RWANDA:THIS FORMER SLAVE'S LETTER PORTRAYS A TRUE PICTURE OF HOW RWANDAN REFUGEES WOULD WRITE TO MR KAGAME IF THEY HAD A CHANCE TO DO SO

To My Old Master

In August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee, wrote to his former slave, Jourdan Anderson, and requested that he come back to work on his farm. Jourdan — who, since being emancipated, had moved to Ohio, found paid work, and was now supporting his family — responded spectacularly by way of the letter seen below (a letter which, according tonewspapers at the time, he dictated).

Rather than quote the numerous highlights in this letter, I'll simply leave you to enjoy it. Do make sure you read to the end.

(Source: The Freedmen's Book; Image: A group of escaped slaves in Virginia in 1862, courtesy of the Library of Congress.)

Dayton, Ohio,

August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,

Jourdon Anderson

RWANDA:HISTORY OF RWANDA FROM 1800 TO 1962:TIMELINE HISTORY OF RWANDA

by Rwandan Youth for Change on Saturday, 28 January 2012 at 18:18

From the first contact with Europeans in Rwanda to Rwanda's Independence:
1860: John Speke in his writings mentions the existence of Rwanda that he could see the shore Tanzanian Kagera.
1863: In his book "Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile", the same John Speke, after a brief stint in Burundi makes his theory about Batutsi: this would be "Hamitic-Semite" from Ethiopia. .. This theory has a hard life ...
1876: Henry Morton Stanley bypasses Rwanda from the north, but is not able to enter. It describes the Rwandans as a people of warriors resisting attempts by Arab and Swahili slave.
1884/1885: At the Berlin conference, the region including Tanganyika, Rwanda and Burundi was awarded to Germany.
1892: Dr Oscar Baumann, Ph.D. and Austrian geographer, is the first European to enter Rwanda. He stayed there from September 11 to 15.
1894: A German officer, Count Von Götzen, crosses the east-west Rwanda at the head of a column of 620 soldiers and askaris. He meets the Mwami Kigeri IV Rwabugiri May 29 to Kageyo (current prefecture of Gisenyi).
1895: IV Kigeri Rwabugiri died in November. He is succeeded by his son who took the name Rutarindwa dynastic Mibambwe Rutarindwa IV.
1896: Coup of Rucunshu: Musinga Mwami's half-brother and the Queen Mother Kanjogera Rutarindwa are murdered and other nobles. Musinga is named Yuhi V Musinga. It also decides to "trust" the external relations of the kingdom to the German Empire which recognizes the de facto protectorate.
1900: The White Fathers of Cardinal Lavigerie settle in Rwanda under the leadership of Bishop Hirth. On 4 February, the Mission of Save is created.
1907: The Germans settled in Rwanda. They open a military command in Kigali they have chosen as the "capital".
1911: Ratification in Brussels on July 27 of the Convention signed between Germany and Belgium May 14, 1910, fixing the borders "final" between the Belgian Congo and Rwanda.
1912: The Germans Yuhi V Musinga help to conquer the north.
1916: War of 1914-1918: the Allies fighting Germany in East Africa. Belgians drove the Germans out of Rwanda and occupied the country.
1922: Appointed first Bishop of Rwanda in the person of Bishop class.
1924: Belgium formally accepts the mandate of the Trusteeship "Ruanda-Urundi" entrusted by the League of Nations (LN) following the participation of Belgium to victory against Germany.
1926: The mandate of the League in Belgium provides a "mission of civilization based on a system of indirect rule."
1931: November 12, Belgium dismisses Yuhi V Musinga "selfishness and lust" among others. On 14 November, the fallen leaves mwami Nyanza. November 16, his son Charles was inducted Rudahigwa Mwami of Rwanda under the dynastic name Mutara III Rudahigwa, name chosen by Bishop class.
1933: Marriage of Mutara III Rudahigwa October 15 with Nyiromakomali.
1935: Mutara III Rudahigwa offers the Catholic church land situated in Nyanza property from his father. This land will become "the Church and the mission of Nyanza.
1941/1945: While World War II raging in Europe, Rwanda suffered a terrible famine caused by drought from 1941 to 1945 and cost 300,000 lives in Rwanda (which account at that time 2,000,000 inhabitants). Following the famine, new cultures are emerging in Rwanda: sweet potato, bean, pea and potatoes.
1942: Second marriage Mutara III Rudahigwa January 13 Gicanda with Rosalie.
Highlights of the history of Rwanda to the independence of Rwanda
1944: Musinga, exiled by Belgium in Moba (Belgian Congo), dies January 13.
1945: Disappearance of Bishop Class in Bujumbura on January 31 following a compound fracture of the femoral neck and pelvis.
1946:
Rwanda is enshrined in the Mwami "Christ the King" at a ceremony Oct. 27 in Nyanza.
The Rwanda spends defunct League of Nations mandate to the tutelage of the United Nations (UN).
1949: Travel triumphant Mutara III Rudahigwa in Belgium at the end of the year.
1954: Mutara III Rudahigwa decreed the abolition of feudalism on April 1.
1955: The Belgian King, Baudouin first visit to Rwanda.
1956: Archbishop Perraudin was appointed bishop of Rwanda.
1957: On March 24, publication of the "Hutu Manifesto" in which the Catholic Church and the Belgian rule is not implicated.



