandans are quite religious. They are predominantly Catholic. The Catholic Church is important in the life and history of the country. It provided safe havens during the genocide. Yet, it offered cheap slaughterhouses for the genocidaires in 1994. The church later went through a process of penitence and became the harbinger of peace, reconciliation, and development after 1994. One can safely argue that most Rwandans attend the Catholic Church. Since the end of the genocide, Protestant, Pentecostal, and Seventh-Day Adventist churches have grown significantly in the society. About 45% belong to the Catholic faith and 35% to the Protestant faith, and only about 5% practice the Islamic faith. One of my students in the PhD class in the University of Rwanda who is a Muslim said that, Islam was less than 1% before the genocide. However, as more Muslims refused to participate in the genocide and offered safe haven

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in their mosques and homes to the fleeing Tutsis and moderate Hutus, whose churches were even giving them away for slaughter during the genocide, Islam become more attractive and the religion became more popular among Rwandans. The Church is important in post-genocide peacebuilding. The first (Kagame) family is Christian and every mechanism for conciliation tends to have biblical undertones. The Gacaca, the court system handling genocide cases, as well as other mechanisms such as the Umuganda, a last-Saturday-of-the-month collective community development work, tree planting, and environmental sanitation, are founded on the principles of bonding, meekness, forgiveness, and togetherness, four biblical principles passed down from the era of Jesus Christ. They are Christian principles. The conciliation process in Rwanda under Kagame is basically characterized by “admit, forgive and forget”. Put differently, the killers of 1994 are unveiled or declare their deeds, meet the families of their victims, and beg them for forgiveness. The victims’ families see the faces of the murderers of their loved ones, are expected to accept the bitter reality, and offer their open arms for a warm embrace, and thereafter forgive and forget. I have seen so many Rwandans who killed during the genocide. I have met so many Rwandans who had their entire families wiped out. I have met persons, who witnessed the cold murder of their parents, siblings, and friends. I have interacted with people who managed to escape death. Persons have described sordid details of how they were going to hack them down with machetes, but life happened suddenly and their killers got distracted. One lady had told me of how their assailants, their well-known mother’s friend’s husband, with the aid of two others had just slaughtered her dad, mum, and sibling and was just asking his wife where “the little rat’ was to be killed, when suddenly some other assailants rushed in to the compound. They were blowing whistles, mobilizing people to go for the kill elsewhere—many Tutsis had just been sighted trying to flee another neighborhood. The mother’s friend’s husband was distracted and joined the crowd of Hutus for the next assignment. Her mother’s friend, a Hutu woman, quickly locked the door to the compound and that of the house and carried her to hide in the ceiling. She was there for the rest of the day. At night, when the husband and others had gone out to drink and celebrate the exploits of the day, the woman sneaked out with the little girl and took her through routes that the killer hardly use because it was a Hutu enclave. She was

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handed over to another Hutu woman, who dressed her like her own child and took care of her for months until the end of the genocide in July. Some survivors have shared their stories with me. One told me of how he was one year old when militiamen came into their home with cutlasses and axes seeking whom to kill. They had murdered his parents and siblings around. When they got to him, they contemplated whether to cut him with the cutlass or carry him and hit his head repeatedly against the wall till it shatters into pieces. One man suggested that they leave the little cockroach alone to suffer in hunger and die, and go after grownups who were the real threats. Immediately they departed, a Hutu woman who had been watching from a distance all along rushed in and took him to her house, where she catered for him till the end of the genocide. The woman’s husband was in support of helping the poor child and hiding him from his fellow Hutus. The little boy is a member of the Rwandan Defense Force today. I was in a restaurant when some persons asked whether I was Ethiopian or Eritrean. I told them I was Nigerian. We drank and chatted and one of them told me he was a soldier of the defunct FAR. He narrated how they smoked out all cockroaches from wherever they hid. No distance was too much for them. No mountain was too high to climb, to fish out and exterminate the enemy. He said they were made to believe that once the Tutsis were out of the way, Hutu would become prosperous, and that the Tutsis were the obstacle to their progress in Rwanda. He narrated how he and his cohorts delighted in watching militiamen cut the enemies from the skull to the legs. According to him, whenever the victim refused to die by the cuts, they completed the task with one or two bullets in to the skull. However, he recalled how terrible they felt after the genocide and realized that they had extinguished their best friends, lovers, moneylenders, and good neighbors. He recounted that it seemed like they were under a spell or charmed by some forces to simply kill for no cogent reason. He had faced the Gacaca and served a prison term. The other man beside him in the bar-resto is, funny enough, a Tutsi man who had fought with the Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA). He described how he had overpowered his Tutsi friend at the battle for Kigali and was just short of firing a bullet when he changed his mind and took him as a prisoner instead. It was like a movie tale to me. Both, obviously friends, were seated in the same restaurant/bar, drinking and narrating their experience to me. They were comfortable sharing all the details with

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me after realizing that I was not Rwandese and that I was a university professor and a visiting researcher in Rwanda. I met a soldier somewhere in Musanze. We got talking and I found out that he was a member of the RPA. He is now in the RDF. He shared many pictures with me. The hills where they were camped and how they moved gradually into Rwanda to liberate her. The battle fronts where they overwhelmed the demoralized and weak FAR soldiers. Captives of the FAR, who had been de-kitted and disarmed. The long files of Hutu refugees fleeing, and the RPA still giving them cover from assaulting Hutu soldiers. I take time to visit the most ordinary places in Rwanda to interact with everyday people. Despite the military vehicle and army driver that convey me to and from the college and elsewhere, which is regimented, I take my time to go to the real places where ordinary Rwandans wine and dine, play and shop, and I try to make friends with them, in order to know more about the genocide and post-genocide living. Rwandans love nightlife. From the many beer and food lounges that I saw, I could understand that she was indeed Francophone. French African countries love beer parlors. In Benin, Togo, and Cameroon, you see barresto after every three miles. People are there every time of the day, but the places are filled up from 6 p.m. on weekdays and from around 3 p.m. on weekends. Francophone Africans are probably the happiest people on the continent. They drink heavily and eat fine. Rwanda is not different. Remera in Kigali is the hub of nightlife entertainment. I lost count of the bars, restaurants, and beer gardens. The people complain that there is no money, but fill up these places every day for some real enjoyment. With heavy Afrobeat soundwaves from Naija (Nigeria), oriental Africa, and American hip-hop hitting the air, Rwandans jump, dance or sing along to the gigs. The taste for Nigerian music is high and Rwandans seem not to get enough of it. Even Soukous, which is just nearby and popularized by Koffi Olomide, Awilo Logomba, Fally Ipupa, and Extra Musica, is not as popular among Rwandan disc jockeys as the faraway Nigerian Afrobeat. Rwandans may love beers (foreign or local) such as Primus, Mutzig, Virunga, Skol, Bralirwa, Guinness, or Heineken, nothing however compares to their impeke or sorghum (which is called burukutu in Nigeria) and banana beers. I have never tasted sorghum beer, but I love the taste of the banana beer. Like alcohol, Rwandans love good food. In fact, their foods are rich, and in my assessment, their foods seem richer than Nigeria’s. Ugali (like

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garri/eba in Nigeria/West Africa) is a staple food. It is eaten with red stew and can have some vegetables accompanying it. Umutsima is a dish of cassava and corn, which is another common dish. Then there are isombe (cassava leaves with eggplants and spinach) and mizuzu or idodo (friend plantain, which is called dodo in Nigeria). In Rwanda, dinner is the heaviest meal. Rwandans enjoy snacking on tropical fruits such as avocados, bananas, mangos, pineapple, and papaya, which are in abundance in the country. My favorite Rwandan meals are ugali, agatogo (a local cuisine made from a blend of plantains, meat, and spices, with the green plantains fried with slightly cooked beef), barbecue fish with fried or grilled Irish potatoes, and grilled Kivu Lake fish and stew with boiled white rice and cooked green vegetables. The people of Rwanda are hardworking. One hotel receptionist once said in passing in my presence, “you cannot eat in Rwanda if you don’t work”. That applies in all human society. But I understood his context: in other countries, there could be food stamps, alms giving, charity organizations that cater for the hungry or jobless, etc. In Rwanda, this is not so. There are no food stamps and street begging is not a common practice or scene. I have never seen one street beggar since 2020. Therefore, to feed, you must hustle or have a work that you do. I do secretly imagine whether there are thieves or robbers in Rwanda, or whether the media cover up any such acts. I have not heard of any single case of stealing on radio or television, and have not seen anyone being chased or mobbed for stealing. Many persons that I tell that I must be in my room by 9.00 p.m. do laugh it off and boast that I could walk the streets of the country all alone even at 2.00 a.m. and no harm would befall me. I have personally seen this and marvel at it. The people look too honest to me. During the coronavirus times, however, I encountered one Rwandan scam. Two Rwandese friends requested me to help them during the harsh times. I sent $150 to one of them and trusted him enough to share the money equally with the other person. He ate it alone, blocked both my number and that of the other Rwandan, and never shared the money with the person. I felt disappointed. Two years later, he sent me a heartfelt apology, saying he had lost his accommodation and could not feed when that money came, and that he could do was to quickly use it, hoping to raise money later and send to his friend. Things were hard and he did not know how to face me. I forgave him but treated his case on face value; I did not use it to generalize that Rwandans were criminals. And indeed, some may freely ask you for money once they consider

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you are friend, but they are honest people. Sometimes, I wonder whether everyone is simply pretending. No wonder, Rwanda is ranked as one of the safest places to do business in Africa and the world (Oluwole, 2022). Farming is a major occupation in Rwanda. All the vast lands I see from one province to another are farmed. Crops and fruits, including maize, millet, sorghum, beans, cassava, banana, plantain, avocado, mango, watermelon, and pineapple are commonly grown in the country. Irish potato is in rich harvest all year round in Musanze. The crops and fruits are grown in large quantities that they create some kind of food self-sufficiency in the country. I might be wrong, but I think hunger is one aspect of life that has been conquered in Rwanda. It is difficult to identify the cultural heritage of Rwanda. Apart from the Kinyarwanda language, traditional war dance and drums, marriage rites as well as traditional dress worn by bridal trains and the huts that are made from straw and sold as artifacts in the markets, I have tried so hard to find some aspects of the cultural heritage of the country. Most Rwandans living in the rural areas or urban centers love wearing coats or jackets and hats like typical Europeans do in winter. Where they are not wearing these, the women tie local fabrics with shirts on top, while the men put on shirts and long pants (trousers). I have not sighted native attires as it is in many African countries. Even in South Africa, which was a settler colony and which has had Europeans influence the natives for hundreds of years, their heritage is still well celebrated. It is possible that the genocide erased a great deal of the country’s cultural heritage. As about a million Rwandans were exterminated, a great deal of the culture might have been wiped off.

Character of the Rwandan Military In the previous discourse of the nature of the Rwandan society, some mention was made of the Rwandan military. In this section, we shall attempt a dissection of the military, with special reference to the air force, in view of its peculiarity and successes in protecting the territorial integrity of the state and peacekeeping operations outside the country. Like in every country, the army in Rwanda is the largest and it was the principal agent of liberation of the Rwandan state in 1994. The Rwandan Air Force is the second major unit of the Rwandan Defense Force (RDF). It can be described as the “air component” of Ingabo z’u Rwanda or military of the Republic of Rwanda. The military

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was not known as RDF from the beginning. Initially called the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) before and during the genocide of 1994, which was the Hutu military that supervised the genocide, the military’s nomenclature later changed to Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) following the victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in July 1994 (Lefèvre & Lefèvre, 2006). It was later that the RDF was adopted as the name for not only the army but also the other military units of the nation’s military. The other major part of the military is the army, which is reputable for being an emerging powerhouse in East and Central Africa (Powell, 2009). The RDF has other units, including High Command Council, General Staff, Rwanda Land Force/Rwandan Reserve Force, Individual Units, and Army Band. Rwanda, in view of its landlocked nature, does not have a navy, but there is the marine unit of the security forces, which caters for the Lake Kivu region in the country. The Rwandan Air Force is an integral part of the RDF. The Air Force complements in the air the defense, peacekeeping, and assault efforts of the Rwandan army. Thus, the Air Force shares in all of the assets and liabilities of the nation’s military as an institution. Rwanda as one of the countries in the Great Lakes Region, shares significant boundaries with East and Central African countries. The country is strategically located as she connects the East with Central Africa—Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The location is also a challenging one for a number of reasons: first, the neighborhood (entirety of East Africa) is made of some militarily strong African nations, which are potential—and sometimes real—allies or adversaries. While Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya have been age-long allies, the same cannot be said of DRC (Rwanda’s neighbor to the west in Central Africa) whose sheer size is not only intimidating but also ominous for Rwanda’s stability. DRC has been known for having a tortuous relationship with Rwanda and had contributed symbolically to Rwanda’s internal challenges in the past (Karuhanga, 2019). DRC’s eastern border towns with Rwanda are notorious for harboring Rwandan rebels (old Hutu genocide leaders and perpetrators) who are seeking a return to power and possibly continue their genocide against the much-hated Tutsis since their ouster in July 1994. This has necessitated Rwanda’s military campaigns in DRC in the past, including support for removal of regimes in the first and second Congo wars. The size, strength, economic viability, or threats her neighbors pose can be said to have contributed to the military capacity building and

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general outlook of Rwanda. Probably in an attempt to prevent a reoccurrence of internal warfare, or in order to match her neighbors, prepare for the worst case-scenarios or outdo the neighbors, Rwanda has invested considerably in the military in such a manner that she ranks favorably in comparison with strong nations in the sub-regions today (Beswick, 2014). Indeed, defense spending continues to represent an important share of the national budget, largely due to continuing security issues along Rwanda’s frontiers with the DRC and Burundi, and lingering concerns about Uganda’s intentions toward her former ally (DBPedia, 2020). The Air Force had a humble beginning. With the aid of Belgium (Rwanda’s colonial ruler) in 1962, the Air Force was created. At its inception, the Air Force was charged with defending Rwandan air space, offer intimate support to the Rwandan Army, support related civilian agencies in the airspace management function while at the same time building a substantive Air Force. The first equipment of the Air Force were three ex-French Air Force CM 170 Magisters, a Britten-Norman Islander, SA 342L Gazelles, Nord Noratlas, SOCATA Guerrier, and C-47 Skytrains. These were the military hardwares of the Air Force until 1990, when the civil war led to the destruction or crash of most of the aircraft (World Air Forces, 2019). However, from 1996, two years after the ethnic conflicts, the organization has been growing operational capabilities. The Rwandan Air Force has been playing complementary roles in special areas such as transportation, logistics, surveillance, disaster relief/response, firefighting, search and rescue operations, international peacekeeping, and so on. The Air Force comprises Combat Support Services, Flying Squadrons, Air Force Schools, and an Air Defense Regiment. In terms of organizational structure, the Air Force Service, which is headed by an Air Force Chief of Staff, provides combat-ready, multi-skilled forces to play important roles in sustained defensive and offensive air operations (Global Security, 2019). The ranking system and badges in the Air Force are similar to that of the army or other units of the RDF. There are two categories: officers’ ranks; and the regular members. The starting point is “Private” through “Corporal”, while the zenith for any rank and file cadre is “Warrant Officer I”. For the officer ranks, a newly commissioned officer could start with the “Second Lieutenant” or “Lieutenant” rank and could climax at the full General’s rank.

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Among current inventory of the Rwandan Air Force are 21 helicopters, 8 Russia-made Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets, 2 United States-made Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft, 2 Austrian Diamond DA42 Twin Star fighter jets, 12 Russian Mil Mi-17 and 5 Mil Mi-24 jets, 4 French Aerospatiale Gazelle fighter jets, and 16 Yakovlev Yak-130 trainer jets (World Air Forces, 2021). In total, Rwanda has an estimated 33–35,000 military personnel. Since 1994, Rwanda’s military has been transformed. There was demobilization of 60,000 soldiers in the post-genocide era, reduction from a peak of around 80,000 soldiers in 2002 to 35,000 in 2009 (Wilen, 2018). The contemporary Rwandan Defense Force is regarded by many international observers as well-trained, professional, disciplined, and core partners in African peacekeeping. The Director of the US ACOTA program commented in 2013 that, “ACOTA trains over 17 countries engaged in peacekeeping but Rwanda remains the best” (Mbonyinshuti, 2012). In addition, the UN once described Rwanda as a model country when it comes to professional peacekeeping missions, systematic demobilization of soldiers, and reconciliation processes (Mushiga, 2013). It is pertinent to note that the Air Force has an estimated 1,000 personnel among the RDF soldiers (Nations Encyclopedia, 2019). Considering the size of the country demographically, the Air Force personnel, with adequate training, good welfare, and auspicious working environment, should be capable of securing the air space effectively. The Rwandan Air Force is a product and an integral part of an organized national military institution. It reflects the vision of an ambitious East/Central African nation. Indeed, the Air Force is a reflection of the vision of the leadership of Paul Kagame, one of Africa’s most admired presidents in the last two decades. Beyond its domestic roles of disaster relief and search and rescue, the Air Force also assists in transportation and logistics for Rwandan troops within the country, and on international engagements; and supports ground operations in conflict situations and provides aerial surveillance for intelligence and national security or defense. After its decimation from 1990 to 1994, a rebuilding process from 1996 gained momentum. These included procurement of arms and equipment from major powers around the world, training of personnel in good military academies in Africa and beyond, building of command colleges in the country with competently qualified military and civilian experts in different fields from around the world engaged as teachers, participation in regional and global peacekeeping operations, among

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other activities. With the benefit of all these internal dynamics and international exposure, Rwanda’s Air Force could compete favorably with other air forces in Africa. Rwanda has used its Air Force as a stabilizing agent in East Africa. In December 2012, an aviation unit of three helicopters was sent to the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to aid the newly independent country. In its international engagements, the Air Force has aided RDF in movement of men and material and actual operations in UN and African Union (AU) peace support missions in Africa. Indeed, as of August 2020, Rwanda was the third largest contributor to peacekeeping missions on the continent (Ministry of Defense, 2014). Thus, Rwanda became the first African country to push far behind, Nigeria, which holds the record as one of the all-time top ten contributors to UN peacekeeping operations. Among other places, the Air Force has aided RDF in African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), African Union/United Nations Hybrid Mission to Darfur (UNAMID), AU-led International Support Mission to CentAfrique (MISCA), and United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Central African Republic (MINUSCA). In this last mission, Rwanda provides a protection battalion in Bangui, the capital of Central African Republic, a level two hospital in the town of Bria and from September 2017, a battle group comprising a mechanized infantry battalion (Waugh, 2014). In its personnel and defense capacity building drive, the Rwandan government has reached a number of agreements or understanding with other militaries, including air forces of other countries. In July 2020, the RDF purchased at the rate of $10.1 million, two Textron C-208 EX utility aircraft along with relevant spare parts and ground support equipment; modifications to suit the Rwandan Air Force; flight training device; as well as technical drawings and interim logistic support for both aircraft and the training device. The aircraft were described as all-metal, high-wing 208 Caravan and the second iteration of the Grand Caravan, a stretched version of the 208, powered by an 870hp PT6A-140 engine (APA, 2020). The Air Force’s capacity would be boosted by the efficient performance of the two aircraft and their capacity for challenging missions. A strategic move for personnel capacity development was made in 2019 by the RDF when Air Force experts from six nations were invited to Kigali for the African Partnership Flight (APF) workshop. The exercise was to foster effective military relationships and improve professional military aviation knowledge and skills among the personnel from the participating

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countries (Mbonyinshuti, 2019). It was a program jointly organized by the RDF and US Air Forces Africa (AFAFRICA) in which participants from Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal, Zambia, United States, and Rwanda shared knowledge, ideas, and military cultures. The event also focused on flight, ground, and weapons safety training. The country stood to benefit more from the exercise as the host. Her personnel would draw from the wealth of knowledge of other participating air force personnel, which would boost the capacity of the RDF and Air Force in particular; and in the words of Air Force Chief, Gen Charles Karamba, ennoble the airmen in the areas of “aviation capacity, mutual understanding as well as cooperation and greater interoperability” (Mbonyinshuti, 2019). However, there are challenges. For combat effectiveness, the Rwandan Air Force may have to contend with and overcome issues of adequate funding, training, structure of the military, and geography. With the current number of fighter jets, helicopters, and equipment, Rwanda has some way to go if there is an outbreak of aerial warfare in the region, particularly if any of her neighbors turns against her with superior aviation firepower. With the presence of strong nations in the Great Lakes Region and Horn of Africa, such as Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda, and a volatile neighborhood with countries such as Burundi, DRC, Sudan, South Sudan, and Somalia not too far away, Rwanda needs a lot more to do. The Air Force should put itself in an offensive position, anticipatory of aggression from any neighbor in the future. In international politics, you cannot predict the behavior of any state and surely, no state can be trusted or regarded as a permanent ally. Morgenthau makes this clear in his characterization of politics as being power-driven (Morgenthau, 2005). Rwanda currently has not enough fighter and surveillance jets. For a nation contending with Rwandan rebels and threats from DRC in its northwestern borders, more needs to be done in aerial surveillance and defense. Another issue, which many may not pay attention to, is the geography of the country. Rwanda is one of the hilliest countries in the world and while mountainous parts create natural defense or strong frontiers for states and trenches for warfare, hills or mountains do not make flying easy. The Air Force faces a natural challenge of flying for transportation, surveillance, and defense. To mitigate the problem posed by topography, more sophisticated and high-power military aircraft would be required, but these are quite expensive.

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This brings us to the question of war budget. Funding the military is capital intensive and it in fact takes a large chunk of national budgets of many states. In a competitive world where power is desperately sought even if it means riding on the weakness of vulnerable states, defense budget cannot be modest. Survival and preservation are the basic or immediate goals of states. Rwanda survived a major breakdown in 1994. Although this was an internal problem, the influence of external forces, particularly France and DRC cannot be overemphasized. To avert any similar situation in the future, the government cannot deny the role of the military in securing the nation, on land and in the air. Interestingly, there has been an increment on yearly basis in defense spending. The budget in 2019 was $0.12b, a 2.08% increase from 2017. In 2020, the spending was expected to have increased a bit, as the statistics for 1973 to 2019 show an incremental trend in military spending on annual basis (Macrotrends, 2021). However, the country would have more to do in training of personnel at home and abroad, both in military (Air Force) traditions of the contemporary times and in use of sophisticated equipment and aircraft modern forces work with in the international community. One unique attribute of the Rwandan military is the close-knitted nature of the military units, namely Army, Air Force, and even the Police. The Army and Air Force (with other sub-units in them) constitute the RDF. Like many other countries, all the units constitute the armed forces with a high command that oversees all of them. However, unlike many other templates, the RDF barely distinguishes between the Army and Air Force other than in the regular uniform and sphere of operation (land and air). Every other thing is quite similar and centrally done. The Air Force receives direct orders from the RDF and its Chief of Staff has an Air Force Service that operates from the RDF headquarters. While this facilitates uniformity of operations and effective control for the sake of internal security, political stability, and wholesome allegiance to the state in view of the past experience; the centralization may backfire sometimes, particularly when there is unscripted rivalry between the units of the RDF. If this happens, the Air Force will naturally suffer in view of the size, strength, and superior representation of the Army in the RDF. However, the closeness and uniformity of operations are more likely to also enhance a healthy rivalry for effectiveness and cooperation among the units, which should work to keep Rwanda safer.

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The exposure of Air Force personnel to international combat techniques, skills, and laws by regular participation in UN and AU peacekeeping operations is a unique platform to increase the knowledge and efficiency of the Air Force personnel. Rwanda has in recent times become one of the leading contributors in international peacekeeping. This is aiding the growth and development of the armed forces, including the Air Force. Again, the centrality of the command structure of the armed forces may pose as its own challenges. However, the long-term gains are complete allegiance to the state, coordination, and control, healthy competition among the personnel of the units, and greater efficiency, ultimately. The centralization may however be loosened sometimes to make the Air Force glean from perspective and telescope independent of the RDF, so as to optimally gain from interfaces with other Air Forces around the world, especially western and other great systems. Every armed force has unique traditions and identity, which enhance combat skills, readiness, and effectiveness. The Rwandan Air Force should not be an exception. Furthermore, the political and military leadership of the country is such that has taken a country from the labyrinth of total destruction to stability, and elevated it to an enviable pedestal on the African continent in contemporary times. The will and dexterity of leadership works for the armed forces. Government has committed resources to training and brought the best hands from Africa and beyond to give military and intellectual training to its Air Force and other military personnel. This has to be sustained to keep Rwanda safe in a troubled region, particularly in view of her proximity to DRC and Burundi, two nations bedeviled with enormous political and ethnic crises, and which have diatribes that directly affect or influence Rwanda’s continued peace and unity. Closely related to the above is need for greater funding and acquisition of aircraft for modern warfare and surveillance. The Air Force should also be elevated from its current role to a more encompassing one, including, air defense, counter operations, and close air support or operations involving concentrated air attacks against enemy lines within Forward End of Battle Area (FEBA). Other areas to cater for are maritime operations in the Lake Kivu area, and air surveillance or aerial reconnaissance mission for the purpose of air intelligence gathering. Conflict is changing, so Air Force combat or operations have to change. Conflict is becoming more unconventional and more pressures are being exerted on defense forces to be involved in peace support

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operations (Dokubo, 2019). For instance, conventional land armies are increasingly finding it difficult to combat militias, faceless terrorist organizations, or internal rebel groups. Air surveillance, intelligence gathering, and bombardments can help in some of these circumstances. The Air Force thus requires adequate knowledge in counter-insurgency, counterterrorism, air maneuvering in peace operations to avert collateral damage, and other skills necessary to tackle emerging unconventional warfare. There could be efforts to transfer some military aviation technology to Rwanda from abroad. Government, RDF, and the Air Force could reach agreements with international companies that manufacture military hardware for technology transfer arrangements. From assemblage plants, Rwanda could receive technological skills for production of military machines and equipment. In addition, as one of the world’s largest producers of tin, Rwanda could explore manufacturing military accessories where necessary. By way of conclusion, the Rwanda Air Force and the RDF in general have enormous potentials to become one of the strongest in the East and Central African regions. Their personnel will require more training, better tools with which to work and require the right security architecture to be well positioned and be able to compete favorably with others in Africa and beyond. The roles of the RDF should be expanded to twenty-first-century functions to be more effective. More training abroad and international collaboration will enhance the quality of its personnel. Specifically, more of Rwandan airmen and RDF personnel should be sent out to military academies in United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, India, Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Algeria, and Ghana to learn new combat skills and handling of air machine tools. In the same vein, more military trainers from these countries should be engaged to come to Rwanda to increase the capacity of the personnel. More modern aircraft and engineering skills for them should also be acquired. These will require greater funding.

A Sneak into Paul Kagame’s Leadership Leadership is the principal factor in the growth and development of a nation. Leadership can make or mar the destiny of the country, a people, or their future. In critical times, leadership is what can fix things. In his 2007 bestseller, The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person Others will want to Follow, Maxwell said that everything rises and

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falls on leadership. According to him, leadership entails more than being in the driver’s seat. In fact, “knowing how to lead is only half the battle. Understanding leadership and actual leading are two different activities”. Dr. Maxwell explains that the key to transforming yourself from someone who understands leadership to a person who successfully leads in the real world is character. In his words, “your character qualities activate and empower your leadership ability, or they can stand in the way of your success!” Apart from character, other key attributes of a good leader are charisma, courage, teachability, problem solving capacity, and vision. It has been different strokes for different folks as far as leadership attributes are concerned. Some leaders may have charisma, but may not have vision. They may have courage but not be teachable. Some, who may have some vision, may be bereft of capacity to solve problems. They may even have all these, but not possess character, which is key. Character is the fulcrum of leadership. Without character, everything will collapse. Many of the leaders started strong, but lack of character is the reason they quaked in the end. That has been the story of many African countries. Oftentimes, there is absence of leadership. In critical national situations, the norm becomes abnormal to fix things. What is desirable are ingenuity, dynamism, and a departure from the norm. Creative leadership is the way out of malfeasance and national crises or emergencies. Creative leadership can be a philosophy or an act, or both. Dijk, Davidson, and Mecozz, in Thnk.Org posit that creative leadership: develops and realizes innovative ideas through the shared ambition of improving the world through enterprise formation. Those who employ creative leadership do so by forging an environment that promotes creativity, innovation, and mission-driven entrepreneurship. Creative leadership as a philosophy embraces change as a given while seeking opportunity everywhere. It envisions desirable futures and unleashes the courage, collaboration, and creativity of contributors. Through a generous, inclusive purpose deeply rooted in pragmatic idealism and empathy, it gives rise to a transcendent consciousness that goes beyond individual gratification. (Dijk et al., n.d.)

As an act, creative leadership builds on those desirable futures through scalable enterprises derived from innovative strategies. These include creativity, critical analysis, experimentation, big vision, collaboration, bold action, calculated risk-taking, agility, and hard work. These combine to

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drive participative value and serve what is referred to as “the triple bottom line (planet, people, profit)”. For Thnk.Org, “creative leadership is not industry-specific, nor is it one-size-fits-all. It is the individual act of a leader in the context of perpetual beta, and therefore path-dependent”. Unlike other forms of leadership, which dwell on certain universal truth, creative leadership defies the norm, as it adopts innovative measures to engender more than one outcome. The engine-room for this is the leader. The basic attributes of this form of leadership are adaptability to change, clarity of vision and purpose, effective team management and empowerment, strategic risk-taking, experimentation, and perfection. Creative leaders can sometimes be described as crazy, or maverick, or even insane. A “sane” or normal person cannot fix a complex or complicated situation. Complex problems require complex or more decently put, creative minds. This has been the case of President Paul Kagame. For a country that was in total ashes in 1994, it could only take a creative, charismatic, crazy, or maverick person or group of persons to turn her around. It was almost impossible to believe that Rwanda could ever reemerge from the ruins of the genocide. Some of the best heads and minds were lost to the genocide. Some of the best human resources were wasted. Many of the future leaders were in their early graves. Institutions were destroyed. Society had become dislocated and torn apart. Infrastructures were dead. The economy had become disarticulated; there was not even peace or stability in the country to start a rebuilding process. For many analysts, Rwanda was gone. The same way Libya “died” after the civil war and death of Gaddafi, pundits had concluded that there was a country called Rwanda, but which was no more. It is no more. However, Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front changed the game. It would take transformational skills and sheer charisma to bring a fatally disintegrated, tattered society and a weakened, despondent people together for a rebuilding process. Trust had to be built. Although he does not like this distinction, but Kagame is Tutsi and he would rule over the Hutu majority and Twa minority, including many of the perpetrators of the hate killings. In fact, he was going to preside over a “criminal population” in view of the participation of most of the people in the genocide. Not too many Rwandans would give him a chance, and few Hutu Power irredentists would support his cause. If there would be anything, it would be to get rid of him, which was what the Hutu Power parties in DRC, in concert with elements within Rwanda, plotted.

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Strength has to accompany transformational skills. Courage has to collaborate with creativity, and bold steps must never cower to compromises or fear. If the current state of Rwanda is anything to reckon with, Kagame seems to have epitomized all of these traits of exceptional leadership. Having taken over power in Kigali in July 1994, Kagame assumed the position of the vice-president from July 1994 to March 2000. He did not grab the topmost job; he allowed a Hutu man and former Habyarimana cabinet member, Pasteur Bizimungu to be president. This was an acknowledgment of the peculiar Rwandan ethnic situation and sensibilities, and a smooth transition from the previous regime to a new one. To make the government acceptable, the ethnic sentiments that led to the breakdown of the republic must not be played up again. Kagame, who had also doubled as the minister of defense under Bizimungu, took over in 2000 and has remained president or Rwanda since then, commencing one of the most radical transformational and revolutionary policies and programs toward nation building in African history. The immediate post-genocide political arrangement, a government of national unity, was to earn the legitimacy of the people and commence reconciliation and reconstruction. However, the circumstances surrounding the resignation of Bizimungu in 2000, banning of his political party, trial and conviction, as well as treatment of other political critics or opposition have made some western and other observers to characterize Kagame’s leadership style as autocratic, dictatorial, or abusive. Some human rights activists and groups have accused Kagame of some extrajudicial killings and intolerance toward any form of challenge to his authority (Amnesty International, 2023; Human Rights Report, 2022; Human Rights Watch, 2022). From Bizimungu to Rusesabagina, Kagame has been dismissed as repressive in approach and anti-democratic. Some critics have even taken a swipe at him for being in power since 2000 to date (23 years) and the lack of commitment to quit the presidency in the coming 2024 general elections. Inflections on the Rwandan odyssey will culminate in an understanding of the Kagame style. No responsible leadership will watch as some ethnicbased parties and sentiments are rebreeding the divisive politics and emotions that bled Rwanda in 1994. Criticisms would always come from the democratic nations of the west, but the same nations did nothing to salvage Rwanda when ethnic irredentism tore her apart before Kagame. Between 1959 and 1975, one group with power killed and oppressed the others. In the course of this, many people, including Kagame’s family fled

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Rwanda and lived as refugees for decades. From 1990 to 1993, there was a Hutu-Tutsi civil war that brought Rwanda to her knees. The west cared less just as they often do whenever the “African peasant tribes” devour each other. In 1994, over 800,000 Rwandans were killed by fellow Rwandans. The moral compass to judge Rwanda’s leadership should not come from that same western hemisphere, but from those who went through the orgy of violence and crashed in the process. Kagame’s style may not come across as the famous or infamous western democratic conjectures or configuration, but many African political leaders and people have posited unequivocally, that the style is politically expedient for the people of Rwanda. Moreover, this Kagame “tyranny” is what many Rwandans (Hutu, Tutsi, Twa) that I have interacted with, uphold and celebrate as the only force that has kept them alive and prosperous. Moreover, what is democracy, if not the will of the people (majority)?

