Rwanda: 4 days in land of a thousand hills

It may shock many, but I perceive that I have been preparing to travel to Rwanda for about ten years now. This sounds like a long time to prepare for a trip, but let’s calmly look at how this interesting fact came about. For about a decade, I have been eagerly  reading literature on that […]

It may shock many, but I perceive that I have been preparing to travel to Rwanda for about ten years now. This sounds like a long time to prepare for a trip, but let’s calmly look at how this interesting fact came about. For about a decade, I have been eagerly  reading literature on that country’s 1994 genocide, and watching all the relevant films, including Hotel Rwanda and Sometime  in April. The latter film, apart from its gripping story line, drew my attention to Rwanda’s powerful and mesmerizing musical heritage, which I will explore very soon. Early this year I bought Shooting Dogs in Abuja, another film which is a stunning eye opener  on Rwanda, and also drew my attention once more to Rwandan music. Hotel Rwanda instantly shocked  me to the  core, and makes me quite sober whenever I watch it. Somehow, I always want to watch Hotel Rwanda over and over. I guess this must also be due to the excellent acting and the great  story captured there. But I have just bought Shaking hands with the Devil, a major award winning work on the events of 1994, as well as 100 days, a film on the same tragic event in that country. I am amazed at how faithfully I have gathered information on Rwanda, with great attention to all the tiny details too, also becoming an admirer of President Kagame in the process, and liking the country of 11 million persons  and its 1,000 hills, very much. It was as though  having carefully watched films, making notes and reading books, I had been unconsciously preparing for a trip to the country. Some may say that they have read these books, and watched all these films, and that, therefore,  they too have been preparing for such a trip. The  significant difference, however, is that I did not only prepare which was done in an unconscious manner, I actually made the trip to Rwanda  after having done all the reading on the subject.
All of a sudden a few weeks ago, I felt  strongly that I should  go to Rwanda to do a number of stories relating to the 1994 genocide ,and I wrote a brief memo  to Media Trust. After spending one night in Addis Ababa, I finally found myself looking at a number of  enchanting hills just outside Kigali, around which clouds floated. They seemed to welcome you as the plane made its final descent into the Kigali airport. Rwanda is described as the land of a thousand hills, and  this is a very apt description. I am fond of hills too, and I guess, in this context,  I was just going home by travelling to Rwanda. Once done with the airport formalities, I now headed into Kigali and a very impressive sight confronted me. This is a capital set within some of the loveliest hills in Africa, and the capital is  carefully built around these high forms. Once you are out of your hotel, you either move  up or you go down. You really have no option. This is because of the undulating nature of the landscape, which gives the visitor spectacular views of the capital. You can look down at Kigali from a hilltop, or you could gaze in wonder at the capital  up there from one of the many deep valleys. From a height the houses look like specks, and the entire  landscape is one unfolding sequence of beauty. I always liked to stand by my hotel gate, and watch the road in front of it slope downwards, and to peer into the nearby valley, and look at the houses on the nearby hill. It is such a marvelous sight when viewed early in the morning, at noon or at twilight. This is a scene replicated all over Kigali, making it a very special capital. When I arrived Nigeria on the morning of the Nyanya bombing, I immediately went back in spirit to those valleys and hills. It was a spontaneous mental flight. This was because the first text I received upon arriving  inquired “Where are you? Have you heard of the bombing?” When you gaze at the hills so described, you also shudder when you recall that these friendly hills played host to the genocide which eliminated some 1 million Rwandans  in 1994 within a period of 100 days.

