Kigali is a city surrounded by hills thereby getting the slogan of a city of a thousand hills. The city is very rocky and this is manifested in the way some of the old roads were constructed. The old roads were constructed with rocks instead of the modern-day construction of using bitumen to construct roads. Even when the roads are rocky, there is little dust compared to my beloved Lagos. Even at the city centres, some of the roads were constructed with rocks and those road according to my findings has survived several centuries.
One of the fascinating things about the city was that there is little or no presence of police within the city. As if there was no crime in the city and in few cases where there are police presence, they usually don’t carry ammunitions unlike the Nigerian Police Force. Coming to a city with a well-planned transportation system, there is no presence of “thugs” or “agberos” as we fondly called them here in Lagos. There are certain designated bus stops and the buses are disciplined enough to always stop at designated stops.
One of the few memorable events during my visits was a trip to the genocide Museum. I was reliably informed that there are several genocide museums spread across the country. It was at this place that I learnt and appreciated what love was. I had read about the genocide but it was surreal to witness the event first hand through a well-documented process. Before leaving Lagos, I had made up my mind to find out about the uniqueness of the Rwandans and the history of the genocide was a reference point. I and a friend arrived at the museum on the fourth day of my visit and we immediately went to the cash point to purchase our ticked and to get an interpreter that will enable us to navigate through the museum.
After the check-in, the first thing we did was to sit down to watch a short video about what led to the crises and some first-hand interview of those that witnessed the war. At this point, I was already emotional and I knew that what will come later will be highly emotional indeed. After the video, we started our journey into the museum and I must say that what come after was better imagined than experienced. At the end of the visit, I cried my heart out. I even became so emotional when I visited the children part of the museum and read about how the children were gruesomely murdered, some with their school uniforms.
The lesson from the museum visit did not dawn on me until after the visits when I asked my friend that we went together what her tribe was. She quickly told me that it is a near crime now in Rwanda to be identified by the tribe. She told me that they were now Rwandans and so can no longer be identified by their tribe. It was at that point that it dawn on me that they have completely healed from the wounds of the wars. It may also interest you to know that most of the population of Rwandans were born after the genocide and so they do not have a view of the war but have learnt to live together after the war.
The visit to the museum was the highlight of my trip. I really enjoyed my one-week trip to the city of thousand hills and I have promised myself that I will be back within the shortest time.
SGD
