The world is going through a testing period caused by Covid-19. How soon it will end remains the unknown factor. But end it must. And so, experts in the organisation of society have started talking about how the post-Covid-19 world will look like. Some have said that the world we are familiar with will be re-ordered in a different way. That prospect raises a lot of uncertainty. The only sure thing about it is that the world will still be around. Others think that there will be no such drastic disruption of the familiar, only an acceleration of changes that have been going on over the last one decade or so. An evolutionary process, even if given a big, violent shove to move it forward, is less frightening. In between, there are those who believe that, although there will be disruption and damage, and rebuilding after, the world will return to what we know. The only factor common to all these, and on which all are agreed, is the damage that Covid-19 is causing and the necessity to rebuild when normalcy returns. Projections of this sort, and many others, are based on experience from past world events that have shaped the world in a definite way. Whatever the outcome, when the doctors and health workers have done their bit and political leaders have acted or failed to do so to check the pandemic, there will still be a world and the experience of today will pass into the past and become part of the continuing history of humankind. It will then be left to historians to put these times into perspective for the benefit of us and those who will come after. The historians will glean all the facts, unearth new and hidden ones, including many that have been deliberately concealed, fill in the gaps, and try to tell a coherent story. They will try to see sense and logic in the disparate, even contradictory, actions and responses of different players and present it in an orderly manner for posterity to pass judgement. That’s how it always happens. Writing history takes place after the fact, usually when there is sufficient distance from the events to allow for a dispassionate account, and sometimes when the main actors are no more. Again as is nearly always the case, history as recorded by historians is about the big people, the major players, usually the political leaders. The rest, well, they will always be the rest, a supporting cast to the lead actors or sometimes even an audience. Some will be mentioned individually or collectively in one sentence or paragraph. That’s how it is. Although the Covid-19 is not over yet, we can still begin to wonder how history will record our leaders’ actions during this testing period and what judgement it will pass. It will certainly say of some that they ducked their responsibility, went missing, and when they could not hide any longer started looking for excuses for their inaction, and in the process thousands of people died. Its verdict on these will mostly likely be: dereliction of duty. Or it will note that, when faced with common danger, the instinct of others was to shutter their countries and keep out everyone else. They might argue that others can fend for themselves and after all they are not anybody’s keeper. Some of these might draw comfort from the knowledge that this was the first choice reaction by many and appears to be the most sensible action. Indeed Rwandans have a saying for this: Iyo amagara aterewe hejuru, umwe asama aye undi aye, roughly “when life is threatened or danger looms, it is everyone for himself”. Trouble is, our lives as individuals and nations are so interconnected and interdependent that complete separateness is not possible. The selfish instinct of the above saying should not replace the solidarity that is required to defeat a common threat. What will history say of some leaders who appear to have been so overwhelmed by the magnitude of the pandemic that they were immobilised and could not act? What will it make of those who refused to do anything and only waited for divine deliverance even without asking for it? Such will probably be reminded of the Parable of the Talents. There are however, other leaders like our own President Paul Kagame, who not only took care of their citizens but also reached out to others so that, together, they could find a solution to a global health and economic threat. For these history will have a different verdict. President Kagame has been canvassing support for international cooperation to fight Covid-19 and when it has been checked, rebuild world economies. He has, of course, been involved in other global campaigns before, such as the Millennium Development Goals MDGs), the Broadband Commission, the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA), and many others. Yet, given the recent history of Rwanda, such faith in global cooperation would appear strange. Actually Rwanda and President Kagame have every reason not to trust the international community. Twenty-six years ago, the world abandoned Rwanda as the genocide against the Tutsi was being committed. No one thought trust would be restored any time soon. But here we are actively rallying the world to fight a pandemic. This is perhaps evidence of the value of history. The absence of solidarity at a crucial moment in their history showed Rwandans how valuable it is. But it also taught them to be self-reliant. Obviously a combination of the two is best. And so when the history of this period is written, it will say of some of these leaders that they were statesmen who did what was right for their people and for humankind as a whole. The views expressed in this article are of the author.
