Rwanda July/August 2010

I recently returned from Rwanda where, for the last three summers, I have been teaching English to primary school teachers who are now required to teach all their own lessons in English. Rwanda’s move from the francophone zone into the English speaking world is presented as an economically motivated project. I rather think, however, that it owes much to a lingering anger at French policy in the region and the role of France in supporting, arming, and financing the former regime.

My time in Rwanda coincided with the presidential election campaign in which Paul Kagame secured a further -and final- 7 year term to complete the work he started when he liberated the country in from the murderous former regime in 1994. He won the election with 93% of the vote with a massive voter turnout in an election judged fair by Commonwealth observers.

There has been some speculation in recent months that Rwanda may be going the way of so many other African democracies: one man one vote, but only once!

Various exiled generals have warned that Rwanda is a dictatorship. More importantly, Amnesty International has expressed concern that some of the laws in Rwanda framed against ‘genocide ideology’ are too vague and widely drawn, so that they inhibit free speech and legitimate opposition.

These concerns are proper and legitimate. Rwanda is one of the few countries in the world where the UK gives direct budget support. In effect this means that our trust in the regime is such that we are prepared to offer aid direct to the government of Rwanda rather than paying for specific projects. Wherever, taxpayers money is spent we must be cautious and vigilant.

While I was teaching in Rwanda I did take the trouble to observe as much of the electoral process that I could. At one rally I attended there were over 100 thousand people, all of whom who had walked for miles. They had come for a good day out, it was more like a pop festival than a political event.

We need to be balanced in any criticism that we make of the Regime. There is no doubt that Rwanda has an authoritarian government which is highly intolerant of crime and some forms of dissent. Every day you can see the brightly coloured uniforms of convicts in chain gangs labouring at the side of the road. The result is that, almost alone in Africa, there is no corruption and both the urban streets and remote rural areas are utterly safe. This haven is right next door to the Congo, a basket case of a country, the only place left on the planet where people still eat one another. Little wonder then that current regime enjoys such overwhelming support. 

The adult voters of Rwanda have lived through unspeakable horror: In 1994 10% of the population –nearly a million people- were butchered in the space of 100 days. Almost the entire professional and managerial class were wiped out. Rwandans almost worship the regime that rescued them from this and that has restored a modern functioning state. It should be no surprise that any politician or journalist suspected of ever so slightly toying with the old politics of ethnic hatred should find his party or newspaper closed down and himself labouring at the side of the road in a bright orange uniform. Sometimes I wonder if we should try it here.