1959: The letter published in Lent February 11 by Bishop Perraudin and read in many churches attacked violently policy Mwami.
July 25 Mutara III Rudahigwa dies under mysterious circumstances Bujumbura: therapeutic accident or murder?
July 28, Mwami deceased's funeral held in Nyanza. The same day, the leading monarchist F. Rukeba, A. Kayumba, M. and M. Rwagasana Kayihura gaining speed the Belgian authorities and designate one of the halves of Rudahigwa brothers, Jean-Baptiste Ndahindurwa, as his successor under the dynastic name of Kigeri V Ndahindurwa.
Takes place in November "Toussaint Rwandan" tens of thousands of Tutsi were driven from their hills, and had to go into exiled, they moved to Zaire, Burundi and Uganda. This is the beginning of the "social revolution" of the Hutu.
1960: Municipal elections organized by the colonial authorities from 26 June to 30 July. They give a landslide victory in PARMEHUTU party Kayibanda.
1961: In elections on Sept. 25 in Rwanda, PARMEHUTU totals 78% of the vote and 17% UNAR.
1962: On July 1, the independence of Rwanda is given by Belgium. The republic is proclaimed and Kayibanda became the first President of the Republic of Rwanda

Original source: rwanda.free.fr
Related Keywords:
history of Rwanda, Rwanda's independence, Oscar Baumann Kigeri, Rwabugiri, Musinga Rucunshu, White Fathers in Rwanda, in Rwanda Lavigerie Germans in Rwanda, Yuhi V Musinga Kayibanda, northern Rwanda, Bishop of Rwanda, Mutara Rudahigwa, Nyiromakomali King Mutara Rudahigwa King, Rosalie Gicanda, Gicanda, Mwami, Nyanza, Baudoin in Rwanda, UN Rwanda, the Belgians in Rwanda, Perraudin Rwanda, Hutu Manifesto, Catholic Church of Rwanda, elections in Rwanda, PARMEHUTU, legislative Rwanda, UNAR Rwanda independence, Kayibanda

RWANDA: THE RPF SOLDIERS WHO SHOT HABYARIMANA'S FALCON 50 DIED AT THE RAODBLOCK IN REMERA

By Timothy Kalyegira
The Uganda Record
February 04, 2010

Photo:
RPA commander, Paul Kagame tours RPF-controlled areas, Feb. 11, 1993.

CONFIDENTIAL

The shooting down of Falcon 50 jet carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda, President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi, and French flight crew. April 6, 1994. 

An eye witness account. By code name "Water Melon". Narrated on January 17, 25, and 28, 2007. Narrated to Timothy Kalyegira.

1. At the time of the August 1993 ceasefire between the government of Rwanda and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in Arusha, Tanzania, the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) had set up its military intelligence headquarters at Mulindi, in the Byumba district of Rwanda.

2. The Commanding Officer of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) in the RPA was Colonel Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa. The vice Commanding Officer was Lieutenant Colonel Jackson Mutabazi Rwahama. Water Melon was an escort to Rwahama. 

3. At the time of the invasion of Rwanda in October 1990, Rwahama was a Captain. He was later to become the Commanding Officer of the RPA Military Police after 1994. Up to 1993, Rwahama was the administrative officer of the RPA's Directorate of Military Intelligence.

4. Under the terms of the Arusha accords, the RPA's DMI was to provide security to the RPF Members of Parliament in Kigali who had been selected to represent the RPF in the National Assembly. 600 RPA soldiers were to be based at the parliament in Kigali to provide this security to the RPF members of parliament. The RPA unit at the Kigali parliament buildings was called the Republican Guard.

5. The DMI agents used to transport firewood to the RPA soldiers at the parliament buildings which was used for cooking. The firewood was ferried in a Mercedes Benz trailer lorry.

6. Hidden on the floor of the Mercedes trailer were RPA soldiers whom the RPA was secretly taking to Kigali to reinforce the 600 soldiers agreed upon under the terms of the Arusha accords. A few RPA soldiers at a time were ferried to Kigali until their total reached 1,400 men. This brought the total number of RPA soldiers in Kigali to 2,000. At that point, the RPA stopped taking any more men to Kigali and the mission was brought to an end.

7. Around February 1994, the RPF went on a secret mission. The Rwandese refugees in Uganda had created an association which they called "Banyamulyango", to coordinate their political and social activities. 

8. Secretly, a large consignment of machetes (known in East Africa as pangas) was purchased and sent to the NRA detach at a place called Kamwezi in the Kabale district of southwest Uganda. The machetes were wrapped in polythene paper and packed in wooden crates.

9. They were loaded onto a yellowish-green Tata lorry with Ugandan registered number plates. The RPA intelligence officer, Lt. Colonel Jackson Rwahama, came to the RPA detach in a red Toyota single cabin pick up and received the machete consignment.

10. Rwahama then drove across the border into Rwanda and with the Tata lorry behind him, the consignment was taken to the PRA headquarters at Mulindi. High security was observed around the lorry. Soldiers who saw the machetes as they were unpacking them were told that they had been brought to clear the jungle and bush area around the Mulindi camp. 

11. In March 1994, the RPA turned to another mission: to try and locate the best vantage point to position themselves as close as possible to the flight paths over the Kanombe airport. "Water Melon" was able to establish this new mission based on the conversations that he picked up as an escort to the DMI's vice commanding officer, Lt. Col. Rwahama.

12. To carry out this reconnaissance, the DMI operatives had to evade roadblocks set up in Kigali by the FAR government army. To do this, they got help from a Tutsi employee of the United Nations based in Kigali.

13. This Tutsi who worked for the UN, was in his 50s or late 40s, he lived in a suburb of Kigali called Kikukiro, and most of his family lived in Burundi.

14. This Tutsi man drove a blue Toyota Hilux single cabin pickup and his role was to guide the RPA's DMI agents around Kigali and he helped them locate the best vantage point below the aerial flight paths leading to Kanombe airport.

15. The UN guide took the RPA DMI personnel on three trips to study the Kigali area. The first trip took them along the Bugesera, while the second reconnaissance trip took the group long the Mulindi road. They came back through the Masaka road and returned to the Parliament buildings.

16. A third trip was made and it would be the final one. On this third trip, the DMI crew left the Parliament buildings on foot to the home of the UN man in the Kikukiro suburb. They returned to Parliament in his Toyota pickup.

17. The RPA had an armory at their camp at the Parliament buildings. In that armory the RPA kept three missiles. These missiles and a missile launcher were wrapped in an olive green polythene material.

18. After the DMI personnel returned from the Kikukiro suburb on the Toyota pickup, they headed for the armory. They got out three missiles and took them outside. The missiles were put onto a four-inch foam mattress. The launcher was also put alongside the missiles. The mattress was then rolled and tied up. 