Post-Genocide Reconciliation Measures The best instruments to assess leadership is not by its nature—democracy, autocracy, monarchy, or theocracy—but by its products or accomplishments. Political tags for leadership have never helped even the United States of America and United Kingdom. It was a democratic government and the principle of it that made a sitting president to incite a mob against a sacred democratic institution, the Congress, and yet democratic principles guaranteed immunity and prevented the president from prosecution. While the mob is chased after, arrested, tried, and convicted, the principal actor is absolutely free and walking his way to the presidency once again. It is democracy! It is democracy to have three–four prime ministers within five years in an established democratic nation, thereby glorifying political instability and economic policy summersaults in the name of that democracy. Democracy is no doubt, a popular system of government. Nevertheless, just like all human inventions, they are underlined by imperfections. Sometimes, democracy backfires. If Kagame had left power 10 years ago, the FDLR in DRC and other Hutu Power elements lurking around within and outside Rwanda, might have resurfaced and reenacted the 1994 disturbances. People would live in fear once again and the economic prosperity and social reconstruction that are making Rwanda the envy of nations in Africa nowadays may have been rolled back, thus plunging her back into the deep wells of crisis. Democracy should have human reason

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and be realistically pursued. Nothing short of good governance, happiness of the people, peace, security, stability, can be democracy. If Kagame’s government has engendered all these, what else do we want? However, President Kagame needs not be reminded or schooled about the dynamics of the political space. He knows he will leave someday. He certainly must have been raising leaders like him to succeed him and continue the legacies of peace, security, and development in Rwanda. Between 1994 and 2000 as vice-president is six years, and 2000 to 2023 is 23 years. He has spent 29 years in the presidency. By 2024, he would have stayed in office for 30 years. By now, he would have raised an army of great minds and charismatic, strong, and dynamic leaders like him. He should have a team of color-blind, ethnicity-dead persons, who would even dare to surpass him in his transformative leadership. The western powers, with all their imperfections as evident in recent years, may no longer remain the moral judge or possess the moral compass to show the way in leadership. One of the first steps toward national rebirth was the policy to erase ethnic identities. The Kagame administration abolished the identity card system showing ethnic affinities on cards. In fact, the ethnic tags, “Hutu”, “Tutsi”, “Twa” were abolished and are forbidden in Rwanda, except during academic or research exercises as this one. There would no more be ethnic distinctions in Rwanda. It would just be one national group— Rwandans or Rwandese—with one native language called “Kinyarwanda”. The other native language would be “Swahili”, which is widely spoken across East and Southern Africa. The idea was that people, particularly generations born after the genocide—would grow with the new culture of “one, indivisible, indistinctive nation”. They would not know any Hutu-Rwanda or Tutsi-Rwanda. After the genocide, Hutu Power renegades began terrorizing Tutsis in northeastern DRC and made incursions into Rwanda through Goma in North Kivu. The Mobutu Sese Seko regime in DRC was apparently arming and supporting the renegade groups against Kagame, with the aim of relaunching a rebellion in which Hutus led by the FAR and militiamen would pull down the new government in Rwanda (Kinzer, 2008). Kagame countered this by bringing the Hutu people in Rwanda to his side. First, he integrated FAR soldiers of the deposed genocidal regime into the RPF national army. Second, he appointed senior (mostly moderate) Hutu politicians to key positions in the Northern and Southern provinces, which were worst affected by the DRC-based

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Hutu rebellion. The measures paid off, as by 1999, the Hutu population in the Northwest had ceased identifying with the insurgents and joined in defeating the rebels (Kinzer, 2008: 215–218). This brought about internal stability, which allowed for smooth rebuilding, healing, and development processes. Paul Kagame proceeded with the pursuit of an ambitious foreign policy. Conscious of the cancer that DRC’s internal strife and accommodation of Rwandan renegades had become and how dangerous these could be to Rwanda’s internal security, the administration began a campaign to support popular movement to remove Mobutu. Through training, intelligence gathering and sharing, and provision of disciplined military troops, Rwanda aided the Kabila revolution that ended in 1996 one of DRC’s worst regimes of all time (Pomfret, 1997). The influence of Rwanda in Kabila’s DRC was so overwhelming that the new president’s chief of staff, James Kabarebe, was a Rwandan. Although, the alliance with the Laurent-Desire Kabila-led groups would collapse later and Kabarebe and the RPA troops in Congo would be asked to leave DRC, the two countries enjoyed momentary cooperation that mutually benefitted them toward internal security and nation rebuilding. The Congo-Rwanda tensions would not go away quickly. The expulsion of Rwandan soldiers and the Kabila Rwandan chief of staff would spark another round of conflict. The Rwandan government would ally with Uganda to seize eastern Congolese lands. President Kabila would employ the services of former Hutu genocidaires in the eastern Congo to attack Tutsis in the region and in the whole of DRC. Consequently, there were several cases of public lynching of Tutsis on the streets of Kinshasa. Incidentally, there would be something similar to the 1994 hate radio broadcast in August 1998. A Congolese army major would broadcast a message urging attack on Tutsis in DRC: “People must bring a machete, a spear, an arrow, a hoe, spades, rakes, nails, truncheons, electric irons, barbed wire, stones, and the like, in order, dear listeners, to kill the Rwandan Tutsis” (BBC, 1998). The rhetoric above was familiar and the Kagame government would deal with it. The second phase of crisis with Congo started in earnest, which resulted in propaganda and action on both sides. While Congo and some groups in the international community made claims that Kagame’s intervention in DRC was economically motivated and aimed at exploiting the natural resources of the neighboring country, the Rwandan government maintained that the reason for the second Congo intervention was

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solely in national security and defense interest. They insisted that the aim was to secure the borders of Rwanda and not allow another wave of ethnic conflict (Kinzer, 2008: 211–212). Kagame’s main objectives after the genocide were to restore peace, secure the nation, stabilize the polity, initiate programs for economic development, reconstruct critical infrastructure, unite Rwandans while trying genocide offenders, and heal the nation. To these ends, he pursued a secure neighborhood by going after remnants of Rwandan instability lurking around, tried to help DRC in effecting a change of government to a more peace-friendly one, and reached out to immediate neighbors and other African nations in belief that African solidary would engender more opportunities for economic growth and development. Furthermore, the Kagame government began to build roads, schools, and the power sector, began the trials of genocide offenders, and opened up the economy for foreign investment (Fieldwork, 2022). Kagame paid serious attention to educational development, as it was believed that ignorance and poor education infrastructure contributed immensely to the genocide of 1994. In the subsequent years, Kagame would abandon the French African community and French language for English as the official foreign language in Rwanda. In view of what is perceived largely as the negative roles of France in the genocide, Rwanda would move on without France and embrace the United Kingdom, joining the Commonwealth of Nations, and strive to be politically and economically independent of France and Belgium. In addition, the national flag would change in 2001 from “red, yellow and green” with the letter “R” in the middle, to “green, yellow and blue” colors with a rising yellow sun in the top right corner of the flag. While the light blue band represents happiness and peace, the yellow band symbolizes economic development. The green band symbolizes hope of prosperity, and the yellow sun represents enlightenment. The bold steps and giant strides made by Rwanda toward reconstruction from 2000, which turned her fortunes around and leave us, probably, with only the memorials as reminders of the genocide, will be discussed in detail in Chapters 6 and 7. Rwanda failed in 1994. Failed or fragile states do not need any further patching. They are either revived through creative ideas and acts, or left to die and rot. If you wish to see what happens to patching failed states, look toward Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Haiti, and Sudan. Failed states require a surgical operation. Vision will be sin qua

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non to chart a way to revive a failed state. Smartness—mental alertness, physical ability, and sound state of health—is pivotal to bringing Rwanda back to life. Creativity—thinking and acting outside the box—making business not as usual—was the pill for Rwanda’s revival. Courage— destroying the status quo of corruption, changing “resources sharing” to production economy, and damning the consequences—was what Rwanda needed. Problem solving ideas—coming up with practical solutions and departing from theory to practice—has been the tonic for the resurrection and stability or prosperity of Rwanda. Being blameless on matters of corruption and mismanagement of national/public resources is as important as being born again in Christendom, which is the sickle that makes for a reborn Rwanda. Kagame and his people have accomplished for Rwanda. In one of the graduate classes that I co-teach in Texas State University, students were requested to see a video of President Kagame and do a review of it. One of the students, Chelsea Johnson made a review of the president’s speech in a way that I found quite apt and instructive. I leave us with that brilliant submission: Despite having no foreign aid or intervention (in latter years) from western countries, Rwanda has shown remarkable socioeconomic progress under the leadership of President Kagame. Self-reliance is a trait that President Kagame has used to develop the country from the time of genocide to her present-day state. I consider self-reliance to be the pathway to good governance and overcoming of public policy challenges in Africa. President Kagame stated, “The main resource of our country (Rwanda) and the main asset of our country is really our people. So, we invest in our people, invest in skills, knowledge, information, innovation, and so forth.” I agree that good governance comes from within. It must develop, and constantly pushed to strive for a better society. This does not mean outside help is not welcome; but it does mean that internally the people must have a will of their own to be successful rather than having others want it for them. Waiting for others to provide success will leave regions just as they are, if not worse, because no one will believe and invest in a society more than the people who live in it.

It could not have been more brilliantly said. Only Rwandans can chart true development course for themselves. No one can love Rwanda or Africa better than the people can. Those who expect more from outside will end up selling the country or continent to fortune hunters. This leadership mindset probably explains why Rwanda has had her GDP doubled

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since the end of the genocide, and why she is one of the world’s safest countries, despite being the most insecure in Africa 29 years ago.

References Amnesty International. (2023). Rwanda. Retrieved from https://www.amnesty. org/en/location/africa/east-africa-the-horn-and-great-lakes/rwanda/reportrwanda/ APA. (2020). Two new light jets acquired for Rwanda Air Force. Retrieved on February 11, 2020, from http://apanews.net/en/news/rwanda-to-acquire2-new-light-jets-for-its-air-force BBC. (1998). Hate Messages on East Congolese Radio. Retrieved from http:// news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/monitoring/149901.stm Beswick, D. (2014). The risks of African military capacity building: Lessons from Rwanda. African Affairs, 113(451), 212–231. DBPedia. (2020). Rwanda defence force. Retrieved on February 10, 2021, from https://dbpedia.org/page/Rwanda_Defence_Force Dijk, M., Davidson, G., & Mecozz, V. (n.d.). What is creative leadership? Retrieved from https://www.thnk.org/insights/what-is-creative-leadership/ Dokubo, C. (2019). Nigerian air force in a changing security environment. Retrieved on February 14, 2020, from www.africaportal.org Fieldwork. (2022, May). Participation-Observation in Rwanda. Global Security. (2019). Rwanda air force. Retrieved on February 12, 2020, from https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/rwanda/air-force.htm Human Rights Report. (2022). Rwanda 2022 Human Rights Report. Human Rights Watch. (2022). Rwanda: Wave of free speech prosecutions: Free journalists, commentators, opposition members. Retrieved from https:/ /www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/16/rwanda-wave-free-speech-prosecutions Karuhanga, J. (2019). A glimpse at anti-Rwanda Militia Groups in Eastern DR Congo. The New Times (Kigali), 10 December 2019. Kinzer, S. (2008). A Thousand Hills: Rwanda’s Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed it. Wiley. Lefèvre, P., & Lefèvre, J. (2006). Les Militaires Belges et le Rwanda 1916–2006. Racine. Macrotrends. (2021). Rwandan Military Spending/Defence Budget, 1973–2021. Retrieved February 11, 2020, from www.macrotrends.net Mbonyinshuti, J. A (2012). Military chief reaffirms commitment to peacekeeping. The New Times, Retrieved February 1, 2020, from http://www. newtimes.co.rw/news/index.php?i=15263&a=63718 Mbonyinshuti, J. A. (2019). Air force experts discuss partnerships. The New Times, March 4, 2019.

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Morgenthau, H. (2005). Politics among nations: The struggle for power and peace, 7th edition. MacGraw-Hill Mushiga, I. (2013). UN Top Official Salutes Rwandan Peacekeepers. The New Times. Retrieved on February 1, 2020, from http://www.newtimes.co.rw/ news/index.php?i=15137&a=59220 Nations Encyclopedia. (2019). Rwanda – Armed Forces. Retrieved on February 13, 2020, from https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Rwa nda-ARMED-FORCES.html Oluwole, V. (2022). Rwanda is the safest country in Africa for solo travellers, according to a survey. Retrieved from https://africa.businessinsider.com/ local/markets/rwanda-is-the-safest-country-in-africa-for-solo-travellers-accord ing-to-a-survey/4q4gnph Pomfret, J. (1997). Rwandans Led Revolt in Congo. Washington Post, July 9. Powell, S.M. (2009). Engagement in Africa. Retrieved on February 2, 2020, from https://www.airforcemag.com/article/0709africa/ Wilen, N. (2018). A hybrid peace through locally owned and externally financed SSR–DDR in Rwanda? pp. 1328–9. Waugh, L. (2014) Central African Republic: Will MINUSCA deployment make a difference in CAR? African Arguments, 15 September 2014. World Air Forces. (2019). Flightglobal insight. 4 December 2018. Retrieved on February 13, 2020, from https://www.flightglobal.com/analysis/analysis2019-world-air-forces-directory/130525.article World Air Forces. (2021). Flightglobal insight. 4 December 2020. Retrieved on February 13, 2020, from https://www.flightglobal.com/download?ac=75345

CHAPTER 6

Forgiveness, Resilience, Exploits, and Challenges

(For Rwanda) forgiveness and reconciliation aren’t just a single apology that brings personal relief from guilt, but rather a journey that all sides of a wrong have to take together to heal and grow as a community. –Morgan Tompkins (a student of School of Education after a study abroad trip to Rwanda)

One of the mysteries of this world is Rwanda. How on earth can a man or woman, who had their parents killed, sisters raped or murdered, heads of children of their siblings smashed against the wall until they got shattered, uncles and aunts butchered and thrown into wells or pit latrines, come face-to-face on a roundtable with these same killers, and accept apologies, profess forgiveness, and embrace them? So many perpetrators of the genocide walk freely in Rwanda today, with children or family members of their past victims knowing who they are and yet exchanging pleasantries or live side-by-side with one another. There are many documented children from rape during the genocide who may or may not know their fathers and yet eat in the same restaurant, drink from the same bar, and even join hands to observe Umuganda. One of the unbelievable things in this world is how victims of genocidal rape co-habit with those who raped them and live together in the same neighborhood like nothing horrific happened in the past. How the man who wiped out an entire family still proposes to the surviving daughter © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 S. F. Folarin, Rwanda’s Radical Transformation Since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37011-3_6

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of his victims and gets her hand in marriage. How families of killers and victims easily intermarry, have offspring, and do not even care—of pretend not to care—about the past. This cannot be real. I have nosed around quite a lot and have seen much. Sometimes, someone points at his “friend” who killed members of his family. I know of a woman who married a man that she knows participated in the killing of Tutsis like her. I have interacted with young people and adults in their thirties and forties, who have been told about persons that deprive them of fatherhood, motherhood, or parenthood and yet they still have a “good” relationship with such people. A woman once mentioned, to my utter surprise, that her Hutu husband brings memories of when her parents were slaughtered before her very eyes as a child; yet, she is married to him. Those who are forty and above in age, still remember the graphic details of the bloodshed and recognize their adversaries. When asked how they cope with this situation, they simply say they have forgiven their past haters and killers. This is where Rwanda is different. More than forty years after the Civil War in Nigeria, in which the Hausa-Fulani government evidently committed acts of genocide against the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria, there is no love lost among Nigerians, particularly Hausa-Fulani and the Igbo people. The Hausa-Fulani still do not trust the Igbo people, while the Igbo have not forgiven the Hausa-Fulani for the pogroms of 1966 and genocidal acts of 1967–1970. Northern Nigeria cannot entrust the Southeast with political power because of fears that the Igbos might retaliate the killings during the Civil War and decades of political ostracism thereafter. Yet, the Igbos do not hide their disdain for the Hausa-Fulanis of Northern Nigeria. There is manifest insurgency and separatist movement in Southeastern Nigeria nowadays—the Igbos want an independent nation, the same way they sought it in 1967, which caused the war. There is no such thing as forgiveness in the political and intergroup relations lexicon of Nigeria. Since the end of the Second World War, the Jews are still wary of anti-Semitic sentiments in Europe, Middle East, and North America. Hitler’s Germany slaughtered 6 million of them in the Second World War. The hatred is still in many quarters, while the Jews themselves avoid their adversaries wherever they are in the world. In Kosovo, Myanmar, and other places where genocide took place, the ethnic hatred is permanent and there are intergroup conflicts occasionally. So, why is Rwanda different? What is Rwanda’s magic?

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How Forgiving Are the Forgivers? Whenever I tell people that genocidaires and survivors know each other and live together in Rwanda, they simply quip: “It’s not possible”. When people do not doubt the possibility, they have this to say: “They are just pretending for now. Those survivors can never forgive those who killed their joy. They will revenge someday”. Some would even say: ‘The genocidaires in prison or who walk free are only cozying up to the survivors because they are now at the mercy of their victims. They want their freedom. Let them get it, they will come back for the remaining heads they haven’t hacked”. May be the doubters are right. They may be wrong too. What is clear is that, it has been almost 30 years since the end of the bloodbath. Can people pretend for this long and revenge later? Three or four decades after? What many people do not understand is that, a generation of those born after the genocide is populating the country and are supplanting a declining population of genocidaires and victims. Those who were 23 in 1994 are now 52 years old. They have come of age and should be letting go of old habits. At 52, experience would have come in, and with experience should come some wisdom. Anyone who was 40 and participated in the murders of 1994 would have become 69–70 by now. The population in 1994 was about 6 million. Today, Rwanda is well over 13 million in population. About 1 million people died in the genocide and roughly, another 1 million would have died of various causes between then and now. With the population at 13 million, there has been an addition of 7–8 million people since August 1994; persons that did not directly experience the genocide and who only hear the stories or see old images. In addition to this, the world is evolving and a new generation of young people who see and do things differently has pervaded the face of the earth. Children now do things differently from their parents and bond through many social platforms, thus putting behind old wounds and acrimonies. They sometimes are referred to as the “hip-hop” generation: they think differently and relate with fellow youth without really caring about the social, ethnic, or ideological differences that divided their parents or forebears. The kind of youth that I have seen in Rwanda do not even know or care about their Tutsi, Hutu, or Twa backgrounds. They school together, cluster together for social and creative activities, club together, and even date one another. Many openly admit that they have not asked their parents what ethnic lineage they come from.

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“I’m not even sure”, says Maniteze. “I have never asked my parents, who is Tutsi and who is Hutu between them. I know one of them is Hutu and the other is Tutsi. Now I’m curious and I will ask them”. This 24-year-old student of University of Kigali is in her final year and she had never cared about any ethnic background. The Germans and Belgians tried in their devious way to divide these people. For me, I could not tell whether she was Tutsi or Hutu. She was simply an African woman of Rwandan brand, nothing more. For Blessing, another 24-year-old University of Kigali student, she hears the stories of ethnic conflict and genocide and tries to comprehend the distinction that led to the craze of 1994, “because I really cannot see anything different between us. Can I be honest with you? I do not know whether I am Tutsi or Hutu. My parents have never mentioned it. Sometimes, when I read up the physical and sociological characterization, I look myself in the mirror and ask: who am I? Hutu or Tutsi? An attempt to ask my mum one day was blocked as she refused to answer me and said it was time to go for church service”. Blessing and Maniteze are new generation Rwandans. They are the new educated elite. The post-genocide breed of “we are all Rwandans”. However, Uwera is a little different from them. She was 32 years old when I met her. She witnessed the genocide in 1994. She was only 6 years old and was still her beautiful mum’s pet, the very last born out of eight children, when the genocide started. She narrated how she watched or learned of how neighbors, including her parents were hacked to death in their neighborhood and compound in Kigali. Uwera’s mum had taken her to the mum’s Hutu friend in the same neighborhood, just moments before the assailants arrived in their home. Uwera was taken in and hid immediately, while moments later, she heard sporadic gunshots and wailing of people. The Interahamwe had come and were slaughtering her people. Faintly, she could hear screams and identified her mum’s voice. After a while, the shooting and sounds of machete blows stopped and all went silent. Her mum and other siblings had been murdered. She heard that two of her brothers had fled to an Anglican church farther away from the neighborhood, to seek refuge. Months later, news came to her that those her two brothers were no more, as the Interahamwes had stormed the church and demanded that Tutsis come out to be killed. As neither Tutsis nor Hutus came out, they poured gasoline around the church building and set it on fire. Uwera’s

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two brothers were among hundreds roasted alive in that church on that fateful day. What breaks her heart even more was that her mum and other siblings killed the very day she was rescued were dumped in the pit latrine and their remains were never to be removed until after the genocide. She later heard about the gruesome death her father suffered. By the time her father’s remains were to be recovered, it was only the skull, which is now one of the thousands of human skulls displayed in the genocide museums in Kigali and across the country. She lost everyone in that genocide except her half-sister. Another neighbor in a different town rescued her. Uwera was kept away for 90 days by her mother’s best friend, presented as a Hutu child, and held back from the Interahamwes each time they came to the house for her, insisting that she did not look like a Hutu. Her mother’s friend was a strong woman, she said, who sometimes bribed the extremists to let go of her, or rebuffed them and dared them to touch her daughter. This remained the situation until the Inkotanyi (RPF soldiers) entered Kigali and drove out the Hutu irredentist government, taking over the seat of power. She does not have any photograph of her late dad, mum, or dead siblings, which makes her sob each time she reflects. They burned down their house, destroying everything, including birth certificates. She lost her parents and six other siblings. By implication, in a family of ten, only Uwera and her eldest sister are alive. Uwera grew up not trusting Hutu people on the one hand because of what they did to her parents and siblings. On the other hand, she gives them the benefit of doubt because of the love her mother’s friend showed her. The kind Hutu woman is the reason she is alive to tell the story. That woman and Uwera are still very close and according to this beautiful and soft-spoken Tutsi mother of four lovely children, that Hutu woman is the mother figure she has, and no one can tell that she is not her biological mother. Today, Uwera’s husband is a Hutu man, whom she describes as a man that does not remind her of the cruelty she suffered during the ugly days of genocide. That is the social narrative mix and trajectory about Rwanda. Mixed grill. Good and bad, beautiful and ugly. You will not understand until you pay attention to the details. Forgiveness is a natural course itself. We will come to that soon. Miriam would not be that trusting of Hutu people. The 43-year-old woman did not only lose all her family members; she also lost her dignity and self-worth. Miriam was one of those pretty Tutsi women described

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as “prostitute cockroaches” and sexually available and set aside for serial rape. Miriam was not a prostitute; she was a young virgin in 1994. She had never known any man, nor was she exposed to a wayward life. But her story was to change on May 10, when assailants caught up with them in their hiding place in the Southern Province town of Gitarama (renamed Muhanga in 2006). After butchering all her family members, she was spared. At the age of 14 (or so), she became an object for sexual gratification. I looked into Miriam’s eyes as she narrated her ordeal and could see nothing but sadness and bitterness. She does not want to have anything to do with Hutus anymore. She avoids them in a nation where ethnicity concerns are no longer publicly entertained or encouraged. “But how do you know if a man is Hutu?” I asked. “We know ourselves”, she retorted. I was not competent to judge her, this was Rwanda and just as I would know my fellow Nigerians (I can tell when you are Igbo, or Hausa, or Yoruba in many—not all—cases), any mature Rwandan might be able to know the other Rwandan based on certain physical or sociological characteristics. After all, the Germans had set out some discriminatory features, which defined the country and Burundi for so many years. Throughout my subsequent conversations with Miriam, she would always sound bitter or angry. She disliked Rwanda, she would say, and would wish to relocate to Kenya or Tanzania. Her residing in Kigali gives her nothing but depression—old memories of rape, loss of childhood, loss of everything, including her family. She is not yet married, but has a grown daughter, who has entered the university. She did not tell me how she got the child. Miriam’s case is understandable. Many women may be in this same situation. But from my interaction with so many Rwandans, the survivors and Gen Z alike, they have moved on in a new, forgiving nation. To them, life happens. Life must go on, particularly with developments from 2000. Events seem to have overtaken the past odds. Life must go on. I must confess that it was one of the most difficult things to do: ask Rwandans about their ethnic backgrounds or heritage. I respect their law that forbids ethnic distinctions, and I admire their national policy of one nationality. It was tough for me to open my mouth and ask directly or even use diplomatic skills to ferret out answers on such forbidden topics. But research, like investigative journalism, is a crazy thing that we often hide under to break rules. I crave the understanding and pardon of the people and their good government on this. I am a Rwandan at heart, and I admire the people and their beautiful country.

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However, I assured my respondents that I would keep them as anonymous as possible, in line with the ethic of research. Not too many cared if I mentioned their names, but I chose not to mention their full names, and in some cases I simply refer to them with other names. Let us be clear, I had informal chats with many all of them but made them understand that their information would be useful for a research I was conducting on post-genocide Rwanda. It was mutual understanding and fidelity. Not one person expressed disagreement to writing a book on Rwanda’s post-genocide transformation. I enjoyed the full support of everyone. Other questions that were difficult to ask included, were you raped, can you recall how many men raped you, at what age did that happen, do you recognize or still see anyone of those who committed these crimes, have you forgiven them, how often do you reflect on the murders or rape and what goes on in your mind, how do you relate with your neighbors who you knew killed or assaulted your family members, how do you relate with Tutsis, how do you relate with Hutus, do you think the one nationality policy is working for you, and so forth. Difficult questions, for which I know Mr. Kagame might serve me several strokes of the cane on my back. However, I am only doing my job, and putting things in perspective, to help in the enlightenment process and make generations unborn, particularly outsiders understand Rwanda even better. Claude is one driver I liked so much. He was quite respectful, openminded and showed how much he cared about me. He told me about his immediate family, and shared beautiful pictures of his three little kids with me. We became friends along the line and still chat with each other on WhatsApp. He is a good man. He told me how he lost everything in 1994. He had no life remaining, he said. He succeeded in joining another family in fleeing to neighboring Uganda and lived there for so many years until 2009 when he returned to Rwanda. He had to start afresh. He could not continue school because of the genocide and as a refuge in Uganda, he only managed to complete junior secondary school. He returned to Rwanda long after the genocide and began driving commercial vehicles, and only recently was employed in a transport company. Claude told me he married his fellow Rwandan refugee in Uganda and returned together with her. He told me how life became difficult on return. When asked those difficult questions bordering on relationship with fellow Rwandans, particularly those he considered as perpetrators, he said he had forgiven all of them. Having heard this repeatedly, I believed

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him. He struck me as a simple man with no grudges toward anyone. He took me to places of interest, including “Hotel Rwanda”, where we had some food and drinks, and mentioned to me how that place was indeed a sanctuary. However, he mentioned that some of the things Paul, the manager was accused of were true. I could not scientifically prove that, so I would not recount his submissions here. I was shocked to know that Claude’s next-door neighbor was a man who partook in killing of his family members. “For sure, I have forgiven him. He told the truth and apologized at the Gacaca court and he was fined. He paid all his fines and compensation to my family”, he said. I had to find out more about the courts and discovered that many cases were settled after public confession, apology and payment of compensation or rebuilding of damaged houses, etc. What a nation! This is the same pleasant surprise (call it a shock) that Baz Dreisinger, the American Jew professor encountered in her visit to Rwanda on a mission to study the post-genocide prison conditions. In her book, Incarcerations Nations (2016), Dreisinger opines that there is a lot to learn from the Rwandan prison system, which feeds into the peace and reconciliation program of the Kagame government. She saw an open and genuine forgiveness instead of punishment that often comes with such crime as murder or rape. The justice system that Baz discovered was that of genuine correction and attempt to prepare the genocide offenders for a life of peaceful and conciliatory cohabitation with survivors after their prison terms. To her ultimate shock, she found out that inmates could even keep a job outside prison and be entitled to some percentage of their wages while still in incarceration. According to Dreisinger, in 1998, when it was apparent that the prisons in Rwanda were congested and prisoners were dying of diseases, the government responded by simply releasing elderly prisoners and another 24,000 inmates thereafter. This was followed by the release of another 22,000 prisoners, many of whom were still awaiting trials in line with the tiered gradations of genocide. The Gacacas tried 12,000 cases, handing down judgment and reducing sentences for the repentant and those seeking reconciliation with their communities (Dreisinger, 2016: 28–29). For Rwanda, it was in the spirit of forgiveness, reconciliation, and rebuilding. Nothing, not even release of criminals, was too costly a price to pay for that rebuilding. It was not so for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), a UN Security Council creation, which

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tried 75 persons bearing the greatest responsibility of the genocide, and sentencing 65 of them (Dreisinger, 2016: 29). For almost 30 years, there have been intergroup marriages that make it increasingly difficult to differentiate ethnic Hutu or Tutsi. More couples now look so much alike that you would be wasting your time trying to figure out who the Tutsi is between them. What makes distinction more are the children from these marriages. It is commonplace in Rwanda for Hutu men to marry Tutsi women. Like it is the case in Nigeria, many Yoruba men from Abeokuta want to marry Yoruba women from Ijebu because their women are quite beautiful. An Ijebu woman is more likely to be slimmer, fairer in complexion, more flamboyant, sociable, and more romantic than an Abeokuta woman is. An average Ijebu woman is a seductress and yet loyal and men, no matter how they pretend or publicly advertise that they want “decent” women, secretly desire and enjoy romantic and seductive, pretty and loyal women as wives. When you ask the Abeokuta (or Egba) man why he prefers an Ijebu woman, he will tell you that the prospect of having “really beautiful children” is high with her. In the same vein, Yoruba men generally prefer women from Ondo and Ekiti states, because they are believed to be generally prettier than those from Kogi, Oyo, and Kwara states. The foregoing are my personal sentiments, the same may not be true for other men. For a Hutu man, it is the same story. First, Hutu and Tutsi in post-genocide Rwanda no longer exist. Everyone is a Rwandan or Rwandese. It is a taboo to mention ethnic tags in the country under Paul Kagame and probably forever. However, like the Yoruba, Hutu men prefer Tutsi women, because of the same attributes Abeokuta-Yoruba find in Ijebu-Yoruba women. The marriages naturally erode the old hatred and bitterness, and the offspring from such marriages, in their millions, have reduced post-genocide hatred, if there is anything like that. We did mention that giving ethnic tags in Rwanda is a taboo. There is only one national identity card, and it spells out the name, nationality, and gender alone. There is no ethnic distinction on the ID as it was before and during the genocide in 1994. By this, there is an institutional defusing of old ethnic animosity and tension, and a systemic erasure of the pains of the past. This effective rebuilding process made Rwanda stand out in the comity of post-conflict societies. Through the Gacaca, inganda and Umuganda (these will be described later), the state has created commitment to state development, and institutionalized social bonding among citizens, which would leave no

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room for ethnic consciousness or discrimination. Selected persons acting as judges and lawyers led the Gacaca courts, where trials of genocide participation and sentencing were done. At these courts, open confessions are made about the degree of crime committed, and culprits openly apologize for their crimes and narrate the details of their deed: how many persons they killed, what they were thinking when it happened, their ignorance that led to the acts, and how they regret those acts. Meeting their rape victims or family members of persons they killed was hard but had a therapeutic effect on the victims or survivors. It is one thing to have your relatives killed and have no idea who did it, let alone get justice; it is another thing to see the perpetrator face you to open up and beg you, and yet still be sentenced for his crime. Between 2002 and 2012, there were 1.2 million sentences, ranging from three to twenty year-imprisonment. The courts found 3% guilty of active participation in the genocide. The essence is to forgive, forget and move on and join hands in rebuilding the nation. This was a difficult process, more difficult for the victims or survivors; but in the end, it would heal the broken spirit. Umuganda is a monthly community development exercise, which is highly celebrated in Rwanda. It holds every last Saturday of the month. I actively participated in the exercise of November 2022. Invited by the University of Rwanda authorities and my friend and colleague, Dr. John Peter Mugume, I joined the academic community members and the entire Gikondo community to plant trees at the base of the mountains in the area. The idea is to grow trees for preventing erosion and mudslides, which are common in mountainous Rwanda. The atmosphere during Umuganda is electric and holiday-like. Rwandans and aliens join hands to chorus songs of commitment to rebuilding. The day is mandatory nationwide and takes place between 08:00 and 11:00 a.m., and law requires participation. Umuganda is not new to Rwanda. It has been a practice since the colonial and post-colonial times. However, Hutu Power elite used it as a rallying point for plotting ethnic attacks against the Tutsis in the past. The program was resuscitated in 2009 for nation rebuilding, and can be said to be directly instrumental in Rwanda’s reputation as one of the cleanest countries in the world. The forgiveness in post-genocide Rwanda is therefore not so much that the people are different brand of people, or specially made to have a forgiving spirit. The forgiveness in the country is systemic. It is built in the system in such a way that, even the people would not realize that

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they have overcome the horrifying memories of the past. Even when they think about it or reflect, they will do so in a harmless way, pace into the air or look down, have a moment of reflection, heave a deep sigh, and move on with their task. One last—but not the least—thing to mention about forgiveness, is the rapid growth of social infrastructure, GDP, human development index, internal and national security, education and healthcare, which is not only unbelievable, but also sometimes inexplicable. How do you explain that a country once gripped by the fever of destruction 29 years earlier has suddenly bounced back not only on her two feet, but also to a level of development that is uncommon on the continent? The unemployment rate in Rwanda may have soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, but this was not always the situation. Let us examine the “miracle” that set Rwanda apart despite her sordid troubles of 1994.

The Miracle of Kigali: Reconstruction and Economic Prosperity The miracle of Kigali is simply the smartness of the government and creativity of the leadership, its ability to identify development potentials and turn them around for the betterment of the country. There are countries with lots of resources but which are poor and whose human development index is abysmally low. Governance and leadership explain this situation. Either there is absence of creative leadership or the corruption rate is killing good governance or initiatives to turn around the system. Rwanda has development potentials, but owes her recovery and rapid economic and infrastructural growth and development to her leadership. The country is known for her breathtaking scenery, and the mountain gorillas have always been in the country. However, Rwanda was not known as a tourist destination until years after the genocide. The scenic nature of Rwanda, the lakes and that of Kivu in particular, the genocide memorials, and the mountain gorillas became lucrative tourist attraction and Rwanda in the process built a big tourist industry. Tourism changed the fortunes of the country. Naturally, tourist industrialists from India, Europe, China, and Africa flocked into Rwanda to build some of the biggest hotels, restaurants and bar lounges, charging up the hospitality industry for good. Before 2015, Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Zimbabwe, and Namibia were the leading tourist destinations in Africa.

