Rwanda Election & Paul Kagame

Elections are a buzz topic in American media. Most of you will remember the major election headlines from the past year: fraud and hopeless corruption in Afghanistan, fraud and paranoia in Iran, violence everywhere - common themes amongst the American-installed 'democratic process.'

But the Rwandan presidential election this week barely grazed any headline outside of Central Africa. I think it's much more deserving of our attention. Perhaps it went unreported because every person in world politics and world media expected Paul Kagame to be reelected in a landslide, and he was. Buw we must read between the lines here.

The Rwanda genocide in 1994 coincided with civil war, as the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) army invaded Rwanda from Uganda in the north, in attempt to overthrow the sitting dictatorship. The RPF primarily consisted of Rwandan diaspora refugees - mostly Tutsis who had been driven out of their homeland by politically-empowered Hutus during the previous generation - and moderate Hutus who sought democracy in Rwanda. At the time, Paul Kagame was the commanding general of the RPF army. Under his command, the RPF prevailed and unseated the hardline government.

Following the brief civil war, the RPF installed an interim government and began to rebuild the country. Eventually they installed their own President, until Rwanda's first ever democratic election was organized in 2003. Kagame won this election easily and assumed the presidency. A presidential term in Rwanda lasts seven years, so the past two months have featured the campaign run-up to Election Day this week.

Today the RPF remains the dominant political party in Rwanda. In recent weeks, RPF propeganda has been everywhere; Paul Kagame is a sort of Mona Lisa, staring down at me wherever I turn. I have loved the political campaigning here. Sure, there are rallies and mini-flags and promisory speech tours, just like anywhere. But there are other strategies that are far more novel and less organized - trucks driving around with music and "Tora Paul Kagame RPF" blaring from a hotwired loudspeaker, with people in back dancing and throwing beads everywhere.

Here's a recent campaign scene: Thousanda of villagers walk to an electoin rally in a small village in northern Rwanda, loudspeaker trucks and campaign busses whiz by with RPF supporters hanging out and singing, wearing shirts with Kagame's face printed on the front. Sidebar - I got one of those shirts myself and wore it throughout my road trip. Fresh from another really and two hours late, the President arrives, driving himself, with wife in passenger seat and a small entrourage riding in back. There is security surrounding, but not suffocating. People can walk right up to greet him and shake his hand. He moves slowly through the crowd toward the podium, calmly delivers his speech. When he is finisehd, sodas are passed around and music plays, just like any other social occasion in Rwanda. The rally ends with President, Coke in hand, dancing together in a circle with his people. Rwanda is truly special. And this is all refreshing to the American who considers elections to be overly uptight, stiff-collared affairs.

In the end - as expected this week - Kagame was reelected, with 93% of the vote (down from 95% in 2003). 95% of the Rwandan population turned out to vote. Please stop to let that number sink in. In a nation where 90% of the people live in rural villages, surrounded by mountains, the vast majority without electricity or running water, with many still subsistence farming, where transport means walking or riding a bicycle, and always carrying a baby on back or basket on head - 95% of people found a way to vote. That number is why we should be paying attention to Rwanda. The progress in this nation is remarkable. In sixteen years since genocide and seven years since the establishment of formal democracy, Rwanda has established itself as the most stable and secure nation in Central Africa, and the most consistent economy of growth in all of Africa. Relic memories of the horrors still remain, but there is a grace and reconciliation amongst people here that I have never witnessed before - in America, in the church, in myself. Infrastructure is coming here, the children are being educated, and the people unify under the banner of healing and national development. They have formed their own government, in which over half of the representatives are women. They thirst for democracy - for a collective voice. And they have created their own, dancing and singing through each election season. We Americans were too preoccupied with Iraq, Israel, and Somalia in 1994 to step in and protect 800,000 people from a FAR (national military)-sponsored genocide. Something doesn't match up when we compare the current status of those nations to present-day Rwanda.

I also want to comment breifly on Kagame. Before I went to Rwanda, I really didn't know what to think of him. He is quiet, rather mysterious. He is Africa's darling in the Western political world - a champion of democracy and free-market development. But questions linger about his motives and connections leading to the invasion in 1994. In the media he is often criticized for holding a tight grip on national press in Rwanda, and for stamping out dissenting voices. So I was eager to get there and find out for myself what makes Kagame tick.

For what it's worth (and I hope more than when you started reading this post), here is my impression. Paul Kagame is brilliant, no doubt. In person, he is light skinned and rail thin and tall, very quiet and discerning, with eyes that emphasize he has seen more than you can imagine and from that experience he is staring right through your courtesies to the soul of your integrity. He leads the nation with conviction and a chip on his shoulder, from never owning a sense of belonging as a refugee child. He is passionate about education. He has a vision for Rwanda, but he is protective of Rwandan culture as well. I have come to believe that he is a remarkable leader, truly distinctive in Africa. He does hold a tight grip on freedom of speech and press. However, he his not simply seeking out dissenters who may challenge his reign of power. To my observation, his goverment has moved to silence (through deportation or imprisonment) those dissenting voices who are motivated to spread hardline ethnic rhetoric - using similar implicit tones and messages that led to chaos sixteen years ago. Kagame is not about to tolerate such divisive motives. Despite the progress in Rwanda, I think Paul Kagame knows the country is still fragile and healing. Did his army retaliate to murder many of the perpetrators of genocide before they stood trial? Probably. Has his government pillaged resources from the shadows of Eastern Congo? Strong possibility. But if Kagame distinguishes himself by actually leaving office as his is supposed to in seven years - not changing the rules or usurping power like leaders all around him have done - and elections go through peacefully, then Rwanda will have made it, largely because of his leadership, and he will be one of the best things to happen to Africa since Nelson Mandela.

I have seen the way Rwandans adore their president. They seem to need him. At, at least while he is at the healm, Rwandans take a collective ownership of their government in a way I have not seen before amongst Americans.

Random Story -- There was a herd of elephants about 100 feet outside of my tent tonight, ambling through the bush and breaking trees down as the went. I was fairly terrified. When an elephant is close, so close you can hear it breathing, the males make a rumbling noise that sounds like a growl and puts your hair on end. A couple of times, two young males got into a skirmish, roaring and trumpeting and stamping. Sleep was scarce.

Herds are on the move right now, all around the camp - elephant and zebra and wildebeest, with lions and leopards in tow. The elephants are the most dangerous, however, and the most destructive.

There was an elephant stampede yesterday. It was one of the most exciting things I've witnessed in Africa. It is almost an everyday occurrence to see an elephant here, but a stampede is much rarer. In the late afternoon, we were in camp and heard the approaching rumble of huge running feet, followed by the unmistakable trumpet of a large bull elephant. We heard Maasai herder boys yelping about a quarter mile away and set off to go see, blazing through bush and forest, with thorns reaching and cutting and mud sticking, until we reached a clearing and found the boys safe while about 40 elephants rumbled past, within 100 yards of us. It was a site to see. On the way back to camp, walking in a line through the tall grass, the Maasai behind me yelled suddently and held up his hand. Everyone wondered what he meant by it, until he pointed down as a Cobra slithered through the 15-foot gap separating me from him. I don't know what's more unnerving - shadowy gun silhouettes behind every twilighted corner in Congo, or knowing at any given moment there are at least 5 things within 100 yards of you that can kill, watching you come and go...

Peace & Love.