Genocide memorial

So I am back in the Gorilla hotel which also overlooks the lake and has decent wi-fi.  As I don’t think carrying my laptop around does my back and hips any good , I thought I would explore the option of a dongle.  As with lots of things in Africa, this kind of thing hits up against their expectations of things versus a Muzungu's and was, as ever, a long, protracted conversation.

In essence, MTN which is probably the best, or at least longest serving, mobile telephone network does have dongles on which it outlines that the dongle may use GPRS, EDGE, 3G and HPDMA technologies.  In the UK, I think that most dongles end up working best on 3G networks which is what means that they are fairly quick.  There is definitely no 3G network in Gisenyi so I was interested in what made it quick as I as assured that it was quick albeit none of the chaps in the store could tell me why so I wanted to try it as I had a suspicion of the nigglingly massive kind that their ‘quick’ and mine were likely to be miles apart.  But they wanted me to say I would definitely buy it before testing it and I said that I would only buy it if it was quick and so a protracted 30 minute circular conversation went on! 

Eventually they did let me try it and it was about as quick as a drugged 3-legged tortoise in the hot sun!  Unfortunately I have not yet learned ‘ are you having a giraffe?’ in kinyarwandan so just left the shop.  Indeed will be having a chat with myself about what I have learned so far lannguage wise because although it is useful I am not sure about how wide the application of my current sentences is.  ‘Good Morning/Hello’ and ‘How are you?’ are all going well.  ‘How old are you?’ works quite often and particularly good in the orphanage but did not think it was likely to lead to stunning conversation with the chap who is the elderly Head of the Co-Operative that my bead ladies work within.  And ‘Who has got the glue?’ didn’t seem like it would lead to much more expansive discussion either so will have a chat with myself about my current possibly narrow focus;-)

So as the ‘dongle debacle’ receded into the book of learnings as far as experiential differences in time and speed, I did decide to buy a DVD player for the house.  We do have a TV but it is shite and has a lot of channels albeit we can’t get most of them.  What I have seen so far is Deal or No Deal which I find dull at home and an episode of Graham Norton where he was trying to divert attention from the dullness of the footie world cup – just a couple of months behind then!!  And apparently we only have a month’s worth and then we have to re-subscribe – in the interim all we seemed to get is a Nigerian soap, the only saving grace of which would be to show the lousier amateur dramatics associations in the UK that there is room for hope!  Indeed fully paid up members of Overactors Anonymous from what I saw!

But anyway, Ronnie Corbett proclivites notwithstanding, I want to get back to the genocide memorial that we saw in Kigali when we first arrived as I think that it would be remiss of me not to mention what is an astoundingly well done record of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda as well as commenting in some ways on our collective human nature.

Visiting somewhere such as a genocide memorial is one of those strange activities which, on the one hand, I want to ignore and, on the other, reminds me of our combined humanity and what it is to live with the good and evil in all of us.  The memorial is very well done – it details the events that led to the genocide, the genocide itself as well as outlining other genocides and the promises that have been made not to allow this to happen that have been broken and may still be if troubles in Bosnia continue to escalate. 

As ever with hindsight, it is so much easier to see the limitations of some of the global political organisations that we have which, despite their sometimes far reaching ideals, seem to represent and shine a massive torch on the fallibilities that we have as a world  trying to marry the desires and needs of nation states with the global good.  Examples of genocide, with Rwanda being a key case in point, remind us of how far we have to go in working together for the greater good and humanity.  There is no doubt that it is easy with hindsight to despair of what were cold, hard nosed, cowardly, budget-focused, self serving  political and ultimately inhumane decisions.  The question remains as to whether we will allow such things to take place in our current world again – let’s hope that Bosnia does not become an opportunity for us to see just how much we have or have not learned from Rwanda.

When I was in college we studied European Studies during the first year of which we talked about colonisation.  What I remember about that time was being put into small multi cultural groups and each taking a continent or area to research in terms of what was colonised and when.  This was in the late 80s during which the ‘Common Market’ was talked about frequently in terms of how unfair the then Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was and whether indeed we should be in bed with our European neighbours.  For us, it was also the first year of a 4 year study course and a time to get to understand how to work together as a multi cultural European group.  What I remember about one of the first experiences of working together as a small European group was the amount of posturing as to who had what in terms of colonised countries – it was a sorry state of affairs really and probably represented a microcosm of the arrogance that went with colonisation and is still endemic in most nation states today.

