The United Nations (UN) International Day of Peace, came and went, making little to no impression on humanity’s propensity to self destruction. It is as though the day itself was overwhelmed by the conflicts and took refuge. There are however corners of humanity, where it will have felt welcome, amongst them, today’s Rwanda.
Every year since 2001, 21st September, has been designated International Day of Peace, or more commonly, World Peace Day. In 2011, Rwanda joined the rest of the world in marking the day.
Predictably, there is a theme for the day, every year, and Cultivating a Culture of Peace, was the theme for this year.
Judging by how it was incorporated into Rwanda’s observation of the day, it is a theme that resonated perfectly, with the country’s own determination to maintain its hard worn peace and stability.
If any country demonstrates that peace can be salvaged from the most unpromising circumstances, it is surely Rwanda. The country has shown both the worst, and best of humanity.
For Rwanda, the focus is on undestanding the lessons of the country’s worst period in history, to inform the present and future. And that means engaging the nation’s young people.
Together with their partners from International Alert, Interpeace, and Never Again Rwanda, the government marked the day in several venues around the country. In every single one of those venues, you stood out, if you were over fourty.
And among those who stood out at the event held at the Gisozi genocide memorial, were the ministers of National Unity and Civic Engagement, appropriately abbreviated to MINUBUMWE (Ubumwe being togetherness or oneness in Kinyarwanda), and the minister for youth, Dr Jean Damascene Bizimana, and Dr Jean Nepo Abdallah Utumatwishima, the latter a medical doctor.
The ministers stood out less for their ages, the minister for youth, is himself still in his youth, and more for not only their roles, but their broad understanding of their nation, and their society.
With an encyclopaedic knowledge of Rwandan history and culture, Dr Bizimana, took his young audience on a journey through Rwandan history, touching on different aspects and meanings of Kinyarwanda culture. He talked of a society that placed great emphasis on the sancticty of life, and the togetherness of the community.
He then outlined how all that was torn asunder by colonisation, which would destroy the nation, by dividing the once homogeneous nation, into superficial ethnic groups. The crimes that followed, especially between the thirty-seven years, from 1957, culminating in the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi, were committed in a country, and by a people that had lost touch with who they once were, and who trampled on every Rwandan value.
What had been anathema in Rwandan culture, became the norm, and the unimaginable horror of the Genocide Against Tutsi, became what identified Rwanda.
As always, Dr Bizimana, gave examples of society’s descent into the nightmare, where mass murder of men, women and children, became acts encouraged by the government, and its supporters. The minister was among those who survived the nightmare.
He related one of the many horrors, through which he and others like him lived. A ten year old Bizimana, witnessed his older cousin, fleeing from his school in terror, and run to hide in the house. It was not long before the cause of his terror, in the form of his fellow pupils, came, baying for his blood. He would not survive, they found and murdered him, before the ten year old’s eyes. Because he was Tutsi. That was in the 1960s.
Rwanda would be restored to itself, with the defeat of the genocidal forces, in July 1994. A world which had been turned upside down, where right became wrong, and wrong right, righted the right way up.
Those who forget their history, are condemned to repeat it, the philosopher and man of letters, George Santayana, is reputed to have warned. Now the the minister too, urged his audience to know their history, to be aware of who they are as Rwandans, the better to protect and build on the new Rwanda, that has been bequeathed to them, at such great sacrifice.
That was the what, the minister of youth reflected on the how. His audience, is a digital generation, much of their time is spent on social media. The minister urged them to be aware of the effect of what they say and do in cyberspace.
Observing World Peace Day, in Rwanda, it was difficult to resist the thought, that were other parts of the world to follow a similar approach, something concrete would actually come out of the day, and our troubled world would take a significant step towards peace.
There is an openness, inclusiveness, and acceptance of everyone in almost everything that Rwanda does, to rebuild itself. A young woman, raised the sensitive issue of how the families of individuals who had been tried and convicted of crimes of genocide are helped. Clearly nervous, she did not explain herself clearly.
The response to her could have been a reiteration of the policy, that such families do receive the help they need and left at that. And that would have been a perfectly reasonable response, since it does indeed reflect what happens.
But realising that she may have had a specific complaint, she was asked to hold on to her question, until after the meeting, when someone would sit with her, and give her the time and opportunity to explain fully.
It is not unusual for that to happen at large gatherings. The responsiveness, the sensitivity, the painstaking effort to ensure that people are heard, and where possible, their needs met, is an important feature of Rwanda, that is rarely acknowledged.
Organisations like Never Again, Interpeace, International Alert, which are led and managed by Rwandans, seem to have become part of that coulture, gaining as much from the Rwandan approach, as they bring. For Executive Director of Never Again Rwanda, World Peace Day, holds a particular meaning in Rwanda.
“For Rwandans this day carries a special significance, because we understand the journey we have taken towards peace. Our history has taught us the importance of continuing that journey, and empowering the youth to preserve this peace.”
To some extent, the same thing could be said of every society around the globe, but few will have placed as much emphasis on such awareness. That Rwanda does, is undoubtedly due to political will and leadership.
Before the audience which was invited from different districts around the country, came together over lunch, the last word to close the meeting went to Dr Bizimana. Wishing his young audience peace and a long life, he quoted quoted lyrics from a song that reminds Rwandans of the nightmare from which they have awakened, and how to dream dreams for today and tomorrow.
Taking the microphone from its stand, he began to speak the lyrics, his audience listened, expecting to hear more of the same, but to their surprise and delight, in sonorous voice, he sung the rest. Quite a send off.
