A Streetcar Named Dignity

Agaciro (udu-) /agacîiro/ 1. dignity, self-respect 

In the popular play A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois boards a tram to escape her past. She has lost the family home, been fired from her job and tries desperately to conceal her alcohol addiction. Words like dignity and self-respect are not often used to describe the character of Blanche DuBois.

The tram Blanche rode takes its name from the street along which it ran. But this post isn't about a journey through the Bywater district in New Orleans. It's about a bus that runs from Musanze to Kigali. 

Two weeks ago I travelled from Rwanda's capital, Kigali, to the north east of the country. The entire stretch of road is paved, the scenery spectacular and the scale of terrace farming a feat of human perseverance. After two days of exploring Musanze, known as the Gateway to the Gorillas for the thousands of tourists who visit every year, I headed back to Kigali. I'd bought my ticket and only had to get on the correct bus. At 4:45pm, right on time, a bus pulled up. Its destination: Agaciro. 

I was a little puzzled. Having lived in Rwanda for just under a year, not once has anyone mentioned a place called Agaciro. After about 30 seconds the electronic sign above the windshield flickered. It now read Kigali. Not wanting to end up in the middle of nowhere, I asked the man directing traffic "Kuri Kigali?" "Yego" he answered. He looked down at my ticket. This bus was going to Kigali, he said, but it wasn't mine. He pointed to another bus across the parking lot and told me to get on there. 

During the ride home I realised why that bus had "Agaciro" as its destination. It hadn't meant a place or the name of a bus stop. It was referring to the direction the country has taken since 1994 and continues to strive towards today. The concept at the heart of Rwanda's rebirth: dignity and self-respect. 

The first time I came across the concept of Agaciro was while listening to a speech by Rwanda's President Paul Kagame. He said the word tries to capture the very essence of humanness. Speaking to university students at a commencement address in the United States, he said:

"Rwandans of your generation are more optimistic about their country than any before them. They are full of hope, full of pride. This is because they have grown up in a society that has restored the enduring spirit of agaciro."

In the western world, we don't often talk about the values that guide our behaviour towards each other and how we should hold ourselves. Sure, we talk of honesty and kindness, but these ideas are just that, ideas. They rarely unite a society in common purpose. In Rwanda, it's a different story. 

In 1994, Rwanda was the poorest country on the planet. More than one million Tutsi and moderate Hutu had been brutally murdered and the country's institutions almost entirely destroyed. In the late 1990s aid dependence stood at 85 percent. 

Just as there is no dignity in having to beg to survive, there is little dignity for a country to be so dependent on the goodwill of others. And it's this attitude that permeates Rwandan society today. It's been the guiding principle for Rwanda to reduce it's dependence on foreign aid, now at 41 percent. That might still seem high, but just two years ago it was at 50 percent. 

You might have read recently the some countries have suspended aid to Rwanda because of allegations that the country is backing a rebel group in the eastern Congo. When this first happened I was shocked at the reaction of some of my Rwandan friends. I had expected them to be just as appalled as I was. Instead, they said, "Good, they can keep their money. We shouldn't need it anyway. We can stand on our own two feet". 

I didn't understand it at the time, but this is exactly what Agaciro looks like in Rwandan society. My own country doesn't need aid (and doesn't get bossed around by donors), so why should theirs. This piece by Diana Mpyisi captures the sentiment well. 

In the final moments of A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche says to the doctor who leads her away, "Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."

There's still much more I have to learn about the concept of Agaciro and its role in Rwanda's rebirth, but I have no doubt that it won't be long before the country reaches its destination; not depending on the kindness of strangers and fully realising its dream of dignity and self-reliance. Just like the bus from Musanze.

Thoughts on Rwanda

This post is in response to a statement about the way Paul Kagame and Rwanda have been portrayed in the British press. 

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It's true that the Guardian and other news outlets have taken a particular interest in painting President Kagame in a certain light. The same can be said about Rwanda and Rwandans themselves. What this seems to stem from is a lack of understanding of the historical and cultural realities in Rwanda, overlaid with a healthy serving of arrogance and ignorance. 

Rwanda today is a model of development. In the last five years one million people have overcome poverty, 92% of the country has health insurance, child mortality rates decreased by 50% between 2005-2010 and now stand at 54 deaths per 1,000 live births. GDP growth has been at about 8% for ten years and the decrease in those living below the poverty line over that time indicates that the wealth is being spread more evenly than in many countries with similar figures. Transparency International ranks Rwanda better than Italy and Greece for corruption. 

Remember that in 1994 Rwanda was the poorest country on the planet. At that time there was a complete collapse in all social, political and economic structures thanks to the most brutal and efficient killing machinery the world has ever seen. Around one million people were murdered in 100 days - a figure even the Nazis could not attain. 

