OVER THE LAST 17 MONTHS since COVID-19 first hit Rwanda, many locals and expats here and friends abroad have asked me if I have gone straight ‘home’ or when I am going there, presumably referring to my former ‘home’ of the USA where I lived for nearly 27 years before relocating to Kigali 2-1/2 years ago. My answer has always been that I am happily remaining in my relatively new ‘home’ here in Rwanda but now that I have been fortunate enough to receive both Pfizer vaccinations, I am preparing to return to my former ‘home’ for a much delayed, month-long family and work trip. The primary reason for the trip to the USA is to see and spend time with my daughter Emma for the first time in nearly two years, which fills me with excitement, warmth and joy. I am also looking forward to seeing old friends in Austin, Atlanta and Portland and doing some face-to-face work again, which both piques my curiosity and triggers some nervousness, even trepidation. There has been a high degree of comfort, safety and security in living and working here in my hillside home in Kimihurura for the last 18 months since my last foreign trip. Now I am venturing back out into a world and visiting a country that will be both very familiar yet rather different after suffering nearly 37 million COVID cases and over 630,000 deaths; after experiencing a renewed impetus in Black Lives Matter and Social Activism after the death of George Floyd and the spate of vicious Asian Hate; and after voting in a radical switch over to the new Biden administration in Washington, DC. And in my former home state of Texas, they now have a new soccer (football) team in Austin (which is unfortunately second bottom of their conference table) and much more importantly, the governor is feuding both with legislators about drastic changes to future election rules and with city mayors about whether to mandate mask wearing to counteract a recent surge in COVID cases, particularly as children prepare to go back to school. Texans are amazed when I tell them that this would just not happen here in Kigali where the main football stadium has also been used for overnight ‘education’ of those who flout public COVID decorum by not keeping a proper physical space or not wearing their masks properly. A long night of being harangued on the freezing cold bleachers is usually enough to convince the perpetrators to take more care in future! In the USA, my focus will not just be on socializing and working safely but also seeing if anything has really changed under the surface, particularly in terms of my professional and personal focus on Inclusive Leadership? Is President Biden having a dramatically different impact from his predecessor? Will the dramatic shift in tone, style and substance achieve lasting changes in US society, economy, climate action, governance and foreign policy, particularly in relation to Rwanda and Africa as a whole? Or do current actions risk being mitigated or even reversed after the midterm elections in late 2022 and the next presidential election in late 2024? Are organizations now really making deep and sustainable changes in their systems and structures in terms of such important issues as Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Community Engagement, Social Justice and Global Expansion beyond just Johannesburg or maybe Lagos in Sub-Saharan Africa? Or will these noble intentions just end up as a form of short-lived, performative tokenism as the focus returns to the office, endless meetings and the over-riding quest for profits and success? And on an individual level, what have individual leaders and co-workers learned during these turbulent last 18 months? What will be the longer-term impact of the incredible outpouring of concern, patience, trust and compassion shown to each other as everyone has struggled directly or indirectly with death, illness and sometimes just working from home, either in total isolation or perhaps with too many young children and pets running around? Not just in the Boston HQ but in satellite offices in Accra and Addis too? Will cold, hard interpersonal competition and callousness return to the fore or will people continue to focus on our common humanity, vulnerability and shared destiny? I have many other questions too and I hope to find some answers during my US trip, which I will share after returning ‘home” here to Kigali in late September. In the meantime, this column and its sister column “Leading Rwanda” will now take a seasonal break until 30 September. This is the eighth in a monthly series of personal columns, entitled “Letter from Kigali”. Each month, local resident and writer, Jeremy Solomons – who was born and educated in England of Jewish, Lebanese and Persian heritage and naturalized in the USA - shares a unique perspective on what is happening in Rwanda, Africa and the rest of the world. The views expressed in this column are entirely those of the writer who can be reached at jeremy@jeremysolomons.com
