Sixteen years ago, you watched as my home was torn to the ground, my neighbors, family, and friends hacked to death, and rivers flowed red with blood of innocent souls. Sixteen years ago, some of my family were vilified as savages while others were glorified as beacons of liberation. We were divided by the world and the standards of division are yet to escape your minds.
However, we want to move on. We don’t want to be judged and classified as cattle in a barn. If you look closely, you will see that we eat together, drink together, sing together, sleep together, and struggle together. Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa are terms dear to our cultural inheritance and not a hindrance to our pursuit of happiness and development. We are not just ready to move on, we have already moved on- moved on from the politics of exploitation, of hate, of insecurity and fear.
My people believe in a united Rwanda in which we are allowed to speak our minds, follow our hearts, and justice is dispensed equally without regard to ethnicity, region of origin, clan, gender, religion, or any other measure of differentiation. This is what we believe…don’t listen to those who profit from our weaknesses. All that we ask you- the world- is that you stand with us; not pulling or pushing us, but beside us so we can all grow together. We are now asking you to look into our eyes and see, not only the pain, but also our infinite will to attain true independence from a past that has worked to alienate ourselves from each other.
We have died, we’ve been maimed. We have been left widows and orphans, but we have also been left with an undying desire to move on. We are tired of being hostages of our past…a past which you had a hand in imposing upon us. Now that our muscles are strained and our voices raised in efforts to lift the yoke on our shoulders, that very hand is busy suppressing our efforts. For now, our struggle continues, but, with each passing moment, we grow older, we grow stronger, we grow bolder.
In time you shall join us in genuine celebration. We shall welcome you and work together towards a better world. We shall laugh and eat and drink. We shall not talk of the past for it will be the future we will be beholden to. We shall sing and dance to the ballads of unity and prosperity. Songs shall flow lauding the overthrow of the exploiter. You and your sons and daughters shall hold our hands, and we shall do the same. Remember, however, that we will forgive, but we will not forget…history can never let us forget…lest it happens again.
Sincerely,
Rwandan
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