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Rwanda has joined them and in the last three years, the traffic to the country has tripled. I recall that I mentioned in 2021 to the management of a leading travel and tours company, Ufitfly in Nigeria about the potentials in Rwanda and urged them to extend their routes to her as their clients would have a lifetime experience. The next year, 2022, I saw adverts for a three-in-one travel opportunity for clients—cost of travel covering visits to three cities with tourist attractions, hotel and feeding, and flight. I was in Kigali in May 2022, when the company’s first voyage to Rwanda occurred. I was glad to guide the leader of the team on additional places to go, such as Hotel des Milles Collines (Hotel Rwanda) in Kigali, the steep gorilla mountains of Kinigi in Musanze, Akagera National Park, and Lake Kivu in Rubavu. According to Visit Rwanda, the agency that oversees the real and media management of the country’s hospitality sector, tourism is the largest source of foreign exchange earnings and in 2019 alone, the sector generated a whopping USD 498 million (Visit Rwanda, 2023). The World Bank’s Doing Business Ranking reports that Rwanda is the second easiest place to do business in Africa and that registering a business in the country takes six hours only. To complement the influx of people and business, the communication sector is upscaled. There is a 4349.598 miles (7000 km) nationwide fiber network and a 4G LTE network that covers 95% of the country, which provides instant connectivity everywhere. Since 2020 when I bought my Tigo/Airtel line, I have been using it even when outside Rwanda or beyond the shores of Africa. The line has not for once been cut off or suspended. Text messages come through even when there is no airtime or not roaming, and I can send messages once I am able to get complimentary airtime from a friend back in Rwanda. Sometimes, the line may not be accessible in the United States, but this is not the case in Europe. The Rwandan network is reachable in United Kingdom and Netherlands. This may be true of some networks in Africa too. The reachability of these Rwandan—and some other African— networks is good for business at home. It is strategic and works in many ways to keep the economy growing. Rwanda has a business-friendly investment law, which provides generous incentives for entrepreneurs and established companies alike. Investors can easily acquire the nationality or citizenship of the country, which is a smart way of absorbing the investor and his wealth in country. A free visa-on-arrival for African Union, Commonwealth and Francophonie member-states and availability

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of entry visas-on-arrival for all other international visitors, are a master strategy to attract more visitors, tourists, and investors into the country. The rapid growing national carrier, Rwandair and the ongoing construction of a new world-class international airport in Kigali are boosting the hospitality business. I am a regular passenger on Rwandair. When I first used the airline from Lagos to Kigali, it was Boeing 737700, which was full to capacity. The next year, I was astonished to see an Airbus A330-200. In February 2022, I flew in an Airbus A330-300. The Lagos route was the only trip the airline was making to Nigeria. When I opened its catalog this year, I found that they had started the Abuja route. Surprisingly, the airline flies to United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, France, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, India, South Africa, DRC, Benin, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, and Ghana. Countries that are considered wealthier than Rwanda, such as Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Uganda, and Namibia, do not have national carriers that have such a global reach. Some nations do not even have airlines that go beyond their shores. Africa’s wealthiest country, Nigeria has not had a national carrier for over twenty years. Rwanda thus competes not just with leading African airlines, including Kenyan, South African, Royal Air Maroc, and Egypt airlines, but also with world airlines such as Ethiopian, Emirates, and Qatari airlines. The head of the company, Yvonne Manzi Makolo announced that the airline would double its fleet by 2026 and that it had reached an agreement with Qatar Airways to collaborate for more efficient service delivery (Makolo, 2021). The new hub of international conferences is Rwanda. More organizations around the world are looking toward the direction of Rwanda for their meetings (summits, retreats, and conferences) because of sedate, clean, safe, and alluring nature of the cities and welcoming nature of the environment. The conferences bring more revenues into the country, with the use of the national airlines, hotels, transport system, restaurants, bars, recreation centers, and parks. Indeed the conferences feed into a burgeoning tourist industry, which in turn, elevates the economy. In June 2022, the country hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which was attended by 29 heads of state. In May 2022, the National Security Symposium was held in Kigali. The symposium is an annual event, which brings to Rwanda, experts in various fields of human endeavor, to take stock and explore development pathways for Africa and Rwanda. We will deal more extensively with the security symposium in Chapter 7. The MWC Africa, the acclaimed

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African Continent’s Most Influential Connectivity Event held in Kigali from October 25–27, 2022. In February 2023, the Tour du Rwanda (an equivalent of Tour du France) an annual bike riding competition, was held in Rwanda. I was in Musanze when this event held. It was a big event. Roads were closed and traffic diversions were created to have participants, including previous world champions, Natnael Tesfatsion and Jonas Vingegaard, enjoy a colorful three-day cycling event. I saw some of cyclists. Some of them stayed in the same hotel, Classic Lodge and Resort. The whole Musanze was locked down for that period. All hotels in the city were fully booked, the restaurants and recreation areas full to capacity, and there were all kinds of races from around the world gathered in towns and public places. In April 2023, the Rwanda International Movie Awards (RIMA) was held. It brought leading movie actors, producers and directors, and online content creators around Africa, to Rwanda. In addition to conferences and hospitality business, the National Financial Center and the Rwanda Convention Bureau provide incentives for international companies to have their regional headquarters in Rwanda and to attract more events into her. The Rwanda Development Board provides central and prompt registration for companies, which takes less than a day. The Kigali Arbitration Center is one of the two of such centers in the East African region, which has a more organized and functional service for regional arbitration that caters for issues that may arise from a growing foreign direct investment (Kabasinga, 2023). Rwanda is also active in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) and the robust trade and business infrastructure in place are helping in this direction. Added to Rwanda’s mineral resources are nickel, and precious stones such as amphibolite, granite, and quartzite. It also produces about 9% of the world’s tantalum, which is used in electronics manufacturing, and is home to two refineries of gold and tin. Coltan is rich in production of telecommunication devices. In a press conference in March 2023, President Kagame claimed that Rwanda has a finer version of coltan but that the production is smaller than in DRC (Kagame, 2023). Rwanda consumes staples that are homegrown. These include Irish potatoes, beans, and cassava. They also consume plenty of cow meat and fresh (hot) milk, which come from their abundance of cattle. The people do not eat too much of bread and rice, which come from Tanzania. Kabasinga (2023) explains that the reason bread, rice, and other imported

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foods are not encouraged is that, “being a small country, Rwanda doesn’t have a lot of agricultural land, and when we import products, it increases inflation…We eat a lot of organic produce, including locally grown peas, beans, sweet potato, and maize”. The growing tourism and hospitality industry has repositioned the once-deflated Rwanda as a key regional hub for local and international business, trade, and investment. The ugly tag Rwanda had as an unsafe African country, with millions of hateful people that wanted their fellow Rwandans wiped out from the planet, gave way to the new image of that beautiful bride that everyone wants to taste. Radical transformation—that is the new narrative on Rwanda today. Things look so enviable in Rwanda in such a way that any citizen, can proudly boast of the exploits and capabilities of their small but beautiful. Florida Kabasinga, the founder and managing partner of Certa Law again made the following submissions: Rwanda is one of the most successful and fastest growing economies in Africa. Rwanda is the cleanest country in Africa, and we are the most secure, we have a stable government and a parliament that has the biggest majority of women in the world. And, next to Botswana, it has the best anti-corruption regime in Africa. So, we have a lot of things that are going right in this country. We have special economic zones, where manufacturing happens in this country. This is a small country, but we are surrounded by big countries like DRC, and we have Burundi next door, so there are opportunities to tap into those markets. (Kasabanga, 2023)

Kasabanga claims that Rwanda is also leading the charge in manufacturing vaccines in Africa, and that a plant was set up in the country in 2023 with French company Biotech for that purpose. What accounts for this astronomic rise in Rwanda’s development profile? There was a Vision 2020, which stood as the blueprint for laying down what the government was going to do in development in the next 20 years. In recent times, Vision 2050 has been in operation. This is the operational manual for development programs for the next thirty years.

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References Dreisinger, B. (2016). Incarceration Nations: A Journey to Justice in Prisons Around the World. Other Press. Kabasinga, F. (2023). Rwanda – One of the Most Successful and Fastest-Growing Economies in Africa. Retrieved from https://lexafrica.com/2022/08/rwa nda-one-of-the-most-successful-and-fastest-growing-economies-in-africa/ Kagame, P. (2023). Press Conference with President Kagame | 1 March 2023. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCnNim3U8Ps Kasabanga, F. (2023). Rwanda – One of the most successful and fastest growing economies in Africa. Retrieved from https://lexafrica.com/2022/08/rwa nda-one-of-the-most-successful-and-fastest-growing-economies-in-africa/ Makolo, Y. M. (2021). RwandAir will Double its Fleet in Next Five Years. Retrieved from https://airspace-africa.com/2021/11/10/rwandair-will-dou ble-its-fleet-in-next-five-years-yvonne-manzi-makolo/ Visit Rwanda. (2023). Tourism. Retrieved from https://www.visitrwanda.com/ investment-opportunities/tourism/

CHAPTER 7

Radical Transformation, National Security Symposiums, and Future of Rwanda

Consolidation of National Growth One of the means by which Rwanda has come out of the social and economic conundrum of the past is a national consciousness to emerge from and leave the ruins of 1994 far behind them. Apart from the annual Kwibuka—a commemoration of the genocide against the Tutsis, no one wants to talk about the genocide of 1994 any longer. The only places where such discourse takes place are academic classrooms or conferences. On the streets, inside the cabs, or in office places, everyone avoids this topic. No one wants the ghost of 1994 to keep haunting or hold them down. Consciously, Rwandan people that I have met avoid this topic. Sometimes, I deliberately take my discussion of African politics in that direction and I watch as the mood of person(s) around changes. For me, it is a mere social experiment as I seek to know whether the topic is still a hot one. Most times, the topics people want to hear me discuss are educational and employment opportunities abroad, places of interest to visit, more about Nigerian music and movies, and how I became a professor at a young age. Once I mention Nigerian entertainment and politics, their faces light up. They seem to love Nigeria and her lucrative entertainment industry. They have big ideas about Nigeria and three in five Rwandans wish to travel to Nigeria on a visit or as a resident. They believe Nigerians © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 S. F. Folarin, Rwanda’s Radical Transformation Since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37011-3_7

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are generally wealthy, mentally and intellectually smart, industrious, and successful. Discussing genocide is like taking them backward; they want to move forward like their Nigerian counterparts. Nevertheless, the government of Rwanda is smart enough to introduce the Kwibuka. Kwibuka, which means “to remember”, is the ceremonies that take place annually from April 7 to July 4, for the official mourning of the over 800,000 victims of the genocide against the Tutsis. The government wants the people to remember the events of 1994, not to hold them back, but to remind them of the cost of genocide or ethnic hatred. It is a national policy and program meant to discourage any form of ethnic distinction or chauvinism in the present or future, as this could lead to another ruinous experience. While the people do not want to talk about it, which may make them forget the horrendous nature and huge cost of interethnic or intra-ethnic conflict for national development, the government believes that annual remembrance and discourses in academic circles will be the best institutional memory to dissuade people from communal hate and crime. With militia groups in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo lurking around, stoking old Hutu-Tutsi hateful sentiments, spreading ominous political propaganda that is capable of destabilizing Rwanda and plotting the overthrow of the Kagame government, talking about 1994 for the purpose of sensitizing the populace to discount the “other view” may not be out of place. Kwibuka thus serves as a strategic measure of post-genocide national stability and consolidation.

Strategies for Sustainable Peace and Stability Another measure toward sustainable peace and stability is the introduction of a national identity card that bears no ethnic tag. This has been discussed in the previous chapters. Also mentioned is the distancing of Rwanda, for years, from countries that supported or fanned the embers of the genocide. The government introduced English as the official foreign language to be spoken in the public space, left Francophone bloc, and joined the Commonwealth of Nations of the British. In my thinking, the foreign policy of identifying less with France was to technically indict her for the active role in promoting the genocide ideology, extremist government, act and protecting the genocidaires, who still live large in France; compel her to make public apology for her role and surrender the genocidaires living in France for justice. Other reasons could be to compel France to pressure DRC and other governments that aid the Hutu Power

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terrorists to disarm and give themselves up; and disconnect Rwanda from a metropolitan power that had not wished the country or government well. Rwanda began a pan-African program aimed toward inwardly seeking allies and governance solutions than searching for help abroad. For the authorities in Rwanda, help would not come from overseas. From experience, there was no help to stop the killings in 1994; the world looked the other side when violence tore the country apart. If help could not come at that time, there would not be genuine help in the future. Rwanda built a good relationship with African countries, from the immediate neighborhood, to Southern, Central, and West Africa. Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda played some important diplomatic or military roles in quenching the fire of 1994. The Kagame government built strong ties with them and created avenues for them to mutually work toward national development. Rwanda is a member of the African Union, East African Community, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the Port Management Association of Eastern and Southern Africa (PMAESA). She is active in the politics of East African Community and because she is a landlocked country, maintains a good relationship with Kenya and Tanzania, whose expansive seaports in the Indian Ocean are accessible and useful for international trade. The national interest, namely, national economic development, is pivotal in this good neighborliness policy of Rwanda. The Rwandan government instituted a strong stance against corruption. The country signed the United Nations Convention against Corruption on November 30, 2004 and by October 2005, had put into force the provisions of the Convention. By 2011, the country had risen to the 49th position in the anti-corruption ranking in the world, 4th least corrupt country in Africa, and least corrupt nation in East Africa (UNODC, 2012). The anti-corruption policy was explicit in Vision 2020 and is still part of Vision 2050. The government has openly shown commitment to preventing corruption. It conducts a firm fight against it, putting a number of measures and agencies together to combat it. These agencies include the National Tender Board, Office of the Auditor-General, and the Ombudsman’s Office. The president is popularly acclaimed to have a zero tolerance to corruption, which made him make a famous visit to Nigeria in 2019 to explore strategies with Buhari to see how best corruption could be stemmed in both countries and Africa as a whole. Nigeria’s

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anti-corruption crusade begun by Buhari-Idiagbon in 1984 and scaled up by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration in 2000–2007 through agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Due Process Commission (DPC), were endearing to forward-looking nations around Africa. Kagame’s visit in 2019 was the second one in four years in search of pathways to fighting corruption in Rwanda. Nevertheless, corruption as a monster in human or social space will always fight back. Despite the Kagame crusade, there were still issues within the polity. There had been instances of tax and public funds embezzlement, fraudulent procurement practices, judicial corruption as well as high-ranking officials involved in corrupt practices. The worst affected sectors by corruption included the judiciary, public finance management, public administration, and public procurements (Anti-Corruption Resource Center, 2008). However, the government dealt with such cases with dismissals from positions of ministers, heads of boards or agencies and other high-profile persons, including top brass in the military, whose headship is indicted. In a lecture at the EFCC Anti-Corruption Summit in Abuja in 2019, Kagame narrated how a police officer accosted him at an airport in an African country, begging him for his pen in the pocket. He told the audience how he had to request for some time, went to the cockpit of the plane, and asked the pilot to give him some money. He returned to the police officer with the $10 he got and handed it along with the pen to the police officer. According to him, this incident opened his eye to something else: maybe poor wages and poverty were responsible for this attitude of the security agent he met. He returned home and discussed this experience with his cabinet, asking if this was an attribute of the Rwandan police too, and suggesting that the welfare of the security agency had to be revisited if that was the case. Another measure in recent times is the Rushingwangerero #MeetThePresident, an initiative to make cabinet members and other senior public officers to account openly, in a town hall kind of atmosphere, for their service. Through this process, elected officials, from the smallest local leaders to the highest levels, have targets they have to achieve every year, and if they do not deliver, they will have to face the exit door. This

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promotes transparency and accountability in public service, which engenders good governance. This measure will certainly consolidate national stability and development.

National Development Plans, Programs, and Socio-Economic Leaps Post-conflict societies are often characterized by fragility of institutions and a disarticulated economy that might take time to rebound or might not rebound at all. Such societies also have security agencies that cannot be trusted or inspire confidence in ordinary citizens. In the case of Rwanda, reverse is the case. The military inspires confidence in the people. If we recall, the army and police were the ones training and arming the militias in how to exterminate Tutsis. The two institutions also directly carried out assassinations and organized mass killings. But after July 1994, people repose so much confidence and trust in these same institutions. One of the things I personally discovered is that the nation has done much in investing in and building institutions after the genocide. It starts with instilling discipline and building capacity of the military and police. The military, which I deal directly with, has been my major social laboratory. I have met several militaries of nations. Ghana, Benin, Togo, Nigeria, the United States, and Rwanda. In 2007, during a fellowship program in South Carolina, one of the places of visit for SUSI fellows was Fort Jackson, America’s busiest military training camp. I was among those taken through military intelligence and drilling sessions. This stint with the United States Army gave me some insights into military discipline and capacity. I have related with the Nigerian Army at some fairly close quarters and have seen that the secret of the success of the Nigerian military is discipline and the capacity of the personnel. It is the same story in Ghana and Benin. When the military is undisciplined, as it is in DRC, the people cannot have confidence in it, and the state could crack. In such a situation, the military guys would be complicit in conflicts and could seize power at the slightest provocation, or even without any provocation. When the rank and file of the Nigerian Army began in 2014 to show some indiscipline, fleeing Boko Haram onslaught, filming war acts at the battle lines and posting them on social media, or joining the police at roadblocks to extort money from harmless motorists, the people began to show lack of confidence or trust in them.

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One of the development programs I consider as key in Rwanda’s rise to stability and progress is a disciplined and capacitated armed forces and police that she has raised after the crisis. The reason is not far from the prognosis. Rwanda needs stability, peace, and security after a terrible experience of conflict and genocide. Peace and security can be guaranteed only with a disciplined military; and peace and security alone can guarantee national development. The Rwandan military is not different from the American or Nigerian military in terms of discipline and capacity building. The Rwandan government goes to every length to develop the capacity of the officers and men. I have been teaching in the Command and Staff College for over three years and I have cultivated personal relationship with some of the senior officers of the Rwandan Defense Force. The officers have traveled around the world to acquire military and leadership skills to position them for performance in peacetime, nation building and post-genocide reconstruction. The leadership skills are exclusively complementary to national capacity to defend the nation’s democratic leadership and stabilize the polity. Having interacted with the regular soldiers as well, I have seen a high level of discipline and a deep culture of professionalism. The RDF personnel are highly trained and well positioned for national security. Like the Command and Staff College in Jaji, Kaduna State, Nigeria, intellectuals from different parts of the world converge on Command and Staff College, Nyakinama-Musanze to engage senior security personnel from Rwanda and other nations of Africa for an intensive Master’s program. The Rwandan government has opened up her borders not only for Africans, but also for the rest of the world. Rwanda accepts visa-on-arrival policy for Africans and most of the international community, which has increased visitor traffic to Kigali over the years. For African Union and Commonwealth members, citizens can enter Rwanda without visa fees, depending on the discretion of the immigration officers. On a number of occasions, the immigration officers at the port of entry had to tell me that since I was in Rwanda to add value, I was exempt from visa fees. The same sentiments are expressed at hotels, in taxis, at shopping centers, and so on. Once they get to know your mission, they show excitement and sometimes render better services. In some cases, the services are free of charge. Appreciating value from fellow African countries or the outside world has become a national culture. It is a culture deliberately promoted by the government. It aids development in many ways.

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First, people like me would naturally be more committed to our assignments in the country. This has been my personal experience. My commitment to the nation in my own little way has been noticeable. Close associates, friends, and even regular people notice my extra contributions beyond the call of duty. This passion brought me to Rwanda. The same thing inspired me to write this book. I came with empathy and love, the country returned the love through regular words of appreciation by persons like Dr. Mugume, a workaholic, who breathes Rwanda and works extra hard toward rebuilding. He is one of those Rwandans who have bought in and vigorously pursue the government’s agenda of pursuing ambitious projects that will catapult the country to greatness. Except you live only for the money for the work you do for Rwanda, the commitment to the country would naturally double. That is the secret of Rwanda. A country that values your worth and contributions. President Paul Kagame and his government are directly responsible for Rwanda’s growth and development. Let us take it from the bottom. As part of the reconstruction or rebuilding process as well as to build the people’s faith in government and stem the deep tide of poverty created by the crisis of the past, the government introduced the one-cowper-poor-family program. Masabo et al. (2023) posit that the program feeds into social and economic reconstruction, including poverty reduction and restoration of unity and reconciliation through the satisfaction of psychosocial and economic needs at the same time. It also enables conflict transformation on the ground that beneficiaries would take onestep forward out of poverty, thus meeting their basic needs. The program would ultimately restore broken relationships from the genocide. Masabo et al. (2023) however noted that some shortfalls hindering the program to become more effective include too much involvement of the local leaders in the implementation of the policy. The involvement is leading to a hijack by the elite, thus impeding the uniqueness of interwoven social and psychological interconnections. Rwanda is maximalist about her healthcare system. Children and newborns get full shots that they need to stay strong and alive. Primary healthcare is free or heavily subsidized. Nursing or lactating mothers receive adequate ante- and post-natal healthcare. Maternal mortality ratios in the country decreased by 77% between 2000 and 2013 (Ruhumuliza, 2019). For a country that had lost so many lives in a couple of months before, maintaining good and affordable healthcare is understandable. Rwanda responded viciously against COVID-19. I was in the country

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just days before the official outbreak of the disease in Rwanda and most of Africa. I still went there during the pandemic in 2021. Personally, I thought the authorities took the pandemic too seriously, but in fact, they gave it the attention that it deserved. I assumed they were too careful because they often shut down each time there was one case of the disease in any village, district, or province. When other countries were reopening, Rwanda remained in lockdown probably two or three months after. The only country that nearly burst my nostrils and throat with the testing kits was Rwanda. There would be a test as you arrived at the port of entry, there would be a test three days after arrival, and then another test 24 hours before your departure from Rwanda. Then you would arrive in Lagos or Texas (although it was optional on return to Texas) and conduct another test. This would be after your compulsory pre-departure test in Lagos or Texas. In all, there would be three tests in Rwanda and two tests outside of Rwanda—just for one journey. If you tested positive after twenty-four hours of arrival in Rwanda, you would be quarantined and stay for another one or two weeks in addition to the duration of your program, that is if you ever make it to that program. I never tested positive for COVID-19 in all the 29 tests that I did during the pandemic. As Nigerians would always say—and I am a good Nigerian—To God be (is) all the glory. The Kagame administration made cleanliness and safety a national policy. Kigali, Nyagatare, Nyanza, Musanze, the villages, squares, campuses, etc., are always clean. Aside from the Umuganda, the government criminalizes any willful act of messing up the physical environment. Coupled with cleanliness is safety of persons and property. There was no time in Rwanda that I encountered theft or was a victim of it. I do not see or read about crime in the news. I have often googled to find cases of crime and the searches always take me back to the 1990–1994 war crimes, killings, rape, etc. There is no perfectly safe place, but Rwanda, for me, is close to it. The cities are clean and people can walk safely at night. In 2019, the government decreed that ministers and public officials would no longer be entitled to a convoy of vehicles, sirens, and personal security details. This was an affirmation of the fact that Rwanda was safe enough for everyone to walk freely, without fear of attack or intimidation. The government made it clear that the security and safety of government officials was as guaranteed as that of ordinary Rwandan citizens (Ruhumuliza, 2019). In the same year, the presidency announced major changes and shifts in the cabinet and security service.

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These measures not only give Rwandans a sense of belonging and security, they also save public fund. Security details for government officials cost a lot. For one official, he may be entitled to at least two security details, three vehicles that would be fueled and require drivers, and other retinue of staff who may drive with the minister of government official at all times. They would eat, drink and enjoy some perks along the line. This is wastage, which the government stopped. Money saved would be useful for other important national projects. The average age of Kagame’s cabinet is 40. The government of Rwanda is therefore a youthful one, with all the energies and dynamism as well as creativity and strength of the youth brought to bear. Kagame himself is 65 years old, which technically means he has men and women in their 40’s that are potential successors whom he has groomed. Women make up 50% of Kagame’s cabinet. 61.5% of the national parliament and 50% of Supreme Court judges are women. In the 2018 elections, the RPF maintained an absolute majority in the parliament, while two opposition parties, the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and Social Party (Imberakuri) won two seats each. President Kagame was re-elected for a seven-year term, after an amended constitution allowing a third term. Indeed Rwanda has the highest number of women in parliament and by extension governance, in the world. The country has met and gone beyond the 35% affirmative action agreed upon in Beijing in 1995 (Udoh & Folarin, 2014). Thus, women are quite influential in Kagame’s government and in Rwanda as a whole. Women are in the military and police and among those that I have taught at the Command and Staff College are some strong women. We do throw tantrums in class sometimes, particularly when discussing feminism and global politics. I lead the discussion in such a way that the men would tease the women in class and the women would rise, with facts, in stout defense of their gender and their acts. In the end, the discussion is moderated in such a way that both reach a compromise. It was through these class discussions that I got to understand that Rwandan women may not bear their husband’s last names. It is a matter of choice and it could be because the man has not yet paid the bride price or dowry (as the case may be) in cow(s). The men made me understand that Rwandan women are full of expectations and have the tendency to dictate the pace of marriage. They could wear the wedding ring (badge) if their husbands meet their needs, or if the men are wealthy. I waited for the women to counter this, but since they did not, I assumed that

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was the case. However, I checked with another married woman outside the college. She does not bear her husband’s last name and told me she was not bound to wear the ring for one reason: the man she lives and has children with has not yet paid her bride price. Therefore, the cohabitation and children, no matter how long, do not give the man control over the woman. That she chooses to live with and respect him as a husband is just a matter of love, understanding, and choice. Rwandan women are strong. This is expected. They had seen a lot. They have become emotionally and psychologically toughened. For the younger ones who did not see anything because they were born after the genocide, the tradition of female emotional strength and toughness is being passed on. One of such strong women was my doctoral student, Odeth. She had worked with a nongovernmental organization, which deals with survivor-mothers raped during the genocide. Odeth was passionate about this line of knowledge and had earned an international scholarship to pursue a Ph.D. at the university. She was quite brilliant and hardworking. She wanted to know everything about her field and be on top of her game. The program is a particularly demanding one and some of her colleagues often shared their difficulty and possible decision to quit, but Odeth would persuade them to remain, persevere and complete it. Sadly, Odeth had a fatal automobile accident sometime in December 2022, which threw all of us (teachers and her colleagues) in shock and pains that were too hard to bear. She was one of the typical examples of Rwanda’s strong women, a mother in every sense imaginable. Probably as an acknowledgment of Kagame’s leadership qualities, he was elected chair of the African Union in 2018. He used the opportunity to pursue vigorously the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) treaty, which was signed in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. The initiative has the potential to make African countries depend solely on one another for economic development and not the metropolitan powers to whom they had run copious times in the past. One of the challenges of Rwanda is unemployment. In 2017, the general unemployment rate was 16.7% while youth unemployment rate was 21%. COIVD-19 worsened the unemployment crisis. Several persons were kicked out of jobs because of the declining fortunes of profitoriented organizations. Some companies closed down. However, through Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) strategy, ICT, and off-farm employment opportunities created, about 250,000 youth are being absorbed in the labor market every year. Rwanda’s economy

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expanded by 8.6% in 2018, and returned to stability after the COVID-19 pandemic subsided. The journey to recovery from 1995 has been torturous. From an increase of GDP per capita from $228 in 1995 to $718 in 2014, and the poverty headcount ratio using the national poverty line falling from 78% in 1995 to 45% in 2010/11, one can say that Rwanda started well after the genocide. The GDP per capita increased by 5% per annum within the first ten years after the genocide, which were positive signs, that poverty reduction and lower middle-income status were achievable in the next decade. From a growth driven by a foreign aid-financed public sector in the first decade after the genocide, to an economic growth aided by internally generated revenue from the hospitality and other local industries, Rwanda has shown economic diversification. However, Rwanda, landlocked, still struggles with costs from the main ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam and account for about 40% of the cost of imported goods and 50% of exported goods (World Bank, 2016). Despite all this, Rwanda maintained a steady growth at 6.9% in the first three quarters of 2015. She also recorded by 2016 an average inflation rate of 2.5% every year, which is less than half of that of other countries in East Africa (World Bank, 2016). The World Bank has been active in some Rwanda’s development programs and projects. By May 2016, the bank had assisted in 12 projects in the key sectors of agriculture, energy, transport, skills development, demobilization and reintegration and social protection sector. These projects cost a total of $881 million. In addition, the bank was pivotal in creating a Common Framework of Engagement (CFE) to facilitate working with potential new financiers for the Land Husbandry, Water Harvesting and Hillside Irrigation (LWH) program. In 2010, the bank had supported the private sector in agricultural investment, boosting fruits, vegetables and tea production. The World Bank claimed that the International Development Association (IDA) always disbursed about $100 million to support operation to strengthen the government’s social protection system and improve the quality of service delivery at the decentralized level (World Bank, 2016). According to the apex international bank, Rwanda established a number of formal aid coordination mechanisms. These included 16 Sector Working Groups (SWGs), with each mechanism chaired by the government and co-chaired by a development partner, and the bank cochairing the energy, public financial management, and urban SWGs by

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2016. The SWGs build synergies in policy formulation, implementation, and undertake biannual joint sector reviews. The agriculture SWG was particularly effective with the active and engaged participation from key development partners such as the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the World Food Program (World Bank, 2016). There was a second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy, aimed at increasing GDP per capita to $1000, reducing the poverty rate to below 30%, and the reducing extreme poverty rate to below 9% and turn the economy around between 2013 and 2018. The government complemented this by diversifying the agricultural sector. There were however, challenges, which included lack of adequate handling and storage facilities, and poor feeder roads network, among others (World Bank, 2016). In overcoming these challenges, a $60.9 million lifeline was committed to the upgrade of roads and agricultural productivity; as well as a strong country ownership and performance to reduce the poverty index by 2020. The World Bank in a recent report states that Rwanda’s strategy to become a Middle Income Country by 2035 and gain a High-Income Country status by 2050 include a series of sectors-based seven-year National Strategies for Transformation (NST1) with the target to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Complementing the two Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategies (EDPRS 1 and 2 in 2008–2012 and 2013–2018), Rwanda leaped in social and economic performance that was not expected. The socio-economic growth was so steady and impressive that the only factor that could interrupt this was the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–2021, which led to a drop in GDP by 5%, major drop since 1994 (World Bank, 2023). Public debts may have increased and private investment may have declined in recent years, particularly due to the pandemic, low domestic savings, shortage of skills, and the high cost of energy, but the private sector has played huge roles in helping to ensure economic growth. The dynamic private sector has helped to keep the economy alive. The country’s economic growth has been accompanied by significant increase in living standards, a big drop in child mortality, and a meteoric rise in primary school enrollment. Furthermore, access to social services and human development indicators increased (World Bank, 2023). In World Bank’s words:

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Measured against the national poverty line, poverty declined from 77% in 2001 to 55% in 2017, while life expectancy at birth improved from 29 in the mid-1990s to 69 in 2019. The maternal mortality ratio fell from 1270 per 100,000 live births in the 1990s to 290 in 2019. The official inequality measure, the Gini index, declined from 0.52 in 2006 to 0.43 in 2017. However, the COVID-19 crisis is dramatically increasing poverty and threatening human capital. The headcount poverty rate is likely to rise by 5.1 percentage points (more than 550,000 people) for 2021, compared to the no-COVID scenario. (World Bank, 2023)

Summing up Rwanda’s socio-economic development up to 2022, Hannah Gage (2022) identifies the following ten elements as the country’s success story: • A growing economy: Rwanda’s economic boom began in 2000 and continued until the hiccups from COVID-19 in 2020. The economy grew by around 7.2% and the GDP galloped by 5% annually. • Declining rate of poverty: The poverty rate dropped from 77% in 2001 to 55% in 2017. The EDPRPS of 2008 and 2013 is the critical factor in this development. • Decreasing rate of unemployment: After the COVID-19, Rwanda’s unemployment rate dropped once again, with employment rising from 43% in the second quarter of 2020 to about 49% from October of the same year. • Decreasing socio-economic inequality: The wide gaps between groups and classes in terms of income, wealth, education, health, nutrition, politics, and social identity have closed significantly. Aside from the lingering gulf between urban and rural life, access to utilities and healthcare in the urban centers is no longer a problem as inequality has decreased from 0.52 in 2006 to 0.43 by 2017. • Gender Equality: This has been discussed earlier. The 2017 World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report ranks Rwanda and Finland, Iceland, Sweden, and Norway as the nations leading in gender equality and inclusive government. In terms of women in government, Rwanda has not been displaced as number one in the world since 2009, and has 84% of women in the country’s workforce. • Land Restoration: The Green Fund of 2012, described as the largest investment fund of its kind in Africa, has created more than

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10,000 jobs and promoted a green revolution to enhance agricultural production, environmental gradation, and security in the rural areas and nation at large. Universal healthcare: Rwanda’s healthcare system, also known as Mutual Health, created in 2008, is universal. The healthcare benefits are extended to about 96% of the population. The healthcare system can be compared to that of France and Germany, which reduces or eliminates costs and provides services for the rich and poor alike. Increased life expectancy: Life expectancy, which fell to 26 before the genocide, increased meteorically to 69 by 2019. Falling maternal mortality rate: Due to innovations in the medical field, which enhanced storage and delivery of blood supplies, preventing postpartum hemorrhaging deaths in women, the maternal mortality rate in Rwanda decreased by about from 1270 deaths in the 1990s, to 290 from the 2000s. Improvement in fight against malaria: Deadly malaria incidents have reduced significantly. From 4.8 million cases and 700 deaths resulting from malaria in 2016/2017, only 1.8 million infections and 148 deaths occurred in 2020.

