One thing that remains etched in my conscious or that sits uncomfortably into my childhood memory is the 1982 episode of Banyarwanda Question in Uganda. My young mind then had not recorded the dates of this life- changing experience. I now know this happened between October 2 and December 31 1982, thanks to Alicia Decker of Pennsylvania State University; author of Expulsion as Statecraft: Histories of Violence from Asian Expulsion of 1972 to the Banyarwanda Crisis of 1982. That's exactly 40 years ago around this time. Comparing the two expulsions Alicia writes unlike the Asian expulsion of 1972, the Banyarwanda were not given ninety days to prepare. She argues that the 1972 expulsion however, provided a dangerous template that was used to justify another brutal eviction. Therefore, ten years after President Idi Amin Dada had scattered Ugandan-Asians into the Diaspora, accusing them of 'hijacking Uganda's economy, President Milton Obote decided to solve the Banyarwanda question in Uganda by sending them back to Rwanda, allegedly for backing his nemesis, then rebel leader Yoweri Museveni, who had gone to the bush a year before, to fight the government. The President and his goons did not care that some of the Banyarwanda were genuine Ugandans, cut off with their lands by the Berlin Conference of 1884. Others were indeed refugees who had fled episodes of violence in their homeland in 1950s, 60s and 70s. My parents were among the latter. But my generation had been born and only knew Uganda as their country. So he decided to send them all back to Rwanda even those who had never been there. Rwanda, then under president Juvenal Habyarimana, said no thank you, our country is full. The political Ping-Pong that ensued between the two governments led to a humanitarian catastrophe. Alicia Decker estimates that nearly 80,000 Banyarwanda were violently expelled from their homes in the two western districts of Mbarara and Bushenyi. International observers also reported multiple instances of rape and suicide she wrote. A few managed to cross into Rwanda before Rwanda pushed back. Others got stranded at Mirama Hills on the Ugandan side of the border. Majority crowded into refugee settlements of southwestern Uganda. My family and other Banyarwanda families from the farmlands of Kashari (called Gashari among the Banyarwanda), Bulemba, Kaburangire, Masha, Nkungu and many other areas around Mbarara town, had poured into Nakivale refugee settlement with their cattle. This led to an increase of both the number of cattle heads and humans by many folds, an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe did not take long to manifest itself. Both humans and herds died of starvation and a plethora of diseases. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, the International Committee of the Red Cross and many other 'do-good' organisations stepped in to feed the refugees, but they gave us food we were not used to, and did not know how to cook, like the yellow maize meal (From the American People) I had never seen before, and cooking oil. That worsened the situation with cholera outbreaks. Later in life when I studied public policy and development, I learnt the difference between working for the people (officials determining what people need and/or want) and working with the people (consulting them on what they actually need or want). One may think of these as just mere concepts in community development, but elsewhere, like in our case, they meant life or death. The few who crossed into Rwanda, did not fare any better. They were hoarded into Tsetse fly infested settlements of Kibondo and Nasho, close to Akagera National Park. Many lost their lives to Tsetse fly bites, malaria as well as cholera. The New York Times reported the eviction on October 10th 1982 in an article entitled Uganda is evicting thousands of Rwandans and noted that this incident happened before the 20th anniversary of Uganda's independence from Britain. The timing of the evictions, just before the independence festivities, seemed coincidental” NYT noted. Let me tell you of another coincidence 8 years later. When Rwandans decided enough was enough on October 1 1990, it was also during preparations for independence festivities in Uganda!
