Travelogue: A visit to the hilly state of Rwanda

When I boarded the Rwandair flight WB 220 on Monday 22 May 2023 at about 2pm local time in Ghana, I had very high expectations of the country of destination, Rwanda. My expectations were purely influenced by the many good things I had heard about the East African state of Rwanda.

At about 9:15pm. (+2 hours GMT) local time in Rwanda, I touched down at the Kigali International Airport, (formally Kamembe Airport) in Kigali. The mission of the trip was to attend the 2023 Africa Soft Power Summit at the Kigali Serena Hotel.

After going through a relatively fast passport control process, I exited from the airport, and I was hit by two major observations. First was the sagacity for security in Rwanda and the proclivity for cleanliness.

Security

On the issue of security, the philosophy is that everyone must be scanned and searched before entry access is granted anywhere. It was therefore not surprising that after going through all the entry processes at the airport, all my bags were subjected to another round of scanning and search before I was granted final clearance to enter Kigali.

For the rest of my six-night stay in Kigali, there was no place I entered without going through a security scanner and security search in the city of Kigali. This for me is a plus because security issues should never be compromised and there is certainly a lot to learn from the Rwandan security architecture.

Clean environment

Driving out of the airport, the Rwandese appetite for a clean environment was visibly clear on their streets, by-ways, highways, and in their commercial vehicles like the one I was sitting in to my hotel. The saying that cleanliness is next to godliness is alive in Kigali.

As my YEGOCABS driver drove out of the airport, the land of a thousand hills, Rwanda, came alive. I experienced firsthand the hilly and mountainous view of the city of Kigali. My 20 minutes’ drive from the airport to the Kigali Serena Hotel was full of climbing and descending one hill after another.

The scripture reference in Psalm 125:2, which states, “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even forever,” suddenly came alive to me.

Sense of hospitality

On arrival at the hotel, I was met by rather warm and friendly attendants. From my personal experience, I can comfortably say that the people of Rwanda have a sense of hospitality. I will quickly learn that the Rwandan word for welcome is “Urakazaneza”.

Africa Soft Power

After checking in, it was essentially time to settle in and prepare for the mission of the trip, the Africa Soft Power 2023 Summit. The Africa Soft Power Group (ASP) encompasses three organisations dedicated to leveraging Africa’s creative and innovative sectors to generate economic growth on the continent and around the world.

These include Africa Soft Power, African Women on Board (AWB), and ASP Global. The Africa Soft Power Group is thus a leading creative and tech industry, as well as women’s empowerment organization based in Lagos, Nigeria.

On day one (Wednesday 24 May), a four-member panel kick-started the 2023 Africa Soft Power Summit, focusing on the topic, ‘Revolutionizing Systems: Women’s Leadership as the Catalyst for Change,’ recommending to African leaders and policymakers, the need to put in place deliberate policies that will stimulate women’s empowerment on the African continent.

Panel composition

The panel included Ambassador Amina Mohamed, former Minister for Sports, Education & Foreign Affairs of Kenya; Adefunke Adeyemi, Secretary General, The African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC); Chike Obianwu, Senior Partner, Templars, and Clare Akamanzi, CEO, Rwanda Development Board. The session was moderated by Michelle Moore, Author & UK’s 50 Most ‘Influential Women in Sports’.

In their deliberations, the panel concluded that it will take deliberate policy initiatives by decision makers at the highest level to get women to contribute their quota to the building of their respective countries.

Rwandan example

Clare Akamanzi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rwanda Development Board, in her submission, observed that it has taken deliberate policy initiatives of the Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, for her country to have achieved gender equality as far as the nation’s cabinet is concerned.

She also noted that Rwanda is the first country in the world to have the proportion of MPs who are women at 61.25%, a statistic which she says is way above the current global average of 26.4%.

“Rwanda has been at the top of the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s (IPU’s) monthly ranking of women in national parliament for years,” Clare Akamanzi said.

Deliberate policy

Ambassador Amina Mohamed, on her part, noted that for change to take place in any country, it starts with policies that are enshrined in law. She indicated that African countries that could not afford to have their women’s empowerment plans embedded in law, did not have a clear vision for same.

“It is really important for any leader who believes in women empowerment and gender equity to put in place the policies that will support the vision that they have. If you don’t put it into policy, then you don’t have the vision,” Ambassador Amina Mohamed said.

