Update : 16 March 2006
Place : Mikumi/Tanzania
Day : 152
Distance traveled : 21,589km

I leave the meeting point at the Nyungwe Forests; taking into consideration the exhaustion I drive slowly and make frequent stops on the way to Kigali. It is cloudy but doesn't look like it will rain. Until Butare there are tea fields left and right. Tea is an important source of income for Rwanda, along with coffee.


Tea fields everywhere

I tried to chat with the people around during the stops. Native language of a Rwandan is Kinyarwanda. Official languages are French (from when they were a colony of Belgium) and English (since the genocide) besides Kinyardwanda. Kswahili is also spoken especially in the north and east regions, but in rural areas in the southwest it is almost impossible to come across someone who speaks any other language than Kinyarwanda.

It was difficult to communicate with the lady in the picture below; well truth to be known we couldn't understand each other at all. But we agreed that in return for allowing me to take a photo of her she wouldn't ask for money, under the condition that I show them to her... They like to see themselves in photographs. Especially if you get in the shot as well, when they see the photo they scream in delight.



We communicated not through "words" but through "eyes"

This is a common problem here. If you are taking their photos you have to pay them. Why? Because this has become a rule since all the tourists offered them money in return for taking their photos; for images that they found very interesting. Pay and shoot. It is to the point that even the riders of those bicycle-taxis I mentioned earlier, the ones who didn't want their photo taken, were gladly posing for the cameras when money was offered. Basically these tourists created a culture of people to whom you have to give money, pens, t-shirts, notebooks, etc in order to get them to do something. It is not a rare occasion to come across tourist groups that have stopped somewhere and handed out dozens of identical pens to the children surrounding them, then told them to line up so they can take their photos. So then who will teach these children that to get something they need to work, put effort into it, their teachers? I think not... Not when there are all these tourists who are already teaching them that they can get money, pens, t-shirts by just demanding instead of working. Of course it's not only tourists responsible for this, we can't dismiss the contribution to the learning process by the guides who show them the way and make them happy.

By the way, don't let the appearance of the lady in the photo to mislead you; she is much younger than me (much younger than 47). But they age very early. According to the statistics, average life expectancy for women is 50.1 and for men 48.1 years.

Why did I put up this photo here?

Do you see the baby on her back? It is fast asleep. If you zoom into the picture you can see the flies on his/her eyes. Three of them land, five of them take off his face and the baby couldn't care less. Although I didn't ask for it, another woman turned the baby's head around so the face could be seen and obviously annoyed it began to wail. When I protested they left him alone and it took him only a few seconds to go back to the same position you see in the photo. Mothers carry their babies on their backs or chests until they are two years old. The baby is attached to the mother while she is walking, working, resting. There is continuous physical contact and mother's scent. This must be the reason for why the African people are so calm and tranquil.

Kigali
I arrived in Kigali on Thursday afternoon, March 2nd. Like I do in every big city, I did a city tour in my car and loaded the points of importance and significance as I saw them on to my GPS (hotels, restaurants, embassies, banks, internet cafés, etc.) I save this track information not only to use it to orient myself later but also to send it to T4A for other travelers to use. T4A (Tracks for Africa) is a group, which originated in South Africa and it has thousands of members all around the world. They collect and process the data sent by many travelers traveling across Africa with their GPS - like me - and prepare GPS maps available for everyone to use. I have been putting together all my tracks and important points since Nuweiba (Egypt) where I entered Africa. I will copy it onto a CD and give it to them when I arrive in South Africa.

I will stay at Hotel Okapi, recommended by Becky and her friends who stayed there. She said the rooms in the basement were relatively cheap and quiet. I settle in one of them for USD20.00 per night, excluding breakfast.

In my previous update when I mentioned about Becky I said she was a friend of Chris. Two people asked me who Chris was. Those of you who read those updates will remember; Chris was my British travel buddy, whom I met in a town called Baharia at the Western Desert in Egypt. We traveled together till Gonder in Ethiopia. As I am typing this up, he is probably somewhere in Rwanda as well.

I had my dinner downtown at an Indian Restaurant next to a supermarket ran by Indians. Here and almost in the entire Sub-Saharan East Africa trade practices are owned by the Indians, from Kenya to Uganda and Rwanda to Tanzania. This is true for all the big cities, not just the capitals. I am not sure if this came to be after the British brought workers from India for the railroad construction in Uganda.