19. Supervising the whole exercise was Lieutenant Bosco Rumenera who was the Intelligence Officer of the RPA Republican Guard. Also supervising this mission of packing the missile was Major Stephen Munyandinda, the Operations Intelligence Officer of the 600-man Republican Guard.

20. Another man on that missile team was Sergeant James Rwaka of the DMI staff. He was in charge of logistics and finances. It was his job to pay the DMI staff and pay them on their missions. He had studied for a Law degree from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.

21. Also on the DMI team was a man called Joseph Nyamitale. He was a Ugandan of the Bakonjo tribe from Kasese in western Uganda. He was a private in the RPA and was an artillery specialist. He had received his artillery training at the RPA's training wing in Gikoba, in Rwanda. 

22. The missiles and launcher were put onto the Toyota pickup. Then around or just after five O'Clock in the afternoon of April 6, 1994, the DMI team and their escort "Water Melon" left the Parliament buildings. The UN man was driving the pickup.

23. Bosco Rumenera was dressed in a tan suit, white shirt, and striped necktie. He was a tall man and had a missing front left tooth.

24. The UN man wore a brown shirt and ash-grey trousers. Nyamitale wore a black T-shirt and black jeans.

25. During that day, the RPA commander Major-General Paul Kagame sent a radio message to the RPA units in Kigali giving some instructions. 

26. They drove along Masaka road via Mulindi and then turned onto a dirt road off the Masaka road. They drove about five kilometres along that road until they reached a house belonging to a friend of the UN man.

27. It was an old house with an iron sheet roof. Outside the house were four cows grazing. The DMI team stayed inside the house until after sunset and then set off again.

28. The DMI team walked to a nearby hillock and settled at the top of it. The hillock was about 50 metres away from the old house. 

29. This hillock was about three kilometres away from Kanombe airport and the DMI team could see the lights of the airport in the distance from where they stood.

30. The Tutsi UN man remained in his pickup a short distance away from the old house as the DMI team settled on top of the hill. 

31. On top of that small hill was a large white tent with the initials "UNHCR" printed on it. The DMI team took the missiles and launcher with them into the tent where they were unwrapped.

32. The missile launcher was an olive green military colour. It was in two parts that the DMI team fitted together into one tube. The point where the two tubes were joined together was black. The DMI team then waited for a while. It was now around half past seven or coming toward eight O'Clock in the evening.

33. About 30 minutes after they arrived at the hillock, a male voice came on Lt. Bosco Rumenera's Motorola two-way radio. Lt. Bosco Rumenera's radio code name was "Sixteen-Charlie".

34. The voice called out, in English: "Sungu-Sungu, Four-Nine-Romeo."
Sungu-Sungu replied, in English, "Go ahead."
Four-nine-Romeo then said, in English, "Connect me Double Five."
Sungu-Sungu called out three times: "Double Five?" but there was no reply from Double Five.
Sung-Sungu then told Four-Nine-Romeo, in Kiswahili and English: "Enda direct kwa Two-Zero-Nine." ("Go direct to Two-Zero-Nine").
Four-Nine-Romeo then called out three times, in English: "Two-Zero-Nine, Four-Nine-Romeo?"
Four-Nine-Romeo then came back, in English: "Two-Zero-Nine connect me Sixteen-Charlie."
Two-Zero-Nine then called twice, in English: "Sixteen-Charlie, Two-Zero-Nine?"
Two-Zero-Nine then replied, in English: "Four-Nine-Romeo, go ahead."
Four-Nine-Romeo then called out, in English: "Sixteen-Charlie, Four-Nine-Romeo?"
Sixteen-Charlie then replied, in Kiswahili: "Sukuma ujumbe." ("Send your message").
Four-Nine-Romeo then gave the order, in Kiswahili: ""Okiwone kitu yote, piga!" ("If you see anything, hit!") 
After that order, Sixteen-Charlie replied, in English: "Over, out."
35. The artillery specialist, Private Joseph Nyamitale, then got the launcher, now with a missile inside it, and placed it on his shoulder. He pointed the launcher into the dark night sky.

36. The missile launcher then started giving off a wailing, siren-like noise. Nyamitale then told his colleagues in Kiswahili: "Missile ena liya. Kwisha pata target." ("The missile is crying. It has located its target.")

37. After Nyamitale said this, the escort "Water Melon" of the DMI was ordered to leave the location and return to the old house. A teenage boy at the old house who had followed the team out of curiosity was also sent back to the house. 

38. The escorts had barely left the location when they heard a single explosion at the location where the DMI officers stood. It was the sound of the missile being fired. 

39. The escorts stayed at the house while the team led by Bosco Rumenera remained at the location where they had fired the missile. During the aftermath of the firing of the missile, Bosco Rumenera and his team got into steady radio communication with unknown people in another part of town.

40. The lights at the airport remained on for a while in the immediate aftermath of the shooting down of the presidential jet.

41. Three hours later, at about 11:00 p.m., on April 6, 1994, the escorts were finally called back and told to pack the remaining two missiles onto the back of the Toyota pickup. The team then drove off.

42. The team, driven by the UN Tutsi official, encountered a roadblock at Mulindi manned by the government soldiers. The UN man suggested that they avoid the roadblock and instead walk through the nearby bush back to the Parliament buildings.

43. The DMI team got out of the pickup and started walking in the direction of the airport while the UN official turned back and drove in the opposite direction with the two remaining missiles and other accessories.

44. The DMI team emerged from the bush and onto the road leading from the airport to the Lemera suburb of Kigali. The whole of Kigali city was in upheaval, with chaos everywhere and people on the streets and roads talking about an aircraft accident. But at that time, Bosco Rumenera, Joseph Nyamitale, and the DMI team did not understand what was going on.

45. They walked on, toward a place called Kyemihurura and encountered a serious roadblock, manned by soldiers and men in civilian clothes holding machetes. The DMI team were ordered to stop but pleaded to be allowed to go on their way.

46. The soldiers ordered them to sit down by the roadside. At that point, sensing danger, Bosco Rumenera drew out a pistol and shot two of the civilians in the chest. They fell down dead on the road.

