The Kigali demons: Musings of a rejected friend

Whatever happened to you my buddies! I at times wonder whether you are still your old selves! It is true we have grown older physically and mentally but it seems in the past, you have deviated from the normal route skipping some stages and descending into unknown and uncharted territory. Make sure you make some marks along the way so you do not lose your way back when the going gets tough. I believe I have not stagnated mentally and if you think I have, please let us discuss. What has eaten away your old attitude towards life? Every time you drive or have driven past me as I walk to the city, you look miserable and unhappy behind the rolled-up windows of your off-roader. When we walked through the hills and valleys you were cheerful and full of life, but now that you are driven in the air-conditioned machines you are tensed up and always look more tired than when we walked on foot. We would hug and laugh heartily even though the times were but now you can wave instead you look ahead into something I do not know. What is on me that you do not want to see? Are you o.k. my old buddies? I do not know what united us that fell apart. Was it the Gishakamba, maraba or muhamirizo dances? I could pull the same old strokes and even new ones if that will bring back the old bond of friendship we shared. Then I thought you valued me and needed me but now you seem very distant, I cannot even pay my respects to you. Did you find other bonds or you out grew the need for bonds such as the one we shared. You could teach me to be different. When we ate maize kernels boiled in beans you and I looked healthier. We would then drink water from the streams and always full of healthy energy. Since your wives started putting on shoes with golden soles, while shopping overseas it seems as if the food you eat refuses to be digested and instead piles up in your bellies. Is it because the tinned food you eat stays longer in the fridge, since you buy more than is needed. That it takes the same amount of time piled up in your bellies? My wife still cooks the “old” traditional food and would be honoured to prepare a meal for you just for your pleasure if you allow. The human body can at times act funny; at some stage it can obey and accept local doctors and drugs and then at another stage accept only European and American drugs and doctors. At times I feel sorry for you that even your unborn children refuse to be delivered in Rwanda and cry for Bazungu birth attendants! I do not think they realize they will not be born Caucasians. It is not unusual that my wife Datiliva and I disagree but we always find a middle ground. This time we have failed to agree. She says that (God willing) when our children grow up we should send them to schools overseas because my friends’ (your) children go to those schools. I told her I want to see, hear and feel my children grow up but she says I am trying cover up for my inability to accumulate wealth which I think has some grain of truth anyway. I believe sending one’s children, siblings and the extended family to overseas schools, like you have done leaves the heart half full - which may explain some of your perennial sadness. Now my wife says she is going to arrange special prayers for me with her Pastor so the spirit of poverty can be expelled from me for good. I am not decided on whether to take the offer. A great preacher a long, long time ago taught that the love of money is the source of all evil. I cannot but agree with him and add that acquisition of unexpected riches is the source of the Devil and his demons. Somehow they waited until you came to their domicile in Kigali and entered you. They reduced your memory to that of a dementia victim, drained your happiness and replaced it with anxiety making you see enemies in the dark, make digestion improper so your bellies balloon, make your old friends turn into enemies and puts your jaws on the edge. Or could it be the realization of what King Solomon years ago wrote that, it is all useless…, it is like chasing wind. Riches, wealth, power, pride, seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, palaces and anything he wanted he got but happiness and satisfaction. Could this be happening to you? I could propose a crusade to Datiliva and her Pastor to pray for you and when you are exorcised of those Kigali demons we can be friends again. I cannot wait. Contact: ekaba2000@yahoo.com