Kigali is a neat and charming typical African capital city. Compared to other capital cities such as Nairobi and Kampala it is a quiet city with its well-organized wide roads, old colonial buildings in huge green gardens and multiple-story but elegant contemporary buildings that are usually the bank head offices. There are seemingly new suburbs with villa type luxury homes a little further away from the city center. The biggest problem is electricity in Kigali where long daily power cuts are no more a surprise to the locals. The power was out two of the three nights I stayed there so I didn't leave the hotel those two nights. It is very dangerous to walk outside in the streets when there is power outage. There is always a huge risk of falling into one of the water channels along the sides of the road and break something. No, no, I am not talking about another kind of danger. That one is not likely to happen in Rwanda, I am sure. So why the open water channels? The rain here isn't exactly like the rain we are familiar with. It starts all of a sudden and continues to pour down, sometimes for a few hours bringing visibility down to zero and then stops. So I guess the only way to discharge the water was to build these open water channels.
Becky and her two friends also arrived in Kigali on the same evening of my arrival here, but I haven't seen them. I saw them at breakfast the next morning. During the following days, we caught up and chatted over a meal or two. I spent my second day in Kigali by car maintenance and cleaning. Oil leakage at the front axle has increased and that is annoying. I need to check it more frequently.

Later, I focused on my updates. I read books and went to an internet café to gather some information on Rwanda. On my last day in Kigali and at the same time in Rwanda, my plan is to visit the Holocaust Museum

Genocide in Rwanda


The photo above is the photo of one of the plaques in the Holocaust Museum's garden. It is a quoted passage excerpted from the testimony given by a 13-year-old boy who was one of the hundreds of thousands of children who witnessed the genocide. He was younger when the genocide took place. Maybe 12, maybe even younger... Can you imagine the trauma that a child at that age has suffered? How about the trauma endured by the entire community and the country?

In 1994, genocide was committed in the heart of Africa and before the eyes of the entire world. And the very same "entire world" with all of its organizations; the United Nations, aid organizations and the NGO's did nothing but follow it on their TV, newspaper headlines and the internet.

There is a long history of events leading up to the genocide. This history of events has been manipulated through self-centered and dispassionate politics implemented by the "guardians of civilization" who set out to determine the fate of this country and therefore prepared the inevitable end.

The oldest recorded inhabitants of Rwanda are the pygmoids who are considered to be the ancestors of the Twa's, which make up a small portion of Rwanda's current population. Twa actually means "indigenous hunters". At around 700 B.C. Bantu speaking farmers who were spreading out to entire Middle Africa to find fertile lands joined them. This new group of people called Hutus has captured most of the hunting areas of the Twa's whose numbers were now far less than the Hutus. Twa's had to retreat to the forests. Between 10th and 14th centuries a new group arrived at the region. They were tall and slim people who were excellent hunters. They were most probably either a tribe of the Maasai or a group of people who spoke the Maa language and they emigrated from the Middle Nile region, that is, from the south of Sudan and Ethiopia. This new group was called Tutsi, which means "cattle owners". They somehow managed to gain control of the country. A distinct hierarchical structure was established during the long reign of the Tutsi kings (or mwami). In this structure while all the high level administrators were Tutsi, the king would occasionally reward a Hutu for his services and usefulness by giving him Tutsi status. In the meantime, if a Tutsi who lost his wealth would be demoted to the Hutu status… While the Twa's were mostly ignored in the society, the names Tutsi and Hutu transformed from being an indicator of lineage into that of social status. It also became possible for the peasant Hutus to change their status. For instance, a rich Hutu who owned cattle could become a recognized Tutsi and even marry a Tutsi woman. From this point onwards this Hutu-turned-Tutsi wouldn't be working for a Tutsi boss anymore.

This tradition was maintained as long as Rwanda was ruled under monarchy. Even after the country was handed over to Germany during the Berlin Conference in 1885, along with today's Burundi and became Rwanda - Urundi, this tradition remained… When the Germans found themselves as the lucky winner of the lands which they haven't ever been to, they must have thought it would only be proper to commission someone there so they sent Count Güstav Adolf von Götzen to their new province in 1894. The Count entered the country from Rusomo Falls in the southeast and went to King Rwabugiri (mwami) who thought his country was in the center of the universe until the fateful moment when the Count gave him the strange news that Rwanda was now under the rule of a new boss, called Germany.