47. Other men at the roadblock, seeing this, pounced onto the DMI team and overpowered them. They cut Bosco Rumenera into pieces with a machete. Joseph Nyamitale, the man who fired the missile that blew up the Falcon 50 jet, was also hacked to death by this group manning the roadblock. Sergeant Rwaka was taken away captive.

48. The escort "Water Melon" had been walking at a distance of about 30 metres behind the DMI team and he stopped in his tracks when he saw what was happening at the roadblock.

49. After he watched his colleagues being hacked to death, he fled the scene and back in the direction from which they had come, toward town until he found the St. Famille Church and took refuge there. Inside the church were ordinary civilians, both Hutu and Tutsi, and some of them were listening to the news over small radios.

50. The news was entirely about the death of the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, blown up by a missile as the plane approached landing at Kanombe airport en route from a summit in Tanzania. That was when "Water Melon" made the connection between their DMI mission that night and the events unfolding in Rwanda.

51. There was no other aircraft that had been shot down by a missile or any other gunfire that night over Kigali or any other part of Rwanda. This made "Water Melon" realise that their mission, which they did not fully understand at the time, had been to shoot down the plane carrying President Habyarimana. 

52. Lieutenant Bosco Rumenera and Private Joseph Nyamitale died at the roadblock without knowing the magnitude of the mission that night, April 6, 1994.

Related Materials:
Paul kagame plotted to kill Habyarimana

The Mutsinzi Report: A Video Analysis of Habyarimana Plane Crash

A Rebuttal of the Mutsinzi Report on the Rwandan genocide

Report of the Mutsinzi "Experts Committee" : a collection of distortions of the truth, speculations, lies, paradoxes and antitheses 

Rwanda: Habyarimana Death - Findings Out But Where Are the Black Boxes?

The alleged mystery surrounding the black box of the Rwandan genocide

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" BE NICE TO PEOPLE ON YOUR WAY UP, BECAUSE YOU MIGHT MEET THEM ON YOUR WAY DOWN." Jimmy DURANTE.

COMBATTONS la haine SANS complaisance, PARTOUT et avec Toute ENERGIE!!!!!!
Let's  rather prefer Peace, Love , Hope and Life, and get together as one!!! Inno TWAGIRA

RWANDA:THE RPF INKOTANYI ITINERARY OF BLOODSHED Starting from KAGITUMBA all the way to MBANADAKA

THE RPF INKOTANYI ITINERARY OF BLOODSHED Starting from KAGITUMBA all the way to MBANADAKA

• Massacre in Kagitumba on October 1, 1990
• Ngarama massacre in 1991
• Massacre in Kiyombe and Butaro in 1991
• Massacre in Kigombe and Kinigi on January 22,1991 in Ruhengeri
• Massacre in Bwisige-Kivuye-Kibali-Muvumba in 1992
• Massacre in Gatsibo-Neke-Muhura in 1993
• Massacre of Nyacyonga in 1994
• Kibeho Massacre in 1995
• Massacre in Kinigi,Mukingo
• Nkuli, Nyamutera, Ndusu-Burringa, Satinskyi, Gaseke-
• Nyakizu,Mutura,Jenda,Kabatwa,Kabumba, Gatovu in 1996-1998
• DRC Hutu massacre of Kibumba, Kahindo,Katale, Lac Vert,Mugunga, NRA,Kavumu, Nyangezi in 1996-97
• Massacre in SAKE-KIBABI-WALIKALE-AMISI-TINGITINGI-LUBUTU RIVER-OBUNDU-KALEMI-KISANGANI-IKELLA, Opala-Ikela-Bokungu-Boende Mandaka

RWANDA:KOHEREZA LEON MUGESERA MU RWANDA BISHOBORA KUGIRA INGARUKA NZIZA N’IMBI KURI LETA Y’U RWANDA

Byakuwe muli RWANDA RWIZA:

Nyuma yo kohereza umunyarwanda Léon Mugesera mu Rwanda, akaba yari amaze imyaka yenda kugera kuri 20 mu gihugu cya Canada, harimo igera kuri 15 yamaze mu manza zo kugirango adasubizwamu Rwanda, hari byinshi byakagombye kubera isomo abanyarwanda muri rusange n’abanyapolitiki by’umwihariko.
Kuba Léon Mugesera akurikiranyweho amagambo yavuze mu 1992, muri mitingi y’ishyaka rya MRNDD ryari ku butegetsi icyo gihe, byerekana ko nta munyapolitiki cyangwa undi wese uri ku buyobozi ubu ushobora kwibwira ko bidashoboka kuzabazwa ibyo yavuze cyangwa yakoze n’iyo haba hashize imyaka myinshi nk’uko byagendekeye Léon Mugesera.
Aha twagerageje kurebera hamwe ingaruka nziza n’ingaruka mbi, iri yoherezwa rya Léon Mugesera rishobora kugira kuri Leta y’u Rwanda n’abandi bashyigikiye ko Mugesera yoherezwa mu Rwanda.
Duhereye ku ngaruka nziza kuri Leta y’u Rwanda:
-Ni igitego cya politiki Perezida Kagame na Leta ye batsinze imbere y’amahanga ndetse n’abarwanije iyoherezwa rya Léon Mugesera mu Rwanda. Ibi byerekana ko hari ibihugu bimwe na bimwe bigiha agaciro Leta y’u Rwanda
-Imanza zimwe na zimwe zaburanishirizwaga mu mahanga zishobora kujya zoherezwa mu Rwanda, kuko uko bigaragara u Rwanda rwateganije ibintu bimeze nka propagande rukoresheje iki kibazo cya Mugesera. Uburyo yakiriwe ku kibuga,  aho azafungirwa,  uburyo azaburana ni ikintu Leta y’u Rwanda ishobora gukoresha mu minsi iri imbere mu rwego rwo kugaragaza isura nziza mu mahanga
-Ibi bishobora kuba igikorwa cyatera ubwoba  no kwiheba bamwe mu batavuga rumwe na Leta bakagabanya umurego mu kuyirwanya bikanga ko Leta y’u Rwanda isabye ko bakoherezwa mu Rwanda byakoroha.
-Leta y’u Rwanda igiye kwitwaza iki kibazo kugira ngo yake inkunga mu mahanga mu rwego rwo gufasha urwego rw’ubutabera ndetse n’izindi nzego zijyanye no guhana ibyaha.
-Ibihugu bimwe na bimwe byatinyaga kwirukana abanyarwanda b’impunzi  biboheza mu Rwanda bigiye kubona urwitwazo rwo kubikora

