The Rwandan Patriot

Between 1990 and 1992, over 2,000 Tutsi civilians were killed in a number of massacres that were perpetrated by the government of Rwanda at the time – mainly in the north-west of the country, but also in the southeastern region of Bugesera. However, writing in January 1994, Filip Reyntjens, the ethno-racist academic from Belgium’s University of Antwerp, defended the government of Juvenal Habyarimana against the accusations. He has not relented ever since. The mass targeting of Tutsi civilians didn’t just happen in the three months of 1994. Documented facts show the pattern going back years. On 8 October 1990, one week after the beginning of hostilities between the RPF rebels and the FAR government troops, soldiers from the FAR murdered  at least  65 Hima patrolists in Mutara region, northwest Rwanda. In the second act of mass murder in mid-October 1990, 348 civilians were killed in 48 hours in Kibilira commune in Gisenyi province. The local officials incited the po...

The words 'Paul Kagame' are a good product for sale. Jeffrey Smith and his Vanguard Africa Foundation are very much aware of that. The last time the Vanguard Africa Foundation published the usual malicious vitriol about Rwanda and President Paul Kagame, was in March.  Until last week, Jeffrey Smith has written about Benin, Cameroon, Somalia, Guinea Bissau, Zambia....but got little or no traction on social media or articles responding - to put the record straight.  For an individual who survives on peddling the racist narrative of 'Africans don’t get it', having no engagements from his rants doesn’t pay bills. He needs to appear to be having impact! To understand how this works; lets know who is Jeffrey Smith and the Vanguard Africa Foundation.   Smith has been around for several years. He got some bit of attention with his social media pages before and during the 2015 constitutional amendment process in Rwanda.  The expected chaos did happen. He tur...

  Speeches designed to promote hate were common in the period leading to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. The Juvenal Habyarimana government relied on hate speech to spread their views and advise their partisans. One of the most significant was delivered on 22nd November 1992 by linguist Dr Leon Mugesera, the vice president of Habyarimana’s party the Mouvement républicain national pour la démocratie et le développement (MRND) in the northwestern region. The UN court which tried genocide suspects (ICTR) defined this speech as the earliest record of genocidal discourse in Rwanda. Mugesera, like many ethnic extremists of the time, evoked the Hamitic narrative when discussing the RPF rebels and Tutsis. In fact, the speech provided the ideologal ground for the mass killings. By designating the RPF and Tutsis in general as invaders, inyenzi, and snakes, Mugesera portrayed them as a threat which Hutus had to unite and eliminate. In fact, he encouraged his militants to reso...

  In her latest racist diatribe, Michela Wrong, the author of ‘ Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad .’ is taken aback by the fact that despite all that is said, the reputation of Rwanda’s leaders remains intact. Actually, in her interview with Voice of America (VOA), she said: “And it doesn’t seem to matter how much of this information comes out, both Western politicians and all these philanthropic foundations that engaged with Rwanda, you know, the Gates Foundation, Bill Clinton’s foundation, the Blair Foundation, Paul Farmer, Howard Buffett, you know, it doesn’t seem to impact their relationship with Rwanda.” We will help Michela Wrong expound on the list. Her country UK has investments here. As of 2019, UK direct trade investment in Rwanda was worth Rwf 230billion and growing. By the way this is not aid. It’s British companies making money here, to be able to fund the good healthcare system that Wrong and her family enjoy. Wo...

  Virginia Ironside’s book  ‘You’ll Get Over It’  has an interesting subtitle –  The Rage of Bereavement . That description may resonate with many of us, but even if you’ve not felt actual ‘rage’ at the loss of your loved one, ‘anger’ may be a more familiar emotion. It’s a common thread running through the experiences of people who have been widowed while young at some stage of their grief journey. It’s important to realise that feeling angry following bereavement is normal and there are a number of reasons for it. We can get angry with a whole range of people – doctors or medical staff, relatives, just anyone alleged to be involved in the death, church ministers. Those with a faith can feel angry at God for letting it happen, and we may even be angry with ourselves or with our loved one for leaving us. Indeed, we may be angry with just about anyone who crosses our path! It brings comfort to have someone or something to blame. There, is a typical case of...