Hannah Gage’s assessment or report is validated by assessments or reports from international governmental and nongovernmental organizations, as outlined in some of the earlier discussions. They are things I have seen and felt too. Apart from COVID-19, which was a strange and “costly” disease that the country grappled with, compelling visitors and nationals alike to go through expensive processes of testing and isolation and treatment if positive, the information I gathered from the people is that healthcare is almost free. All rooms in many hotels have mosquito nets. In some hotels in which I have stayed, such as Ubumwe Grande Hotel in Nyarugenge do not have mosquito nets but are mosquito-free probably because of the urban nature of the areas they are situated, or treatment or fumigation they give their premises. In other places, including Classic Hotel in Kigali, Virunga and Classic Lodge in Musanze, and the Christus Center in Remera, there are nets in all the rooms, to protect guests against mosquito bites. However, more needs to be done to malaria as each time I visit Rwanda, I am bitten by monster mosquitoes and go down with malaria. In 2022, I treated malaria on the three occasions that I visited. In spite of the big and decent nature of the hotels, some insects still found a way of biting me. Sometimes, it could be that I was bitten at some other

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places outside these hotel surroundings. Whatever the case may be, I was infected with malaria thrice in Rwanda in 2022, and these happened after a long time that I had felt the pinch of malaria fever. Rwanda may want to borrow from the Texas experience. Texas was known for malarial disease until it was fought and kicked out around 1941–1950. Because of its tropical rainfall and environment, Texas had the problem of the disease. However, there was a sustained antimalarial program in which insecticides were widely and consistently used in homes, expansive environmental fumigation and pest control were done, and drainage ditches were not exposed to the atmosphere and regularly cleaned up, which were instrumental in the eradication of the disease. The menace has resurfaced in recent years, but the state has doubled down on old tricks and new ways of combating the disease. Before moving on to do a comparison of Rwanda with some of her immediate neighbors, to properly situate her radical transformation context, let us elaborate on her education system. With 98% of children enrolled in primary school, which puts them in a vantage position to be equipped for the future, Rwanda is one of the top-performing countries in education. 71% of these schoolchildren complete primary education, which is a significant number compared to many African countries, which far lower rates of schoolchildren reaching primary six. Rwanda operates on a 6-3-3-4 system, with primary education being six years, junior secondary (ordinary level) education 3 years, senior secondary educations (advanced level) 3 years, and university education at the bachelor’s degree level being 4 years. The languages of instruction are Kinyarwanda for primary 1 to 3 and English from primary 4 to the bachelor’s level. French and Swahili are elective and supplemental subjects. The idea of teaching elementary pupils from primary 1 to 3 in the local language is to make their understanding more effective for their educational foundation to be strong. Rwanda has so many private primary and secondary schools, which complement the numerous public schools. While government schools are wholly Anglophone, both Francophone and Anglophone systems are operational at the private level. For students in either of these systems, one of the international languages is either elective or supplemental as either French or English is the only language of instruction. According to the American embassy in Kigali, more than 90,000 Rwandan junior secondary school (JSS) students take the national secondary Education Ordinary Level test at the end of JSS3 (or 9th

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grade in America) in nine subjects. There is an opportunity to retake the exams. There are more students in public boarding senior secondary schools (SSS), and such students must pass national Secondary Education Advance Level examinations to graduate and be qualified for university admission. To complete the SSS (12th grade), the examinations must be in entrepreneurship, general paper, and each of three subjects of certain mandatory combinations. Once completed in November, the grades or results are available in March of the following year. All courses are graded from “A” (maximum) through “F” (failure) except the general paper, which is graded with an “S” (subsidiary pass). The letter grades have point values as follows: A (6), B (5), C (4), D (3), E (2), F (0), and S (1). To make a weighted aggregate, each grade is multiplied by three, with the exception of the general paper, which always has a weight of 1. The maximum aggregate is 73, which is calculated viz: 18 for each of the three main subjects, 18 for entrepreneurship, and 1 for general paper. (US Embassy, 2023). There is only one government-owned university in Rwanda. This is the University of Rwanda (UR), which has many campuses around the country. Formerly based in Butare and known as the National University of Rwanda (NUR), whose many satellite campuses were colleges that had a semi-autonomous status, the UR is currently headquartered in Gikondo-Kigali. It has the College of Arts and Humanities in Huye, College of Business and Economics (formerly the School of Finance and Banking) in Gikondo, College of Science and Technology (formerly Kigali Institute of Science and Technology) in Kigali, and College of Education (which was the Kigali Institute of Education) in Kigali. The rest are College of Medicine and Health Sciences (formerly the Kigali Heath Institute) in Gikondo-Kigali, and College of Agriculture, Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (formerly the Higher Institute of Agriculture and Livestock in Musanze). Rwanda has a special cooperation with Sweden in the area of higher education. The UR benefits immensely from the UR-Sweden Program for research, higher education, and institutional advancement. The initiative, a five-year program that is renewable, supports the university in the areas of research capacity research toward poverty reduction in the country. Some programs run by some centers and institutes and departments feed into this program. The Center for Conflict Management (CCM) is one of them. The center runs M.A. in Genocide Studies and Prevention, M.A. in Peace Studies and Conflict Transformation, and M.A. in Security Studies.

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The center’s clusters also deal with inclusive governance and organizes an annual International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) (Mugabe, 2020). In 2022, the center admitted its first set of students for the coursework-based doctoral program in peace, conflict, and security studies. Feeding into the Swedish partnership, the doctoral program is in collaboration with the School of Global Studies, Gothenburg University in Sweden. There are many private universities and other private higher institutions in Rwanda. Altogether, there are two public institutions, including UR and Institute of Legal Practice and Development in Nyanza; and thirtyeight private higher learning institutions. There are two public universities and numerous private universities. The total number of higher institutions in Rwanda is forty (although on the same website, the education ministry conflicts this number in a table, indicating 31). About 90,000 students have graduated from public institutions, while over 92,000 have graduated from private institutions (Ministry of Education, 2023). Due to increasing applications for part-time studies, enrollment into private institutions is soaring, reaching 13,000 or more in recent times (US Embassy, 2023). The education ministry (MINEDUC) states that the higher institutions in Rwanda are positioned to “play a critical role in enabling Rwanda to realize her ambitions of attaining a sustainable development and economic growth as well as building knowledge-based economy”. The ministry also declares that the institutions are central in the generation of new knowledge and strengthening of skills through research and teaching programs (Ministry of Education, 2023). The tertiary institutions enroll over 44,000 students into graduate, undergraduate, diploma, and certificate, diploma programs across a wide range of academic and professional fields. Nine public polytechnics offer three-year Higher National Diplomas (HND or advanced diplomas) in a variety of fields such as nursing, human and animal health, and technology. The HND, like the Teacher Training Certificate and other tertiary non-degree programs, is not equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree. However, undergraduate transfer credits can be awarded. In Rwanda, like in many twenty-first-century academic communities and societies, a bachelor’s degree is considered the basic academic qualification for a white-collar job or, in delusion albeit, the true mark of education.

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University admission is highly competitive. Because everyone wants to be a doctor, an engineer, or a lawyer, just as it is in most countries, the fields of medicine, engineering, law, and pharmacy are the most competitive. Rwanda’s quality of education is considered high and the system runs a modular, semester system, which attracts international students, particularly from Rwanda’s immediate neighbors. Most of the expatriate professors and other international faculty can be found in her public institutions, particularly in UR. Some of this category of staff are also in the private higher institutions. There are expatriates from Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, and Sweden. Some of the expatriate faculty, including me, because of our jobs in other (and far) countries, are visiting professors. We come once or twice in a year to teach and mentor the students, mostly at the graduate levels. There are many international faculty engaged by the CCM, which runs the MA programs for the ministry of defense (MINADEF), national police, and other strategic national security institutions.

National Security Symposium and Rwanda’s International Diplomacy There are several secrets of Rwanda’s success story. Her emergence nowadays as a strong economy and evolution as a sub-regional military power is not far from the prognosis. I think I now understand a factor behind her political stability, progress in education, ICT, and social infrastructural development. Kagame’s screws to the nuts of the appreciable level of greatness and radical transformation that Rwanda is often seen to have achieved, are doing things differently from the old ways. The wise man says that you cannot continue doing the same thing and expect a different result. Thinking outside the box and doing things the way others do not do it may produce better outcomes. One of the secrets, arguably, is the national security symposium that is held every May. For many invitees and attendees, this may just be another of the many high-level gatherings of eggheads and professionals around Rwanda and the world to discuss the usual “problems and solutions”. The brilliant submissions are never used. Political leaders who make the calls just keep themselves busy with such big programs and populate their CVs with “exploits” or achievements while in office. Most times, they do not even open the communiques or executive summaries after the conferences or summits. After the occasions, they count the number of big guests that

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came, what the media coverage was like, and whether CNN or BBC or Al-Jazeera gave it the widest of coverages. While the politicians or leaders are busy counting the mundane parts they call “gains”, the bureaucrats and accountants are counting the cost and gains in terms of how much was spent and how many more zeros can be added to pad the expenditure. This underlies the huge conferences, including African Union and sub-regional summits in Africa. Thus, such occasions have more losses than gains to the nations of Africa, as the cost is draining on—as it adds nothing to—the economy. For Rwanda, the story seems different. I have taken time to understand the leadership style and strategies in that country. Kagame, like the typical American political leader, does not organize jamborees for the sake of jamborees. He is not known for mere showmanship or mediaattention seeking. He is like Dr. David Oyedepo, a spiritual leader and one of the rare breeds from Nigeria, whose deeds—rather than words— speak for them. They care little about media coverage, and think solely about the product of their action and how this can upscale development. When Kagame invites you to Kigali, or when Oyedepo invites you to Canaanland, there is a high utility value you have, which will be mutually benefitting. Wastage is not on their list of priorities. The world gathers in Musanze or Kigali every year, in the month of May, just one month after Kwibuka kicks off, to take stock of the regional and national development strategies and programs, including foreign policy, national defense, and security, and seek pathways to resolving old issues and new roadmaps to national development. It is global in outlook, but the intent is to tease the brains of the galaxy of experts and captains of industry from different parts of the world, and get the best expertise to make Africa and Rwanda better for it. The symposium addresses a wide range of issues, including peace and security challenges in Africa. However, in fact, it serves to broaden the perspectives of Rwandan leadership and development experts on how best to approach African challenges. By this, Rwanda is systematically positioning herself as a champion of African development, and strategically grasping the best approach to tackling African matters. In the past, Nigeria and Ghana were adept after independence in these things. However, for some years, these two countries seem to have abdicated this African leadership position. South Africa, Tanzania, Senegal, and Rwanda are gradually occupying the roles. Putting it in context in 2021, the Minister of Defense, Major-General Albert Murasira said:

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Over the years, the National Security Symposium has broadened our perspectives through listening to diverse views from policy makers, security practitioners, subject matter experts and scholars. (RDFCSC, 2021)

It could not have been better said. The minister stated that Africa was facing complex challenges including climate change, violent extremism, food insecurity, cyber security issues, and economic downturns, positing that nations would need one another to resolve these humongous problems. Murasira noted: “The need to promote interstate, interagency collaboration and cooperation has become more urgent and important to respond to emerging threats” (RDFCSC, 2021: 7–9). The NSS theme since inception has been “Contemporary Security Challenges: The African Perspective”. The program seeks to engage in debates and analyses that would ultimately crystallize in informed contributions toward tackling the security challenges facing Africa in a world that is interconnected. Participants at this annual program engage in structured discussions by which informed perspectives are sought from key policymakers, security practitioners, strategic players, renowned scholars, and academics in a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency, and multinational environment. The other objectives include provision of an opportunity for the senior command and staff college students to understand better the intricacies of global power dynamics and how these shape the political, socio-cultural, and economic conditions in the continent. By the lectures they have had over the session, coupled with the NSS, the students are not only able to interact with the various categories of stakeholders in security matters, and express themselves in an atmosphere that encourages cross-fertilization of ideas, the students would also be properly positioned for national and global leadership in the future. Furthermore, the students would have the opportunity to contribute to strategic, operational, and tactical actions and mechanisms that can enhance security and stability for African nations. The ninth NSS, which I attended, explored burning issues in Africa and Rwanda, including democratization, global warming and climate change, science and technology development, agricultural productivity and food security, socio-economic transformation, alternative energy sources to address future energy demand, African security forces and national development, conflict and post-conflict management, peacebuilding, and so forth.

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The tenth NSS in May 2023 focused on identified security challenges on the African continent, which included the inquest into mechanisms for driving institutional and individual capacity building for good governance, grasping and improving on the dynamics of digitization and digitalization, as well as strategizing for improved performance and delivery on Peace Support Operations (PSO) in Africa. The symposium also problematized migration issues, foreign interference in African affairs, and put the African Union (AU) on the spot, assessing the continental body after twenty years since the change in nomenclature from “Organization of African Unity”. The symposium comes after the senior command and staff (SCSC) students of the Command and Staff College in Nyakinama are done with their examinations and preparing to graduate and return to their various countries and national duties. It is a strategic summit to ensure that the students are adequately equipped with strategic leadership skills, to enhance their capacity and make them solution providers to tough national problems in the future. With the practical demonstration and sharing of experience or ideas by the speakers and discussants from Africa and beyond, every graduating military officer has a better understanding of national, regional, and global security. It is pertinent to note that, the security symposium is not just for military security alone; it focuses on the holistic nature and context of security, from human to social, national, environmental, food, health, cyber, personal, community, and political security. Someday, probably, spiritual security, which is gaining momentum and posing serious concern in Africa, will be included. The NSS, which started ten years ago always held in Nyakinama, where the Command and Staff College is situated. It was held in the capital, Kigali in 2022 and 2023. Expansion of the facilities in Nyakinama may have been responsible for moving the program to Kigali in 2022, but the strategic importance of the symposium makes Kigali much more suitable for such an occasion. Moreover, Musanze is just about an hour’s drive to Rubavu, which is a border town with Democratic Republic of Congo. Given the current tenuous bilateral relations with DRC and the security concerns in recent months, it is safer to have the NSS in Kigali. Broadly speaking, the symposium represents the RDF’s contribution to national and continental development. Specifically though, it can be posited that it is the Command and Staff College’s unique way of joining the African and global conversations on development challenges and

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solution-finding approaches. Ultimately, however, it is a Rwandan initiative to provide leadership by other means. The symposium projects the country in a positive light, reinforcing the argument in some quarters that Rwanda is indeed the next big thing in Africa. The program attracts global attention and compels the world to throw its searchlights on the country, whenever security and development pathways are sought. Like the thousands of tourists who visit, and members of the many conferences and summits held by international groups and organizations every year, participants at the NSS return home to tell good tales about their Rwandan NSS experience and as such, Rwanda raises, knowingly or unknowingly, hundreds of unofficial public or cultural diplomats and ambassadors every year. The news goes around about the allures as well as the big things happening and hospitable nature of Rwanda, which makes the country better for it. No wonder, the country is admired from afar and at close quarters as the new El Dorado of the continent.

Rwanda, Immediate Neighbors Compared To situate Rwanda’s radical transformation properly, it is pertinent to make a snapshot of the happenings and nature of development in her immediate neighbors, with the view to comparing the countries. This enterprise is important in understanding the context of radical transformation the study posits, and whether Rwanda has indeed changed or not. For this reason, we shall examine DRC and Burundi, Rwanda’s neighbors to the west and south respectively. What is the basis of selecting DRC and Burundi only? DRC is a massive country with all the most precious and prized natural resources in the world. Diamond, gold, and coltan, to mention a few. DRC has every reason to be much better and ahead of Rwanda like many other nations of Africa by all standards. Burundi and Rwanda were (are) twins and were ruled as the same colonial territory, Ruanda-Urundi from the era of colonization by Germans to that of the Belgians’ after the First World War. At independence, Rwanda and Burundi started on the same note— tiny, exploited, poor, densely populated, lacking natural resources, and having troubles with unity. The same Hutu-Tutsi schisms haunted the two nations, with pogroms and genocides culminating multiple times. Is Rwanda ahead of DRC and Burundi? DRC (later renamed Zaire under Mobutu Sese Seko) was part of the King Leopold II of Belgium’s Congo Free State contraption before

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independence. The Congo Free State was administered like Leopold’s personal estate, with the colonial territory treated like slaves. DRC endured many years of the king’s brute force. Divide and rule, intimidation, fear, torture, forced labor, maiming, rape, and killing were instruments of state policy during this period. Mass slaughter in the urban centers, summary executions of harmless locals, and severance of limbs of adults and children at the slightest—or without—provocation were commonplace across the length and breadth of DRC. It is estimated that King Leopold II gave orders for the killing of about 10 million Congolese during Belgian imperial rule (Hochschild, 2023). For the Belgians, Congo, fantastically rich in agriculture and extractive industry, was simply a goldmine for foreign companies and looters alike, along with their local collaborators, to make fortunes and therefore had no obligation whatsoever to develop her social infrastructure or economy for the purpose of the subjects. If schools were built, they were to serve the educational needs of the children of the Belgian colonial and general European community, a small group of African elite who would be useful in local (divide and rule) administration, and local administrative staff who served as clerical officers in the civil service. If roads were constructed, it was for easy transportation to facilitate a smooth colonial administration, and linking of sources of food and crash crops production, and the mines with the cities and coastline. If other infrastructure as healthcare, banking, and air transport were developed, they were to serve the needs of the colonial administrators and their local African collaborators. Congo found herself in this divisive, discriminatory, and exploitative situation when she gained her independence on June 30, 1960. The post-independence prime minister, Patrice Lumumba inherited a heavily divided country characterized by sectional politics and toxic interethnic relations. Lumumba’s simple style of leadership and indecisiveness in the middle of a turbulent ethnic nationalist diatribe across the country, particularly in the south, projected him as a weak and insensitive leader, while his populism and strong Marxist views exposed him to western scrutiny and distrust, with convictions in Washington DC, Paris, and Brussels that he was a pro-Soviet leader. Western conspiracy soon met local discontent and in a few months, in the middle of a raging civil war, started by Katanga, Lumumba, with the generous services and betrayal of his trusted ally, Mobutu, was toppled in a coup sponsored by the western powers. Mobutu was the ready successor. His reign first brought considerable political progress and economic prosperity to Congo (Zaire at this time),

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but few years later, Mobutu slipped into the usual abyss of maximum dictatorship, manipulating the constitution, transmuting into a life president and beginning a reckless reign of terror, repression, abuse, and corrupt leadership. He assumed the position of, and chose to be called “father” of the nation, ruling DRC in the exact manner of King Leopold. The abundance of diamond, gold, cobalt, coltan, and cash crops rather enriched the fortunes of Mobutu and his western accomplices in the pillaging and plundering of Congolese resources. Congo could be the wealthiest country during his era but turned out to be one of the most impoverished countries in the world. Long years of endurance would soon give way to national reawakening and a sustained revolution that would end the long reign of terror, corruption, and economic decadence. Congo, in spite of a robust base of educated elite, had receded significantly and slipped into economic backwardness underlined by massification of poverty, with majority of the 44.12 million populace reduced to mere peasants. Mobutu soon lost control of the country because of a peasant, demotivated, undisciplined, unprofessional, and demoralized security agencies, particularly the police and military. DRC now seemed too large to control as the center became weak and the regions were beginning to lose the presence of the central government. Lawlessness and conflict erupted, which made Mobutu, for selfish reasons to keep power and suppress the local adversaries, backed Tutsi-led Burundi or Hutu-led Rwanda at various times so as to get help from his immediate neighbors to deal with the DRC ethnic elements networking with groups in those two countries to topple his administration (Krueger & Krueger, 2007). Despite his desperate bid to hang on to power, it was two of his neighbors, Rwanda and Uganda that gave material, men, discipline, and organization to the Laurent Kabila movement, which supported local groups to oust him in 1996 during the First Congo War. Mobutu never returned to Congo as he died in Morocco while in exile. Both Congolese and the world popularly received Laurent Kabila. Years after, he was going to have internal problems that would distract him from the core national development and leadership issues that made Mobutu unpopular in the first place. Kabila would want to consolidate his power and this would bring him to loggerheads with his old allies, Rwanda and Uganda. Local politicians, Congolese at home and in diaspora began to mount pressure on Kabila to kick out Rwandan military personnel and civilian administrators who were in Kinshasa and other remote areas of the

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country. They alleged—just as they still do—that Rwanda’s presence was not unconnected with attempt to seek fortunes in eastern DRC by destabilizing Congo or taking over the government (Kavanagh, 2023; TRT World, 2022). The events afterward would plunge the ties between Kinshasa and Kigali into disaster. Kabila was considered to have bitten the hands that fed him and humiliated Rwanda in the process. The aftermath of the diplomatic faceoff with neighbors and other multiple interested parties both within and without, would lead to the Second Congo War. Laurent Kabila was killed in 2001, five years after he seized power. He was not able to address the multiple crises that had crippled Congo, having been too enmeshed in power consolidation by elimination of political opponents. Alleged coup plotters were filed out all the time, hurriedly tried and summarily executed. There were allegations of witch hunting, with many cases reported of arrest, trial, and sentencing of political opposition and persons suspected to fraternize with immediate neighbors considered as adversaries. Many members of the Congolese army were labeled as spies and dumped in jails or secretly executed. Kabila simply did not have the time to revamp the economy, raise a disciplined security organization, and be capable of defending his fragile state or even his own government. The Second Congo War had become inevitable as the government created problems that are more ethnic for itself, by arming ethnic militias, particularly the Hutu-led FDLR to deal with Congolese Tutsi political leaders and Rwandan Tutsi elements in eastern Congo. DRC’s crisis deepened. Infrastructural deficit remained. The army and police became more demotivated and undisciplined. Ethnic conflicts doubled. Resource pillaging by multiple local and international interests tripled. All manner of wars erupted in an attempt to protect or plunder resources. Poverty and unemployment increased just as crime rate spiraled. In this melee, and through dubious circumstances, Joseph Kabila emerged as his father’s successor. Laurent’s insecurities, ineptitude, and corruption were nothing compared to his son’s case. Money disappeared from the coffers of Congo from time to time and the government, even in the face of global media scrutiny, could simply not account for the funds or their disappearances. Joseph, who became the first youngest president in the world, had no revolutionary traits or persuasion in him. No major development. No important improvement in the hospitality industry, which, if well harnessed or developed, could have made DRC the number one destination or even brought it as much revenue as the extractive industry could.

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Congo is blessed with a vast land of forests and hills that have the world’s largest concentration of gorillas, as well as many lakes and rivers and a resplendent topography that has a breathtaking scenic beauty. However, all of these have come to naught, as the territories serve as war camps of ethnic warriors, militias and thugs. The hills have become places of illegal and criminal plunder of precious stones and solid minerals, while the entire scenic beauty has been reduced to battlegrounds. Joseph Kabila achieved little or nothing for Congo. If at all there was anything, Congo became poorer and more underdeveloped during his time. He was simply a looter. During Joseph Kabila’s long reign, he looked around for neighbors to blame for his misfortunes or incompetence. With over 100 militia groups, armed to the teeth and controlled by one big shot or the other whose interest is in the minerals, Kabila pointed accusing fingers at Rwanda and Uganda as the forces behind some of the deadliest conflicts. He inherited the Second Congo War and just after it, there was the March 23 Movement (M23), made up of Congolese Tutsis, who sought inclusivity in the government of the DRC. Failed promises and agreements made the M23 return to the forests of Goma and Kivu to continue their movement for inclusive governance. But Kabila, with a much-partisan international community and media echoing it for him, accused Rwanda of being directly responsible for the rise of M23, sponsorship, and resurrection few years ago (VOA, 2009). President Felix Tshisekedi succeeded Joseph Kabila in January 2019. The relations with DRC’s immediate neighbors were improved. In acknowledgment of the normalized ties, Kagame visited Kinshasa, making him the first Rwandan president in 20 years to visit Kinshasa. A new Rwandan ambassador was deployed to DRC and Rwandair commenced direct flights to Congo. Rwanda and DRC became strategic trading partners, as “the latter was Rwanda’s leading destination of informal exports as it receives 86% of all the informal goods. In 2019, Rwanda exported goods worth $372 million to DRC, which constitute 32% of all Rwanda’s total exports” (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2023). The uncommon romance was to end abruptly in 2021, when Congolese authorities boldly accused Rwanda of resurrecting the M23 for clandestine purposes bordering on resource control or stealing. Congo went a step further, accusing Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni of promoting armed conflict and sending soldiers of fortune to the resource-rich Kivu

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and Goma (The East African, 2022). This tirade has again unsettled diplomacy between DRC and her closest neighbors to the northeast. It can be gleaned from the foregoing discussion that DRC is big but acts little. The leadership deficit—with ethnic militia problems, corruption, and economic underdevelopment that come with it—has made her a mismatch to the tiny Rwanda that lies beside her. DRC is nothing in comparison with Rwanda in road, health, and other social infrastructure. The two countries have great tourism potentials with DRC having more due to her size. But Rwanda comes ahead in terms of development of these potentials to the point where she, like Morocco, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa, is the go-to country in recent times as far as African tourist destinations are concerned. Congo has got the mines and precious stones, cobalt, and coltan. These resources, as huge as they are for revenue and economic development, have rather been the causes of Congo’s fratricidal and resource wars, corruption, and economic doom. Rwanda, with her modest agricultural and mineral resources, has earned more and reinvested it into human capacity and institutional development. DRC lacks political stability, peace, and security. Rwanda has not only engineered a peaceful and secure society for herself, changing the gear from genocidal backwardness to a safe, stable, and secure polity; but has also turned these potentials into other sources of wealth creation, optimizing the peace and security to create the most auspicious place to live in and do business. In addition to this, she has one of the best transportation systems in Africa, has one of the fastest-growing airlines and competes with the frontline airlines on the continent, and has one of the cleanest capitals in Africa. That Rwanda had the capacity to enter into the mighty DRC to help oust Mobutu and usher in the administration of Laurent Kabila, and continues to be regarded as capable of changing regimes in another African country—and DRC for that matter—is, to me, a plus to Rwanda. This speaks volumes about the strength, tact, discipline, and formidability of Rwanda’s military. Burundi had made such allusions too in the past, accusing Rwanda of supporting a Tutsi-led Burundi army and thus influencing governance in that country (Krueger & Krueger, 2007: 61–62). In international politics, national interest and power are sin qua non in state survival and preservation. And if any nation is deemed capable of invading another one, even if she would not do so, it is an acknowledgment of the supremacy of that nation. It is nothing for the accused nation to worry about, as it gives her more leverage and bargaining power (Folarin, 2014).

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The fact is DRC authorities (from Laurent, through Joseph Kabila, to Tshisekedi) as big and wealthy as the country is, should feel embarrassed to admit that Rwanda, a smaller landlocked country that was ruled out or dismissed as a failed, finished country less than three decades ago, is mightier than them. If DRC’s incapacities and incapability despite their humongous human and material resources have magnified Rwanda’s rapid transformation since the end of the genocide, Burundi’s plethora of challenges and backwardness have demonstrated that indeed twins might be from the same womb or born the same day, or even grow under the same roof, they may not necessarily have the same destinies. Burundi, like Rwanda obtained her independence from Belgium on July 1, 1962. They are Siamese twins, with the same geographical conditions, ethnic groups (Twa, Tutsi, and Hutu), same language with different nomenclature (Kirundi in Burundi and Kinyarwanda in Rwanda), nearly the same size and population (Burundi with 12.55 million and Rwanda with 13.46 million people) which implies that both are the most densely populated countries in Africa. Rwanda and Burundi, contrary to popular belief globally, are rich in some fantastic natural resources. For Rwanda, these include silica sands, kaolin, vermiculite, diatomite, clays, coltan, limestone, talcum, gypsum, and pozzolan; and she produces tin, tantalum, and tungsten (3Ts) and exports gold and gemstones in large quantity. Burundi’s also has copper, cobalt, nickel, feldspar, phosphate rock, quartzite, and rare reserves of uranium, and vanadium and is also a producer of limestone, peat, sand, and gravel for domestic consumption and as building materials. If one looks closely, both Burundi and Rwanda have good resources that can make them competitors in global trade. Burundi even has some more important resources like cobalt and uranium. The two countries, with similar geographical features, have tourist potential. However, while Rwanda has successfully turned her fortunes around, connecting to the world and attracting investments and tourists in sizeable number, leading to an annual rise in GDP by 5%, Burundi remains in the abyss, economically poor and almost abandoned by the global business community. Clearly, this can be explained by efficient management of resources and a favorable policy environment bordering on political stability and leadership in Rwanda. The misfortune of Burundi, whose GDP grows by an average of 1.8% per year, is explicable by her incessant ethnic strife, political instability characterized by military coups, unending

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pogroms and genocides, as well as nepotism and corruption in ominous dimensions. Rwanda and Burundi have had similar post-independence sociopolitical experience, call it misadventure. Before independence, power struggle had underlined Hutu-Tutsi relations. The Hutus felt that the minority Tutsis, with all the privileges freely given to them by the Belgian colonialists, had gotten too much power and control of the state that had a Hutu majority. With rumors making the rounds that Tutsis had killed a Hutu sub-chief, the Hutus began a series of violent attacks against the Tutsis in November 1959, which led to a nationwide crisis, the civil war (also called Hutu Peasant Revolt) and the fleeing of 330,000 Tutsis to neighboring countries and eventual deposition of the Tutsi king in 1961. This ended the Tutsi monarchical rule in Rwanda. At independence in 1962, the Belgians, who had turned their eye the other way during these previous ethnic conflicts, handed over to the Hutu majority group. With the Hutus in power, nepotism gained ground and a Hutu Power extremism, in which Tutsis would be emasculated politically, socially, economically, and even demographically, began. From one president and prime minister to another, it was a Hutu element. This status quo remained up to the emergence of the military dictatorship of Juvenal Habyarimana in 1973. Ethnic cleansing and genocide as a state policy did not stop, until October 1990, when another civil war started. Tutsi rebel group, the RPF and its army, in an attempt to force the government to change its genocidal policy and create an inclusive government invaded northeastern Rwanda, advancing 37 miles into the country. A series of events occurred between 1990 and 1993, from efforts to end the conflict in Arusha to attempts to build a consensus government. All these were eclipsed by the disaster that struck on April 6, 1994, when the president’s plane conveying Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart, Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down near Kigali airport. President Ntaryamira had just been sworn in a few months before, after a long period of power tussle between the Tutsi-led Burundian army and the Hutu political class and Hutu-led government. From the night of April 6, the course of history of Rwanda would change within hundred days. Despite these grave national issues that brought Rwanda to a ruinous state, the post-genocide era was marked by genuine reconciliatory, reconstructive, and rebuilding efforts. These have led to a national identity silent on ethnicity, end of ethnic conflict, building of institutions, and a strong government.

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Burundi passed through similar national upheavals as Rwanda. However, unlike Rwanda, it was the minority Tutsis that dominated the post-independence politics of Burundi. The 85% Hutus that made up the country were potentially powerful politically and should be ahead of the 14% Tutsis, but the Tutsis controlled the army and dictated the leadership most times. At independence, the Tutsi monarchy was still effective and the Tutsis dominated the government and military. Throughout Burundi’s political history up to 2005, where power was not acquired by ballot, coups were staged to install any leadership that appealed to the military. In 1966, the armed forces, led by Michel Micombero, a Tutsi and Burundi’s 26-year-old prime minister, ousted the 19-year-old mwami, King Ntare V, a fellow Tutsi, who was out of the country at the time. What followed was Micombero’s reign of terror, ikiza (the scourge), characterized by repression and ethnic cleansing on a large scale. After a Hutu rural uprising, aimed at toppling the Tutsi government, and organized by a handful of Tanzania-based Hutu intellectuals from Bururi, a predominantly Hutu settlement in southern Burundi, Micombero sent between 150,000 and 300,000 Hutus to the slaughter. In 1993, Tutsi military officers assassinated Melchior Ndadaye, the first Hutu president, Pontien Karibwani (vice-president and National Assembly speaker), Gilles Bimazubute (deputy speaker), Juvenal Ndayikeza (minister of lands and communal development), and Richard Ndikumwami (director of intelligence). The government was a Hutudominated one. The assassinations ended abruptly the first democratically elected government in Burundi. The consequences were a power vacuum and a ten-year civil war that led to the death of over 300,000 people. Just as Burundians were watching the genocidal violence in Rwanda from independence to the 1990s, Rwandans were watching the explosive developments in Burundi from 1966 to 1990s. The Hutu extremist government changed the course in Rwanda in 1994, committing one of the worst genocides in human history. It is not impossible that both countries were spurred by the actions of each other, Burundian Tutsis retaliating for genocidal acts against their kith and kin in Rwanda, and Rwandan Hutus measuring up for the pogroms committed against the Hutus by the Tutsi army in Burundi. After the peace meetings in Tanzania between a two-time head of state, Pierre Buyoya and his UPRONA (a predominant Tutsi) party and Hutu leaders of the FRODEBU party, the Arusha Accords were reached in

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2000, which ushered peace into Burundi. Thereafter, some stability was restored, in which Domitien Ndayizeye, Pierre Nkurunziza, and Évariste Ndayishimiye were elected and ruled one after the other. President Nkurunziza (a half Hutu, half Tutsi Burundian) stirred the hornet’s nest as he ramped up his second term, influencing the tweaking of constitutional provisions to allow him to go for a third term. Rather than seizing the opportunity of being the one to end the many years of Tutsi rule, he tried to consolidate power and position Hutu in such a way that they would be in control permanently or at least for a long time. In the course of this, he failed to build the economy, diversify and optimize development. He did not build human capital, healthcare, and social infrastructure. The Burundian system remained broken as he searched desperately for positioning himself as the strong man of Bujumbura. The brutality of Nkurunziza in repelling the opposition led to an outburst of violence in Bujumbura and across the country. The security agencies targeted anti-government protesters, torturing or engaging in extrajudicial killings. Burundi returned to chaos once more and in the end, it would be on the altar of national progress and development. Burundi’s long history of power struggle and ethnic conflicts created a broken state, extremely weak or fragile institutions, and socio-economic downturns that rendered the country impoverished and backward. Poverty was loud in the urban centers and rural areas. It became so bad that people could barely afford 50 cents (BIF 1041) per day to feed. Burundi lacks critical infrastructure that could complement or aid her development. The roads are barely paved let alone being tarred. Bujumbura, the capital and biggest city with 375,000 people, has 4 out of 5 and sometimes 5 out of 5 people that are poor or live below the poverty line. Burundi is ranked as the poorest country in the world (Guichaoua, 2022). The difference is clear. Despite the fact, that the three countries share similar features, such as geographical conditions, ethnic-induced conflicts, and failed systems, Rwanda evolved and left her two close neighbors behind in terms of economic development, national security and political stability. She has left them behind in everything that underlies good governance and strong institutions. The reasons embed, as identified previously, in the bigger factors, namely, leadership, vision, foresight, and efficient/prudent management of critical national resources.