Ingaruka mbi kuri Leta y’u Rwanda:
-Ingaruka ya mbere mbi n’uko urubanza rwa Léon Mugesera ruzabera Leta y’u Rwanda nk’igeragezwa kugira ngo amahanga arebe koko niba u Rwanda rushoboye gutanga ubutebera butabogamye.
-Ikindi gikomeye n’uko urubanza rwa Léon Mugesera niruburanishwa mu mizi bishobora gutuma hari ukuri kwinshi kujya hanze Leta y’u Rwanda idashaka ko kumenyekana. Aha natanga urugero: uko ibintu byari bimeze nyakuri hagati ya 1990 na 1994 aho amashyaka yari ahanganye, ibikorwa by’urugomo byakorwaga n’urubyiruko rw’amashyaka yose ari aya opposition ari n’ayari ku ruhande rwa Perezida Habyalimana mu gihe ubu bivugwa ko abari ku ruhande rw’abari bashyigikiye Habyalimana aribo bonyine bakoraga ibyo bikorwa bibi, ibibazo by’umutekano byari mu gihugu icyo gihe byaterwaga n’intambara Leta yarwanaga na FPR, ubuzima bubi abakuwe mubyabo n’intambara babagamo, ubwicanyi bwakorwaga na FPR icyo guhe n’ibindi n’ibindi. Ibi mvuze ni ibintu bitamenyerewe kuvugwa mu Rwanda mu ruhame rero kuba bizaba ngombwa ko bivugwa ku mugaragaro hari isura yindi bizatanga itandukanye n’iyo Leta ya FPR yagaragarizaga abanyarwanda cyane cyane abatarabaga mu Rwanda cyangwa abari bato icyo gihe.
-Amagambo Léon Mugesera yavuze ashobora kuzagereranywa n’andi magambo yavuzwe cyangwa avugwa n’abayobozi batandukanye kugira ngo higwe ku buremere bwayo.  Kandi nta shiti ko abazaba bunganira Léon Mugesera bazabikora. Aha harimo ikibazo kinini kuko abayobozi benshi bari mu butegetsi ubu ndetse kugeza kuri Perezida Kagame ubwe bagiye bakoresha amagambo afite ubukana ku buryo abazaba bunganira Léon Mugesera bashobora kuyakoresha bagerageza kurengera uwo bazaba baburanira. Ibi bishobora kuzatera cya kibazo abantu benshi bakunze kwibaza cy’uko uruhande rumwe arirwo ruhanwa gusa.
-Imiryango mpuzamahanga, abanyamakuru, n’abandi bazaba bakurikira uru rubanza ntabwo bazazanwa na kamwe bazaza bashaka kwnjira mu buzima rusange bw’igihugu ku buryo hari byinshi Leta y’u Rwanda itifuza ko abanyamahanga bitaho bazitaho. Ibi bigatuma Leta y’U Rwanda izaba isa nk’aho icungiwe hafi mu mikorere yayo ku buryo izaba idafite ubwinyagamburiro mu bikorwa byayo.
-Imvugo zimwe zirimo iterabwoba, gushinyagura, kwigamba, n’ibindi zakundaga gukoreshwa n’abayobozi mu gukanga abatavuga rumwe na Leta cyangwa abandi zizitonderwa, ibyo bishatse kuvuga ko ingufu za propaganda y’ubutegetsi zizagabanuka.
Umwanzuro: N’ubwo Léon Mugesera yakoze amakosa akomeye avuga ariya magambo yuzuye urwango, ashobora kuba agiye kuba igitambo kizatuma abanyarwanda bamenya ukuri, ubutabera bugerageze gukora neza mu rwego rwo kugaragaza isura nziza, hazaba hari benshi bakurikiranira u Rwanda hafi, ikindi n’uko abandi nabo bagiye bavuga nk’ibyo Léon Mugesera yavuze bashobora kuzamenyekana n’ubwo batahanwa ariko bizatuma abantu benshi bazajya bigengesera mu mvugo zabo.
Mariko Matabaro
Karongi

The Rwandan Tragedy: Why Hutu and Tutsi cannot get along-- a reading of UBWIRU, Rwandan oral poetry from the royal court

The Rwandan Tragedy:
Why Hutu and Tutsi cannot get along-- a reading of UBWIRU, Rwandan oral poetry from the royal court
by
Dr. Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure adapted from Ishmael Reed

Dr. Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure

By watching reports on CNN and other television media or by reading various newspapers in the US, one would conclude that the conflict between the Hutu and the Tutsi started in 1994 with the mass of killing of half a million Rwandans-some even forgot that the war started in 1990! My aim in this essay is to analyze the current Rwandan tragedy in the light of Ubwiru, a body of Rwandan oral poetry from the royal court. More specifically, the essay analyzes excerpts from three of the five War Rituals of Ubwiru. The purpose is to try to understand how the poetry of the royal rituals has contributed to the myth of Umwami, the Tutsi king, and Karinga, the dynastic drum. My contention is that this body of literature has fostered the image of Abahinza, early Hutu kings, as enemies. The poems depict the fear of the Tutsi kingdom that a new Hutu king might upsurge, just as the court rituals clearly adumbrate how the survival of the Nyiginya king and his kingdom depended on both the death of Abahinza and the subservience of the Hutu people-Burundi was also named as the quintessential enemy of the Rwandan kingdom. Furthermore, the poems show that by performing the war rituals, the Umwami and Abiru (or the court ritualists) ensured that the Hutu kings were killed and their small kingdoms conquered for ever. After all, the royal drums shone with mummified testicles of Hutu kings killed during military expeditions.