She observed further that if African countries only needed to align with already existing international law and protocols if there were challenges developing these policies domestically.

Ambassador Mohamed, signposted some of the international laws and protocols such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages; Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Other thoughts

Several other panels went on to deliberate on multiple issues on women empowerment such as ESG: The Time is Now!; Why the Private Sector is Key to Achieving Gender Equity; Money Talks: Achieving Gender Parity through Funding & Investment [in Women]; Cannot Lead: Unravelling the Paradox of Women’s Numerical Advantage and Exercising Real Power; Hidden in Plain Sight: Knowledge Production, How Bad Data Erodes Equitable and Sustainable Growth; From Awareness to Action: How Changemakers Harness Media and Technology, among others.

Templars

Day one of the conference was climaxed with a Women’s Leadership Dinner, powered by Templars, a leading African law firm, which specializes in advising clients across sectors and geographies to provide innovative solutions to their most pressing business challenges.

CII Conference

During the second day of the summit, which largely focused on Creative & Innovative Industries, (CII Conference), leading businesses and individual voices from around the world, examined how the African creative sectors can deliver growth and returns on the continent, as well as how these industries can be used to better tell the modern African story on the world stage, changing perspectives, shifting global dialogues, and strengthening relationships with the diasporan community along the way.

Travel/Visa regime

A panel of travel experts during their session, recommended that for Africa to be able to fully implement the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, there is an urgent need for an integrated air travel regime for the continent and the introduction of a visa free travel policy for the entire region.

Deliberating on the topic ‘New Pathways: Travel, Tourism & Trade in Africa’, the panel made up of Adefunke Adeyemi, Secretary General, The African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC); Michaella Rugwizangoga, Chief Tourism Officer, Rwanda Development Board; Tariro Washe, Filmmaker; Managing Director, Meso Maviri and Wilmot Allen, Founder & Chairman, VentureLift Africa, collectively called on African leaders and policy makers to give consideration to their proposal.

Visa free policy in Rwanda

In her submission, Michaella Rugwizangoga, Chief Tourism Officer of the Rwanda Development Board, observed that Rwanda has painstakingly instituted a visa free regime for all citizens of African, from the Francophone and from the Commonwealth of nations, to visit their country in order to boost tourism

“That is how it is supposed to be, and that is how we see the world. I wish that other African countries can join that energy so that we can move Africa forward,” Michaella Rugwizangoga said.

Protectionism/distrust

Adefunke Adeyemi, Secretary General of the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC), the institution charged with the responsibility of enabling a robust African aviation industry to support the economic and social transformation of the continent, on her part noted that the main hindrance to her Commission’s task of fostering a safe, secure, efficient, cost effective, sustainable and environmentally friendly civil aviation industry in Africa, is the lack of trust and the issue of protectionism among African countries.

“Africa’s problems and solutions lie with us. We don’t trust each other, we are protectionist, we don’t allow each other to get to each other, we don’t give access. That is the problem, yet we give access to others coming from other parts of the world. We have got to build Africa to Africa first,” Madam Adefunke Adeyemi said.

Multiple panels also took turns to discuss other topics including; Powering the Creative Economy: The Role of Private Capital in Propelling Innovation; The Economy of Sports: Driving Transformative Impact in Africa’s Sports Ecosystem; AI, The Future of Work and Art: Collaborator or Competitor, where is Africa in this?

Riveting experience

Day two peaked with the Africa Soft Power Gala & Awards. The veritable feast of African creative and cultural output in action demonstrated the latest African art, fashion, film, entertainment, media, and tech, bringing the presentations and themes of the summit to life. The Africa Soft Power 2023 Summit can be described as a “riveting experience”.

My Rwandan experience

After the summit, I set out to experience firsthand what real life is like in Rwanda. My first port of call was to understand the transportation system and options that exist in the city of Kigali.

Transit system

I found out that there are three main public transport options, and they are bus, motor bike and taxi. The bus system known as “tap-and-go” is the most patronized among the three options available. This well-organised bus transit system brings some sanity on the roads of Kigali because there are not so many commercial vehicles competing with private car users.

Okada in Rwanda

The second most used means of transport in the city of Kigali is “Motari”, what is known in Ghana as “Okada”. The “Motari” is literally available everywhere and anywhere in the city of Kigali, and by reason of their sheer numbers, Motari riders are in constant competition with other road users in Kigali.