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International Community and Engagement Rwanda was abandoned in the build up to, and during the genocide against the Tutsis in 1994. However, few years later, events overtook the situation as she actively engaged the international community on the one hand, and became destination for peoples and governments around the world. Tourism. International conferences, including public, private, governmental, and nongovernmental summits. Sports, particularly basketball and bicycle championships. United Nations, African Union, sub-regional and unilateral peacekeeping missions. Importation and exportation of goods and services. Foreign direct and local investments, with the best or second-best environment for doing business in Africa and one of the top forty places in the world auspicious for doing business. We have discussed some of these engagements by Rwanda. Peacekeeping is one of the signposts of the Rwandan military. This is understandable. Having passed through an agonizing period in her history, she cherishes peace and stability and seems to have made these her trademarks. Naturally, a nation abandoned during a genocide should no care about others whenever they go through such experience. However, the compassion side of human nature shows otherwise. The odious or bitter experience one had may not be wished others. Rwanda’s military has been active in United Nations peace missions around the world. She has also actively been part of the African Union and East African Community’s peace initiate in the sub-region. With well-trained, organized, and disciplined forces, she has participated—or still is participating—in peacekeeping operations in Sudan, South Sudan, and Central African Republic, among others. Leveraging on the international comity that operates in the African Union and East African Community, she is actively in Mozambique, where internal strife threatens both the country and the entire sub-region. According to the Permanent Mission of Rwanda to the United Nations, the country, which joined the UN in 1962, is well represented in the world body, participating in the UN committees on all agenda items of strategic interest to Rwanda. The experts contribute to the debates and outcomes of these committees, representing and protecting Rwanda’s interest in the UN and the general wellbeing of the international organization. The Rwanda UN mission engages groups and individual nations on issues and stakes that will promote the national interest of Rwanda.

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The committees in which Rwanda belongs are First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), Second Committee (Economic and Financial), Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), and the body on legal matters, which is the Sixth Committee (Rwanda Mission to UN, 2023). The UN and Rwanda have collaborated on a number of projects and programs. In addition to the peacekeeping program are projects in Rwanda that the UN and the government have accomplished. These include the creation of opportunities and empowerment of women and girls and gender parity, promotion of universal health coverage to enhance healthcare for all citizens as well as development of effective response and recovery efforts toward the fight against COVID-19, improved agronomic practices, and creation of more access to seeds and the technology required to adapt agricultural practice to climate change. Others include promotion of employment opportunities and other opportunities jobs for the youth through various initiatives such as The Generation Unlimited, iaccelarator, YouthConnekt, and ConnectedGirls (United Nations, 2022). Rwanda is a founding member of the African Union, which shelled its former skin, Organization of African Unity (OAU) and put on a new one with the name “African Union” (AU) in 2002. Rwanda was a founding member of the OAU in 1963. Until recent years, Rwanda was never too visible in the OAU or AU for anything more than ethnic conflicts and refugee crisis. But in 2018–2019 the president assumed the leadership of the AU as the chairperson. Hosting leaders in Addis Ababa and Kigali at various times, Kagame promoted the African Continental Free Trade Area, the largest free trade area in the world, with the intent of creating a single market for the member-states of the AU. The continental market would serve the purpose of free movement of goods and services and free movement of businesspersons and investments. This would accelerate the establishment of the Customs Union, “expand intra-African trade through better harmonization and coordination of trade liberalization across the RECs and across Africa in general…(and) enhance competitiveness at the industry and enterprise level through exploitation of opportunities for scale production, continental market access and better reallocation of resources” (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2023). Kagame has been the chair of the AU Institutional Reform since 2016. As AU chairperson, the Rwandan president championed the following

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projects: single African air transport markets, adoption of the protocol on free movement of persons and goods and African passport, and establishment of the AUDA/NEPAD (New Partnership for African Development) as a development agency. He chaired AUDA/NEPAD between 2020 and 2022, and was in 2019 appointed as the leader of the AU Domestic Health Financing Initiative, which is established to mobilize African governments and other stakeholders to invest more in health services. For the East African Community (EAC), Rwanda has been visible and relevant. Since joining in July 2007, Rwanda has been supporting its initiatives and programs on regional economic integration, integrated East African market, conflict resolution and peacebuilding, as well as subregional peace and order. With its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, the EAC is made up of seven member-states. These are Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. The community has over 300 million people, which constitutes 15% of 2 billion, the approximate population of Africa. The treaty creating EAC was signed in November 1999 by three founding members, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, and came into effect in July 2000. The EAC seeks to widen and deepen interstate cooperation in the areas of trade, commerce, governance, and social affairs. The Customs Union was created in 2005, and such other platforms to realize the objectives, such as a Common Market and Monetary Union Protocol were floated or signed between 2010 and 2013. Nowadays, there is the Political Federation of the East African Community Partners States, which deals exclusively with interstate collaboration at the highest decision-making level. Rwanda is the headquarters of the organization’s East African Science and Technology Commission (EASTC), an institution of the Community with the objective of promoting and coordinating the development, management, and application of science and technology in the sub-region (EAC, 2023). In addition to the major international institutions mentioned above, Rwanda belongs to a lot more. Among the institutions are African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States; Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA); Commonwealth of Nations; NonAligned Movement; Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, World Trade Organization. Rwanda hosted the 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) from June 20 to 25. CHOGM was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19, and it was only two years after that the meeting could hold, being the first in-person Commonwealth of Nations’ leaders meeting since 2018, when it was

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held in the United Kingdom. Also, Rwanda has gone into many bilateral relations or agreements. These include with her immediate neighbors, individual members of the EAC, COMESA, ECOWAS, Commonwealth, and UN. Rwanda has an open-door program, by which her territory is home to refugee and asylum seekers around Africa and the world. She has accepted multiple thousands of refugees or asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, DRC, Israel, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan. Some of these refugee and asylum programs are funded by UNHCR. In 2021, an agreement between Denmark and Rwanda to establish an asylum center in Kigali, and in April 2022, Britain reached an agreement to transfer asylum responsibilities to Rwanda, a place considered a safe third country or sanctuary for UK-bound asylum seekers. In return for taking these asylum seekers, Britain offered economic development programs in Rwanda for the value of 120 million pounds (Gower et al., 2022). -----------------------Rwanda’s radical transformation from a fallen, collapsed state in 1994, to Africa’s “Singapore” (as she is fondly referred to nowadays) is not in doubt. She can be described as one of the wonders—probably the 12th Wonder—of the World. From nothing, she evolved into one of the fastestgrowing economies in Africa. From ground zero in 1994, she has climbed to the position of the most admired country in Africa, and one of the focal points of political scientists, historians, economists, business experts, and ICT specialists. From the most unsafe country to live in or visit in 1994, Rwanda is now among the top five safest countries in Africa, with the cleanest capital on the continent, and the best place in which trade and commerce (business or investment) can take place. Rwanda’s educational system has evolved since the genocide. With all that has been presented, outlined, and analyzed about her education, economy, health system, physical infrastructure, security, international relations, and governance in general, it has sufficient merit to posit or conclude that Rwanda has evolved and left the realm of an underdeveloped country, which was where it was 29 years ago. Over the years, with all that I have seen or witnessed in the country, I have consistently described Rwanda this way: A small country that does mighty things! Whenever I think about the country’s exploits, I remember Isaiah 60:22

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of the Holy Book: A little one shall become a thousand and a small one a strong nation. I, the LORD, will hasten it in its time. However, there are challenges. The value of the Rwandan Franc is falling, which may affect her balance of payment. In 2020 when I first visited, a dollar was RWF 910, but by 2021 when I returned, it had declined to RWF 950/960 to a dollar. On return in 2022, the dollar had downed the local currency in value to RWF 1001 to a dollar. In February 2023, it had become RWF 1113 to just $1. This is challenging for international trade and jacks up the prices of goods and services. The ordinary people or masses are the worst hit by such hikes. Again, foreign direct investors may benefit little. The cost of importing goods and services to run their business in Rwanda may be unbearably high in view of the declining value of the RWF. Tourists come with few dollars and enjoy the exotics at a relatively low or insignificant cost when the hard currency is compared to the local one. Rich and nutritious meals that I cannot get at the rate of $30 (RWF 33,000+) in North Carolina in the United States, sell for only $10 (RWF 13,000) in Kigali. With this kind of unequal financial power, the Rwandan people lose. To pay a local professor in Rwanda may not require more than RWF1m, which looks quite good for that context. However, to hire an expatriate from Zambia, he cannot be paid RWF 1m, which is less than $1000. The minimum he can be paid is $2000. To hire someone from Britain or America, the government will be considering at least $4000 in order to measure up to the earning of the expatriate if he were to earn money for the same service back at home. Another challenge is the negative image the western media and some governments/international organizations are giving to the Kagame government. Some have described his administration as an “authoritarian regime” silencing opposition and committing gross acts of human rights violations. Another section vilifies or accuses him of destabilizing eastern Congo and supporting the M23 in order to control the abundant natural resources in Goma and Kivu. The bad press is gaining traction and the fears from some quarters are that there may be a growing international conspiracy to pressure Kagame to quit or make him unpopular and create chaos from within Rwanda. The economic and political threats these aforementioned challenges (declining value of the RWF and possible international pressure and agenda to make him unpopular) could cast dark clouds on the future of the promising nation. The Kagame government will require decisive

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action, within the limits of the constitution of Rwanda, in addressing the problems, both of them. By this, the noble development program and agenda will remain on track. The third challenge, in my view—and which is the most critical—is the problem from DRC. By all legitimate means (such as more diplomatic engagements with Congo and the international community, building of trust between the two governments, and showing counter-proofs that Rwanda is clean in the eastern Congo mess) this issue has to be tackled and quickly. The adversaries lurking around must never be gifted the opportunity to leverage the misrepresentation by Congo to make cheap political statements or gain international support.

References Anti-Corruption Resource Center. (2008). Overview of Corruption in Rwanda. https://www.u4.no/publications/overview-of-corruption-in-rwanda EAC. (2023). Republic of Rwanda. East African Community. https://www.eac. int/eac-partner-states/rwanda Folarin, S. F. (2014). Visibility and Relevance in International Politics: National Role Conceptions and Nigeria’s Foreign Policy in Africa. Media Expression Gage, H. (2022). A Success Story: 10 Impressive Improvements in Rwanda. The Borgen Project. https://borgenproject.org/tag/improvements-in-rwanda/ Gower, M., Butchard, P., & McKinney, C. J. (2022). UK-Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/ research-briefings/cbp-9568/ Guichaoua, A. (2022). Burundi at 60 is the Poorest Country on the Planet: A Look at What Went Wrong. The Conversation. https://theconversation. com/burundi-at-60-is-the-poorest-country-on-the-planet-a-look-at-whatwent-wrong-186844 Hochschild, A. (2023). Leopold II: King of Belgium. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leopold-II-king-of-Belgium Kavanagh, M. J. (2023). Why Congo and Rwanda are at Each Other’s Throats. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-congoand-rwanda-are-at-each-others-throats/2023/02/02/6c47deac-a2bb-11ed8b47-9863fda8e494_story.html Krueger, R., & Krueger, K. (2007). From Bloodshed to Hope in Burundi: Our Embassy Years during Genocide. University of Texas Press. Masabo, F. et al. (2023). Transforming Conflict in a Post-Genocide Society: An Evaluation of the ‘One Cow Per Poor Family’ Program in Rwanda. Good Governance Worldwide: Governance, Public Policy and Politics in Africa. https://goodgovernanceworldwide.org/symposia/africa_symposia/

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Ministry of Education. (2023). Higher Learning Institutions. https://www.min educ.gov.rw/higher-learning-institutions Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (2023). African Union. https://www.minaffet.gov. rw/eac Mugabe, A. S. (2020). Welcome Note. https://cass.ur.ac.rw/Centre-for-Confli cts-Management RDFCSC. (2021). Notes for the National Security Symposium. Rwandan Command and Staff College. RDFCSC. Ruhumuliza, G. N. (2019). Kagame’s Rwanda is Still Africa’s Most Inspiring Success Story. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/10/21/kagamesrwanda-is-still-africas-most-inspiring-success-story Rwandan Mission to the UN. (2023). The Rwandan Mission. Permanent Mission of Rwanda to the United Nations. https://www.rwandainun.gov.rw/ The East African. (2022). DRC Turns Heat on Uganda, Accuses it of Supporting M23 Rebels. https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-afr ica/dr-congo-accuses-uganda-of-aiding-m23-rebels-4008366 TRT World. (2022). Rwanda Seeks to Exploit DRC ’s ‘Gold, Cobalt Resources’. https://www.trtworld.com/africa/rwanda-seeks-to-exploit-drc-sgold-cobalt-resources-58085 Udoh, K., & Folarin, S. (2014). Beijing Declaration and Women’s Property Rights in Nigeria. European Scientific Journal, 10(34). United Nations. (2022). 60 Years of Rwanda in the UN: Celebrating the Journey, Looking to the\Future. https://rwanda.un.org/en/ 216463-60-years-rwanda-un celebrating-journey-looking-future United States Embassy in Rwanda. (2023). Rwandan Education System. https:/ /rw.usembassy.gov/education-culture/rwanda-education-system/ UNODC. (2012). Republic of Rwanda. https://www.unodc.org/documents/ treaties/UNCAC/WorkingGroups/workinggroup4/2012August-27-29/Res ponses_NV_2011_211/20120523_Rwanda_English.pdf VOA. (2009). Kabila Accuses Rwanda of Trying to Profit from Congo Chaos. Voice of America. https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-kabila-accuses-rwandaof-trying-to-profit-from-congo-chaos/300086.html World Bank. (2016). Rwanda: Achieving Food Security, Reducing Poverty, Moving up the Value Chain. https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2016/ 07/12/rwandaachieving-focod-security-reducing-poverty-moving-up-thevalue-chain World Bank. (2023). World Bank in Rwanda. https://www.worldbank.org/en/ country/rwanda/overview

CHAPTER 8

It’s Not Goodbyes but See You Again: The Allures of Rwanda

Campus Blues The Rwandair WB202 from Lagos landed safely on the runway in Kigali, in the night of Friday, February 29, 2020. The captain had warned that the weather in Kigali could be unpredictable in January–April. It could be cold, warm, windy, rainy, and cold again in quick succession. As I stepped out of the aircraft and took the first breath of air in Rwanda, the breeze was a combo of fresh air and moisture. It was refreshingly cold outside. I took those strides up to the entrance of the “Arrivals” where a bold sign of “Kigali International Airport”. I felt some chills before I eventually escaped into the arrival hall and immigration check. The first couple that ushered me into the queue were some slim dude, about 6 feet tall and a smart-looking lady, who shyly beamed and uttered, “Welcome to Kigali”. She asked: “Are you with a Rwandan passport?” Having responded in the negative, she politely pointed to me, “go this way, please”. I navigated the path for foreigners, who are referred to in several United States airports as “aliens”. “What are you in Rwanda for?” the immigration officer, a bespectacled diminutive but friendly man politely requested as he went through my passport. I told him I was a university professor invited by the University of Rwanda in partnership with the Ministry of Defense to teach at

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the Command and Staff College. I would be teaching in the Senior Officers Course, I kept going on, the way we sometimes do whenever we are at a country’s port of entry, sometimes excitedly, at times nervously, sometimes overconfidently. “Arrggh, you’re a professor!” he exclaimed. “You’re a very young professor”, he said, with his eyeballs looking bigger under his glasses, fully focused on me in some harmless bewilderment. “Thank you”, I responded politely but almost disinterestedly, as I was used to hearing this everywhere I went. I would not know whether this was always a complimentary remark or something that should embarrass me. “Do you have an invitation letter? Can I see…?” I handed it over to him before he could complete the question. He went through it and looked at me again, asked me to look up to the camera, captured my face and went ahead to issue my visa. “You will not be paying for visa”, he said. “You’re here to help, for sure. Thank you and enjoy your stay in Rwanda”. He pointed in the direction to take, gave me a welcoming smile as I moved away from the immigration point, and made for the baggage claims. That was my first real encounter with Rwanda. The refreshing weather, warmth of the tall dude and shy receptionist at the entrance and that of the immigration officer, reassured me that I was in a country that would show me love the way I had loved her. First impression, they say, lasts forever. As I walked toward the exit, I made a quick call across to my number one contact person, Dr. John Peter Mugume. John, I would later find out, is a perfect gentleman whose softness would not betray his ability to multitask, work extra hard to put things together and indeed that he is the one coordinating all of the outreaches to the expatriate professors, programs on some security organizations’ campuses and ensuring all logistics for arrival, stay, and departure for all of us are perfected. I would later find out too, that John combines all these administrative and international networking for the university on the programs with teaching of several modules in the programs as well. John looks so gentle and soft, but he is a workaholic and loves Rwanda so much that I wish Nigerians could love their country the way he and many Rwandans that I have met, do. We would later become friends and academic collaborators and do several productive things together. John gave me the description of the driver and the SUV to be used in conveying me to Musanze. As I gazed around at the exit gate, trying

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to figure out from the crowd of taxi drivers who was to chauffer me to Musanze, I paused a little when I saw a cardboard with my name: “Professor Sheriff Folalin”. I did not need to be told that this was me, and that there may have been some misspelling. I beckoned to the card carrier and told him I was the passenger. ‘Welcome, Sir!’ he greeted. “Thanks, my name is Sheriff Folarin, so where are you taking me?” I mentioned my name slowly and emphatically, ensuring that the “r’ and “l” sound properly, for the purpose of correcting him. “Wecome, Plofessor Sheliff. We’are goimg to Nyakinama, Sir. It is about 3 hours from the airport. My name is Asimwe or Daniel”. In less than two minutes, I had seen my two names misspelled. I simply smiled it away. I am not given to getting uncomfortable or upset whenever my name is mispronounced or my first name is used along with my title to address me. I am accustomed to it. People call me “Mr. Sheriff”, “Dr. Sheriff” or “Prof. Sheriff”, instead of using “Folarin”, which is my last name. It was not that I never tried to correct them; I always did, but I gave up, when, almost 19 years after working at Covenant University, my own colleagues still referred to me, even on formal occasions as “Professor Sheriff”. Meanwhile, I am “Professor Sheriff Folarin” or “Professor Folarin”. Daniel did not realize that I called out my name while exchanging pleasantries to correct him. But the moment he repeated the mistake, I did not mind. You do not expect people with different culture or tongue to get the pronunciation or spelling of your name correctly. Americans, who have used the title “Sheriff” for their police chiefs for centuries and seen this name on their screens and neighborhoods all the time, still spell my name as “Sherif” or “Sherrif” or pronounce different versions of the name, most times. “Nyakinama, where is that? I thought we were going to Musanze”, I became curious. “Yes Sir, Nyakinama is a small town in Muzanze District, where the Rwandan Command and Staff College is located”. “Oh, I see”, I responded. “I would have loved to see the cities and villages in the daytime though. I had wanted to see the mountains, hills, valleys, roads, everything clearly. I want to know some of those places that I had seen in movies and documentaries”. Daniel smiled excitedly; you could tell that he was delighted to see a foreigner show admiration for his country. “I’m sorry about this, Sir. But I am sure you will see Kigari (Kigali) and those places before you leave. Are you a Nigerian?” Daniel enquired. “Yes, I’m. Why?”.

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“They told me that the passenger I am coming to pick is a Nigerian. I love Nigeria”, Daniel said. “Oh, really! Have you been there before? What do you love about Nigeria?” “I have not been to Nigeria, but I love to go and live in Lagos. I love Lagos. There are many big and fine buildings. Nigeria is a big country with a lot of money. People are rich and fine. Ah, your music and films are very good. Davido, Burnaboy, Wizkid. Nigeria, fine and rich people”. He was gushing with smiles as he excitedly told me about his feelings for my country. Blushing, I asked: “Do you know any Nigerian or have you met anyone from Nigeria?”. “No, Sir! You’re the first Nigerian I meet. Do you live in Lagos?” “No. I live in Sango Ota, which is a border town to Lagos. This is where my university is. But it is not too different from Lagos, except that there are seas and coastlines in Lagos, which Sango Ota does not have”, I explained to him. “One day, I will have money and go to Lagos and work”. Daniel was obviously obsessed with Nigeria and Lagos in particular. This happens always. If you have never visited a place and base your judgment on the good images that you hear or see on the screens, you will have dreams and fantasies. Yes, Lagos is beautiful. Abuja is quite beautiful and Ibadan is beautiful too. Owerri, Uyo, Kaduna, Abeokuta and Jos are beautiful too. But the conditions in Nigeria at the time Daniel was fantasizing about Nigeria were horrific. Boko Haram and bandits were on the prowl in most cities of Nigeria, just as social infrastructure was declining. Yet, the movies and music project Nigeria well, anytime. This is the error of judgment many African immigrants make in their ill-fated decisions to cross the Sahara or Mediterranean in the desperate bid to go to, and live in Europe. Daniel’s case was different. He is an African that loves another African country. It is just that his judgment at the time was based on the good sides that are shown in Kigali. He did not know the ugly side, which might make Nigeria unattractive at the time. Well, 200 million people lived in Nigeria in 2020. I was one of them, and we were living happily and prosperously. So, if Daniel’s dream worked, he probably would have been lucky to live happily in Nigeria too. But, it is a game of chance. Not only in Nigeria’s case, but in all countries’ cases. I reflected on the driver’s happy deposition. It happens to all of us, even me. I had always loved Rwanda, and here was I, in Rwanda for the

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first time. I did not even come to see the mountain gorillas in Musanze or the zebras in Akagera. I was here to add my quota in a focused and positively ambitious country. Daniel did not know how much I loved Rwanda until I told him. I mentioned to him that I had set my mind on Rwanda since 2011–2012, and that for some important reasons, I could not come. I told him how much desirable visiting his country was for my family and I and that we could have been here as far back as 2015. He was elated, but when I said my first visit was going to be a short but quite busy one, he was sad. “You can stay longer if you want”, he said. Smiling, I explained to him that it was not that easy, as my coming was a very formal one, tickets had been bought, hotel paid for and scheduled for a particular number of days and that above all, it would take administrative reprocessing, which takes a long time to get approved, for anything to change. It was then that he advised that I try to get some time after daily engagements to at least enjoy the beautiful sceneries in Musanze. I did not believe that I would want to see anywhere in Musanze. My knowledge of Rwanda was centered on Kigali alone, and would prefer Kigali alone. I had that feeling that the visit might be an intellectually engaging and extremely boring one. However, the thinking that I could catch a glimpse of Rwanda from any district or town for the few days in the country, excited me a bit. I requested a place that I could change some money and buy a Rwandan mobile telephone line. He nodded and marched on the throttle to get to our destination before 1.00 a.m. The drive from Kigali International Airport was a quiet one. I had arrived at 9.20 p.m. and been cleared at the airport to go at about 10.00 p.m. Kigali at night was charming. There were multiple turns and bends, and hilly roads and trees. Sidewalks, streetlights, flowers, and trees were everywhere. The houses sitting on hills, down the valleys, and on the sides of the well-laid roads, were illuminated in different colorful lights. Nature was meeting urbanity. Kigali was a beauty. The drive from the airport through the city to the highway that would take us to Musanze was a long one. Daniel was driving slowly; I did not know the reason. For me, at such a quiet and traffic-free time of the day, I would be on 80 km per hour in my Toyota Forerunner or my wife’s Explorer or on 62.1371 miles (100 km) in my S80 Sedan. Lagos motorists are the typical examples of “never say die” when it comes to speeding on good roads. I am a much better and more careful driver. Lagosians (as people living in Lagos are called) will not march the throttle

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to anything less than 74.5645 miles (120 km) per hour on a good trafficfree road. An old friend, Banky (of blessed memory) considered my 37.2823 miles (60 km) and 49.7097 miles (80 km) per hour as miliki style (gentle driving). I am miffed each time he says this but that would not spur me on to pressing it to 62.1371 miles (100 km) or 74.5645 miles (120 km). My elder brothers too take delight in calling my driving jenkele (slow) or “professorial” (too careful, which was short of saying being old-fashioned). The name-calling would not change my speed limit. Now, what no one understands is that, my driving is often calculative, and that on bad or traffic-bogged roads, I drive with lots of calculations. I overtake always, but with calculations. I get to 74.5 miles per hour sometimes with calculations. I do not drive recklessly. I speed with sense. I am a strategic driver. Overtaking recklessly or marching the pedals to 86.992 miles (140 km) per hour does not make you a good river. In fact, it makes you a terrible driver. Daniel’s speed, however, beat my imagination. We were going at a snail’s speed, like 30 km per hour. I did not want to ask him or urge him to speed. I really do not do that to other drivers or motorists, as I believe everyone has a reason for driving the way they do. Correcting drivers or urging them to speed up is considered rude and delicate by me. I could help with reminding them of their seatbelt or pointing to the pothole or traffic sign ahead when they do not seem to pay attention. I would also warn anyone driving me not to drive beside heavy-duty tankers or container trucks; they could be either behind or ahead of such dangerous vehicles. A polite way I tried to make Daniel see the need for urgency was by asking him if he would be returning to Kigali immediately he had dropped me off in Nyakinama, Musanze. He answered in the affirmative. “So, how would you do this? You would drop me off at 1.00 a.m. and return to Kigali by 4.00 a.m. How is that possible?”. “Ah! It’s possible. I do this every time. Kigali is very safe. Rwanda is safe. No thieves, no rebels, nobody”, he said with an air of confidence and pride. “See them”, he pointed to couples, kitted in winter jackets or coats crossing the roads or walking down the streets at such odd hours. “At 1.00 am, or even 2.00 am, I will show you people going home or going out from home”. I knew Rwanda was one of the safest countries, but I did not contextualize the safety to include latitude and confidence to stroll and visit at such wee hours of the night.

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We got to a place that looked like a market and a park. It was busy. Nyabugogo, in Kimisagara. People were everywhere, buying, selling, jumping into or alighting from buses, frying and munching beef, and so forth. This was around 11.00 p.m. The SUV pulled up beside the road and Daniel excused himself and stepped out. He returned after four minutes and told me that the forex bureau office was open. I stepped out and joined him to the forex person. “It’s RWF 91,000 to $100”, he said. “Okay. But can I get it at RWF 95,000 to $100?” I tried to haggle. Smiling, he retorted, “Ah, no Sir! I give you for 92,000 last”. I changed $300 that night and became instantly rich in Rwandan Francs. With hundreds of thousands in my pocket, I could live like Bill Gates for even up to three weeks, if I wished. We walked away from the place and moved to the roadside. We saw a man in a small kiosk, selling from petty biscuits to exotic musical speakers. It was a one-stop shop for all kinds of wares. Pleasantly surprising was that he was also selling sim cards for different Rwandan mobile networks. I did not know which line was the better. But I was told that Tigo was better in terms of the seeming limitlessness of its data and functionality even when not inside Rwanda. Other networks included MTN. Knowing how exploitative MTN was back at home in Nigeria, and having used Tigo in Ghana before, I opted for Tigo (I learned it later became Airtel). With Tigo in my phone, activated and data subscription made to use for browsing and WhatsApp chat, I was connected to the world and ready to stay in Rwanda. I bought three wristwatches from the same trader, with the intention of handing them out later in Nigeria or the United States as souvenirs from my first night in Rwanda. The third one was given to the driver, who seemed not to have one around his wrist. All the “shopping” done, we were set for a real mountain climbing, a kind of car hiking. At a junction, with one road leading to Huye and the one to the right leading to Musanze, we began the real journey and mountain climbing. The SUV was capable of any rough terrains, but it moved even more slowly than it did inside Kigali. So, what now? The driver explained to me that the road had speed limits everywhere that must be complied with; failure would attract the cameras taking shots and fine of RWF 25,000 for each violation. He pointed at a nearby camera and I began taking note of them. All kinds were there, monitoring speed and violation. It was at that point that I realized the reason for our tortoiselike movement all along. Given that vehicles were to speed at 100 km per hour on those well-tarred roads, Musanze would be only one hour or a

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little above in distance. It makes sense too, to drive slowly. The turns and curves would naturally slow down the movement of vehicles. Moreover, the heavy-duty short and long trucks cannot climb hills that fast; the vehicles behind them would slow down ad drive with much patience to get a clearer opportunity to overtake them. Generally, vehicular movement is slow on those hilly roads. We got to Nyirangarama, a sort of travelers’ rest place, where all commercial vehicles and private motorists traveling to or from Kigali toward Northern Rwanda would stop for between a few minutes to one hour (or more), to get some grubs, drinks, urinate, and move on. At Nyirangarama, there are some buildings by the roadside with fast food joints, restaurants, and bars. All sorts of local Rwandan and foreign cuisine are available here at the go—fried or roasted cow meat, fried fish fillet, fried Irish potatoes, beans, ugali, ibihaza, isombe, umutisima, and many others. I entered one of the restaurants and requested something local. While I do not really eat much quantity or eat all the time, I enjoy tasting something new when I arrive at new destinations. I am a kind of food tourist. I asked for a little of most of what they had. I cannot remember their names. I liked some and found a few tasteless. Overall, my stomach was filled and I enjoyed the new cuisine(s). To wash the combo down my throat, I asked for a cold bottle of “Skol”. Mind you, I do not like or drink beer, but I knew that I had heard that drink’s name many times, in that Congolese Soukous superstar, Koffi Olomide’s song. I wanted to find out what that was all about. After another one hour on the road, we finally arrived at Classic Lodge in Nyakinama, Musanze. Daniel was such a great person. We exchanged phone numbers, telling him that I would look forward to his returning to pick me back to Kigali after seven days. I did not know how these rental cars worked in Rwanda. I had even thought he was a driver for the Ministry of Defense or the University of Rwanda. He happened to be working in one of the many car rental companies in the capital. They offer services on a daily basis at the cost of $80–$100. You could use the vehicle for the entire day, morning to night. Daniel was not to return to pick me. That was going to be the last time I would see him. I have since changed my phone and lost his number. I am not sure I can find Daniel anymore and check with him, at least, about his dream of going to Nigeria. -------------------------------

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Ngoga and Joakim Ndagijimana (Kim for short) gave me my keys and helped me to Room 110. A blend of African tradition and western decoration. The room is in every way exotic. Not a suite (where I would be staying from 2021), but it had the touch of class. The blinds are like the East African Kampala material, while the sheets are multiple and thick. The king-size bed, two milk-colored sofas, a fairly large center-table, a reading table, exotic chandelier, and sizeable bathroom with Jacuzzi, with no air conditioner or standing fan. There was no need for it, the room was freezing cold. Musanze is so cold that you would never need an air conditioner of any kind. In fact, that night, after chills had nearly dried my bones, I summoned strength and in wobbly legs, walked to the reception to complain about the cold. I had called to speak with the receptionist, who seemed not to understand me, nor did I understand her too. “I’m freezing here; could you tell me where to switch off the air conditioner? If it is a central a/c, kindly control it for me, I do not need it. I’m dying of cold”. She did not grasp my complaint or request. After a while, probably after consulting a third party about my complaint, she called back to ask if I wanted a big hot water bottle to keep warm. I became upset. Hot water bottle in this kind of temperature that was about 40°F! What is wrong with switching off the damned air conditioner? Why would I need a hot water bottle when we could simply control the a/c? I got to the reception and made my complaint clear. The receptionists smiled courteously and explained to me that there was no a/c. It was just the weather. I found it difficult to comprehend their explanation. So, Kim took time to explain to me, and took me back to the room to prove their point. After some minutes, the hot water bottle came to keep me warm. It barely worked, but I managed it. The weekend was for me to relax and prepare for classes with the military men and women. I was fully prepared, all I would need was some moments to revise my notes and slides, and organize the reading texts. After some sessions of walking in the sedate community of Nyakinama, taking in the freshest of air and having a good view of the active volcanic mountains, I returned to the enchanting premises of Classic Lodge. I took some good photographs against the mountains just by the edge of the restaurant, took in more fresh air, and returned to my room. The next day was for a gentle walk and some reflections on the lectures I had prepared. After long hours of rest and revision, I called for my food. I wanted a simple barbecued fish and fries, the likes of which were common in Lagos restaurants. Then a call came from the Rwandan

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Command and Staff College, which was about 8 miles away from the hotel. Colonel Frederick Itangayenda, General Coordinator and Deputy Commandant of the RDF Command and Staff College asked me what time was suitable to pay me a visit. 7.00 p.m. would be fine. At 7.00 p.m. prompt, the colonel was at the door. Bright looking, fairly heavily built, smart, respectful, and highly courteous in approach, Colonel Frederick (as he is fondly called) cut the figure of a typical disciplined senior military officer. With a disarming smile, he asked if he could step into the room. I was glad to receive him. He started by welcoming me to Nyakinama and Rwanda and asked how the journey and my stay thus far in the hotel and community had been. After some background about himself, the college, and the program, it was time to let him know about me too. He told me he knew everything about me already. Both of us laughing, I asked him how. “Í have seen your CV Sir, and with a little bit of other background checks, I can say we know you and you are a good person for us”. Thereafter, it was a moment of truth. “I was expecting to see an old man, to be honest with you, Professor. We have been having professors who were old or fairly old. In your own case, you look quite young. After seeing your date on the CV, I still expected to see one big or large man. You know, in Africa, when you are a professor, you are either old in age, or look old”. We shared some good laughter after this, assuring him jokingly that the remarks were familiar and that I was working toward looking older after a while. Colonel Frederick urged me to enjoy the rest of my evening and have a great night’s rest, while wishing me a great experience in the college and Musanze in general. I would. And this started with what Kim came with to the room. It was a simple fish and fries I had expected. Kim and the only restaurant staff on his entourage came with the whole of Lake Kivu. He meant well, wanting me to have the best taste of Musanze’s cuisine. But the fish, a tilapia, was so big, I thought that could have been the King Fish in the lake. Mammoth. Well barbecued and looking delightsome, I knew it was my favorite meal. But this one looked scary, as I began to have pity for my stomach. The fries came in another large plate. I was sure I would not be able to eat more than half of the quantity. There was another plate for cooked vegetables; and yet another for fresh vegetables and fruits. Accompaniments included fresh juice cocktail and all sorts of sauces. Where would all these items go? They looked appetizing, but scary at the same time.

