The roads in Kigali are neat. So neat that you can’t find any dirt anywhere. When I touched down from the aircraft and entered into the small but very smart airport, I knew there was something different about this country.
I had heard so much about the transformation of this nation and I wanted to find out what brought about the Rwanda transformation.
I got a very wonderful taxi driver, Peter, to take me on a tour to selected destinations where I wanted to learn a bit more about how the country pulled back after a very bitter genocide. Peter was a wonderful chauffeur who even bought me a drink on our trip to Nyamata.
Nyamata is about 40 minutes drive from Kigali.
Rachel was my tour guide at the Catholic Church, Nyamata where over 10,000 people who had sought refuge in the church during the Rwandan Genocide in 1994 were killed.
She took me around the premises of the church which had now become the burial site of the victims. Right behind me in the picture below is one of the crypts holding the bodies. We entered a crypt and saw rows upon rows of coffins where families who had been identified were buried.
I also saw skulls of victims–some with bullet holes or cracked through machete cuts.
One coffin was however specially placed in one of the crypts. It contained the remains of Annonciata Mukandoli, a pretty lady who had spurned the love overtures of some people.
She sought refuge in the church amidst thousands of others but she was picked out, raped by over 20 people–some of those she spurned–and then a stick was passed through her privates as they watched her die. I screamed as Rachel told me her story.
When I asked her how Rwanda had healed and pulled together so fast, she shared a lesson with me. She told me that one of the first things their President, Paul Kagame, did was to abolish tribe. So right now, no one identifies as Hutu or Tutsi–everyone is Rwandese.
The new generation of Rwandans no longer feel that tribal acrimony as all of them see themselves as one.
I was also taken on a tour of the Presidential Palace Museum. The Palace was inhabited by two former Presidents of Rwanda–Habyarimana and Bizungu. Habyarimana was shot down over the palace in his Falcon jet along with the President of Burundi in 1994.
Rachel told me that one of the first things President @PaulKagame did was to abolish tribe. The new generation of Rwandans no longer feel that tribal acrimony as all of them see themselves as one. Share on X
I saw the wreckage of the plane but I was not allowed to take pictures of it.
I went through all the rooms–the bedroom of the First Daughter, the sitting room of the First Lady, the President’s bedroom and his bathroom. He also had another hidden bathroom inside the main bathroom. I saw a metal cabinet where he was alleged to have stored raw cash.
I passed through a secret room hidden behind a panel wall in his son’s bedroom. His sons didn’t even know a secret room was at the back of the wooden panel which held their TV. No one could see the room from outside as it was built in the roof.
I entered the chapel and was told Pope John Paul was there in 1993. On the door of the chapel was a diagram which represented the President, his wife, the three daughters and five sons. I also saw another room where Habyarimana attended to his witch doctor.
The Palace also had an electric sauna and an in-house club where a DJ played and the President held parties. The ground also had a pond where a huge python was kept and a huge tree said to be over 100 years beside it. All the furniture were well preserved.
I saw a table made from real elephant skin and actual elephant legs. I removed my shoes before I could enter the palace.
It was apparent Rwandans cherish their history. I hope one day, I can take my child on a tour of Dodan Barracks, show her the battle highlights at Ore in Ondo State too (O leku, ija Ore) and other highlights of our national history that are almost forgotten.
(My January 2017 trip to Rwanda)