Transform those hills with coffee farms now

THE NEW TIMES Monday, 28th January 2008
Rwanda has once again caught the fancy of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, being one of the three countries going to receive a $46.9 million grant from that foundation, aimed at improving not only the quality of coffee produced in Rwanda, but also increasing production. The other two countries are Kenya and Tanzania. Involved in many works of charity and development of poor communities all over the world, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has contributed to an Aids project running in Rwanda, and this coffee fund is just another of the great efforts of this foundation to improve livelihoods for the person in the rural setting. To be sure, coffee is one of the leading exports of Rwanda, and all efforts to boost its production are direct efforts to put money directly into the hands of the rural population who are the primary producers. This is not enough. Coffee processing has a lot of labour demands before the final export stages, so this also means that more people will get employment in the wet factories that will be built to support the coffee production. More coffee also means more pickers, sorters – the list of potential employees just gets longer with the prospect. As we thank the Foundation for its continued support to Rwanda, we have to urge the population to fully use these funds to make their lives better through active engagement of the environment to wrest from it the required livelihood. According to an official working with the chosen public relations firm Technoserve, one of the reasons Rwanda was chosen was because of its topography. As it has been said many times, Rwandans have to learn to turn their supposed disadvantaged hilly topography to advantage. Thus an opportunity has been presented to us to exploit these hills that are ostensibly good for Arabica coffee growing, and attack them to force them produce, with guidance from the authorities, as indiscriminate agricultural activities might also trigger land slides and increase soil erosion from hitherto safe areas.

RWANDA: Living side by side – genocide victims and perpetrators reconcile the past

Photo: Noel King/IRIN

Genocide survivors and perpetrators live together peacefully in Rwanda's reconciliation village

KIGALI, 14 January 2008 (IRIN) - Before the Rwandan genocide, Mutiribambi Aziri and Jaqueline Mukamana were neighbours in the town of Nyamata, south of the capital Kigali. When the 100-day slaughter began in April 1994, Mukamana, a teenage Tutsi student, and Aziri, a Hutu farmer, found themselves on opposite sides as 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu militias, known as the Interahamwe, and ordinary Rwandans.

Mukamana went to fetch water from the community well and returned to find her entire family hacked to death by neighbours. She hid in the fields and then fled on foot to neighbouring Burundi.

Aziri was one of those whipped up into a killing spree by Rwanda’s hard-line Hutu administration. He did not murder Mukamana’s family but he admits to killing some of her neighbours with a machete.

Thirteen years later, they are neighbours again, chatting on the dusty roads and attending church services together.

“We help each other,” Aziri told IRIN. “When a member of one family is sick, we drop by.” Most importantly, he says, “our kids are friends”.

The 40 families living in Imidugudo, which translates as “reconciliation village”, in Nyamata, 30km south of the capital, Kigali, are part of an experiment whereby genocide survivors and confessed perpetrators live in the same community, in small tin-roofed houses they built themselves.

The village is the brainchild of Pastor Steven Gahigi, an Anglican clergyman who survived the genocide by fleeing to Burundi with his wife and two children. His mother, father and siblings all died and Gahigi thought he had lost his ability to forgive.

“I prayed until one night I saw an image of Jesus Christ on the cross,” Gahigi says. “I thought of how he forgave and I knew that I and others could also do it.”

Inspired by the vision, Gahigi began preaching forgiveness not only in Nyamata parish, but in the cramped prisons where hundreds of thousands of perpetrators were awaiting trial.

Seeking forgiveness

In 2003, faced with crowded prisons and a shortage of qualified judges, the Rwandan government began offering a provisional release to low-level perpetrators, including the sick, elderly and those who were children at the time of the genocide.

People tried by Rwanda’s traditional “gacaca” courts, in which members of the community act as judges, had their sentences halved if they confessed their involvement in the genocide.

Today, Gahigi provides spiritual council to both perpetrators and victims, most of whom work as small farmers, just as they did before the genocide.

The path to forgiveness was not easy, residents say.

Photo: IRIN

Skulls of genocides victims at the Murambi Genocide Memorial site in Gikongoro Province, southeastern Rwanda

“I did not think I could forgive,” Mukamana says, “until I heard the pastor’s message.” Now, she is fond of elderly Aziri, who often stops by her house to chat.

Residents say their ability to forgive is rooted in Christian beliefs.

“These people killed my parents,” Janet Mukabyagaju told IRIN. “It is not easy for me to forgive them. But God forgave. I must do the same.”

With funding from non-profit Christian organisation Prison Fellowship International, survivors and perpetrators agreed to live together harmoniously. The founding members of the community voted on who could live at Imidugudo - a practice that continues today.

Gahigi said they generally choose families who are most vulnerable due to poverty or illness.

Reconciliation

While Rwanda’s current administration has renounced the use of ethnic terminology and instead promotes reconciliation, many Rwandans say there is still a raging undercurrent of mistrust among those who survived the genocide and those who committed it.

Residents in Imidugudo say although the terms Hutu and Tutsi should no longer be a part of Rwandan society, they do not believe in painting over the past. They speak to their children about their roles in the genocide.

“Genocide has enormous consequences for those who did it and for those who survived,” Xavier Namay, an admitted perpetrator, told IRIN. “My children must know what I did so they can rebuild this country positively.”

Peace and reconciliation studies for universities

Plans to begin teaching peace and reconciliation studies in universities are in the pipeline, an official at the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC) has said.

According to Frank Kobukyeye who is in charge of conflict management at the commission, NURC is working with Permanent Education for Peace and Reconciliation (EPPR) to implement the programme.

“We hope to develop the curriculum this year, have it approved by relevant authorities and ensure that studies begin next academic year,” he said this week.

He was speaking during a conference that attracted representatives of different universities and partners at Kigali Serena Hotel.

He said that components of the course will be taught in all faculties under ethics, while some students will major in the study.

There are also plans to have an exchange programme with the Eastern University from the USA for post-graduate courses.

Emile Uwimbabazi, the president of EPPR, said that they will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Eastern University representative this week.

“They have given us a draft memorandum, which we intend to sign after reading through,” Uwimbabazi revealed.

EPPR is in partnership with two other peace and reconciliation building organisations in Washington, Breakthrough Partners and Camp Brotherhood.

Uwimbabazi added that they would have another meeting in March with heads of universities and practitioners of Peace and Reconciliation.

He added that a meeting would be held to discuss how they could introduce the programme in schools (curriculum and the whole system).

EPPR is a private institution which was formed in 2001 to build peace and reconciliation in the country.

Prof. Silas Lwakabamba, the Rector of the National University of Rwanda (NUR), said the programme was timely.

According to Christopher Hall, President-Elect in Eastern University, peace and justice lessons have made impact in the Northern Island.

Gary Edmonds, president Breakthrough Partner, said they are partnering with EPPR to establish a reconciliation centre in Kigali.

“I believe Rwanda needs to think about the future and begin making documentations and tell a story for peace and reconciliation purposes,” he said, adding that the teachings from the centre will make people learn a lesson from the past.