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Having taken some pieces of fries and a little of the meatiest part of the fish, I ate plenty of vegetables, some bananas and drank the entire juice cocktail. The rest of the fish and fries and other items were kept in the fridge. The previous day, at lunch, Ngoga had done the same thing to me. I asked for a local Rwanda dish and he suggested that I go for agatogo. “I gat Togo or I gat to go?” I jokingly asked him. “What does it look like?” he simply replied: “Sir, go for it and thank me later”. Twenty minutes later, agatogo came and it looked quite rich and enticing. But it was too much on the plate. Many meals built into one. It is made from several vegetables, with a blend of plantains, meat, spices, and collard beans toppings. Delicious and nutritious, it is a vegetarian meal. I am not a vegetarian or vegan, but I appreciate healthy eating. I also secretly thought such a meal was probably the miracle meal that is responsible for Rwandans’ slender frame. Having had a handful from Ngoga and Kim over the weekend, I thought I had to be more careful about what I asked for. Little things you ask for in Rwanda, seem to come in double. It was time to face the tasks I came for. Monday would open the chapter of my first major engagement in Rwanda. The driver arrived early enough. 7.20 a.m. My body did not want it, but I had to wake up at 6.00 a.m., clean, dress up, and get set for the driver. At 7.25 a.m. prompt, I was in the army salon car heading for Rwandan Command and Staff College (RDFCSC) Nyakinama. The Commandant and a couple of other college management staff were on hand to receive me. After about 20 minutes of chitchat and exchange of pleasantries, it was time to go to class. Major Ngabo was the class representative. He led me into the hall and what I saw startled me a little. I had mixed with soldiers many times in Nigeria and the United States, but I had never entered a classroom to teach senior military personnel. “Stand up for the Professor!” Everyone, about fifty of them, including some instructors stood up, remained standing until I got to the podium, and sat down. Military discipline at play, which is what stands them out. I requested them to sit and Ngabo came forward to the podium to introduce me, reading my abridged vita. As he read my profile, I gathered more confidence and immediately the first words to start the class to my head. I would start with how I had never thought that this was going

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to be my style of entering Rwanda, and that meeting or teaching military officers never crossed my mind. I only wanted to visit as a tourist and leave quietly. I would tell them that Rwanda was one country I ever consciously planned to visit, but that coming in this manner was symbolic and that it would be the beginning of the special bond I would have with the country. I also shared the experience about my chills in the hotel and the a/c palaver around 2.00 a.m., and finally about the heavy meals my hotel hosts wanted me to commit suicide with. These opening lines worked effectively as the class first felt emotional at first when I started with my humble Rwanda journey story, but soon became lively after with my jokes about cold, a/c, and food. The class came alive. I learned from some of the students that the military students were often taciturn until I arrived with my jokes, matter-of-fact disposition, and demonstration of ample knowledge of everywhere, including Rwanda. I thought quietly that I was not sure that I really know much, but that I had just been lucky to teach what I had mastered over the years. The class was the whole of the African middle and high command in one single hall. Rwanda, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Zambia, Senegal, South Sudan, Malawi, Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Botswana. This happens every year. After intensive sessions in the day, we close shop every evening and I head back to my hotel at 4.00 p.m. My first time at the RDFCSC was particularly exerting. I must give my best to the students and college that paid for my coming all the way from Nigeria. In addition, I must give a good account of myself, to earn the trust and confidence of my hosts and without question, employers. The feedback from students and other military instructors who were always auditing my classes was quite encouraging. Some students came to meet me privately to let me know how good the classes were and how explanatory the discussions and patient I could be, with the intention of ensuring the students understood the discourses. My friend and colleague, Dr. Mugume called from Kigali or Butare (I can no longer recollect) to check on me and let me know that he had heard some positive feedback about my classes. Those kind words and feedback motivated me to do more. Classes, like the days, moved at the speed of light. There was just one Nigerian student, Lt-Commander Okwori for the Senior Command and Staff Course 8 in 2020. Okwori was brilliant and energetic. Her contributions in class were valuable and informative. Her humility and teachability were the kinds that instructors and teachers alike would find compelling and inspiring to offer the best mentorship. There was something special

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about her being a Nigerian in my class. First, I knew that she would be proud to see her fellow citizen doing well in class. Second, I would be delighted and proud to see my compatriot perform well a student. So, it was a healthy challenge for both professor and student to do really well and make each other proud on one hand, and to represent our country well on the other. While there was no spirit of competition with other students or professors whatsoever, it was an unconscious sense of nationalism not to let our country down in the small hall of Africa in Nyakinama. I would not be surprised if other professors and students had this sense of nationalism too. It is never mentioned or scripted; it is what it is. A five-minute break happens every 45 minutes between 8.00 a.m. when the class starts and 3.30 p.m. as it comes to a close. A 30-minute tea break is observed at 11.00 a.m. and the one-hour lunch break begins at 1.00 p.m. In subsequent years, I would not find the intermittent breaks disturbing anymore. However, in the beginning, they came across as rude interruptions. With time, I understood it was part of the military culture, and aligned. Almost every evening, from about 5.00 p.m., I would request my driver from the college to come and take me out. Sometimes, I would remain in the room to rest, read, and see breaking news on CNN or take some time out to watch Rwandan television networks to know what is going on around me. Those evenings I choose to drive out, I would go to the main town in Musanze and feed my eyes with whatever is unique. In my first visit to Rwanda, I requested to be taken to the Muhoza and Busogo Genocide Memorials. Sergeant Jean-Baptiste (not his full name) was a pleasant man. He talked less and acted more. Beyond my requests, he would show me other things that I needed to know. He was the first person to tell me the history of Musanze in general and how hot it was in 1994. It was a solemn moment at the memorials. I was lost in thought as I went round and came to the listed names. All these beautiful names and souls were no more? Were the names of the dead, all of these? What would it profit a man to kill another man who bleeds the same red blood and breathes the same air all in the name of tribal sentiments? In the case of Rwanda, these were men and women of the same tongue. Nothing in particular divided them. Nothing. They were all Rwandans with the same language. If genocide happens in Nigeria—as it did in 1967 to 1970—it would be understandable. This was a nation-state of over 300 ethnic groups, who had never trusted one another. Apart from being divided by tongue, there

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were also sectional or regional interests that sharply contrasted and led to conflicts and breakdown of law and order. It is still the same story at present. If DRC slips into conflict, it will be understood from the perspective of deep ethnic and regional resentments among the numerous ethnic groups. It is not so for Rwanda. Why would a man wield the machete or club and hack down his own neighbors, blood relations, and compatriots? How difficult should it have been to commit such a gruesome murder? Yet the acts were done with excitement, commitment, and dispatch. After just one hundred days, about a million people were gone forever. Dead. Hitler killed 6 million Jews in years, not months. If about a million people could be killed within 100 days alone, how many could have died in just one year? All Tutsis and moderate Hutus, except for those that fled to neighboring countries, could have been murdered. This is the reason the Rwandan genocide is considered one of the deadliest in human history. Jean-Baptiste took me back to my hotel and tried to console me. He noticed that I had become quiet and moody. It was not the boisterous man he had chauffeured all along, particularly earlier in the day. He tried to talk about my plan for the next evening and if I would like to see the market downtown. The market! Yes, that would be a great idea. The next evening, I was at the Goico Plaza, a massive edifice that houses Musanze Modern Market. All goods imaginable, from petty stuff to the exotics are sold in that market. Sitting in front of this building is a big gorilla statue, which signposts the rich reserve of mountain gorillas that Musanze is known for. It is a four-storey building. Traditional Rwandan materials and artifacts were sold on the second floor. The only things I needed here were artifacts, to present to close friends and colleagues as gifts and to put around at home in Nigeria and America. I would return to this plaza in 2022 to buy more souvenirs for family and friends. In 2021, the experience at the college was unique. Lecturers, instructors, and students had to wear facemasks. We could not shake hands or come close to one another. We must maintain physical or social distancing of 6 feet or more. Hand sanitizers were everywhere on campus and mandatory washing of hands must be done before and after the class and lunch. It was the ugly era of COVID-19. It was a hectic time coming to and traveling on the plane to Rwanda that year. First, it was not certain whether the lectures would be in-person. Second, it was not certain if the calendar would be sustained. Third, was I

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even sure that I had not contracted COVID? The commitment that year was on shaky grounds. Eventually, Chantal, the strong woman of Center for Conflict Management sent her usual mail. I should sign a contract for that year. Shortly after, my flight ticket was forwarded. It was now my turn to keep to my side of the bargaining by not contracting COVID-19 and show up for classes in Musanze. I had my test sample taken in Ado-Odo Ota Local Government health center, and sent to the state government health facility in Abeokuta. A day to my traveling, the result was mailed to me. Negative. That guaranteed my flight to Kigali, but not entry, as I must remain COVID-free on arrival in Kigali. Those medical staff in Kigali, from the airport to your post, would be waiting for you, with their tools, to teach you a lesson about taking multiple COVID tests within three days. Your nose and throat would suffer. After departure from the airport, I was taken straight to Gorillas Golf Hotel in Kigali, where I was “detained” until the next day. By Rwandan Biometric Center (RBC) coronavirus rule, I must not step out of that hotel facility, not even outside the reception until my test sample taken at the airport the previous night on arrival had tested negative. The result would be sent to the hotel management first, and then the military authorities who would convey me to Musanze to their college, to the University of Rwanda (Chantal or John probably) and then to me. Phew! What a security network!! Anyway, Madam Receptionist called my intercom at 12 noon the next day to give me the good news. I had tested negative and could enter town or wait for the driver to come for me. I learned that the defense ministry had specifically instructed the RBC to hasten my test and deliver the result in less than twenty-four hours. It was a rare privilege for me to leave detention earlier than scheduled. Quietly I thought about the consequences if the result had turned out positive. Quarantined in a foreign country, treated at the expense of the Rwandan government, spent weeks in detention or isolation doing nothing related to my purpose of coming, keeping the students waiting endlessly, wasting Rwanda’s resources, suffering the pangs of coronavirus. What if it turned out fatal? People were dying en masse during this period. Thank God, I tested negative and had the clean bill of health to proceed. Musanze was freakily cold this time around. However, I was ready for it. I came with my winter jacket from North Carolina. Musanze is always cold, first because of its elevation of over 7000 feet above sea level, and

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second and closely related are the high altitudes created by the volcanic mountains. The classes were much more exciting that year. However, there was no foreign military student. Coronavirus had led to lockdowns and closure of airport here and there. I was even fortunate to make it to Rwanda as the lockdown had been relaxed in Nigeria few months to January 2021 and Rwanda had partially opened her borders during that period, although as the second wave hit many countries across the world, she would shut down once again shortly after my departure. I recall how it panned out in 2020. Just two days after I returned to Nigeria, early March, the country shut down. Then one country after the other, lockdowns became the trend. Rwanda shut down a week after Nigeria did and almost did not want to reopen anymore until about a month before I returned to Kigali in 2021. Some classes could not hold in-person because the professors handling them were holed up due to their countries’ lockdowns. It was an all-Rwandans affair in 2021, but the classes were enjoyable, even for me. The students were bright. One thing I have realized about military personnel in formal classrooms is that, they bring that discipline of listening more than talking to lecture, process the information well, and have lots of brilliant ideas, but may not share them until you bring them out of their cocoons. This is what I am adept at, and it always works. The moment they came out of their shell, the lecture room became a social laboratory to test ideas and perspectives. That year, Rwanda and Uganda (old allies) were in the middle of a diplomatic row. They had taken harsh measures, including shutting down their borders against each other. Rwanda and Uganda are cousins and Presidents Kagame and Museveni have come a long way. From the Bush War to liberation of Kigali in 1994, both had collaborated to create a win–win atmosphere for each other. For some years however, things had soured and ties were severed or suspended. For me, things like that make me curious and to see things for myself. As a journalist many years before, I was the correspondent that covered war and conflict for Nigerian Tribune, Nigeria’s first and oldest running independent newspaper. I had exclusively covered the Ife-Modakeke War episode in 1999 and had been dispatched to Saki, northern Oyo State to cover the Fulani-Yoruba conflict. On both occasions, I had crossed lines of adversaries to ask questions and take real-time photos of events. In Ife and Modakeke, I had escaped being killed in a crossfire between combatants from both sides at Akarabata and had been protected by soldiers at Eleyele as I managed to

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cross into Ife. The Ife-Modakeke conflict was like the Hutu-Tutsi conflicts of Burundi and Rwanda. People of the same ethnicity and language were engaged in communal warfare that lasted for so many years. Many lives and property, including cherished Yoruba relics were lost in the fratricidal warfare. Ife is the spiritual and cultural headquarters of Yoruba people of Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Ghana. My reports on the conflicts in Ife-Modakeke and Saki attracted some accolades and engagements from Reuters. In the end, I got rewards in cash from Reuters. I requested that the military kindly provide transportation to visit Cyanika, the border town between Rwanda and Uganda. They did and I headed to the border. The military driver I got must have received specific orders to protect me, not take me too close to gates and to respect the prevailing protocols on the border between the two feuding countries. However, as we got to the border, I promptly walked faster than the soldier that brought me and went (not too close) to the border security personnel on the other side, greeting them warmly. I quickly introduced myself, showed one of them my ID card, and shook their hands. They smiled, and knew I was just a harmless foreigner who barely understood the context of things. My soldier driver, having muttered some words to a security guard on the Rwandan side, waved at, and greeted the Ugandan border security personnel in another local language, as he tried to explain to them that I was a lecturer and a tourist from Nigeria. It was so easy thereafter that they even permitted, at my insistence and persuasion and considering the distance that I had traveled from Nigeria to Rwanda, to come to the Ugandan border, taking few photographs. I knew that flashes at the borders anywhere in the world were prohibited. Nevertheless, sometimes you try to push your luck or test the humanity of security agents. Pleased that I had softened the grounds, including creating a warm communication between both sides, I quickly presented some questions before the soldiers. They answered all. I reasoned that feud was easy to end if only we allowed our disagreements to be agreeably settled, if we become more reasonable and less rigid. Above all, if we see each other as sharing the same human and physical attributes, we would realize that each time we punch the other person in the face, we hit ourselves. I got to know that neither Rwandans nor Ugandans could cross the borders and that there were severe consequences for some who tried to do so. I was told that some had escaped through the eye of the needle while crossing and those individuals beat the security posts by taking nearby

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bushes. They said it was not their fault that they were hard on their Rwandan brothers and sisters at the borders; they were only following orders and implementing the foreign policy of their country. Absolutely, yes. My questions answered, I felt satisfied that I had gotten some data for future writing and a good subject of discourse in class the next day. The Rwandan military students would tell me their country’s side of the story and share their perspectives on the implications of the feud for country in terms of traditional alliance, trade and economic development, collective security against potential and real adversaries in the neighborhood, and so on. The class was lively, but everyone was too careful. I understood and after that session, we all put it behind us. However, I was going to administer a take-home test, which would dwell on Rwanda’s foreign and defense policy and how her border policies impinged on national development. The students would write as best as they could to earn high grades, and in the process, they would tell me everything they tried to keep away the previous day. If the 2021 set of students were quite good, the 2022 set was exceptional. They were unbelievably smart, intellectually inclined, and expressive with their ideas. Most times, they put the garb of military silence and taciturn approach behind in their rooms and come to class steaming hot with ideas. Among the regular contributors were two Rwandan male soldiers in Syndicates and 2 respectively, who sat close to each other along the aisle in the class. In addition, there was a Rwandan police officer in Syndicate 2; the only Senegalese in Syndicate 1; the two Nigerians (Abdulkareem and Moddibo) in Syndicates 2 and 4 respectively; the South Sudanese in Syndicates 1 and 2; and two bright ladies, Uwera and Jaqueline. They made the teaching easy. I could say that we easily understood one another, and the entire set was indeed quite teachable. The 2023 set was as hot as the previous sets. What distinguished them was their higher level of engagement and promptness in response to assignments, reading of texts, and questions or discussions in class. I learned more about the politics of COMESA, ECA on the one hand from the East and Southern African students, and about their individual countries from everyone. They were quite deep in their analyses and within the very first day, they had understood my style and knew that reading historical materials and being current in developments around Africa and the world would increase engagement in class. I was not disappointed. It was

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a roller coaster affair between us until one day, when we were discussing international, regional, and local terrorism. I had sounded politically correct about the FDLR, the notorious group made up of ethnic Hutus, among who were genocidaires of 1994. They had been targeting ethnic Tutsis in eastern Congo, killing them or raping their women. As discussed earlier, the intent of FDLR has been to overthrow the Kagame government, return Hutu Power extremists to the country, re-establish a Hutu government, dominance, and continue the genocide. In my outline of instances of terror groups in sub-regions, I had not mentioned the East-Central part of Africa, thus leaving FDLR out. It was not particularly deliberate although if I had remembered, I probably would still have avoided the Rwanda-Congo situation because of the delicate nature of developments at the time. This was not Nigeria, where I would feel confident to mention cases in my country and not mind who is pained. But here was a place where military personnel from the region were gathered and no one could say which direction allegiances or biases were. It costs you nothing to leave out the area and mention your own instances at home. Salman Rushdie, the infamous author, had written some damning things about Islam many years ago in the name of knowledge creation, but the Muslim world misunderstood him and declared a fatwa on his head. To this day, the 75-year-old Rushdie is not living like a free man. I have learned over time to avoid some topics in a large gathering, no matter how important they are. The students are free to mention the FDLR as an instance by themselves, which would be acknowledged as an excellent contribution in class. I would not object. However, one of the students in Syndicate 1 challenged me to mention FDLR as one of the examples of sub-regional terrorist groups. I looked at him and smiled the question away, making it clear that there was nothing wrong with his example, but that I chose not to mention FDLR or M23 in the discussion, and that M23 was also recognized in some international circles as a criminal group. It was better not to mention FDLR so that if M23 is mentioned as well and a Rwandan officer is heard by other African soldiers (an international community of sorts) defending M23, he would have given out his nation as truly sponsoring the group against DRC government in northeast Congo. My not wanting to discuss the matter was a tactical approach to protect the Rwandan officers in the room as much as I was staying out of trouble too. However, not too many persons understood my classroom diplomacy.

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Some members of the class, obviously not understanding my reason for staying out of the controversy, argued that FDLR was a terror organization as classified by the United States as far back as 2005. I did not object, but I said we should just move on as the UN had joined forces with the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) years ago to fight the other group. More Rwandan officers in the class added their insights and argued that FDLR was the terrorist organization. “We should call a spade, a spade. FDLR is a terrorist organization”, one fine gentleman said. Even when a senior instructor from Uganda, a female army officer intervened and tried to defuse the tension, the officers insisted that we did not have to hesitate to tag the FDLR with the terrorist label that it deserved. There was absolute silence from all the military officers from the other countries. They kept mute and listened. They chose to stay away from the controversial topic, the exact way I had wanted to ab initio. They seemed to understand me better. That night, I received friendly calls and messages from different quarters, to inquire in a friendly manner, the reason I played down the issue of FDLR’s designation. At this private level, I could explain freely why I tried to stay away from the controversy. Maybe they saw my point, but we agreed to address the issue once again the next day. We did just that the next day, with me coming out clear and calling letting them know that I would always classify the FDLR as a terrorist organization, but would prefer to avoid some controversies in a diverse setting. The same way that you would not decry homosexuality in America if you do not like it, there are some things you do not go near in other people’s countries. Elsewhere, including in books like this one, you could call a spade, a spade. Being misunderstood is not strange to me. As a human being, you sometimes would be misunderstood. As a scholar, the misunderstanding would be double. I am accustomed to it, so it is not disturbing when this happens. As for my friends from Rwanda, who had seen me as a strong voice for Rwanda, it was shocking to see that I tried to be politically correct on this one. One of them, who I regard more as a sibling frankly told me privately that she and others were shocked because they knew my passions and commitments to Rwanda. My friend, Colonel Kamasa reassured me that it was only a momentary misunderstanding. In many ways, I agree with the students. If anyone comes to a conference in Nigeria, mentions sub-regional terror groups in other countries, and refuses to mention Boko Haram, which had hounded Nigeria’s peace and stability

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for over ten years as one of the examples of terror organizations, I would be upset. Anyway, just as Colonel Kamasa predicted, it was a momentary misunderstanding; we settled all that in class the next day, and the applause, nods, and brightened faces that morning after my clarification showed that the “war” was over; and that there would not be a “mutiny”. I remained in power. I returned to Nigeria for my final clearances at Covenant University, my base for eighteen years and five months. Covenant ruled the Nigerian universities’ space for many years. Times Higher Education (THE), Nigeria’s best university for two years, one of Africa’s top twenty universities for two years, Nigeria’s number one university for several years in different accredited webometric rankings, and the institution with the highest employability rate of its graduates for so many years. Vision-driven and well positioned by Dr. David Oyedepo and the founding organization, Living Faith Church Worldwide (Winners’ Chapel International), a Christian ministry, the institution’s foundations were entrenched in strong Christian principles and moral codes such as discipline, responsibility, and possibility mentality. The institution is blessed with a cream of dedicated and disciplined faculty and staff, and a management that understood the vision and drove it enthusiastically, whether there are any pecuniary or welfare rewards or not. One of its values is sacrifice, which makes it understandable why we work so hard. One of the most versatile vice-chancellors was Professor Aize Obayan (of blessed memory). She was the instrument of the Covenant revolution. I worked closely with her. Professor Obayan, with experience from University of Ilorin in Nigeria and Roehampton University in London, brought her expertise and finesse the likes of which I had not seen before, to Covenant. She created what is called the Covenant University culture today. This culture may not be perfect, but it made the “Covenant Family” to be a happy one, with everyone ready to sacrifice their last strength to build enduring academic excellence. Obayan’s successors continued these legacies. Professor C.K. Ayo led the “One of 10 in 10” (Vision 2022) drive in 2012. His administration introduced a promotion driven by publications indexed in universally recognizable journals, books, and conference proceedings alone, and other metrics that were high. These drove the community of scholars positively crazy, researching day and night and pushing quality papers to those publications alone. The stakes became high, and invariably, the

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publications would lift the university so high. I returned to the international office as director during this period. I had been appointed by Obayan as the pioneer coordinator of the office on return from the United States in 2007. As the institutions’ head of international programs and linkages, Ayo drove me wild, asking for nothing but the best in terms of internationalization. “We brought you back because you started it and best understand the vision from the scratch. The Chancellor also believes so much in your abilities and is in support of you wearing two capsHead of Department of Political Science and International Relations, and Director of International Office and Linkages”, he once emphasized. We earnestly began, organizing a trip to nine universities in the United Kingdom in 2013. I followed up on the internationalization visits and ended up bringing Durham, Lancaster, Portsmouth, Roehampton, Birmingham, Teesside universities in the United Kingdom, University of Wisconsin, Ithaca College, Fayetteville State University in the United States, and 32 other academic and professional organizations to Covenant to sign or renew memoranda of understanding. Among universities from Africa received for bilateral relations were University of Johannesburg, University of Cape Town, University of Ibadan, and Landmark University. Professor Ayo’s successor, Professor AAA Atayero was a master strategist when it comes to taking the institution to dreamland “One of 10 in 10”. He initiated the ReCITe agenda, placing emphasis on research outputs in Scopus and Web of Science indexed publications, citations of publications as evidence of peer and global community relevance of such research, pedagogical and productive teaching, innovativeness of scholars and acceptability of hands-on experiments and intellectual outputs through patents and copyrights. Atayero pushed the university to the limits toward realizing the goal of being one of the best ten universities in the world by 2022. There would be no promotion to senior lectureship and professorial cadre until you first met some tough criteria: 70% Scopus index publications, university leadership, peer review, editorship of international or Scopus-indexed journals, professional bodies membership, and other tough requirements. We were going to face tough hurdles to scale to become professors. In 2017, using the Google Scholar h-index and i10 index, and the other difficult metrics set, a group of us scaled that hurdle and were announced as full professor of various fields in the university. The next few years would have no promotions as no one met Atayero’s criteria. This pushed them harder to be better, and while it may not be

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popularly received, it positioned them adequately for future easy scaling. From 2016 to 2020, Covenant was described as the toughest place in Nigeria and maybe Africa for upward mobility for scholars. Even those interested in sabbatical must meet our criteria or requirements. Doing sabbatical or visiting professorship nearly stopped as no one who applied from other institutions within Nigeria and outside met those conditions. The same fate befell external examiners and supervisors for our doctoral programs. It was either a minimum of 2 index in Scopus or nothing for such potential partners. Covenant had built me in many things. Apart from intensifying efforts in research and publication, leadership, and peer recognition, I had also become an inventor of sorts. During Obayan’s era, I created the international office, model United Nations society and tour guides group. Under Ayo, I created the university and literary and debate society (CULDS) and went ahead to lead the teams to national, continental, and global victories. During Atayero’s time, I was appointed as the chair of the United Nations at 75 international conferences, which turned out to be the only COVID-19 conference of the UN in Africa commemorating its 75 years of existence. CULDS also got great support during this period to win the public speaking contest in the Pan-African Universities Debating Championship (PAUDC) held in Kumasi, Ghana. It was all this energy and expertise that I was taking to University of Rwanda, RDFCSC and Texas State University. Rwanda identified the potentials and maximized it. This is why I respect the country’s leadership. They understand the meaning of utility value, experience, and expertise and enjoy it. After just few months in Texas as a visiting professor, they identified the same energy and experience and recommended me for editorship of a new journal issue called Good Governance Worldwide—Africa Symposia Issue, a publication of the Public Management Section of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). Nigeria has some of the best brains in the academy across Africa, the United States, and Europe. They have, and are willing to give much to Nigeria, but the system pushes them away by engaging and rewarding mediocrity, shutting down universities and other industrious sectors due to mismanagement and misappropriation of funds or neglect. It was time to leave Covenant and move on to reunite with my family. We had lived apart for almost seven years for professional reasons. For career reasons, and with my full understanding and readiness to live with it, my family had relocated to the United States since 2016. I was only

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visiting them from time to time and returning to Africa after such visits. Emotionally, psychologically and naturally I, as much as my spouse and children, could no longer bear it. It was a tough call to quit a university that had given me so much latitude to grow after almost two decades. In the course of my final clearance at Covenant University, I had to travel twice for my teaching and mentoring engagements in East Africa. From November through December, the University of Rwanda appointed me as a visiting professor for their new doctoral degree program in security studies. With eight students, it would be an atmosphere for intensive and robust classes and mentoring. The timetable was flexible, but sessions from 2.00 to 6.00 p.m. were intense. I was to teach modules in peace, conflict, and security studies and mentor the students toward thinking along possible research topics for their doctoral dissertations in the future. On arrival, I had met two other visiting lecturers, who had come from the partner Gothenburg University in Sweden. They had been around weeks before me and were rounding off to return to Sweden. The distance from Remera, where I stayed, and Gikondo, the university campus was not too much, but would take 15 minutes without traffic jam. In the evenings, it could be more because of rush hour to return home from workplaces or catch up with some social commitments or engagements. The CCM made provisions for my movement to and from the campus and sometimes for my personal affairs. Sometimes, my friend, Dr. Mugume would drive me home or to important places. Another colleague in the CCM, Dr. Innocent Rugaragu was always helpful. A Catholic priest, who had served as the director of the Christus Center with unmatchable record of achievements to his credit, he was instrumental in recommendation of the place for my fairly long stay and negotiation to get affordable rates for a suite. Sometimes too, he would check up on me and invite me to tea or lunch, where we would have long discussions. Set on the heights of Gikondo, the main Kigali campus of UR is an intellectual’s delight. Sitting right on top of the mountains, the campus is a place to take a great view of the highbrows of the capital city. The lush greens, trees, and flowers give it the quiet and tranquility a typical community of thinkers and eggheads deserve. Gikondo itself can be busy and noisy in the early morning and evening after close of work. The campus takes you away from urban noise and madness and gives you the auspicious space for deep inflections.

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To go to paradise, you will have to die; so it is for the campus. The road to the campus gate sharply ascends when you are arriving and sharply descending when driving or walking out of the campus. The road is steep and requires extra energy to ride a bicycle or walk up. When descending, it can be a jolly walk or ride, but you must be sure your car brakes are functioning. The College of Business and Economics are on this hilltop campus. The programs include business administration, transport management, procurement, logistics and supply chain management, insurance, banking, finance, business information technology, and accounting. The CCM is also on this campus, which explains my presence there for my teaching and mentoring engagement with the Ph.D. security studies students. I was familiar with doctoral students. Full-time or part-time, they are usually working adults, seeking more knowledge and the highest degrees either for knowledge’s sake or for upward mobility and universal engagements. With a Ph.D., if you know what you are doing and are an expert in your field of study, the sky will welcome you many times for productive engagements. This set of doctoral degree students were not different. They were experienced workers—some in the NGOs, some in the government at different levels, and few were university academics like me. They were easy to deal with. Mature and mission-driven, they took their studies seriously and never minded the 2–5 p.m. or 6 p.m. classes. It even worked better for me, as they could report to work in the morning and converge on Gikondo later in the day. The times were good for me too, which gave me ample time in the morning for research and writing. I could also take a light walk in the morning, take care of personal tasks, and have adequate time for preparation for classes. Odeth, whom we lost, sadly, in February 2023, was particularly inquisitive and teachable. She wanted to work on the coping mechanism for mothers whose children were products of rape during the genocide. We brainstormed several times on this and related topics, before she felt comfortable with the aforementioned. The other students, including Ibrahim, Valens, Nkubito, Gasare, Rosette, Patel, and Sam had their peculiar mannerisms that made the class exciting at all times. While Odeth was the inquisitive one, Nkubito is the reserved one, who smiles always, even if the class is getting too technical. His smiles make you know that your points are well absorbed. Patel and Valens are the busy government workers, but who are smart, sound and make useful contributions in class. Rosette is the NGO madam, who has a brilliant way of making

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you see reason why she would not be in class the next day. Ibrahim is the moving encyclopedia on the 1994 genocide, who enriches the class with personal examples. Sam Mushabe, my “twin brother”, is Mr. Niceguy. He is also the clown of the class, who always makes us have something to laugh about. The comic but intelligent and out-of-box interventions of Dr. Mugume always create relief whenever the discussions are getting too choky, while Dr. Alida sometimes comes to the party with smart instances, particularly when the topic borders on the genocide of 1994 and refugee crisis. It was a complete intellectual gathering. I may be the professor and lead instructor, teaching the Ph.D. students and mentoring my junior colleagues present, but my classes are structured in such a way that the other lecturers are co-instructors and we were all more or less co-learners. We have many things to learn from each other. During their seminal presentations, the students prove that they have adequately internalized all that they are taught or requested to read. We had many of such presentations. It was always tiring in the evenings after classes. I would want to dash to the hotel room, shower, find something to eat, and sit down to see the remaining World Cup matches for the day. Dr. Mugume often attempted to make me go for dinner at some places and have more time to talk, but I often had a way of making him leave me to pursue my evening goals.