Against this it is equally sad to realise that the cause and incitement and ethnic hatred that characterised the genocide had it roots in colonial Belgium.  It was the anthropological Belgians that sought to characterise the Rwandans in terms of predominantly their facial features and delineate them as Tutsi and Hutu.  Having done that they then introduced this ethnicity on identity cards as well as treating the Tutsis as if they were more intelligent and giving them elevated status and more important jobs.  No wonder that this led to the increased disenchantment amongst the Hutu population and started the murmurings of discontent that eventually gave way to the genocide.  I think that starting at the memorial is a humbling way to be reminded of our relative white arrogance and the damage it has wrought over the centuries.

What the memorial does well is to gradually draw you in with the story of the build up before getting into the days of the genocide itself.  What is profoundly shocking is the speed with which the genocide took place as well as the manner of it.  During the 2nd world war, at least 2 million Jews were gassed which is more than the 1 million or so during the Rwandan genocide.  But the systematic gassing of the Jews took place over a 3 year period: they were taken off trains and told they were going to be de-loused and then gassed – in some ways, this allows the soldiers to be way less cognizant of the mass murder they were perpetrating.  In Rwandan, nearly 1 million Tutsi and moderate Hutus were killed during a 3 month period.  What is harrowing is that it was often neighbours that were guilty of perpetrating crimes, neighbours that had once been friends who then macheted their friends to death.  It was common for children to have both of them arms cut off and then be macheted across the neck and to bleed to death in front of their parents before their parents were then killed.  It was not enough to abstain as a Hutu- your choice was either to participate or be massacred yourself.

It is without doubt the manner in which the genocide took place that is frightening in relation to what it means to be human and it seems to be to have been the worst as far as the how is concerned.  There are a number of rooms in the memorial where there are photos of those killed and one of the last rooms shows pictures of children who were killed.  In addition to the age of their death, it also documents their favourite food, their favourite person, their favourite subject or activity and how they were killed.  There is something about the systematic massacre of defenceless and innocent children that really brings home just how vile we can be as a race and what we are capable of.  It makes me feel both ashamed and scared. I want to tell myself that it won’t happen again but the truth is that I am not sure that it won’t.  We live in a world where the media is the predominant vehicle that tells us of many global events and often we all only become aware of it when it is newsworthy but possibly already too late.  Let’s hope I am very wrong.

In the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda what was put in place in 2002 are what are known as gacaca courts.  The essence of this is to have genocidaires as they are called, those who perpetrated the genocide, to hold an open court in the area where they committed atrocities.  The purpose of these courts is to hold open hearings where there is often a huge turn out in order to stop the degree of denial and also to help people with closure as to what happened to their families in some cases.  Whilst there are some obvious dangers in this, generally it appears to assist in the process of talking about what happened, allow more people to be tried, some of whom had been languishing in prisons for extended periods as well as give a sense of completion in areas in knowing what happened to some people who remain missing.

I also think that the extent to which Rwanda is developing itself is also helping and certainly it is a commonly held view that some of the Gender Based Violence that is perpetrated is lessened as people generate more income and are less exposed to poverty.

Anyway it is a visit that I would heartily recommend as I think it good to be reminded sometimes of that which we see on the television but that often never really affects us so personally.  I hope it has not been too harrowing to read and more interesting than history lessons.  And lastly and funnily, there are some gardens surrounding the museum and in one there is a pond with 4 creatures around the outside, which represent communicating about the genocide in hoping that publicity will lessen the possibility of it happening again.  One of the pictures that I cannot seem to load today unfortunately is of an elephant on a mobile phone.  Note to self – must read the guide book for where I can go and see these! 

And on another lighter note, Brenda arrives this evening.  I think she is from over t’other side of the pond and is obviously a buxom wench with matron like tendencies – right?  Anyone know a Brenda who isn’t??!!  She is coming to work at the orphanage and help the staff there in learning and how to deal with trauma which should be interesting so best get off home and dust my malaria net!

Do send emails and text and comment if you want cos it is lovely to know how the Xmas build up is going whilst I worry about what factor sun tan cream to wear!