There is a seldom remarked upon aspect of the achievements of the Rwandan state in the past three decades, yet which is vitally important, albeit in non-tangible, if not immediately obvious ways. For Africans that grew up absorbing harmful narratives which cast Africa – most especially sub-Sahara – in the most negative light as the land of failed societies, Rwanda is one place they can look at, and realize the negative stereotypes are completely false. ALSO READ: WEF Report: Rwanda leads Africa in gender equality Or, at least, Rwanda starts to give them that idea. All the tropes about African countries as “incapable of developing”, as “unserious”, as “plagued by rampant corruption,” as “failed states trapped in problems they can never solve”, and many more, are shown up to be nothing but cruel caricatures that can be disproven. It has been said before, and it bears repeating: Rwanda works! And not only does it work, it does great things while at it. Now, let this be said: Rwanda isn’t the only country that works in our neck of the woods. Botswana and Mauritius for instance receive much (justified) praise for the strides they’ve made banishing poverty while transforming their societies to a par with those that enjoy the best socio-economic conditions, anywhere. ALSO READ: Rwanda, a school of good governance - AU official And they have done so on foundations of good governance, and prudent, efficient use of their resources. What sets Rwanda apart is that it’s done so much, with so little. It’s done so moreover after some of the worst, post-independence histories on the continent, while being saddled with additional, daunting challenges. Like the fact we are a geographically challenged country that’s also double landlocked, and that happens to be the most densely populated on the continent. By all logical expectations, we should be a basket-case of a country. Instead, what’s happened is that if one were to look for the starkest example of what humans are capable of achieving faced with such a situation, Rwanda is where the finger points. From herculean feats like bringing the country back from the terrible abyss into which previous regimes plunged it, to reconstructing the nation with infrastructural projects that rival the best anywhere, to setting benchmarks in fast, modern, efficient delivery of public services, to showing what’s possible when Africans cooperate to solve security challenges, say terrorism, and more, Rwanda has impressed. It continues to. And so, those Africans most acutely starved of positive stories from our region vicariously experience the achievements of the Land of a Thousand Hills, as theirs. One can say a major unsung export of Rwanda to the rest of Africa is good vibes. “Rwanda can, and if they can, why can’t we?!” ALSO READ: UN top official salutes Rwandan peacekeepers Something people don’t often talk about when discussing how sub-Saharan Africa can develop is the deficit of self-confidence in the region’s masses. No country on the globe has ever made the transition from poor and backward, to wealthy and industrialized, with a population that did not believe in itself, or that didn’t have the confidence they could achieve big things. It’s a crucial ingredient that societies deliberately cultivate. Evidence however is that in a lot of countries south of the Sahara, this is still lacking. Even after these countries gained self-rule, very few undertook the effort to start reversing the harmful notions, views, even ideas of themselves that a Eurocentric world had inculcated, very brutally and over a very long period. Thus, to mention some of the most egregious examples whites were thought to be the most intelligent, capable, discerning, even noble people. Anything of worth or importance could only be done by bazungu. Conversely, the African was a fool, and much less worth as a human! I remember as a small child learning in classrooms how this or that white man – John Speke, Samuel Baker, David Livingstone, and many more ad-nauseam – discovered this or that (important) African landmark. Or how they introduced Christianity “to save the natives”. Or how they were on a noble mission to “save the natives from superstition, ignorance, and disease.” And so much more of what basically was European propaganda to crush the natives’ self-esteem, while robbing them of everything that was theirs. It takes no leap of the imagination to see that a people who for centuries were taught that only white foreigners were capable of great exploits of “exploration”, and of “science and technology”, and of “good organization or management of their societies”, and much more, could completely give up on themselves. Can these mindsets ever be reversed? I do not know. All I know is that I am very proud (though not arrogant, since so much is yet to be achieved) of being a citizen of a country that’s doing so much, as part of a process by Africa to shape a better image of, and thus a better future, for itself.
