Why the spirit of Inkotanyi will beat Belgian malevolence

I have some news for Belgium, which has been badmouthing Rwanda and doing everything in its power to sabotage the developmental efforts of Rwanda. It (Belgium) will ultimately fail in the goal of ruining Rwanda. The erstwhile European coloniser has been going after Rwanda in the corridors and edifices of international organisations – at the European Union, in the UN – trying to bring influence to bear on fellow Western nations so that all take up Brussels’ virulently anti-Rwanda position. Brussels has been trying to get the EU to sanction Rwanda on allegations that “Rwanda is occupying Congolese territory” – which echoes Congolese propaganda and misinformation. They’ve even gone to multilateral institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank with claims that “Rwanda is looting Congolese minerals” – another old, patently ludicrous propaganda pushed by Kinshasa that Brussels has made its own. (Rwanda has debunked that particular lie at every turn, showing proof that every mineral it exports is from mines within her own territories). Everything Brussels has been doing shows how committed they are to their role of godfather for Felix Tshisekedi – their own citizen by the way, no wonder! – and his regime. They will leave no stone unturned in their attempts to turn the whole world against Rwanda, while sanitizing every crime against humanity the Kinshasa regime perpetrates; every act of incompetence and poor governance by the Tshisekedi cabal that’s plunged DR Congo into unprecedented poverty; every deranged utterance out of Tshisekedi’s mouth including frequent threats to attack Rwanda and “effect regime change”. Brussels’ stance is that Tshisekedi is a blameless angel, but everything going wrong in the Great Lakes Region is the fault of Rwanda. This is neo-colonialist behavior at its finest. Do everything to benefit your useful idiot (who gives you free hand to dig up and cart away to Europe every resource you can lay your hands on) while vilifying or demonizing that African state that has declined to kowtow to Western powers and that (sacrilege!) in fact works in its own interests, and those of other Africans. Yet, if the Belgians thought their arm-twisting tactics; their frequent attempts to sabotage Rwanda and bring the African nation to its knees, they were in for a rude shock when the opposite happened instead. Rwanda ended all its dealings with the former colonizer, severing diplomatic ties to boot. Here you really have to wonder at the brass; the self-entitlement of some Europeans. Rwanda has never done a thing to provoke the Belgium, let alone wrong it in any way. Rather, it’s the other way round. The appalling crimes that the Kingdom of Belgium authored, including paving the way to power for the Parmehutu extremists that perpetrated all the bloodbaths that have blighted our recent past would, if it were some other people, necessitate, at the very least, some self-reflection – maybe even compel them to issue an apology. Not the Belgians. To them, all that is nothing. Self-reflection, in as far as past crimes committed in Africa, perhaps is something they see as beneath them. Their acts show they think Rwanda instead should go groveling to them, to beg for mercy. (Though why exactly Rwanda would go apologizing for conflicts between Congolese – in which Belgium historically has a considerable hand too – is anyone’s guess). Or, maybe, do the neo-imperialist bosses expect Kigali to send a delegation to Brussels to apologize for putting in place defensive measures along our borders with DR Congo (which by the way have very successfully deterred Congolese chaos from spilling over into Rwanda?) Who knows... And so, our erstwhile colonizers become angrier by the day. So angry, we hear, they’ve even sent troops to Congo – these very same Belgians, by the way, that never said a word when Tshisekedi among other things imported hundreds of European mercenaries – to wreak havoc. Also, we hear, they have gone to Burundi to entice the regime there with money, and promises of military aide, so that the country’s president Evariste Ndayishimiye maintains his belligerent stance, and keep his belligerent rhetoric flowing, against Rwanda. Yet, the Belgians are in for some unpleasant surprises down the road. That’s because they are dealing with people known as Inkotanyi; these people that, against all odds defeated Habyarimana’s government, another puppet regime of Europeans, including the (European) troops that the regime’s masters sent to his aide. These Inkotanyi had nothing, zilch, while defeating the European-backed genocidal regime thirty years ago. There are military Inkotanyi, and civilian Inkotanyi, and they all draw from Rwandan values (which unite all the country’s ethnicities and not just some) which enable them overcome unbelievable difficulties. You can’t threaten the average Rwandan with physical danger, or with hunger so as to bend them to your will. They would rather die than submit to that shame (umugayo). But even as they will be ready to die so as not to dishonor themselves, they – the Inkotanyi mostly – will be thinking several steps ahead how to overcome the threat posed, and how to turn the enemy’s aggression to their own advantage. They will be confident in the righteousness of their position, and then will prevail.

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Why the spirit of Inkotanyi will beat Belgian malevolence