I argue, as well, that Rwandan oral poetry played a decisive role in fostering the cultural fictions and divine image of the Tutsi kings, as well as the conflict between the Hutu and the Tutsi. As a matter of fact, it is these cultural fictions that led the Germans in 1896 and the Belgians in 1916 to side with the Tutsi myth according to which the Tutsi were born to rule, thus ignoring the majority of the population. In her recent article, "The Ideology of Genocide," published in the September issue of Issue, Alison DesForges argues that when the Europeans arrived in Rwanda, they brought their own racism of superiority and viewed Rwandan people by formulating "the 'hamitic hypothesis,' according to which 'white Africans' from the northeast had brought civilization to the rest of the benighted continent. Colonialists found the Tutsi of Rwanda the ideal Hamites: tall, elegant, narrow-featured." More importantly,
accustomed to viewing Tutsi and Hutu as homogeneous groups, they ascribed stereotypical intellectual and moral qualities to the people of each category. With little hesitation, they decided that theTutsi were more intelligent-and perhaps more devious-and so born
to rule, while the Hutu, dumb but good-natured, could never be other than productive, loyal subjects.

Unfortunately, the myths and cruelty against Hutu kings expressed in the poems of the court rituals were later on exploited by Hutu politicians. In effect, most Hutu still cull from history the process of cutting Hutu king's testicles and mummifying them, as well as the procession of the dynastic drums with Hutu mummified testicles. In La royautÈ sacrÈe de l'ancien Rwanda, a book that contains seventeen of the eighteen episodes of the royal rituals, Marcel d'Hertefelt and AndrÈ Coupez note that in 1946 when the Rwandan kingdom was being consecrated to Christ-King, Father Delmas counted 15 mummified testicles on each Karinga and Cyimumugizi (the Queen Mother's drum) and a dozen on each of the other royal drums like Kiragutse and Mpatsibihugu-both drums were captured from Hutu kings. Needless to say that this body of literature was exploited in April 1994 and might be still at the heart of what divides the Hutu and the Tutsi right now.

To understand the excerpts from the three paths of the war rituals, it is worth giving a general description of the book La royautÈ sacrÈe de l'ancien Rwanda (1964), edited by Marcel d'Hertefelt, then professor at National University of Rwanda, and AndrÈ Coupez, then professor at the Universities of Elizabethville and Bujumbura-the original text is in Kinyarwanda, the national language of Rwanda, and the editors have provided a French translation; as no English translation exists as yet, I have translated the excerpts from Kinyarwanda to English. According to the anecdote in the preface, a manuscript containing the sacred text about the sacred royalty of ancient Rwanda was handed to Marcel d'Hertefelt on October 16, 1961, fifteen days after the referendum that abolished the Rwandan monarchy.
The royal rituals were part of secret traditions and performances that were transmitted within a limited group of high officials/poets at the royal court. In their introduction, the editors note:
Nous entendons par rituel royal l'ensemble des procÈdures
standardisÈes qui sont destinÈes Ö mettre en oeuvre les capacitÈs
"surnaturelles" qu'on attribue au souverain, a lui confÈrer ces
puissances lors de son avänement ou Ö les lui conserver au cours
de son rägne.

[Royal ritual is a set of standard procedures whose purpose is to
put to use the supernatural powers attributed to the king, to bestow
these powers to the latter during his enthronement, and to preserve
them during his reign.]

Moreover, the editors note that a long rigid text gave details of all the knowledge concerning the essentials of the court rites. The court ritual was composed of eighteen pieces of uneven length-only seventeen were published, while the eighteenth piece about the dynastic bulls could not be found . The subdivisions in the text are called Inzira in Kinyarwanda-Voie in French-or paths. These paths represent methods whereby the king and his court ritualists would for example bring honey to beehives when the bees were not productive or rain during a period of drought.

From ideological and political perspectives, the Ubwiru are very revealing, despite d'Hertefelt and Coupez's claims that the royal rituals do not display any ideology of the Tutsi king; that is, those concepts that make a Rwandan king a sacred king. Also, they contend that only through anthropological study can anyone understand the ideology of the sacred king. This is certainly a false reading and interpretation of the royal rituals, for any Rwandan or speaker (native or non-native) of Kinyarwanda is likely to see that the power of the king and his Karinga drum depended on the absence of Abahinza Hutu kings and on the victory over enemy countries, like Burundi and kingdoms still held by Abahinza. Interestingly enough, the Kinyarwanda term Umuhinza derives from the verb Guhinga-to cultivate-and meant Hutu kings of agriculture, but the term had come to mean "rebel" to the Tutsi kings.

Alexis Kagame, the late Rwandan philosopher, historian, poet, linguist, recognized the importance of Ubwiru-Kagame calls Ubwiru "CODE-CRMONIAL SOTRIQUE DE LA DYNASTIE" (esoteric ceremonial code of the dynasty) -when he cogently argued that this literary body was one of the main sources of the history of Rwanda. According to Kagame, Ubwiru is undeniably the most ancient literary genre of Rwanda and its primacy stemmed from the fact that the life of the honorary king, the one who knew the cycle or order of succession of Tutsi kings, depended on this esoteric code. Kagame argues, "L'importance de ce "code", au point de vue de leur conservation et de leur invariabilitÈ, rÈside dans le fait que la vie du "dÈpositaire" en dÈpendait. Lorsque le monarque convoquait ses fonctionnaires en vue de se faire dÈclamer le "Code", l'entretien se dÈroulait toujours devant des tÈmoins qualifiÈs" ( The importance of Ubwiru, from the point of view of how it was conserved and how it stayed the same, resided in the fact that the life of the honorary king depended on the Code. When the monarch summoned his ritualists to recite the Ubwiru, the session always took place in front of well qualified judges.) Indeed, forgetting the lines of a poem from a portion of Ubwiru was tantamount to betrayal and the ritualist was immediately executed, for it could expose the kingdom to calamities. To avoid this, each ritualist of Ubwiru recited daily the poem that had been given him .

My analysis of the three war rituals also shows that the ideology of the divinity and sacredness of the Tutsi king and Karinga did not lie solely in symbolism, for the magico-religious symbols, such as magic herbs or sacrifices of bulls, appear in the sacred text of Ubwiru to foster the royal ideology.

