A review of Rwanda Means the Universe – A native’s memoir of blood and bloodlines by Louise Mushikiwabo and Jack Kramer, St Martin’s Press, NY 2006
This is a book on many levels. It is a personal memoir about Louise and her family focused on her brother Lando who along with his family was murdered in the first wave of genocide. The author also delves deeply into her family lineage going back generations describing her ancestors and using them to educate about Rwanda’s history. Rwanda came into being hundreds of years ago as a complex monarchy isolated in the heart of Africa. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century Louise juxtaposes Rwanda’s internal developments – court machinations, wars of conquest aimed at neighbors - against the European exploration of the era. She casts a cynical eye on adventurers like Speke, Burton, Gordon, Stanley and Emin Pasha. She proudly notes that for them Rwanda was a mystical kingdom where neither Arab traders nor slavers or the Europeans themselves ever set foot. Dissecting internal events of the era provides ample opportunities to reflect on Rwandan culture based on a divine monarch, various clans with various responsibilities, and the roles of the three castes Tutsi, Hutu and Twa. Of Tutsi lineage herself author Mushikiwabo’s perspective is Tutsi, which provides insight into how the aristocracy viewed others and themselves. Depending upon the individual and the circumstances, her ancestors were either venerated, excoriated or ignored by the court. Family fortunes consequently rose or fell accordingly. A reader gains knowledge about how Rwandans saw themselves and others.
Rwandan power was at its height in the latter years of the 19th century about the time that outside influence began to filter in as evidenced by outside trade goods, new words in the language and finally outsiders themselves in the form of German colonial officials. A regicide fractured internal cohesion, a state that was to continue for generations, and ultimately to give some legitimacy to Hutu political aspirations. German rule was not obtrusive in that it relied upon existing political monarchial structures, but it did solidify and strengthen Tutsi rule through force of arms. An interesting sidebar is devoted to Rwandan participation in World War I as part of the successful German effort to tie up opposing forces in Africa.
Belgium took over Rwanda after WWI, but it too relied on the monarchy to rule. European theories of racial superiority characterized intellectual debate wherein the Tutsi portion of the population as defined by role and confirmed by physiology was deemed to be superior to Hutu. Such distinctions drove ethnic cleavages through the society as people from both groups absorbed them as truth.
The tale jumps forward to Louise’s formative years, how she and her siblings absorbed their culture and learned their family history. As Tutsi in a now Hutu controlled world, they learned how to maneuver – and to flee at times - and the necessity of keeping a low profile. Brother Lando, an intellectual, escaped for a while to Canada for an education and a wife, but ultimately returned to cast his lot in Rwanda. Even though he initially eschewed politics, later he organized a multi-ethnic political party in 1991 and became a cabinet minister in the first multi-party government. He, his wife, his mother, and two teenage children were slain in the opening hours of the genocide on April 6, 1994. Many other extended family members were also killed, while others survived. Louise herself was living and working in Washington during the events.
Louise Mushikiwabo’s history of her land and her family provides the landscape and the cultural political context for the terrible slaughter that ensued. She names and blames the individuals who orchestrated the genocide and rues the world’s neglect of the signs of the impending holocaust, but ultimately accepts that fate acted as it did. It is a sad conclusion.
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