In fact Rwanda was one of the few African countries, which kept its doors closed to the rest of the world and remained free of the slave trade practices. While there were no countries left to discover by the "civilized world" around Rwanda, until the arrival of the German count in 1894 either no one dared to go there, or those who tried were repulsed, just like the failed attempt in 1874 by the American explorer Henry Stanley.

When the Germans gained control of the situation, the missionaries from both the Catholic and the Protestant churches rolled up their sleeves and began their holy mission with all their might to open the eyes of these people living on these untouched lands and to convert them into the religion they represented.

However, Belgians who were already next-door in Congo, the bigger neighbor, were taking the colonialism business more seriously and had plans for Rwanda. Using the advantage of being experienced in this area, they put their plans into action. At the end of the World War I when Germany tasted bitter defeat, they also lost Rwanda to Belgium - easy come, easy go style.
Belgians used Rwanda as a food resource for Belgium. In the meantime they established a serious infrastructure and organizational structure. The existing hierarchical structure of the kingdom was so organized that even the civilized Europeans were impressed by it, yet they still placed their own people in all levels of administration within this structure. During this period many development programs were implemented: Roads, grain depots and schools were built; agricultural techniques were introduced to improve productivity and promoted throughout the country; durable foods were produced as protection against famines which took place from time to time; storage systems for these durable food products were implemented; terracing against erosion was put into practice in mountainous terrain in the country which is also fondly known as the "land of a thousand hills"; cooperative trading system was developed; production of export goods (especially tea and coffee) was encouraged in order to improve flow of liquid funds into the country. In the meantime, however, the social rift has been widening between the Hutus and the Tutsi's during the continuing domination by the Tutsi minority. One of the reasons for this was the preferential treatment given by the Belgians to the Tutsi's who were more receptive to education and guidance. After a while standards and measurements were created; height, diameter of the head, chest and waist measurements, length of legs etc… This reminded me of the Nazi Germany. It's implemented in the same period as well, in the 1940's. These are the years when Rwandans were "classified" by the Belgians. With a new law they began to include the "racial origin" on their birth certificates. This law was in effect until 1994 when genocide took place and during the massacres it made it easier for the killers to identify the Tutsi's from the rest.

Meanwhile, the spark of independence was growing strong among the few Hutu youth who had the opportunity to go to school, and then go to Europe to complete their education. The same spark shared by the Tutsi's who held control of the country began to ignite and forced Belgium - with a little pressure from the United Nations - to take steps towards the independence of the country. Following the death of Mwami (king) Rudahigwa in his hospital room in June of 1959 and the rumors that Belgium had something to do with his death; and an assault on a PARMEHUTU party (the strongest one among the Hutu parties) sub-chief by Tutsi members of UNAR, armed Hutu gangs began to attack, burn, loot and kill. Tutsi's retaliated and a total 1,231 people from both sides died during the two-week conflict. After this a state of emergency was declared and the country was put under the military command of Belgian Colonel Guy Logiest who was known to be a supporter of Hutu and he began the replacement of all the Tutsi chiefs with the Hutu.

When the PARMEHUTU Party won the dubious elections held in 1960, United Nations claimed that there was foul play and called for the elections to be rerun. In 1961 the elections were run again and when Hutu won once again, the Hutu rule began under the leadership of Gregoire Kayibanda. During the following year approximately 150 Tutsi have been killed in Butare (the university town) with 5,000 homes set afire, and about 22,000 people forced to leave. At Rwanda's independence (July 1962) Tutsi made up nine percent of the population. The rest were mostly Hutu, with Hutu dominating the new government. Rather than this government pursuing a policy of integration and reconciliation it pursued a policy of protecting the Hutu by restricting the Tutsi. With the Quotas Law government decreed that the government services would be provided to everyone based on the ratio of the ethnic population to the general population and no more. According to this, since the Tutsi made up 9 percent of the population, no more than 9 percent of school children or students in higher education should be Tutsi, that no more than 9 percent of those in civil service or any other area of employment should be Tutsi.