The excerpts I have chosen to analyze are taken from the tenth path "Inzira y'Inteko" ­The Path for War; the eleventh path "Inzira yo Kwambika Ingoma"-The Path for Decorating the Drum; and the twelfth path "Inzira yo Kwasira"-The Path for Decoration. In the Path for War, the Umwami king uses his magic powers to ensure a Rwandan military success, while the purpose of both the Path for Decorating the Drum and the Path for Decoration is to intensify the belligerent vigor for the king and Rwanda. To this effect, the ritualists would attach to the dynastic drums mummified testicles of the enemies, Hutu kings killed during military expeditions.

Inzira y'Inteko contains 247 verses whose intent is to designate a ritualist general and to gather together magic herbs to ensure victory. As soon as the Abiru ritualists have enthroned a ritualist general, the latter joins warriors in camps. In addition, more than half of the Path for War describes magical defense system at the royal court to ensure military victory. Following are the first four lines of the path:

1 Iyo ishyanga ryagomye
Ryimye m'umuhinza
Uvugirwa n'ingoma akaramutswa
baraguriza mu mooko yoose.
[When a foreign country has rebelled
And has enthroned a Hutu king/rebel
For whom the drums beat and salute
They consult diviners from every clan]

This excerpt points to the time when an Umuhinza/Hutu king would refuse to submit to the authority of and to pay tribute to the Mwami/Tutsi king. Of course, not paying tribute to the Nyiginya king meant that the drums continued to beat for the Umuhinza. Consequently, the Nyiginya king had to wage war against him and capture his drum, because until the drum was captured the Mwami could not claim victory-Many of the Nyiginya dynastic drums had been captured from Hutu kings. The rest of the poem/path is about gathering magic herbs and making sacrifices. It is when everything has been concluded that the military expedition against the Umuhinza is launched.
If the military expedition is successful, then, the Inzira yo Kwambika Ingoma, 195 verses dedicated to the Path for Decorating the drum, is performed. Below are the first seventeen verses of the path:

1 Iy Ìngoma yamb·ra
Umuhinza aba y·apfuye
Umutwa wÛ kwaa M·henÈhene
Akamuc igih"nga
5 Akamuca ibinyiita
Bagashyira mu gatonga
Umuvzi w amacmu
Akaaza kubÌvug ibw"mi
Yamar· kubÌvuga
10 Ingoma zikÌigamburuza
Zikabumburira ko zikabiikiirira kÛ
Ingabo zikazaatabaaruka
ZigahÌsa murÌ gahunda
Umw"m ah·gararanye n mutsoobe kw iirÈmbo
15 K·a gatonga kaajy· guhÌta
Bakabwir umw"mi
Akareeba mu rugÛ ngw atakabÛna.

1 [When the drums puts on clothes
That is when the Hutu king rebel has died
A Twa who is the descendant of Mahenehene
Cuts his head
5 Cuts his testicles
And puts them in a small basket
The speaker of spears
Comes to announce it at the royal court
When he finishes the announcement
10 Drumbeats are heard
As wake up call and lullaby
The warriors come then from war
They sit in a circle
While the king stands up with an Umutsobe at the main entrance
15 When the basket is about to enter the compound
They tell the king
To look towards the interior of the compound in order not to see it.]

These lines show very clearly that when the royal drum is being decorated-putting the mummified genitals of Umuhinza on the drum-it is a signal that Umuhinza/rebel was killed. The following verses depict the magic process of mummification:
KagahÌta k·jya mu bacumbi
Umucumb akaazan umubuz·
20 N mukÛma n Ìcyunamyi
N muhuna n ruhez·
Akabikubita ijoro ryÛse
At amah"nga ahora yunamye
Umuhinza w·a yo yaapfuye
25 Amah"nga ahor ahnamye
Umuhinza w·a yo yaapfuye
Amah"nga ahor ahÈze
Umuhinza w·a yo yaapfuye
Bwacy· bakaazana cy·a cyuhagiro
30 Cyiz· cyuh·gir umw"mi
Bakamwuhagira b·vuga bati
V ibuzÌmu jy Ìbuntu
Ingoma y·a c ikw"mbare
Ubwo baatumiye imirimo y ÌbitÌ byiiz·
35 Umuny·kab·gari yazany umusumba
Yazanye n musugÌ
Yazanye n mkugw·mpÛro
Yazanye n muremeera
Yazanye n muram·
40 Yazanye n muganza.

[The basket passes by and goes to Abacumbi ritualists
An Umucumbi brings a plant called Umubuza
20 And umukoma and icyunamyi
And umuhuna and uruheza
He bangs on the testicles all night long
Saying: "May foreign countries be always crouching
Their Hutu King/rebel died!
25 May foreign countries be always in dullness
Their Hutu king/rebel died!
May foreign countries be always out of breath
Their Umuhinza/rebel died!"
The next morning they bring the good magic liquid
30 Worthy of sprinkling on the king
They sprinkle on the king saying:
"Come from the dead to human beings
May you decorate our Drum."
Meanwhile they have brought magic herbs.
35 Someone from Kabagari has brought an Umusumba
He has also brought an Umusugi
He has also brought an Umugwamporo
He has also brought an Umuremera
He has also brought an Umurama
40 He has also brought an Umuganza.]

