On Saturday, February 1, I joined fellow residents in my Mudugudu (village) to mark Heroes Day. As was the case across the country, the celebrations involved reflection on our national heroes and what they mean to us today. This was done through discussion led by a person with a good knowledge of our history.

During the discussion, a young lady asked a question: what can I do to learn about our heroes and where can I get information on them? In August 2018, another young Rwandan made a similar request. He asked President Paul Kagame at the closing of Itorero for youth in Gabiro to place the history of Rwanda at the centre of the history curriculum in schools.

These questions revealed several important issues. One, history is crucial in the life of a nation, more than we seem to recognise. Two, there is a genuine quest for knowledge about the country and its history in particular. Three, they show the gaps in the knowledge of that history. Four, even where such knowledge exists, there are weaknesses in the way it is transmitted.

All this is the result of a number of things. The first is a general attitude to history and the way it is taught in our schools. Another is its distortion and politicisation. Then there is the difficulty, especially for teachers, to deal with the more recent historical events.

History is, of course, taught in our schools. But ask anybody who has gone through our school system what they have gained from it and you are likely to draw a blank stare, especially if you do not ask about who did what and when.

The reason for this is simple. History is regarded as a set of events and dates of a distant past to be learnt and memorised and reproduced when examiners so demand. It has no relation or relevance to the present. That’s how it is taught.

In our particular case, history was deliberately distorted to serve an ideology and to legitimise the disinheritance of a section of Rwandans, and when that was not enough, to exterminate them. This is the history, incorrect and divisive, that was created during the colonial and immediate post-colonial times and which generations of Rwandans learnt.

The immediacy of recent events and possible active participation in them by some of those who are supposed to teach that history poses a particular challenge. They cannot sufficiently distance themselves from them emotionally and intellectually for a more objective presentation of the correct record. In some, a burden of guilt may prevent them from stating the facts as they are.

These two points: distortion and immediacy of history have been a source of discomfort for teachers of Rwanda’s history. This is why they took time just before the start of the new school year to reflect on the history of Rwanda, especially the recent past, so as to overcome fears and deficiencies imposed on them by, well, our history.

What then is history?

All history is contemporary, tied to present interests. True, it is about what happened, but equally important, about why it happened and what relevance all that has for today.

It is also about the past seen from the present and as it shaped the present and likely to influence the future. Today is tomorrow’s past as it was yesterday’s future. It follows therefore that you cannot have a present without a past and you can only have a future because you have had a past and a present.

Each has a bearing on the other. That’s what makes history - a progression stretching back in time and into the future. It is not about a dead past or simply about events and dates.

And so how should it be taught and transmitted?

As we have seen, history is a story of human endeavour, of achievements and failures, but always of progress, through time. It should be told as a story of real human beings, as a narrative with a setting, plot and characters.

It is actually a very interesting story, of spectacular things and very ordinary ones, of noble deeds and dastardly acts, involving heroes and villains, but also very ordinary people.

This is how teachers and students should approach it – as a story of the human race – and enjoy it as we do ordinary stories. The only difference is that the teller of creative stories can give free rein to the imagination, invent a world or refashion the existing one and people it with his own creation. Not so the narrator of history (historian and teacher). They must base theirs on facts.

Back to the questions of the young lady at our Mudugudu celebrations and the young man attending Itorero.  Their concerns will be met by placing Rwanda’s history at the centre of our history curriculum and giving similar importance as we do science, math and technology. We need to know ourselves well before we get to know the rest of the world.

But ultimately how effectively that history is learnt depends on how it is written and taught. That will happen if it is by a historian who is a good story teller and interpreter of events and a teacher who is equally a good narrator.

The views expressed in this  article are of the author.