Hutu's gaining the administrative power was a critical point in the history of Rwanda and the beginning of a terrible time for the Tutsis. Until 1993 thousands of Tutsis were killed by the militia or by the government forces during torture in custody or detention.

The tension in the country increased when the Hutu president of Burundi was killed during military coup on 21 October 1993. United Nations began to send the relief mission, UNAMIR (UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda) in order to ensure security.

On April 6 1994, a plane carrying President Habyarimana and the new President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi was shot down near Kigali by a rocket - where it came from, and by whom will never be found out. This was the last drop to break the already unstable peace. The state radio station Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Colines, which only spread propaganda against Tutsis up until then, began broadcasting that night that Tutsis were the enemy and they should be killed on sight. The reports published in the newspapers (all of which supported the government) included detailed information regarding the destruction of the Tutsis. Tutsi genocide was swift and well organized. With the participation of the government forces it quickly spread to the rest of the country. During the genocide that lasted for four months over a million Tutsis and Hutus that were close to Tutsis in one way or another were slain. UNAMIR commander's attempts through the UN General Secretary's Security Advisor to put an end to this situation came to naught when a message undersigned by the General Secretary himself stated that the situation was seen as Rwanda's "internal affair" ordering UNAMIR not to interfere. In addition, UNAMIR was instructed to evacuate all the foreign nationals with the help of a support unit sent into the country, and UNAMIR was going to be reduced from 2,500 soldiers down to 250. This has definitely made things the work of the Hutu militia force interahamwe and the government forces much easier.
On 30 April 1994 UN Security Council agreed to send a Peacekeeping Force consisting of 6,800 troops. But the deployment of the troops was delayed due to arguments on the formation of the force and in the meantime the genocide gained momentum. France decided to send 2,500 troops to protect the civilians until the Peacekeeping Force arrived and took over. Following this mission called Opération Turquoise, the Tutsi resistance force RPF captured Kigali Airport and the surrounding areas. The French forces gained control in various parts of the country and ended the genocide. According to the official records 1,200,000, and the unofficial reports 1,500,000 Tutsis and the Hutus related to the Tutsis in some shape or form were killed during the genocide.

And the whole world watched it. We watched, sitting in front of our televisions, as the corpses floated down the Akagera River; we watched as the people, some with arms - legs cut off, were trying to cross the bridge to safety into Tanzania with bewildered expressions on their faces. They were trying to cross the same bridge over the Rusomo Waterfall which German Count Götzen have crossed to notify the people of Rwanda who once thought themselves to be in the center of the universe and were oblivious to everything else that they were now in the hands of "civilization". Except this time, the shock was worse than the one they had when they heard from Count Götzen that in another part of the world, against their knowledge or will their country was presented to some "civilized guardians"...


Holocaust Museum, Kigali in the background

On Sunday, March 5th I crossed the border to Tanzania, but as I did so I got permission from the soldiers and walked on the Rusumo Bridge, which links the two countries together. I stood in the middle and as I looked over to one side where Akagera River was flowing from Rwanda the images of corpses floating down the river on the TV screen came to my mind, as well as the images of the "survivors" who were hopelessly trying to escape to Tanzania on this very bridge I was standing. 12 years later, have the wounds healed? There is effort. No one uses the words Tutsi and Hutu anymore, and no one wants to; even if they are a Tutsi or a Hutu...

The reason why I went to Gisenyi and Kibuye that I mentioned before was because they are the two towns that suffered from the Tutsi genocide the most.


The sign for the Holocaust Memorial Statue in Kibuye; it shows that
just in Kibuye 11,400 people were killed.

The museum was established by the support from the British Holocaust Center. The last section is dedicated to various genocides committed in the world in the past. Among these was the Jewish holocaust in the Nazi Germany during the World War II, Bosnia - Herzigova genocide of the recent past. Unfortunately, it also included the alleged Armenian holocaust that is said to have taken place in the beginning of the 20th century... I felt sad.

I know that I have depressed you all, myself even more. There is so much to write and talk about, but now that we have sufficiently climbed down the ladder of happiness, I want to conclude this matter and the Rwanda update here. Thankfully, it was raining when I walked out of the holocaust Museum in Kigali...

< Page 2