It is worth noting that the role of Abacumbi ritualists was to bang on the testicles in order to rid them of their noxious power and ritual impurity. Following are the functions for each magical herb:
1. Umubuza: a plant that has preventive capabilities.
2. Umukoma: a plant used to bang on the testicles to be mummified.
3. Icyunamyi: a plant intended to make the enemy be always crouching.
4. Umuhuna: a plant used to make the enemy dull.
5. Uruheza is used to ensure that the spirit of the dead Umuhinza does not come back to haunt the king and the kingdom.
6. Umusugi is used to purify the king and the kingdom; Isugi refers to a virgin.
7. Umuremera is used to render the kingdom too powerful to be attacked; Kuremera means to be heavy.
8. Umurama has the power to ensure longevity to Kalinga or the kingdom and
9. Umuganza is used to ensure victory over enemy kingdoms. Kupanza means to overwhelm the enemy.
It is after these magic herbs have been mixed together into a magic potion that the genitals of the Hutu king are brought back. The ritualists sprinkle hot water on them saying:
60 Ng uru n urugembe
Amah"nga ahora m rugembe
Umuhinza w·a ho yaapfuye
N amah"nga yÛos ad·tur mw"mi w'Irwanda
Tuyahoza m rugembe
65 Umuhinza w·a ho yaapfuye
Bakaazana cy·a kiremu
CyÛ kwaa Ndungutse ya Nkuuna
Bagashyira heejuru y Ìnkooko
YÛ kwaa Nyamigezi
70 Bagashyira hÛ by·a bishwamo
Bakaazan umusugÌ bagashyira hÛ
Bat uyu n umusugÌ
Ingoma y'Irwanda irakwambara
Unw"m akab isugÌ
75 Ingoma zikab isugÌ.
60 [This is a baleful sword
May foreign countries be always in baleful sword
Their Umuhinza/rebel died
And those foreign countries that do not pay taxes to the king of Rwanda
May we always keep them in baleful sword
65 Their Umuhinza/rebel died!"
They bring that piece of cloth
From Ndungutse son of Nkuna
Which they put above the basket
From Nyamigezi
70 On which they put the genitals.
They bring Umusugi plant and put it on them
Saying: "This is an Umusugi, a virgin
The drum of Rwanda puts you on
So that the king is virgin/pure
75 So that the drums are virgin/pure.]

When the mummification has been completed, the ritualists put the knot on the drum. It should be made clear that although most Rwandans have not read d'Hertefelt, they have heard about, by way of story telling, the gory images and atrocities that the early Nyiginya kings committed against Abahinza. I myself learned from my father (who used to work as a servant to a Tutsi chief) and my uncles how Tutsi kings used to castrate Hutu kings to decorate Karinga and other dynastic drums. Moreover, the gory imagery of the path for decorating the drum perhaps reminds us of the way people were hacked to death in April 1994.
The other path that shows that the existence of Nyiginya kings depended on the absence of Hutu kings and submission of their followers is "Inzira yo Kwasira"-The Path for Decoration, a version of the path for decorating the drum. The king had to perform the rites of this path whenever mummified genitals were to be put on the drum for the seventh or ninth time. In the religious myths of Imandwa spirits cult, the initiated always count until they reach number nine and say, "Nine that brings children and cows." Number seven, however, was seen as a bad omen. In either case, special rites had to be performed when military expeditions were concerned. The path for decoration suggests that when any drum was about to receive mummified genitals for the seventh or ninth time, the court ritualists and the king had to perform magico-religious rites to ensure the security of the kingdom.

One would now ask what this analysis of Ubwiru has to do with or tell us about the current Rwandan tragedy. It is clear that before the bloody Social Revolution of 1959, which sent tens of thousands of Tutsi into exile Uganda, Burundi, Zaire, and Kenya, the procession of Karinga and other dynastic drums with their mummified genitals (of Abahinza) was a sign of intimidation to the Hutu, insofar as it constantly reminded them of the fate of Abahinza Hutu kings, and anyone who would oppose the king could receive the same penalty. The arrival of the Europeans at the turn of the nineteenth century worsened the situation, as the Tutsi were told that they were born to rule and the Hutu were dull and born to be ruled. In her article, Alison DesForges cogently concludes that "people of both groups learned to think of the Tutsi as winners and the Hutu as losers in every great context of the Rwandan past."
Unfortunately after 1959, the images of mummified testicles and the metaphors of winners and losers came back to haunt the Tutsi, first those Tutsi who were closely associated with the king and then all the Tutsi. Talking about the 1994 Rwandan tragedy, Alison DesForges argues:

Extremists who were ready to use slaughter to hold on to political
power constructed an ideology of genocide from a faulty history that
had long been accepted by both Hutu and Tutsi. Like the identity cards
that had guaranteed privileges to the Tutsi during the colonial period
and then served to identify them as victims for the genocide, the
history that had once legitimated their rule was ultimately turned
against them to justify their massacre.

Alison's term "faulty history," however, deserves some nuance. It is clear that both the extermination of Abahinza and the text of Ubwiru do not constitute a faulty history. The poetry and rituals of Ubwiru, it seems, existed to corroborate what had happened to the Abahinza. What is perhaps "faulty history" is the myth of divinity that surrounded Karinga drum and the Tutsi king to such an extent that Karinga has come to symbolize the cruelty of the Tutsi against the Hutu. From this perspective, one of the strategies of the Hutu extremists during this tragedy was to remind people that the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) was coming with Karinga, the symbol of monarchy. Ironically, Major Lizinde, a Hutu who wrote La dÈcouverte de Kalinga ou la fin d'un mythe, a book in which he demonstrated the discovery of Karinga and other royal drums, joined the RPF some months before the tragedy.

From my analysis of the excerpts of the three paths, one could draw the conclusion that in order for the Hutu and the Tutsi to get along, there is a need for a new breed of politicians who must help people not to forget history, but who must instill in them a sense of history so that they avoid making the same mistakes. Personally, one of the mistakes that JuvÈnal Habyarimana, the former president of Rwanda, made was to squeeze the Tutsi-Hutu problem under the rug, while many Hutu around him-many of whom from Ruhengeri and Gisenyi prefectures-continued to display virulent attitudes towards the Tutsi. Had there been recognition of majority rule and minority rights, the Rwandan tragedy would not have probably occurred. Moreover, there needs to be a new breed of politicians and intellectuals, those who must not exploit the legacy of the Tutsi kings and colonial powers to divide the Tutsi and the Hutu, just as they should not exploit the current tragedy for personal gains. After all, the Hutu and the Tutsi live together at the countryside. Only after this can we talk about national healing and reconciliation in LE PAYS DES MILLE COLLINES-this is a touristic nickname for Rwanda. In the words of Ernest Renan, "the essence of a nation is that all individuals have many things in common, and also that they have forgotten many things"