Social Life and Street Vibes As an academic, my social life might not be that exotic. What I consider as places or things of fun might be weird or strange to others. My social life, taste, and choices might just be outright boring to others. So while others consider places like Fazenda Sengha and the likes as places of real fun in Kigali, I might just prefer to drive to Hotel des Mille Collines for a drink and to see the famous sanctuary for internally displaced persons during the crisis of 1994. This has played out in my journeys and visits to different places across Africa and around the world. Kigali in the evening never goes to sleep. I found this out in my November–December 2023 stay in Rwanda. If I do not dash out to grab dinner at nearby restaurants close to the Christus Center in Remera, I would request light dinner from the restaurant at the center. Benvita (I hope I have not murdered the name of this good man) had a special

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way of taking extra care of me. From the night I arrived in Rwanda and was brought to the center (a Catholic mission with the modest housing facility at affordable rates), the head of the restaurant staff paid attention to my cuisine. I was not surprised, as I was accustomed to the Rwandan hospitality and warmth of reception. The kitchen and restaurants had closed that night and the staff were getting ready to go home. The usual lecturer-chaperon, Dr. Mugume had escorted me to the restaurant and persuaded them to find something for their guest, who was arriving from a long journey. Benvita, smilingly and politely explained that they had genuinely run out of cooked meals, but that they could get me some fresh juice “to hold my body till tomorrow morning”. I smiled at the language, as this was common among Nigerians. Benvita is Rwandese and has never been to Nigeria. “Take this one, make you take hold body”, is common among friends in Lagos. It is a pidgin English way of asking someone to put something in the stomach in order to reduce hunger. Fresh mango juice was made for me. Truly, it held my body, as it was quite refreshing and hunger mitigating. That was the beginning of my special healthy eating at the Christus Center. Benvita, I learned, had given specific instructions to the restaurant staff to ensure that professor from Nigeria was well catered for. My breakfast was often a combination of many things. Cooked and fresh vegetables on cooked Irish potatoes, boiled or fried egg with air or oven-cooked fish fillet, some slices of brown bread, spicy or ginger tea, and fruit salad. These would come with wellskinned and cut avocado pears, which were a delight for me. Breakfast was not an everyday affair for me. In fact, the healthiness of the meals informed my taking breakfast three times in a week; otherwise, I have never been a breakfast person. Every day, I skip lunch because of my engagements during the afternoon. I look forward to the dinner because I knew as in store for me. Daily, I return to the room to eat some of the healthiest foods. Benvita is always in the details. God bless him. Remera evenings are archetypal of Kigali nightlife. Beehive of fun activities. The restaurants and beer parlors are alive and receiving guests from 5.00 p.m. Once the doors or gates are flung open from early evening, they may not be shut until 2–3.00 a.m. Some beer parlors do not close until 4.00 a.m. As I am in the sitting room watching soccer games from Qatar 2022, I hear the sound of hard beats from a distance. The beats, ranging from hip-hop, to pop, Afrobeat, and Soukous become louder as I retire into the bedroom around 12 midnight or 1.00 a.m. If I wake

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up around 3.20 a.m. (which has been my routine every night for three years now), the beats are still on and are much louder because every other sound, such as vehicular noise, has ceased and allowed the speakers to do all the noise production. I do wonder who would be dancing or enjoying beats late into the night and up to the early hours of the day. Sometimes, the sound of the beats goes on until 5.00 a.m. There is a big drinking and eating lounge right beside the eastside of the Christus Center; they share boundaries or walls. They open every day, and from Friday to Sunday, it is interminable partying, which an average Lagos boy will call “jollification” (enjoyment). The temptation or motivation to go there was out of the question. Even in my undergraduate days, I was tactically reserved and not given to such outings. During my national service days after graduation, I ventured a little bit into finding out what social life felt like. I was never brought up to be a night crawler or club person. My siblings and I had a triangular movement in our upbringing, which had a disciplinarian dad. From home, daddy would drive us to school. From school, we would be driven straight home. Sometimes, we would be taken to Bata, or Leventis, or Chellarams superstores, where he would buy clothes and shoes for us before returning home. At home, a gated mansion (in Kaduna in particular) where former colonial commissioners had lived, we would be in confinement and make do with bicycles, our dogs, and the numerous fruit trees, for fun. Mommy would be in her retail well-stocked and well-patronized grocery shop outside. We dared not go out there after school, and if we must, daddy must not meet us there. The gateman or security guard understood and would allow us to sneak out to ride bicycles or stroll out with our dogs with the warning to return home before 3.00 p.m., so as not to put his job in jeopardy of we were caught by daddy, who would return by 4.00 p.m. We used to stretch our luck. One day, luck ran out of us when a hitand-run motorist killed my elder brother’s dog, Billy. How would we explain to daddy that a dog, meant to remain in the premises had been knocked down the road 500 meters away from the house? We suffered severe consequences that evening. Another time was when we rode the bicycles to Ungwan Seriki and my bicycle broke down. We did not have money to fix it and we had not had the chance to sweet-talk mommy to give us some extra money during that period. Before we could “tow” the bicycle home, daddy had returned. Trouble.

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Daddy and mommy did not really make us the outgoing type. It must be books all the time. And for me, I fit in squarely and worsened it. I would not eat, even three days after, skipping meals just to read. Mommy got to know only after she saw that plates were not complete in the kitchen closet any longer. Her search brought her to my room one day; she took a step back at the stench of rotten food oozing out of that room. She sighted all my books on the bed and wondered where the stench was coming from. On looking down under my bed, she found about twelve pieces of plate with all kinds of rotten food she had served me days before. She wondered what I had been eating. Nothing but mangoes. I would simply go to big mango trees, pluck as many mangoes as possible, and eat. I loved mangoes and still do. The beating I received that afternoon was going to teach me never to play with her food or my health anymore. To this day, my 75-year-old mom still checks on my eating habit. Daddy never cared whether I ate or not; he was only excited at my passion for studying. In fact, the day my mom gave me a resounding beating for not eating for days, he was there to rescue me. By the way, daddy was the one that flogs his children, mommy was our rescuer, but the beat changed that day. Given my social background, partying or clubbing would be a strange culture for me. Even when I tried it at some points, I felt my parents’ were watching and heard daddy’s disapproving voice. The first time I tasted beer was when I was 19 years old. I was curious and tried two bottles of Star in the end. I was ferried home by those that forced me to come to the end-of-the-year party in Ibadan that night. I vomited numerous times and hated myself. I stayed away from it up to 2003. However, as a university lecturer in Ibadan, I had this sense of adulthood and independence. I pretended to be- or thought I was- mature and had come of age. I would gulp cups of beer and have a sense of belonging among my peers. I would force myself to finish one bottle and would move on to the next and stop. At that point, my wit’s end, everyone would see that I was not flowing with them. In Kigali, I was also too busy to engage in night crawling. However, when things become too boring, I would take a walk to downtown Remera, branch off at the lounge to consume fish brochette and fries, and wash it down with one small bottle of Virunga or Primus. As I said at some points in this writing, I am a food tourist; whatever is peculiar to the place I visit is what I wish to have. In Togo, I often settle for XXL (an energy drink made in the Francophones) or Awoyo or Eku, while in

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Republic of Benin, I would settle for Le Beninoise. Whenever I am in Ghana, I try Club Premium. I do all these socially or whenever I am in another country, where I want to taste the locally made drinks. I am an occasional drinker as I do not like beer, I do not consider it healthy, and my Christian faith frowns at drinking. What I consider healthy alcohols are red wine and the local African drink, palm wine. Rwandans love booze, plenty of it. For a country that has a Francophone background, it is not surprising. French Africa enjoys a life of fun with plenty of alcohol. I might be wrong, but places I have seen or heard of, in comparison to Anglophone countries demonstrate an unusual love for beers. In Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Gabon, Ivory Coast and parts of DRC, in every 2 miles stand at least two bar-restos. At every corner in residential and commercial areas are joints to consume alcohol—from simple beer parlors to exotic lounges and open fields, there are beers, spirits, and wines for ever-coming customers. It is rumored that in France, the metropolis for Francophone Africa, pleasure of all kinds is a part of the culture. French people I have seen or met in Africa or elsewhere are more fun loving than the British man is. Thus, the trajectory in Rwanda and other countries that France had influenced culturally, venerate pleasure and sociability like their former colonial masters. I discovered two Nigerian restaurants in Remera. These are the jollof food shops. Jollof is the cooked spicy red rice popular in Nigeria and Ghana. The debate and contention on which is more delicious had generated a “jollof war” in West Africa that last lasted for ages. It is a “friendly war”, but which keeps expanding beyond the shores of Africa. It was a Saturday and I was bored after long hours of reading. I needed a good walk and a taste of Naija on the long run. Someone had hinted me that there was a Nigerian restaurant downtown. The walking was a form of exercise and would lead me to a nice food joint, so it was worth the effort. I sighted the place. It was in the middle of a long street, which was locked down against vehicular movement. I later learned that this was the practice in Kigali. From Friday to Sunday, some streets filled with bars, clubs, and food shops are shuttered until Sunday evening, to allow for unencumbered weekend-long enjoyment. This is how Kigali rolls every weekend and makes life easy for every social animal. All work and no play…. In the course of my discovery, I met a Nigerian, Gbolahan, and his Ugandan fiancée. Much younger to me no doubt, but as my kinsman in a faraway country, he became a kind of brother. Gbolahan had come to

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Rwanda some years ago, and had settled in well, doing his legitimate business. He is a talented soccer player and soon joined a club in the modestly evolving Rwandan Premier League. He told me how he had met his fiancée when things were not looking good for him, and how the woman had accepted him the way he was. He compared his Ugandan fiancée with his Nigerian compatriots and Rwandan women, who he described as “loving” only men that could lavish money on them. He argued that Rwandan and Nigerian women are cousins, “loving” only men with money, but that the only difference was that Rwandan women may be more considerate and patient if sometimes do not have the money. The Nigerian variant, whom he called the “pepper dem girls” or “chop money gang”, would rather move on behind you with anyone else, even if it is your wealthy best friend, if you stopped providing for the girls. I did not know whether to agree with him, but I just kept on listening as I sensed that he might have had some brushes with women in Nigeria and Rwanda, and was speaking competently from experience. From Gasabo, Kicukiro, and Nyarugenge Districts, I moved in the SUV or car assigned to me or commercial motorcycles. Motorbike is a major means of transportation within Kigali. I would not dare motorbike in Sango-Ota in Ogun, Nigeria, because of the recklessness and lawlessness of the operators. Then there is no law mandating riders to use protective helmets. Moreover, I take pleasure in driving the comfort of my SUV for bad roads and the sedan cars for journeys to or within Lagos and Sango-Ota. In Kigali, for short distances to my housing facility, I walked down to see places and meet people to greet them or ask questions. I did not really make many friends in Kigali, but I have many acquaintances, who became quite useful in the course of collecting oral data. They were always willing to talk to me, take me to different areas of social activities, and help me with knowing places of research interest. Sometimes, they kept me company to restaurants or to such places as the Kigali Genocide Memorial, Convention Center, Kigali (now BK) Arena, Amahoro Stadium, and Kigali Heights. The closing day of the 2022 National Security Symposium was my first real day of fun in Kigali. After the official ceremonies, faculty and some military friends stayed in the open reception right on top of the hill where the premises for the symposium is located. From around 2.00 p.m. in the afternoon, a handful of us, from different countries, including our hosts, bonded, networked, discussed ongoing research, and shared ideas on new ones; we even chattered, ate, and wined, right into the night. Our

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drivers with the assigned SUVs were patiently waiting for us. It was great fun for me. By the time it was time to leave for my hotel room, I was exhausted and went into a deep slumber until I found myself right in my room. Sam, my driver was such a kind man. He had carefully packaged my things, collected my room key from the front desk, and placed them on the bed. Then he had returned to wake me up to go to my room. I did not know how I walked to the suite on the first floor. When I asked him the next day, he said he had guided me but that I had without being held walked upstairs and that I had greeted the hotel staff warmly on my way up. On reflection the next day, I realized that I had slept off immediately I entered the car and was half awake, but not fully conscious of happenings around me, until I got into the room and showered. My conclusion was that physical exhaustion to the point of unconsciousness caused by working oneself out was real. Musanze is often more exciting for me. I love nature. Again, conservative and emotionally attached as I have always been when it comes to places I visit, houses or hotels I stay in or cars I use, the fact that Musanze was the first place in Rwanda I ever stayed got me seriously attached to it. Although less flamboyant, I prefer Musanze to Kigali. The temperate weather, beautiful terraces, green fields, and numerous trees all over the city fascinate and soothe me. The quiet or less busy roads, more friendly people, and natural food and drinks, including banana beer entice me more than the showmanship of Kigali. As big, beautiful, and lively as Lagos is, I do not like the city. Tens of millions want to flock to Lagos. But not me; leave me in the sedate city of Ilorin or Ibadan, the colorful sights of Owerri, or the enchanting terrains of Abuja (the quiet and remote parts). I do not want Lagos. Kigali, as beautiful as it is, will come second to Musanze for me. Some parts of the town such as Nyakinama look like Aningeje in Cross River State (Nigeria) where I had my mandatory one-year post-bachelor’s national youth service and Aneho near Lomé in Togo. My first impression of Nyakinama was that it has a striking semblance with both towns, of which I have fond memories. Of all the relaxation points, Ubwiza Garden, located not too far from my hotel and the Command and Staff College, is my favorite spot. It is a large, gated privately owned garden with open and private bars. There are all sorts of local and continental cuisines. The place is also a rented venue for social functions such as weddings, birthday parties, and social club meetings. The place starts getting bubbly from 6.00 p.m. and becomes quiet from 10.00 p.m. on weekdays. The breezy atmosphere, privacy it

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offers, and romantic nature of the environment make the place a lovely hideout. On weekends, it can be busy till 12.00 midnight. Outside Classic Lodge, my hotel garden or pool area, Ubwiza is my corner for relaxation in Musanze. Fatima Hotel is one place that attracts the high and mighty and regular folks, including fun seekers who may want to swim with their families or friends in the big pool, play different games or meet people from all walks of life, but I have visited the place only twice. For me, it was too noisy and offered little in terms of my definition of pleasure. There was nothing special. My visit to Rubavu (formerly Gisenyi) and Lake Kivu in December 2022 was a pleasant one. Lake Kivu runs through Rwanda and DRC. It is one of the Great Lakes of East-Central Africa. With a depth of 727’, is quite deep but safe for swimming. It has no dangerous animals such as hippos or crocs and empties into the Ruzizi River, which flows southward into Lake Tanganyika. The beauty of Kivu Lake is that it has massive hills around, which stand so tall right in the middle of the waters. From a part of the beach, you can see the DRC and Rwandan ends of the mountains and waters, and farther away is Uganda, according to professional fishermen and anglers around the beach. Most of the well-grilled and sauced delicious monster fish Kim and his entourage serve me in the hotel are taken from the freshwaters of beautiful Lake Kivu. There are so many lounges and playgrounds. The place is a tourist destination, where you meet people from all parts of the world, all day long. Boat riding, mountain hiking, and swimming in the beaches are offered to visitors at moderate fees. Without doubt, Rubavu is one place I will visit repeatedly in the future, maybe with my family. One of the highpoints of my social life was the mountain climbing I was persuaded by the vice-chancellor of UR, his management team, and, expectedly, Dr. Mugume. It was after the Umuganda of the last Saturday in November 2022. I had actively participated in that monthly sanitation and movement. After the planting of trees at the base and on the edges of the mountains somewhere around Gikondo, we went for a community program organized by the Congo (Brazzaville) embassy and attended by the diplomatic community in Kigali. National ministers, Mayor of Kigali, and several ambassadors of nations were among those who converged to preach the message of community development and charge the people to uphold the principle of nation building.

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Tired, I could not wait to trek back to the campus with colleagues and the university students and have a good rest. However, as we walked along, the Vice-Chancellor engaged me in a chat, telling me about the institution, its role in community development service, and the school’s delight to have me on board in the system. As we approached the street to the campus, he looked to the left and suggested that we take a shortcut to the campus. Dr. Mugume instantly agreed, joining in the trap to make me go on top of that extremely high thing. I looked left, in search of the shortcut and did not see any. Then the head of the institution dragged me in the right arm, “Professor, let us attempt climbing this mountain and keep ourselves fit. Let’s burn some calories”. “I think I will pass. Climb this steep hill with what? I can’t even see the peak. It seems to have disappeared into the skies”, I said, apprehensively. Who would climb that thing? I do not want to die in Rwanda, please. I came here for something else. What if something happens, I slip and crash down from the heights? As if the VC could see through my thoughts, he urged me on: “Professor, nothing will happen to you. We will get to the top shortly. Let’s go”, VC said dragging my right arm once again and moving swiftly as if we were just going for a walk to the senate building of the institution. These were men like me and like the saying goes, “Naija no dey carry last”. With that self-motivation and that Nigerian courageous spirit, and not wanting to embarrass myself by opting out, I decided to take the risk. Who knows, I might even lose some weight immediately after all, I tried to give myself more motivation. The climbing was like taking a long walk to hell. It never wanted to end. The law that the higher you go the cooler it becomes had no meaning here. It was getting hellish and riskier. As I looked around me, I saw that while many seemed to be flying, moving rapidly up on the hill, I was struggling and taking my steps one at a time and looking for trees to hold. With the VC and his deputy’s help, and some push by some of the students with us, we finally got to the top of Mt. Mburabuturo, which, for me, was my “Mountain Kilimanjaro”. There was no other mountain higher than the one we just surmounted, not even the real Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. My legs quaked. My hips ached. My feet bones felt strained. Everyone showered attention and care, which were both soothing and embarrassing at the same time. On the long run however, I felt fulfilled. I had just had a health walk and I felt so light for two good days. So, this is what Rwandans do all the time? Why not, it is a land with a thousand

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hills. Houses are all over on top of mountains. These people were born climbing and will remain here climbing. It is a way of life and maybe this explains their slim fit body profiles. We moved from the edge of the mountain to the campus, and stopped by somewhere close to the central administration building for water and soda. We took photographs and had the opportunity to discuss academic business, including further collaboration opportunities for the future. Done, John Mugume took me in his car and drove me to Christus Center, Remera, where we had lunch and had a long talk, discussing a variety of topics, including things that are useful today for this book.

Rwanda, Intra/Intergroup Relations, from Personal Lens My field trips, tours, walks, social bonding, and campus life discussed in the preceding pages were eye-opening and informative, which helped my perspectives and contextualization of issues about Rwanda. Beyond the things that I read in the newspapers and books; beyond the images seen on television screens and social media, were things I personally saw, encountered, penned down, or captured in my mind. The Nigerian will say, “I saw them with my korokoro eyes”. I am a witness. Data collected or scooped from books, journals, government records or publications, news journals, internet, etc., were supplemented (or augmented) by the formal and informal discussions or chats with people and personal encounters. For instance, as demonstrated by some of the narratives or accounts, I participated in some of the activities or programs that feed into national development. The most important significance of my visits and encounters is that I saw Rwanda more clearly and without any influence or pressure. The personal experience gave me insights into the debates or arguments in the documented texts and media, and made me make my own assessment and judgment about Rwanda. Her true picture is seen, I know what she really is. Rwanda is truly beautiful and clean. When I drive around, what comes to mind are those searing images from the genocide as I wonder how those clean roads, paths, and neighborhoods today would have been littered with mutilated, bloodied and lifeless bodies in April–July 1994. From the hades that the towns were to the exotic beauty they now assume. From the graveyard silence and ghost town appearance of that

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bloody era to the hub of productive commerce and investment that she is now. From the critical state of infrastructure and collapsed education to the center of excellence that her major cities have now become. Rwanda is indeed safe. Before traveling to Rwanda, I tried hard to find cases of crime or the sorts on google. The only crimes that I found were the genocidal acts, crimes against humanity, and the terrorist strikes committed by the FDLR, which were a fallout of the genocide. I did not find reports of petty stealing, armed robbery, murder, suicide, rape, and so on. Certainly, there will be crimes, but when they are not common or commonly reported, algorithms will not bring them to fore on search engines. Just as it was reported or claimed by Rwandans, movement in any city, town, or village in Rwanda is safe at any time of the day or night. There is nothing, but the freaky cold at night, to fear. One would not expect a country so ravaged by insecurity since 1959 and which reached a head in 1994, would transform so radically into one of the safest and most secure countries in the world. The Rwandan police officers are patrolling everywhere in the corners of that country. Police officers are stationed in every major street and on the roads. Well motorized, they are at places you may not even imagine. Aiding security are CCTV and speed control cameras everywhere. The police have records of every single individual in Rwanda. The security agencies and people work so closely together so that you can tell that it is a network of intelligence sharing among every educated (and maybe uneducated). Most times, I am shocked to find out that as I have just finished at the port of entry with the immigration officers, the people at the university, as late as it could be, have already known that I have left the airport and that I was heading to my next destination. The next destination knows the exact name of my driver and the coordinator of the program that I have come for. The defense ministry has connected the university, and the university knows even the man that will take my bags to the room. The web is an interesting one. I wish I could describe it better. How will the nation be so vulnerable or susceptible to internal cracks or invasions, when the minutest of security details of even a foreigner or an ordinary citizen are so well monitored and shared among other national bodies. Even the hotel receptionist has already called the military high command or college authorities that you have just eaten dinner and have taken a walk or gone to bed. This could probably be the reason that Rwanda is sometimes described in the western media as a police state.

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If this kind of police state can guarantee personal, collective, and institutional safety, and makes movement and business sweet to do, then there is need for more of this kind of police state in Africa. The continent has been hounded by crime, conflict, and insecurity. We need a progressive “police state”, the type that has made Rwanda pop up in search engines when finding peaceful, beautiful, and safe tourist or business destinations. In this kind of situation, the internal and national security and defense of the nation cannot be easily compromised or broken. No wonder, Rwanda is one of the safest countries in Africa. In 2023, she dropped in position, as against 2020, when it was among the top 5. From a personal perspective, the disturbances associated with the DRC crisis, in which flashes of violence occurred around the borders in Northwestern Rwanda, may have informed the drop in the position. One of the things that I closely watched is the relationship among the people, particularly between the surviving perpetrators and victims or survivors of the genocide; and the relationship generally, between the Hutus and Tutsis. One thing must be mentioned. The people may not admit or tell you their tribal affinity, but if you are a careful observer, you can determine through countenances, facial expressions or reactions, nuances, or remarks when you throw up an issue bordering on the genocide, reconciliation efforts in Rwanda, or Hutu-Tutsi fulmination in nearby Congo. Sometimes, a mention of a particular city as good to live in could spark off negative reaction or reception, with your companion(s) describing how cruel the Hutus were to the Tutsis in such a place. You can tell that a Tutsi has just spoken. When someone tells you that he detests what his people did in 1994 and that he still feels guilty or embarrassed as a Rwandan, then he is more likely a Hutu man. To get the perspectives right, I devised that polite way of finding out the relationship among Rwandans along those two levels namely, perpetrator/victim or survivor and Hutu–Tutsi relations in this age of consolidation of national integration. How integrated are Rwandans? The first about this issue is that many Rwandans that I met described their leader in glowing terms. They trust and love their president. They believe he is the father of the nation and that he has genuine plans for the wellbeing of everyone. They remember his exploits and sacrifices over the decades to make Rwanda safe, free from ethnic acrimonies, and safe for everyone. They point to his accomplishments and proud they have become to be Rwandans. This factor alone, make many Rwandans forget their old tribal sentiments and forge a strong

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bond with their nation. This bond has created a new sense of nationalism that had overridden ethnic loyalties or allegiances. As I mentioned in one of the previous chapters, this generation has several millions of those born after the genocide and who live in a hip-hop world where many of them see tribalism as old-fashioned, backward, and disgusting. They do not want to associate with it. This generation describes us as “too African” and does not want to see or do things the way the older generation does. Again, by not referring to ethnicity in national conversations any longer, the subconscious is preoccupied with one nation and not two or three, as it was. Furthermore, with national civil and public services, national military, a national university, and government’s presence in all sectors of the society, a kind of harmony and civic commitment to one nation is being cultivated and nurtured. Having said the foregoing, what about the average person on the streets? Is everyone fully aligned to One Rwanda? From accounts of those who spoke to me, there are still memories that cannot leave their minds and which make them not to trust their neighbor in particular and any man in general. Some persons still refer to some towns (names withheld) as hateful of Tutsis. They contend that they summoned a lot of strength in 1994 to slaughter so many Tutsis with the intention of wiping them off in the cities in question. To my surprise, these persons argued that those places are still Hutu enclaves and that they hate the Tutsis and often distance themselves from the former. I had sat somewhere with a friend before in one of the towns and we had talked at length about the intragroup relations in the town. He said no one talks about the past, but that there was an unwritten code about distance and maintaining of lanes between groups. Aside from the marketplaces, they do not associate or belong to the same circles. While intermarriages are multiple, with children from such marriages further narrowing the gap between the ethnicities, I have met many Hutu men married to Tutsi women and Tutsi women married to Hutu men; but I have not been lucky enough to meet someone who will tell me that he is Tutsi married to a Hutu woman. I have seen many Tutsis married to Tutsis because they no longer trust Hutu people, or can simply not forget the brutal acts committed against their father, mother, brother, sister, cousin, and so on. In some cases, even among the “hip-hop” generation, the stories have been passed on and few have allowed such tales define their circle of friends or acquaintances.

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I visited some online news platforms. One of them is phoenix news platform, on which readers could make comments, uncensored, unfiltered. I have read some unprintable remarks by some persons, using fictitious names, still calling Tutsis of Rwanda, Burundi and DRC as “cockroaches” and swearing that they would never allow those strangers to dominate their lands. One was particularly scary. Using the name “Asbestos”, he/she decried Tutsi scheme to take over Rwanda and expand their greed for power to Congo. The commentator continued, “sooner or later, we will still kill all of you”. Yet there was another scary comment: “uprooting those tall trees is just a matter of time. He (probably referring to President Kagame) can protect them for as long as he can, but he cannot do that forever”. The platforms allowed for hate comments and expression of hate. The commentators might not be living in Rwanda. They could be residing in neighboring Burundi, Congo, Tanzania or faraway France or some of the western countries. However, they were certainly Rwandans and could not be Tutsis. Sometimes, when I mention Kagame’s miracle in the country, some persons would rather not say anything. When there is something to criticize, deliberately, such persons’ face light up and they are quick to mention one or two things that had gone wrong or not going well. I concluded that while the president is quite popular among his people, there are still persons who detest his leadership and will not mind to see it end. Such persons have a soft spot for the “Rwanda liberation movement” militia group(s) in Congo. One interesting part of my findings is a particular woman, more likely a Tutsi, who was one of my most reliable respondents, who made it a pastime to show me persons around and asking me if I was able to identify their ethnicities. “Can you tell what that one is?” was her usual line. I would say but what if the government found out that we are on this line of discussion. Her response would be, “there is no government here; it’s just you and me and it is good for you to know what Rwanda looks like”. Once I got such a response, I became ennobled and comfortable to respond. “She is Tutsi, because she is tall and quite slim”. “Right”, my respondent would say. “And that one?” I would always guess right, until it got to another one. “No, you are wrong”, she quipped. “That one is Hutu. He does not have the face and head of Tutsi”. I objected to her physical characterization and reminded her that that was the divisive measure introduced by the mzuzu (whiteman) and that

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we must not continue with that stereotype. She would laugh and say “Yes, but the whiteman was right. He had opened our eyes and done the damage already. I fear and pray that one day, these people will not return and say that the head of my son is Tutsi head and kill him”. At that point, I stopped her and redirected her to our discussion, her education after the genocide. The mother of five children still returned to her line of discussion. She told me that in Rwanda, everyone wants to marry quickly and have many children. There are young couples with five, six, and nine children in Rwanda. Marrying two wives is not common in Rwanda, so one can imagine what it would take for a young woman of 30 to have three, four, eight, or nine children. My respondent shocked me: “Hutu wants to have many children. Tutsi wants to have many children. They want to have more population and remain in control. The other one wants to be more than 14% to be better than 1994”. I understood this. Population, according to her, is probably being weaponized for political power and control. Logical as the foregoing may sound, I do not totally agree. First, how do you deal with the demographics so much that you can tell who are Tutsi or Hutu families. There are so many people, who look like Tutsi and yet are Hutu, and so many persons you think are Hutu but are Tutsi. As said earlier, intermarriages are rapidly erasing Tutsi–Hutu–Twa distinctions. Again, you cannot wholly argue that there are three ethnicities in Rwanda. How do you define ethnicity if there exist just one language, one culture, and co-existence in all districts, sectors, and towns? Departing from the biased, simple, and awkward colonial definitions, a homogenous society like Rwanda can only be described as monolithic. Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa are creations of the Europeans. Going back to our analysis in Chapter 1, the only way to distinguish the three is by occupation and if those names were given to each of them, it has to denote their occupational activities. Tutsi were pastoralists and cattle herders. Hutu were farmers. Twa were hunters. They lived together and battered or exchanged their goods and services to survive. When the monarchy was formed in Bwanacambwe region near Kigali in the fifteenth or sixteenth century, everyone accepted the suzerainty of the Tutsi monarch. Hutus dominated the council, while a Tutsi was king. No rancor. No competition, mutual suspicion, or jealousy; it was mutual interdependence, understanding, and amity.

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I do not believe that stature or physical appearance should be a measure of ethnic identification of discrimination. As argued earlier in the book, the Yoruba of Southwest Nigeria, Benin and partly Togo and Ghana, have sub-groups with sharply contrasting physical features. The Ijebu, Egba, Ekiti, and Ondo Yoruba people, especially their women are the finest among the Yoruba people. The Ijebu woman for instance may be tall, light-skinned, and slim like an Igbo woman of Southeast Nigeria or like a Brazilian woman, from complexion to slimness and beauty, while the Ibadan Yoruba woman and man often look darker in complexion, thicker and shorter. Yet, they are all Yoruba people. Despite these obvious distinctions, we have not tried to say one Yoruba group is Ibadan and hails from one remote part of West Africa, or that the Egba and Ijebu people are another ethnic group that migrated from Hausaland, or that the Ekiti and Ondo hail from Benue River, and that as such that they are different ethnicities. The lie told and mistake made in Rwanda in the nineteenth century must be deconstructed.

CHAPTER 9

A Pictorial Excursion on Rwanda’s Transformation

This chapter presents a pictorial representation of some of the national landmarks, events, and personal encounters mentioned or discussed in this book. The lens of my camera captured 98% of the photographs. The few (3–5) photographs not taken by me are identified and credits are given to the owners. There are also maps and flags presented, with the meanings or symbolisms of the colors highlighted. The pictures are captioned to guide us on the events or places mentioned in the previous chapters. The captions are kept short, while the entire chapter is exclusively a gallery of my Rwandan visits, a sort of events, and analyses of them by other means.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 S. F. Folarin, Rwanda’s Radical Transformation Since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37011-3_9

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Rwanda’s Profile in Images

Source: W ikimedia Commons Map of Rwanda, s howing the provinces/regions and administrative districts.

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Source: N ations Online Project The political map of Rwanda. Bordering her to the North is Uganda, to the east is Tanzania, to the west is DRC, and southward is Burundi.

Rwanda’s national flag from 2001. The new flag is a horizontally striped blue-yellow-green national flag. In its upper fly corner is a yellow sun with 24 rays. The flag’s width-to-length ratio is approximately 1–2. The blue color symbolizes peace and happiness, the yellow color represents economic development and mineral wealth, while the green color epitomizes the hope for the

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country’s prosperity and natural resources. The golden yellow sun is a symbol of unity as well as enlightenment and transparency from ignorance. The government changed the flag, national coat of arm, and anthem because the old ones carried the echoes of the 1994 bloodshed.

Rwanda’s old national flag . This was abandoned in 2001 because of the country’s difficult past it symbolized or reminded the nation of. The colors were red, yellow, and green with a large black letter “ R” , which stands for “Rwanda”. The “R” was to distinguish it from the Guinean flag, which is identical. The color green represented peace, yellow for hope for development, and the red color represented the people. Red is often for revolution and struggle for freedom. The old flag had semblance with the Ethiopian PanAfrican colors/flag.

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This was the old Ruanda-Urundi flag, which was used when the two (now independent) countries were jointly administered by the Germans and later the Belgians. They are now known as the nations of Rwanda and Burundi. The colonial flag had a striking semblance with the German national flag. The only difference is that the German flag tricolor is horizontally shaped.

This Rwandan Coat of Arms, which came into effect in 2001, has a green ring with a knot tied at the upper end of the ring. On the top is the inscription in Kinyarwanda, “Repubulika Y’U Rwanda” (Republic of Rwanda) and underneath is the National Motto. “Ubumwe, Umurimo, Gukunda Igihugu’” (Unity, Work, Patriotism).

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The National Heroes monument showing liberation soldiers or freedom fighters. The monument is used to commemorate the liberation of Rwanda from a genocidal government on July 4, 1994. The gallant soldiers risked everything to stop the genocide and end tyranny. A standout group of liberators was the “600 Soldiers”, trapped behind enemy lines inside Kigali from the eve of the genocide fought for days against 10,000 Hutu-led government forces and rescued soft targets of the perpetrators at the same time. They were central in the survival of thousands even as the killings gained momentum.

RDF Command and Staff College (2020–2023)

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February 2020: A group photograph with Senior Command and Staff College (SCSC) Course 8 students and military instructors. The military personnel for this course hailed from Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Nigeria, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Also posing in the photograph were instructors from Ghana, Kenya, and Rwanda.

February 2020: With me were Ghanaian instructor in the RDFCSC and Ghana Air Force pilot, Wing Commander Kwabena Kissiadu Atiemo and SCSC Course 8 student, Lt. Commander Annabel Kemi Okwori of the Nigerian Navy.

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A rainy and cold day at the College. My third day in the College premises in 2020. The RDFCSC was created in 2012 “to prepare selected officers for higher appointments by developing their command and leadership skills; through providing broad understanding and knowledge of single and joint services, combined and interagency operations” (Source: RDFCSC website).

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Staff-Sergeant Muhirej was the studio/ICT guy for my classes for three consecutive years. Such an easy-going and disciplined soldier, he is currently on Rwanda’s peacekeeping mission in Mozambique.

January 2021: With SCSC Course 9 students (The COVID-19 set). This year, only Rwanda military and police officers could attend the course due to the global lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic.

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February 2022: SCSC Course 10 students at the RDFCSC . Military personnel from 10 African countries, including Rwanda and Nigeria attended this Master of Arts in Security Studies course.

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One of my SCSC Course 10 s tudents, Navy Commander Olajide. Abdulkareem of the Nigerian Navy, poses with me.

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January 2021: at the Rwanda–Uganda border after Cyanika. This border, like all the land borders between Rwanda and Uganda had been shuttered due to some diplomatic rows between the two allies.

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February 2023: SCSC Course 11 s tudents. 12 African nations were represented here.

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February 2023: With the two Nigerian military officers, Majors Zach Andrew Ugwu (left) and Mohammed Yusuf, who participated in the SCSC Course 11 Master of Arts in Security Studies in Nyakinama-Musanze.

National Security Symposiums Photos below were taken on different days during the 2022 National Security Symposium (NSS) in Kigali, May 2022.

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1st to 3rd above: During a session of the NSS in May 2022; SecretaryGeneral of Francophone Community in Africa, Loiuse Mushikwabo (middle) and Minister of Defense, Major-General Albert Murasira (left) at an NSS plenary session; a cross-section of invited guests and SCSC Course 10 students at a session of the NSS.

Guests, facilitators, faculty, and RDFCSC participants at the closing ceremony of NSS 2022.

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With Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, African Union (AU) Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace & Security at NSS 2022.

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A g roup photograph with Ambassador Bankole Adeoye and t wo SCSC Course 10 Nigerian s tudents, Major Moddibo & Lt. commander Abdulkareem Olajide.

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NSS after-party: Some RDFCSC professors (first right and me second from left) and a military instructor, with an NSS guest speaker, Dr. Ademola Kazeem (first left) from Nigeria’s University of Lagos.

