Much of the world came to learn of Rwanda in 1994, when the majority Hutu people went on a three-month killing spree of the minority Tutsi. It’s a memorable story. It was a vicious genocide. Movies have been made.
The genocide ended with the victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, Tutsi refugees who grew up in Uganda. With the conquer came drastic change. A military footprint was laid down and a security blanket settled after. Large chunks of enligh-speaking Diaspora flowed in; mostly from Uganda, but also from Africa, Europe and America. The two words that had seemingly started it all, Hutu and Tutsi, were banned from public use.
It is how the country lives now, nearly sixteen years later; with a heavy burden upon each individual to suppress at almost any cost the tug to identify oneself by ethnicity, or for that matter – because the two are so tied – recent history.
Other than historical references to the genocide and testimony heard in controversial local Gacaca courts, ethnic labels are unheard of. The government acknowledges that identities still exist, but nationalism is played up to its utmost octave.
So I was surprised when, at the tender age of 22, I arrived in this emerald-green country to find people treating me like a living, breathing brother. I was greeted with a fist-pound and a touch to the heart by the money changer, who called me a fellow Jew. I took up dinner conversations with newspaper colleagues who loved me for being American. Best of all, each government-men I met thought me holy for despising France for its intimacy with the former, genocidal regime.
What caught my attention more than anything else were the references to Israel, the references to the Jews. At first it seemed obvious; as historical cousins of genocide Israel and Rwanda had a special bond. Like Israel, Rwanda was preoccupied by socialism on the inside and an alert defense to the outside. Like Israel, Rwanda had escaped genocide to become a shining example in a troublesome part of the world.
But the reference and affirmation was much more than historical contingency; it was, according to them, true blood. According to both historians and Tutsi scholars, the group originally came to Rwanda from Ethiopia in the 15th century. Although played down by the current government, the belief throughout Rwandan culture persists. To them, the genealogical lineage to Ethiopia connects them to a greater constellation including ancient Hebrews.
For people like Claude Bizimana, in a heavy country where silence seems a virtue, metaphors to Jews and Israelis – non-Jews and Palestinians – has proven a timely euphemism.
“That’s where the Jews lived,” the former soldier who fought alongside President Paul Kagame says, pointing to a shadowy suburban Kigali home in the dark starry night. “Those were all non-Jews,” he says, moving his finger all around. When he introduces me to his friends he begins with a familiar greeting. “He is also a Jew,” Claude says to me. “Josh is an Israelite too,” he says to his friend.
Geneological proof of Tutsi decendency from ancient Israelites is difficult to prove, but among Diaspora, survivors and even at times the government the associated to ancient Abysnia – today Ethiopia – is common. The first person to remark on it – Jonathan Speke in 1860s Uganda – was also the first European to visit the Great Lakes Region. Since then it has been hijacked and re-hijacked until it has become a badge of honor to describe a gifted but cursed tribe.
Like street urchins in the night euphemisms come alive off the lips of the silent. Slogans have taken the place of Hutu and of Tutsi. Jew, Israel, non-Jew – at times, Palestinian – are at the top. But there are others. Survivor and perpetrator. Anglophone and Francophone. Before-1994 and After-1994.
Just in the last few weeks, new euphemisms have been created for describing the nature of presidential hopeful Victoire Ingabire’s candidacy in this year’s elections. After claiming that many Hutu were also killed during the time of the genocide and are not being remembered, she has been accuse in the media of being an ideological descendent of post-independence and racist Hutu regimes that caused thousands of Tutsis to flee the country.
To some degrees, the current administration’s strict rules on expression seem to be working. Rwanda’s economy was one of the fastest-growing in the world last year. It is one of the few countries meeting targets for the United Nations Millenium Goals; it is one of the safest countries in the world and President Kgame has become a poster-boy for the developing world.
Most people who speak confidentially about the security situation in the country say the public ban on ethnicity is a necessary evil, but that it doesn’t stop people from knowing who they are.
originally published in The Guardian Unlimited
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