All of Rwanda's achievements have occurred at a time of significant population growth - around 3 million additional people in the last five years alone. Development of this kind can only be achieved if it is citizen centric. In Rwanda, there is the concept of agaciro. It roughly translates to personal dignity. And just as it was the complete lack of agaciro that facilitated the genocide, it has been its rebirth that has allowed Rwandans to once again stand tall and proud. There is no dignity in not being able to feed your family, there is no dignity in watching your child die needlessly and there is certainly no dignity in being denied the right to speak up and out against injustice. 

The notion of agaciro now so permeates society that anyone you talk to will know exactly what you mean when you say the word. Two weeks ago the President held a town hall Q&A session with about 2000 students from the country's universities. It was supposed to be an hour or two long. It ended up going for five. The questions and comments ranged from complaints about why the government hadn't yet processed recent payments of the equivalent of Youth Allowance, concerns about the way the ICC treats African countries and a request for funding for a community radio station to be re-established on the uni campus. Students expressed appreciation for the work Paul Kagame has done in rebuilding and reuniting the country since 1994 but also disappointment at the fact that the Minister of Education and other leaders in the sector didn't spend more time hearing from students about the issues they faced. The students were both complimentary and critical of the government. Somehow I doubt that any of them would have felt able to criticise the President and his government to his face if they thought they had tyrannical dictator in their midst. What was clear was the agaciro in their eyes and their keen desire for progress. 

But here is where things get interesting. I can tell this story, which to me is so representative of the leadership of Paul Kagame and the spirit of the country, but in one fell swoop someone else can say that Rwanda's progress has only been possible because of a dictatorial government and a lack of personal freedoms. It's a strange thing that we, at least in the western world, seem to agree. It's as if that idea is a puzzle piece just waiting to fit into the right spot in our minds. I've come to think that it's our preconceived ideas and stereotypes about African countries that drive this. How on earth can an African country be doing well? It must be a dictatorship they say. There must be human rights abuses. Surely something is wrong we think. It's these biases we need to overcome if we are to truly, and respectfully, engage with Rwandans, Congolese, Tanzanians and all those who have less material wealth than developed nations. 

I would be the last person to say that Rwanda is perfect. Too few people have access to electricity; I don't agree with the abortion laws, too many children are malnourished; too little focus is placed on environmental issues and it is unacceptable that ten people needlessly died in torrential flooding this week. But these are issues faced by almost every country on the planet. Cutting aid to the most effective user on the continent is no way to solve those issues, nor the problems of the Congo. 

This brings up the the allegations of Rwandan support for the M23 rebel group in the Eastern DR Congo to which some countries, including the UK, have attached their decision to suspend general budgetary support. I'm not going to attempt to cover earlier events relating to then Zaire (now Congo) because they have to do with centuries old colonial territorial decisions, the genocide, cholera outbreaks and around 30 different militia and rebel groups that operate in the eastern part of the country alone. But on the current issue a few things should be clarified. The claims made in newspapers like the Guardian and the Telegraph are taken from a report compiled by a UN Group of Experts. The group is responsible for producing reports on the situation in the Congo for the UN Security Council, and on any breach of a ban on supporting rebel groups in the Congo. The Group of Experts for the Congo only interviewed Congolese security services, military and civilians. The testimony they provided was allegations of Rwandan involvement - a sighting at a bar, boot tracks in the mud, trucks near the border. The Group of Experts spoke to Rwandan officials for 30 minutes before the draft report was leaked to the media. A comprehensive rebuttal from Rwanda was ignored. A final version of the report was leaked, this time to Reuters, the day before the UN Security Council vote for which Rwanda was on the ticket. Any reading of the situation makes it clear that there are other forces at work than fact-based report making. 

My advice to people interested in this issue is to read the Group of Experts report, and the Rwandan rebuttal, investigate the background of the members of the Group of Experts, learn about the Congolese domestic political situation and also about the failure of the UN's 1.3 billion dollar a year peacekeeping force based in Goma. If you take the time to understand a little of the political nature of the situation, you'll quickly become sceptical of the allegations against Rwanda. 

For those who agree with the aid suspensions, here are a few questions that I think are important. Which part of the Group of Experts report convinced you that with-holding aid was the right thing to do? Which part of Rwanda's rebuttal didn't adequately respond to the accusations? Do allegations equal evidence? Should foreign governments make international development and foreign policy decisions based on media interpretations of a situation and domestic politics? And finally, is tied aid a respectful way to engage with development partners?

Rwanda is unique. It's a country that has risen from the ashes of genocide to become a success story. Against all the odds. It's a country where young people have the chance to hold their leaders to account, face to face. It's a country where personal dignity has allowed millions to reclaim their lives from the trap of poverty and rid their lives of violence. It's a country where the air is so thick with opportunity you can feel it. 

Before judging Rwanda, and it's President, take some time to reflect on the lens that you see the world through. It is often our personal biases that cloud our views. That was definitely the case before I was exposed the reality of life in this part of the world and the factors that have shaped it. And one thing I've learnt is to be sure to reserve judgement before taking in all the facts. It's easy to get caught up in media hype but it's much harder to get to the heart of the matter. And that's what we should all be aiming for.