Two lady’s surprised me in Kigali ,and this was on account of  the different questions they asked me. The first whom I met in a ministry there, suddenly asked me if I am a Rwandan, obviously seeing some similarities. I answered in the negative, and I noticed her surprise. The next lady was a staff of the hotel I resided in. After peeping at me for several days,she found strength  and asked if I am the lead character in the film Hotel Rwanda, saying that the resemblance is very close. Of course, I answered in the negative. Later, I wondered if all those books and films I had earlier read or watched so intensely, had now endowed me with Rwandan type features. While in Kigali I  quickly learnt to make use of the  commercial motorcycles, instead of the taxis while going around the capital. If you travel just a little distance, you may be asked to pay 4,000 Rwandan Francs if  you are in a taxi. On a motorcycle, you will pay 600 Francs  for  exactly the same distance. One thing I never liked while on the motorcycle was  when we had to go up a hill, and this was slow and sometimes a bit difficult. One day I was surprised that I didn’t fall as we ascended the hill. I simply held on tight,and  refused to utter a word. No point in exhibiting the little fright  I was going through. The motorcyclist may never forget the frightened Nigerian he once conveyed somewhere. So, I kept quiet and I guess he never knew what I was going through just then. Or did he? In Kigali, the motorcyclists wear helmets, and there is a helmet for the passenger too. Nobody breaks the law on this. Over there you don’t begin  to answer the mobile phone, while on a motorcycle ride.I entered a few taxis, and I never saw the drivers answering calls. But in Nigeria answering a call while driving is perfectly in order. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, it seems. There is order and a semblance of seriousness here. The policemen are neat and courteous. I am sure they were not acting. The streets are very neat. Those who do the evacuations are doing a good job of it, the streets seem to boldly declare. You easily notice all these things.The women have a nice white and grey traditional attire which sits nicely on them especially when they come out at public events ,and this makes  them look like Queens. The mass of the  people are very friendly and willing to help you. If they do not understand English, then they motion for you to sit, while they hurry to find someone who does. Traders give you the necessary change that is yours,and nobody says, in the manner of a  Regimental Sergeant Major, that he will owe you 100 Francs and that you should return to collect your change the next day. There are coins in Rwanda, a lot of them and the people use them freely and wisely. You feel that you have been fairly treated when you leave the city’s supermarkets. When the people hear you are from Nigeria,they seem to draw closer to you. In Kigali, a lot of attention is given to flowers and gardens. There are many of such in Kigali, and it is a very floral capital. The fact that the country was marking the 20th anniversary of the 1994 genocide at the time of my visit, meant that there were so many wreaths on sale, or being carried on the streets by individuals. So there were flowers all over Kigali at that time .One day I came across  a girl who had a moving story to tell. Her mother who was part Hutu and part Tutsi was killed because she had blood from both sides. Then she, the girl I was interviewing, now said that she was raped by the militias who were very annoyed that her mother was both Tutsi and Hutu.Clearly, you couldn’t be both Hutu and Tutsi. You must be one or the other, the militia argued at that time. Its such a harrowing and painful story. But the girl would not agree to be interviewed, even with assurance that I will shield her identity. The memory was too much for her.There is a community in Kigali specifically set up for widows of the genocide, and another for orphans of the genocide.

The hotels  in Kigali are not very expensive, and there are very many of them in the capital, including the hotel which was the setting for the famous Hotel Rwanda. There is Nakumatt, the very popular supermarket in Kigali, and this one may be the best the city offers. It sells all manner of items, and the visitor would leave satisfied.You can even have a meal within, if you feel like doing so. In Rwanda, you will receive your certificate of incorporation within six hours of starting the process of setting up a company there. Child mortality is down 50%,while malaria has dropped  85%. To cap it all, there is health insurance for everyone, and both rich and poor access the same high quality health facilities. The country is also  the least corrupt country in Eastern Africa, according to Transparency International. In the capital there is a sense that people are trying to set the country on the path to greatness. There are constructions going on all the time within Kigali.As I was making to fly out of Kigali, and this was at 11:00 pm one night, I noticed that work men were busy doing some renovations at the Kigali airport. Nobody was grumbling, but a good natured happiness and dedication to duty, surrounded them as they laboured. It was such a special inspiring sight which gave promise of so much. Now,I will comment on a number of home grown solutions which have facilitated the recovery of Rwanda. The first of these is  the Girinka programme. In Rwanda, there is a policy which ensures that a cow is given to every poor family. When it gives birth, a cow is then given to another family. This is a policy that has worked, and it has its origin in Rwandan culture, and so poverty is retreating in Rwanda and families are on a more nutritious diet. There is Abunzi, the impressive alternative local justice system which the country has used very well in the post genocide period,and the country’s Annual National Dialogue chaired by the President of the country, which allows citizens to directly put questions to their leaders. There is so much going on in Rwanda. But there will be more on this and other stunning points, when I write on Rwanda’s rise out of the  Apocalyptic depths into which it  fell  in 1994. Twenty years after its twilight moment, it can be said that dawn is now breaking over the land of a thousand hills.