Sixty years ago today Rwanda officially gained Independence from Belgium, although the country effectively remained under foreign influence, initially under Belgium and, later, mainly France. The symbolic transfer of power from Belgian rulers to their local client regime was preceded by deadly ethnic attacks aimed at the Tutsi, forcing hundreds of thousands into exile in what would become the first in episodes of refugee exoduses over the following decades. Three years earlier, Rwandans had seen their true Independence hero, King Mutara III Rudahigwa, die in Burundi under mysterious circumstances as he actively pushed for independence of his country from Belgian rule. True to their old divide-and-rule principle, the Belgian colonialists had cunningly hijacked Rwandans’ clamour for independence by instigating one section of the population against the other – and blamed all the evils they had visited on the population since their arrival, on the Tutsi. In the end, a process that was meant to lead up to liberation from colonial misrule turned out to be the beginning of decades of exclusion, persecution, banishment and statelessness of a section of Rwandans at the hands of other Rwandans. Needless to say, it is this colonialist-instigated, systemic and structural violence that would culminate into the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, which claimed more than a million innocent lives. Luckily, Rwandans fought back, stopped the Genocide and regained control over their own affairs, and are steadily shaping their own destiny. That was in 1994, 32 years after that sham independence that was delivered on a silver platter by the colonialists. That day, July 4, 1994, marked the beginning of a new era for Rwanda. It is the day the people of Rwanda won their self-determination and became the stewards of their country’s resources and defenders of its territorial integrity and sovereignty. That is the day when Rwandans began the journey to rebuild their country and to win it a respected place on the global stage. Indeed, as we pause and reflect on the events that unfolded 60 years ago, it is another opportunity to draw lessons from what went wrong at the time and to renew our collective commitment to the journey we embarked on 28 years ago – toward a truly independent, inclusive and prosperous Rwanda. We wish you a happy extended independence and liberation holiday!