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W ith University of Lagos’ Dr. Ademola Kazeem, one of the g uest s peakers at the NSS. Behind us were other colleagues, including prof. Apuuli, Dr. K iamba, and company.

W ith another RDFCSC l ecturer, University of Nairobi’s Dr. Anita Kiamba.

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W ith an “ engine-room” in the NSS organization and RDFCSC s enior s taff, Lt-C olonel Tanzi Mubaturika.

At Genocide Memorials and Other Genocide Images This is one place that will bring anyone, even adults, to tears. It is a repository of the genocide relics, remains of human skull, graphic photographs of killings, the killers and their victims , and details that will break hearts. Included in this section are photos of some victims of the genocide shared with me by their siblings or relatives.

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I was paying tribute to the dead at the main genocide memorial in Kigali. Beneath the three massive graves in this memorial are over 250,000 bodies.

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Behind me in this Kigali Memorial are photos of some of the over 1,000,000 persons (couples, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, entire families) massacred during the genocide against the Tutsis .

Few of the tens of thousands of skulls of genocide victims on display in various genocide museums . Many of these skulls were remains of victims recovered from churches , where they were massacred. Killing Tutsis and their

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Hutu helpers in churches under the supervision of their pastors or spiritual fathers, with the supervision of government officials, including mayors or burgomasters, was commonplace between April 7 and July 4, 1994. Credits to Kigali Memorial, where this shot was taken.

The major weapon of operation during the genocide was the machete (left) in the background photo. The architect of “something big” or the “apocalypse” and “our people are going to work” with that weapon of death, Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, can be seen in the image on the right. He died in Mali at the age of 80 while serving a prison term for genocide and his multiple crimes against humanity.

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The Interahamwes were trained and mobilized with weapons by the Rwandan Hutu army, to kill without mercy in 1994. This photo captured on my second visit to the genocide memorial in 2021 shows real members of the Hutu militia group, who were responsible for most of the massacres in Rwanda. Many of them, who fled to DRC in July 1994, are the brains behind the FDLR, terrorizing Eastern DRC, Northwest Rwanda and targeting the Kagame government.

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Children were not spared. In fact, they were the easiest to kill. Hutu extremists smashed their heads against the walls or on the floors, or simply butchered them with few blows of the machete. Bellies of pregnant mothers were ripped open and the babies were pulled out and chopped. This shot was taken in Kigali Memorial before the strict enforcement of ban on cameras.

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One of the Genocide Memorials in Musanze. Beautiful and enchanting as it may seem today, the city of Musanze was one of the deadliest places during the genocide. The tomb behind has hundreds of the remains of the victims , who altogether were in their tens of thousands in the huge Musanze (formerly Ruhengeri) District.

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Muhanga (formerly Gitarama) had a horrible reputation of being a major killing field during the genocide. In this photo, captured by Wikimedia Commons, is the Genocide Memorial , where 6000 victims of genocide were buried.

Hotel des Mille Collines was a sanctuary for 1268 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in April–July 1994.

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Hotel des Mille Collines from my room on the 9th floor of Ubumwe Grande Hotel at Nyarugenge.

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Nyirarukundo Francoise Mignone, the beautiful elder sister of Ms. Uwera, a Tutsi. The only photo of all the members of her family she could salvage and keep. The woman in this photo was among Uwera’s seven siblings that were hacked to death by the Interahamwe in their home somewhere near the airport and whose bodies were dumped in their pit latrine. Several months after the genocide, the new government removed the remains of the woman and the siblings killed and gave them a proper burial. Meanwhile, the remains of her dad and two of her brothers, burned along with other refugees inside an Anglican church, are only skulls, which are deposited in a genocide memorial in Kigali.

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Two generations of Rwandans now exist: Genocide survivors , who saw hell and by some providence or divine help, were preserved; and the “hip-hop” or “we move” (new) generation who simply do not totally understand what happened and do not know ethnic divisions. This photograph represents these two generations. The two women (second left and middle) are the older generation. The rest just want life to remain good. For them, it is oldfashioned and backward to talk about 1994 resentments. Some know the story, but do not even care to know who is Hutu or Tutsi today. This is good for Rwanda.

People, Places, Sights, and Social Life in Rwanda

A typical hut in rural Rwanda. Roofed with thatch and built with clay, inside the huts is cold all day. These huts, built on hilltops, valleys, and flat grounds, come in different sizes and shapes and are usually farmhouses or family homes in the villages.

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One of the many statues of gorillas in Rwanda, particularly Musanze, whose hills and jungles are famous for mountain gorillas. My camera captured a lot more. The mountain gorillas gross lots of revenue for Rwanda every year.

Musanze main market, centrally located in the city.

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An evening after s hopping in the main market.

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Entrance g ate of the city of Musanze.

Farming ( crop or l ivestock) is the major occupation of rural Rwanda. I n Musanze District villages, women are not exempted. T hey are g ood f armers.

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Rwandans, either in urban or rural areas, do a lot of physical exercise, which includes walking, mountain hiking, and cycling or do physically exerting occupations. In the rural areas, such as this community along this route to Cyanika, the bicycle is a major source of transportation.

Hanging on to long trucks or lorries to gain speed or ease pressure by motorbike and bicycle riders is a common sight. It is dangerous and had led to some mishaps, which I had seen a couple of times along the Kigali–Nyirangarama highway.

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Nyirangarama is the travelers’ hub for refreshment, relaxation, and refueling. I could not capture the many restaurants around, which are always packed with hungry passengers or motorists seeking some fast foods or good African meals.

A typical way of cultivating the rich soils on the hills. Rwandan farmers are known for cultivating bananas , plantains, cassava, Irish potatoes, maize, and sorghum. Kinigi, formerly the stronghold of defeated Hutu militias and FDLR, who from the end of the genocide to 1998 unleashed frequent deadly attacks

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on Rwanda, murdering hundreds of people in one fell swoop, is today the gateway village to the gorilla and volcanic mountains, and by extension the hub of tourism in Musanze. Elevated to an average altitude of 2200 meters, it is quite cold all year round. Surrounded by rain forests and fertile soil, it is rich in Irish potatoes farming.

T he entrance to a remote part off Musanze–Cyanika road.

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The beauty of the two rivers that meet here is a lake somewhere deeply remote in Musanze District, they are freshwater and are at the foot of the high mountains in the background. I went here on the recommendation of my good friend, Kim, the front-desk manager at Classic Lodge.

I envy these villagers. They have everything right at their doorstep. Freshwater, fish, hills, forests, farmlands, abundant oxygen, electricity, schools, and peace of mind. This community is a classic definition of countryside, the African way. Life is free.

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“Let the kids flock to me”. The children in the community are a delight to watch. I learned they said they wanted to play with me. I love kids, innocent souls. So, I had a great time playing with these ones. I found out that those little boys, with the exception of the “man” with the bottle in the mouth, could swim.

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One of the things I found out is that people (adults and children) feel comfortable around soldiers. We do not feel the same way in Nigeria, the way many Americans do not feel comfortable around police officers. Given the fact that soldiers were the masterminds and perpetrators of the genocide against the Tutsis in 1994, the trajectory today is strange. This means a lot has changed and trust has been built. It is part of the radical transformation that has redefined Rwanda’s history. My good driver-friend here attends to the kids with warmth, which feels reassuring to them.

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One of the bush bar-restos in town is the one at Ubwiza Garden, Musanze. My delight here is fish brochette and fries. The open bar in the green gardens (not captured), is a little paradise on earth.

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Behind me are active volcanic mountains. T hey make the t emperature low round the clock. I t g ets to f reezing l evels from 9.00 p.m., and t his could g et worse during the rainy s eason.

Rubavu (Gisenyi), is the gateway to the Great Lakes, the splendiferous tourist attractions and to Goma, DRC .

This road along Rubavu, leads to some of the finest resorts in the town. It also leads to the borders with DRC and Uganda.

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The mountains meet the water. Lake Kivu, one of the breathtaking sights in Rubavu. The third deepest among the Great Lakes, it sits on the highest altitude and is the largest local source of fish in Rwanda. It provides over 20,000 tons of fish each year and feeds about half a million people in Rwanda and neighboring Congo. In addition, the extraction of methane in large volumes will generate 25 MW of electricity. It is bordered by active volcanoes.

Scenic! Lake Kivu, Rubavu.

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A typical Saturday in Rwanda is bubbly with weddings and birthday parties. These ladies’ dressing typifies the uniform or “aso ebi” (as it is called in Nigeria) that the bridal train wears on their friend’s wedding day. This photograph was taken in Classic Lodge, my traditional home in Rwanda.

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The warriors and their drums. A traditional/warrior dance. These are tourist attractions all over Rwanda. Drums are popular traditional musical instruments in Burundi and Rwanda.

Umuganda is the monthly sanitation and community development exercise on the last Saturday of every month. Everyone- citizens and alienscannot drive out until 11.00 a.m. The civic duty is also used to build bonds among Rwandans and become more integrated. In the next photograph, the management, some staff and students of the University of Rwanda partook in the exercise.

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On the invitation of Dr. Mugume and the University of Rwanda management, I joined in the Umuganda of November 2022. We cleared the bushes and planted trees to protect the soil and promote a green environment. Talking about a “green culture”, one of the major accomplishments of Rwanda is the complete phasing out of plastics of all kinds. Rwanda’s cuisine is nutritious and balanced in diet. Ugali (cassava meal) with fish or chicken sauce and cooked spinach with avocado pear on the side is my favorite.

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The open palm and upward lifting of the hand symbolize transparency and honesty. This monument was donated to Rwanda in recognition of the fight against corruption. It is the Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award. Behind the big hand is the famous Kigali Convention Center.

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Claude, my driver in Kigali in l ate 2022, poses beside the engraved award.

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The B.K. Arena (formerly Kigali Arena) at night. This place hosts international trade fairs, sports fiestas, including world and continental basketball championships, and national events.

Another f avorite s pot for hanging out with colleagues and f riends, Kim Hotel pool restaurant and bar.

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Infrastructure

Solar field at the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village, Kigali, is a $23m clean electricity project that has multiple advantages for the community—alternative source of energy, jobs, and green environment.

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Source: Ministry of Infrastructure, Kigali. The KivuWatt sits right on Lake Kivu and generates 26 MW of electricity, which is connected to the national grid.

Amahoro Stadium, Kigali. The national stadium is currently undergoing massive expansion and upgrading and is speculated to be, on completion, one of the best in Africa. This stadium had a notorious reputation of turning from a safe haven or UN-protected place for internally displaced persons to an arena for mass murder during the genocide.

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The Amahoro Stadium (Or Satium of Peace) under reconstruction. This stadium served in 1994 as both a camp for internally displaced and fleeing Tutsis and a place of massacre, as government forces shelled the place to eliminate the Tutsis.

Agriculture and agro-allied f arming are heavily invested in, which has l ed to increased agricultural productivity.

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Highway to Muhanga. Like most of the roads in the country, t here are s afe walkways for pedestrians along the roads.

One of the highways in Rwanda. T hey all l ook alike: well t arred, properly marked, l ighted, curvy, and bounded on both s ides by t rees or cultivated f armlands.

T he roads could be narrow t oo, but t here are s ecurity measures and cameras to regulate the s peed and reckless overtaking like one of the cars in t his photo t ried to do.

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University of Rwanda’s main campus in Gikondo. Established in 2013 and succeeding National University of Rwanda which was founded in 1963, the institution has six colleges/campuses and over 26,000 students enrolled for various programs from Bachelor’s to Ph.D. programs.

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Colleagues, Students, and Friends

Taking time out after the “great climb” with colleagues and some members of the central management of UR. To my immediate left is the ViceChancellor, Dr. Didas Muganga Kayihura, second from far right is Deputy Vice-Chancellor Strategic Planning and Administration, Dr. Raymond Ndikumana, and Dr. John Peter Mugume, first from left.

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W ith the VC, DVC (Strategic Planning & Admin), Dr. J ohn Peter Mugume, and s ome f aculty and s tudents in a g roup photograph.

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In a group photograph with students and faculty of the UR-Gothenburg (Sweden) Ph.D. program in Security Studies. From my far left are Gasare, Patel, Odeth, Nkubito, Dr. Mugume (faculty), and to my left, Dr. Furaha (faculty), Rosette, Valens, and Samuel. The students are on the Swedish scholarship and are the first set of doctoral students in Ph.D. Security Studies program.

Adieu to Mrs. Odeth Katengwa, one of the pioneer Ph.D. Security Studies students, who passed on February 23, 2023. May her gentle soul find eternal peace.

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Some Rwanda’s International Engagements

President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria hosts President Paul Kagame to Abuja in 2019, for the swearing in of the former and Anti-Corruption Summit in Abuja.

On the way to Cabo Delgado: Rwandan peacekeeping contingent heads toward Mozambique to maintain the peace after quelling the rebellion

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in the country. Rwanda has been in Mozambique to secure the territorial integrity, and is part of multinational forces around the world on peacekeeping missions.

In 2013, as Chairman Editorial and Media Board of Living Faith Church Worldwide (Winners’ Chapel Int’l), I arranged a meeting between Rwandan High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ambassador Joseph Habineza (late) and the Presiding Bishop of the church, Dr. David Oyedepo, to discuss investment by the church in education in Rwanda. Standing middle are Amb. Habineza (left) and Dr. Oyedepo (right). Second left is me.

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With Ambassador Habineza, former Rwandan High Commissioner to Nigeria, sometime in 2013. Before his sad demise in 2021, he had returned to Rwanda to serve as Minister of Sports and Culture.

CHAPTER 10

Conclusions

This book has presented some historical perspectives and evidence of Rwanda’s miraculous comeback since the end of the genocide against the Tutsi. These perspectives and evidence were made possible by the author’s personal visits, encounters, and local participations, and the evidence validates the position that Rwanda, unlike many other nations that had witnessed tragic downturns in Africa, transitioned radically to peace and treads gloriously the paths of stability and prosperity. The radical transformation has been traced to a strong and creative leadership, to enduring institutions, discipline, and resilience of the people. The positive trajectory is also informed by a tragic hindsight that has strengthened the people to resolve that never again will they go down. The national resolve is captured in the following words of President Paul Kagame: We have the power of the spirit. We have the power of being underrated. The power that comes from the anger of being held in contempt; the power that comes from being insulted; the power that comes from the anger of being pushed against the wall. When that happens, building on that power of the spirit, we come back with full strength. We have the power of resilience. We have the power that derives from the anger that comes from the history of the attempt to wipe us out of the surface of the

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 S. F. Folarin, Rwanda’s Radical Transformation Since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37011-3_10

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earth and we refuse to go. People can think they can put us down, but they will never take us out.

President Kagame uttered those strong words in the aftermath of the arbitrary arrest and repatriation by the United Kingdom of Rwanda’s intelligence chief, General Emmanuel Karenzi Karake in 2015. The president believed that this act constituted a denigration and humiliation of Rwanda, describing the indignity as a common treatment of Rwanda by some powerful countries. The president also thought it was an act of infidelity and treachery from an ally, United Kingdom. The state of Rwanda’s development is such that outshines the national exploits of her immediate neighbors, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi. She left these two countries behind in creative management of scarce resources, building from zero to prosperity, creation of wealth, building of secure and safe environments, transformation of the military from peasantry to a disciplined and skilled one, yearly increase of Gross Domestic Product by 5% and setting the economy on a fast lane in growth, social infrastructure and human capital development, and a sustainable environment that emits almost 0% of carbons. Rwanda has beaten all imaginations and risen so fast from genocide to a preferred tourist destination and second-best place of doing business on the African continent. The national leadership has utilized internally generated revenue over the decades and about $700 m in foreign aid in the first few years after the genocide to build a country similar to Singapore—out of the void comes an edifice. Rwanda is an edifice that has become a shining city on the hill and the envy of her neighbors. The problems created by the Congo for instance inspire Rwanda’s leadership to invest more in the military, intelligence community, and the people in general. According to Kagame: We have invested so much so that when someone tries to set fire to our houses, the houses do not burn easily, and so that whosoever tries to set fire to our houses will be doing it at a very huge cost.

This stern warning was made at an address to the nation in early 2023, which focused on the festering crisis with DRC through her persistent allegations against Rwanda on the eastern Congo problems and utterance by the Congolese president that he would use the DRC-based terrorist former Rwandan genocidaires-dominated FDLR to effect regime change

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in Rwanda. The country believes that while she is taking bold steps forward, her Congolese neighbors’ distractions may be drawing her backward and threatening all that Rwanda has achieved over the years. Again, Kagame reasons: Why would Rwanda, of all countries, want to be part of, or the cause of instability in the neighborhood? What would we gain from that? What can anyone gain from having instability next door? If anything, everybody should know that we are the people most interested in peace in this region because we have lacked peace for so long. We know what it means. We know the cost of it.

Speaking during a press conference at Urugwiro Village in Kigali in the heat of the DRC–Rwanda quagmire, Kagame took a swipe at President Félix Tshisekedi for blaming everyone but himself or Congolese leadership for the crisis in his country. Kagame admonished his Congolese counterpart to explore other ways such as engaging Rwanda in an openminded and creative way in resolving the issues rather than believing any western powers or institutions would have the magic wand. In this study, the educational, economic, social, political, military, and technological progress was assessed, and findings showed abundance evidence of considerable growth and prospects for the future of the country. The main revenue earners are local and foreign investments and a growing hospitality industry that encompasses a thriving tourist, hotel, aviation, food, and beverages business. Combining a typical academic style with a simple author’s narration approach laced with a creative literary style as it is in novels, the story of Rwanda’s miraculous turnaround is told. The combination of these styles is to give the book a unique approach, so that everyone—scholars and ordinary reader—can easily relate. Moreover, stories told from eyewitness accounts are often more effectively done from the first person perspective. Those who prefer full-blown multiparty democracy ahead of service delivery and quality of governance often relegate the progress made under Kagame to the background. They chose universal democratic values without consideration for the peculiar turbulent history of Rwanda and with no regard for the uniqueness of the society. The progressive governance or leadership should be the parameter to judge a nation that had suffered terribly from 1959 through independence in 1962, to 1994 and suddenly gained mileage in universally validated national progress.

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Democracy is the best form of government, no doubt, but when a political experiment or style works for a country and majority is happier for it, democracy should no longer be one cap fits all but different sizes of the cap for different situations. Rwanda cannot even be described as less of a democracy. There are elections every five years and the people vote overwhelmingly for their choice. The fact that the parliament amended the constitution some years back to give the current president more lifelines in office is a democratic process. The constitution is the ultimate definer of the way the country is run. Parliamentarians are elected representatives and their acts echo the will and wish of the people. Rwandans have over the years shown approval to the amendment and the continued stay in power of President Kagame. Not only Rwandans love Kagame to remain in office. Most of Africa does. We see him as a shining example of good, effective, dynamic, incorruptible, and exemplary leadership and a reference point to the beautiful side of Africa. And that in itself is democracy in Rwanda and Africa respectively. The idea that in a democracy one (western) cap fits all, historical experiences in some quarters have shown, is not always the case. Many democracies have ended up as a disaster. Incompetent, corrupt, below par in performance, and outright ridiculous. Four or five years wasted. We have seen democracy in one of the greatest democracies in the world where the national leader incites a mob to attack the parliament and the leader still walks free after service because of the democratic creed that guarantees presidential or post-presidency immunity. Democracy allows for the best and yet for the worst. Everyone has their own term in office to complete their service. Four years are enough to wreak havoc if the leadership is incompetent or corrupt. Yet a good leader performs well in four years and for democratic reasons is not re-elected for another four years. His programs may be thrashed or consigned to the waste-bin of history by his predecessor. This is called the beauty of democracy, but wastes are at the expense of the betterment of the people. Any system of government that does not guarantee a good life for the people at all times is not a democracy. Any government that gives the people a good life always is a democracy. Democracy, therefore, is a system or form of government that guarantees at least the majority a good life at all times. This is the case with Rwanda. Except one feels the horror that Rwanda or Burundi had felt, one will not appreciate the kind of government in Kigali or the transformation made in just 29 years. Places where ordinary communal conflicts or civil wars took place, such as Liberia, Sierra

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Leone, Somalia, Kosovo, Myanmar, and so on, more than 30 years after, are still struggling. Many of them are called democratic states. However, no creative, effective, or dynamic leadership has redeemed them up till now. The leadership in Rwanda, since 1994 has provided succor, implemented development plans, and is set on a Vision 2050 that will drive her on the path of greatness. The people are happy. Africans are happy. Who should not be happy? Whatever makes the people happy is a democracy. If we go by this hypothesis, then Rwanda is one of the most democratic societies on earth. Let us hope it remains so. Despite all the success stories about Rwanda, she, like many forwardlooking countries, still has a long way to go. The neighborhood must be peaceful. With or without Congo’s reasonable disposition, Rwanda has a duty to work toward resolving the issue and ensure a good neighborliness. A peaceful Great Lakes region is more prosperity for Rwanda. Insecurity in eastern DRC is potential insecurity in Rwanda. No one but Rwanda has a lot to lose in the long run. She cannot come this far in national stability and steady progress and allow a neighbor to pull her down. Rwanda must make that call and settle the rift. DRC has little to lose; she will make a point if Rwanda falls. Therefore, Kigali has more buttons to pull in settling this rift once and for all. The cost of living is on the rise in Rwanda. The more the investment, the more the globalization of the Rwandan economy. Globalization comes with its own contradictions or downsides. One of the bags of burden is a competitive capitalist lifestyle that breeds exploitation and a high cost of living. Standards may increase, but this comes at a cost and the masses are the ones to bear the brunt. This has become noticeable in Kigali and other big cities in recent times. Young graduates complain of tasking engagements but little pecuniary rewards, which cannot cater to their basic needs. One has come across graduates who work so hard but earn RWF 150,000 (less than $140) per month in a city where a modest housing costs $50 per month. Their salaries can no longer take them home. Urban slums may increase as the working class continues to seek alternative housing or cheaper places of livelihood. Maybe this calls for a review of wages and cost of living in the urban centers. One major challenge in Rwanda is language. English is now the official language, but Kinyarwanda, Swahili, and French are allowed as well, as mediums of communication. There are three international languages to learn at the same time. This is good in the long run, but the problem is that, not too many people have access to learning all but the mother

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tongue, Kinyarwanda. It is always difficult for majority of the people to communicate in English effectively. Their French may not be that good as well. They may not understand Swahili too well and then as a foreigner—and foreigner pour into Rwanda a lot—you cannot have a conversation with the people. Except students in schools who can speak English fluently, the communication issue is a problem among those who are not educated. They struggle to speak a bit of French, a bit of Swahili, and a lot of Kinyarwanda. Having those multiple international languages (English, French, Swahili) is an asset for Rwanda if the citizens can be made to pass through a level of their learning compulsorily. This could be in formal or informal settings, but citizens up to 65 years old are made to pass through the mill in a language class, which may last for 3–6 months. Rwanda needs French and Swahili to relate with Central and East African nations, while English is required to make the citizens reach out to the rest of Africa and the world. While the roads are beautifully laid and could pass for the best in the region, they can be expanded or widened. At present, they are narrow. Coupled with the hilly nature, traffic is sometimes crazily slow. Rwanda is growing at the speed of light and eventually will need wider roads to accommodate the international traffic of people who come to visit, invest or stay for legitimate contribution to national development. Rail transportation should be a priority. With her hilly nature, this may be capital intensive and uneasy, but it will be for the country’s external gain ultimately. Aside from the local and international transportation between states in the sub-region, a rail network will further boost tourism and commerce. Journeying past the mountains, valleys, and lakes by train will give great sights and views that will attract tourists the way it has been in Republic of South Africa. In terms of leadership succession, it is believed that President Kagame’s charisma and dynamism inspire not only Rwandan youth and adults, but also hundreds of millions of Africans, black people, and leadership students all over the world. He has tens of millions of successors in general and will surely have some well-bred mentees in his circle whom he would have nurtured to take over effectively someday. However, as ethnic tensions have not completely disappeared, care should be taken to set in motion a leadership that will reflect the social nature of the society. Rwandans must not be reminded in the future through her kind of postKagame leadership of tribal differences. Now, there are “Rwandese” only,

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and this should remain the destiny of the country forever, the same way tribal allegiances in some countries are being consciously eliminated. If Rwandans recognize that there is nowhere in the world, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, India, China, Brazil, Nigeria that petty tribalism, ethnicity, or racism is totally eliminated, they will cherish their government’s inclusive programs and the current state of national integration and nationhood, dare to be different, and become the first example of a society with no ethnic or tribal distinction, discrimination, or competition. Rwanda might just be one of the few truly homogenous societies in the world. This may just become another first in their history.

Index

A AbaHutu, 3, 48 AbaTutsi, 3, 10, 49 AbaTwa, 3 Africa, 2–4, 8, 9, 13, 14, 16, 21, 22, 26, 33, 38, 42, 51, 52, 54, 61, 64, 66, 69, 70, 73, 74, 78, 82, 83, 95–99, 103, 104, 106, 108, 113, 119–122, 127, 128, 132–135, 148, 151, 156, 159–162, 164, 168, 175, 243, 246, 248 African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA), 98, 110, 133 African Union (AU), 33, 61, 70, 73, 96, 103, 106, 110, 119, 121, 132, 133, 196 Agatogo, 65, 149 Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo or FARDC, 158

B Bagosora, Théoneste, 6, 34, 203 Banana, 14, 65, 66, 149, 215 Banana beer, 64, 170 Belgians, 3, 5, 14, 22, 25, 26, 29, 32, 37, 42, 60, 88, 122, 123, 129 Britain, 22, 33, 135, 136 Burundi, 3, 6–8, 13, 14, 23, 27, 28, 38, 49, 67, 68, 71, 73, 90, 97, 99, 122, 124, 127–131, 134, 135, 155, 177, 244, 246

C Canaanland, 51, 119 Center for Conflict Management (CCM), xxv, 1, 52, 116, 118, 153, 162, 163 Charismatic leadership, 79 Christus Center, 114, 162, 164–166, 173 Church, 31, 32, 37, 47, 48, 50, 51, 61, 62, 88, 89, 202, 203

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 S. F. Folarin, Rwanda’s Radical Transformation Since the End of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37011-3

251

252

INDEX

Classic Lodge, 98, 114, 146, 147, 171, 217, 223 Cockroaches, 26, 37, 41, 63, 177 Colonial rule, 5 Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), 15, 103, 134, 135, 156 Commonwealth Heads of States Meeting (CHOGM), 97, 134 Coronavirus/COVID-19, 12, 52, 54, 65, 95, 107, 108, 111–114, 133, 134, 152–154, 161, 189 Covenant University, xxv, 49, 141, 159, 162

D Decolonization, 21 Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 7, 13, 15, 16, 18, 23, 27, 34, 38, 43, 44, 59, 67, 68, 71–73, 76, 78–81, 97–99, 102, 105, 121–128, 134, 135, 137, 152, 157, 168, 171, 175, 177, 204, 221, 244, 245, 247

E Economic prosperity, 78, 95, 123 Eco-Tourism, 14 Exploits, 5, 61, 62, 99, 118, 135, 175, 244

F First World War, 13, 22, 23, 122 Forces Democratiques des Liberation du Rwanda or (FDLR), 43–45, 78, 125, 157, 158, 174, 204, 244 Forgiveness, 54, 62, 85, 86, 89, 92, 94, 95

G Gacaca, 50, 62, 63, 92–94 Genocidaires, 30, 34, 35, 43, 44, 61, 80, 87, 102, 157, 244 Genocide memorials, 50, 95, 169, 200, 201, 204, 206, 207, 209 Genocide museums, 89, 202 German East Africa, 13 Germans, 3–5, 22, 23, 25, 32, 88, 90, 122 Government of Rwanda, 102, 109 Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 61, 82, 95, 111–113, 128, 244 H Habyarimana, Agathe, 6, 34 Hotel des Mille Collines, 41, 164, 207, 208 Hotel Rwanda, 11, 41, 42, 45, 48, 92, 96 Hutu Power, 6, 26, 34, 43, 46, 49, 76, 78, 79, 94, 102, 129, 157 Hutu Ten Commandments, 27, 31 I Identity cards, 32, 79, 93, 102 Inkotanyi, 89 Interahamwe, 6, 29, 44, 47, 88, 89, 204, 209 Inyenzis , 26, 27, 33, 36, 42 K Kagame, Paul, 3, 34–36, 39, 43–45, 50, 51, 60, 62, 69, 76–82, 91–93, 98, 102–104, 107–110, 118, 119, 126, 133, 136, 154, 157, 177, 204, 240, 243–246, 248 Kanombe Barracks, 29, 49 Kigali, 3, 6, 7, 15–18, 26, 29, 31, 34–37, 42, 44, 49, 51–55, 61,

INDEX

63, 64, 70, 77, 88–90, 95–98, 106, 108, 110, 114–116, 119, 121, 125, 129, 133, 135, 136, 139, 141–146, 150, 153, 154, 162, 164, 165, 167–171, 178, 194 Kigali International Airport, 29, 53, 139, 143 Kwibuka, 51, 101, 102, 119

L Lake Kivu, 15, 16, 67, 73, 96, 148, 171, 222, 233 Land of a thousand hills, 173 League of Nations, 13, 22

M Machete, 29, 31, 43, 44, 46, 62, 80, 88, 152, 203, 205 MA Security Studies, 190, 194 Militias, 74, 105, 125, 126 Ministry of Defense (MINADEF), 1, 52, 55, 70, 118, 139, 146 Ministry of Education of MINEDUC, 117 Musanze, 14, 16, 17, 19, 31, 53, 61, 64, 66, 96, 98, 106, 108, 114, 116, 119, 121, 140, 141, 143–148, 151–153, 170, 171, 206, 211, 216, 220 Mwamis , 3

N National development, 25, 102, 103, 106, 119, 120, 124, 156, 173, 248 National Resistance Army (NRA), 30, 35, 36 National security, 69, 81, 95, 106, 118, 131, 175

253

National Security Symposium (NSS), 1, 55, 56, 97, 118, 120–122, 169, 194, 195 Nation building, 77, 106, 171 Nigeria, xxv, xxvi, 5, 6, 8–10, 23–25, 33, 38, 39, 52, 53, 55, 64, 65, 70, 74, 86, 93, 96, 97, 101, 103, 105, 106, 118, 119, 135, 142, 145, 146, 149–152, 154, 155, 157–159, 161, 165, 168–170, 187, 219, 223, 249 Nyabugogo, 145 Nyakinama, 18, 106, 121, 141, 144, 146–149, 151, 170, 194 Nyarugenge, 17, 114 O Oyedepo, David, 51, 119, 159, 241 P Peace and security studies, 117 Perpetrators, 7, 31–34, 54, 55, 67, 76, 85, 91, 94, 175, 186, 219 PhD security studies, 163, 239 Political leadership, 78, 118, 119, 125, 128 Post-genocide reconstruction, 106 R Radical transformation, 55, 77, 99, 115, 118, 122, 135, 219, 243 Radio Television des Milles Collines or “Radio Rwanda”, 29 Reconciliation, 44, 61, 69, 77, 92, 107, 175 Refugees, 30, 35, 36, 38, 42, 43, 45, 64, 78, 135, 209 Remera, 31, 64, 114, 162, 164, 165, 167, 168, 173 Republic of Rwanda, 13, 66, 185 Resilience, xvii, 54, 243

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INDEX

Ruanda-Urundi, 3, 13, 22, 23, 122, 185 Rubavu, 16, 18, 96, 121, 171, 221, 222 Ruhengeri, 14, 17, 206 Rusesabagina, Paul, 41, 42, 45, 77 Rwandair, 52, 53, 61, 97, 126, 139 Rwandan Armed Forces or “FAR”, 28, 44, 63, 64, 67, 79 Rwandan Command and Staff College, 1, 141, 148, 149 Rwandan cuisines, 146, 226 Rwandan Defense Force Command and Staff College or RDFCSC, 52, 55, 120, 149, 150, 161, 187, 188, 190, 195, 198 Rwandan Defense Force (RDF), 44, 63, 64, 66–74, 106, 121 Rwandan genocide against the Tutsis, 7, 202, 219 Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), 35, 63, 64, 67, 80 Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), 6, 10, 27, 29, 30, 33, 35, 37–39, 43, 49, 67, 76, 79, 89, 109, 129 Rwandan police, 104, 156, 174 S San Marcos, 55, 56 Second World War, 21, 86 Sometimes in April , 46, 48 Stability, xvii, 38, 61, 67, 72, 73, 76, 79, 80, 82, 102, 105, 106, 111, 118, 120, 127, 128, 131, 132, 158, 243, 247 Strategic planning, 237 Survivors, 6, 11, 31, 45, 46, 51, 54, 55, 63, 87, 90, 92, 94, 110, 175, 210

Sustainable development, 117 Sustainable peace, 102

T Tanzania, 6, 7, 13, 14, 27, 28, 38, 49, 67, 90, 98, 103, 119, 127, 130, 134, 150, 172, 177, 183, 187 Texas, 55, 56, 108, 115, 161 Texas State University, xxv, xxvi, 55, 56, 82, 161 Tourism, 14, 15, 23, 95, 96, 99, 127, 216, 248 Transformation, xviii, 50, 76, 77, 91, 107, 120, 128, 244, 246

U Ubumwe Grande Hotel, 114, 208 Uganda, 7, 10, 13, 14, 18, 23, 27, 30, 35, 36, 38, 67, 68, 71, 80, 91, 97, 103, 118, 124, 126, 134, 150, 154, 155, 158, 171, 183, 187, 192 Umuganda, 62, 85, 93, 94, 108, 171, 224, 226 United Nations (UN), xxv, xxvi, 6, 29, 33, 38, 42, 48, 61, 69, 70, 73, 132, 133, 135, 158, 161 University of Ibadan, xxv, 5, 48, 160 University of Rwanda, xxv, 1, 52, 61, 94, 116, 139, 146, 153, 161, 162, 224, 226, 236

V Victims, 27, 30, 31, 34, 42, 44, 51, 62, 85–87, 94, 102, 175, 200, 202, 206, 207