Rwanda; The kaleidoscope!

I had a ridiculous argument with a couple of friends about the subject of Anglophones and Francophones in Rwanda. They claimed it was a subject not to be discussed! Just like most scribes steer away from mentioning ethnicity, they said this too is a no go area. But why is that so?We were having a casual talk about how Francophones and Anglophones are different in so many ways. The way they dress, the food they eat, their drinks, the joints they hang in and even the churches they go to.Now don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with diversity, on the contrary, I think it’s very okay. To be honest, this is one of the aspects that make Rwanda a very colourful nation. You will hear a taxi tout calling passengers in Kinyarwanda, but the moment you board the taxi, your ears are massaged by smooth French from some of the passengers and English from the Anglophone radio presenter doing his thing. As you struggle to listen to the DJ’s message, the person next to you showers serious Swahili into the mouth piece of his cell phone. I don’t know about you, but this always brings a smile to my face. How can you not find that amusing?I love seeing the small beautiful differences we have here and there. Like when you go out, many times you see couples ordering for French fries; one will add a little ketchup and the other will go for mayonnaise, or perhaps even nothing!When this couple ties the knot, these small differences won’t bother them because the husband can eat his ‘Gatogo’ with fresh juice while the wife enjoys her ‘pain francais’ (French bread) with a cup of tea. It doesn’t really matter.When it comes to hanging out, it becomes a little tricky as the Francophones generally prefer quiet decent places and the Anglophones love super loud places with hordes of people. But still, none of these has ever stopped us from being one.Seeing people who were in this country before and those who returned from other countries across the globe going about their lives and communicating using their mother language and the foreign ones they adapted while in exile is mind boggling. These differences don’t alienate us but rather act as the glue that binds us together and makes our lives more interesting.