However, what is different with the “Okada” of Rwanda, compared to Ghana, is that every rider has a helmet and a second one for their passengers. The riders also have a uniform they wear that has reflectors on them. It is mandatory for the rider to wear a helmet just as it is for a passenger to put on a helmet.

What was more interesting for me was the fact that because Motari is a recognized means of transportation in Kigali, the authorities have developed a metering system attached to every Motari to ensure that as a rider goes about their business, the state is able to monitor their sales and to get some taxes from their enterprise.

Food on the streets

From my interaction with Rwandan indigens, they drew my attention to fact that one of the main reasons behind their ability to keep the streets clean even at the city centre is that the authorities do not allow the sale of food by the by-ways and the highways in the city of Kigali.

The rationale behind this hard decision is because their studies has pointed to the fact that selling of food and the consumption of same is largely responsible for littering in most cities around the world.

The city authorities after this discovery, banned all forms of food sale on the streets of Kigali. To buy any kind of food anywhere in Kigali, you have to go into a restaurant and do so.

With the buy-in of the people of Kigali, the city authorities have succeeded in cutting off all the rubbish that are generated from the sale and consumption of food in rubbers, packs, among others

Digital address system

In Kigali, I also noticed that there was an efficient digital addressing system in place, and just as it is elsewhere in the West, the addressing system came in handy to move from one location to the other.

Throughout my 6-day stay in Kigali, I visited a few places and I captured their names and digital address: Amata N’ Ubuki, 28 KG 566 St, Kigali, Atelier du Vin, KK 3Ave- KG 601 St, Treasures of Ikoro, 35 KG 674 St, Kigali, the Rwanda Genocide Memorial, KG 14 Ave, Kigali, among others.

MTN

It was not difficult to notice the dominating presence of mobile telecommunication service provider, MTN in Kigali, and perhaps the whole of Rwanda.

Just like in Ghana, MTN vendors are visibly present literally at every turn, and yes, mobile money service (MoMo) is the dominating payment option for good and services.

What was good though, was that Motari riders and YEGOCABS all accept payments by MoMo, unlike in Ghana, where some do and others do not.

Promoting National Unity

Having read about the 1994 genocide that took place in Rwanda, I obviously had a feeling that the people of Rwanda are one divided people and that this division will be visible to me as I visit the country for the first time.

Perhaps I was expecting the Hutu majority to be on one side of town and the Tutsi minority, as well as the smaller Twa minority to be on the other side of town.

Much to my surprise, the people of Rwanda, who all (Hutus, Tutsis, Twa) speak the same language (Kinyarwanda), have quite quickly learnt from their difficult, hurtful and painful past and have vowed never to walk the path of hatred, revenge and division again.

It was therefore not surprising when my YEGOCABS driver pointed out to me the Ministry of National Unity and Civic Engagement (MINUBUMWE), which has the sole mandate of fostering unity and concensus building in the whole of Rwanda.

Kigali Genocide Memorial

Stopping by and touring the Kigali Genocide Memorial (KGM) which is the final resting place for over 250,000 out of the over 800,000 victims of the 1994 genocide against Tutsis, was certainly a must-do assignment for me on this trip to Rwanda.

The KGM was created through a collaboration between the Government of Rwanda and the Aegis Trust in the year 2004, 10 years after the Rwandan genocide.  The KGM is indeed a solemn site of deep remembrance of what was beyond every reasonable doubt, a dark and unforgettable season in the history of Rwanda.

As I walked through the entrance, the mass graves, the wall of names, the forest of memory, the children’s garden, the garden of self-protection, the garden of division, the garden of unity and the garden of reconciliation; one step at a time, I walked the pathway of the Memorial, and as I read the documentations captured on the walls such as; before the Genocide, the colonial period, the nation falls apart, the role of propaganda, stained glass window, indicators and revealing signs, during the Genocide, attitudes and behaviours, after the Genocide sculptures, wasted lives, the children’s room; I knew that my visit to the memorial and what I saw and read will stay printed in my heart and on my conscience forever.

Never again on the continent of Africa should such a systematic and deliberate effort to eliminate fellow Africans ever happen. The only consolation for me as I visited the KGM book shop was the fact that there were survivors of the 1994 Rwanda genocide who were preserved by God so they could tell the story of the genocide through their personal testimonies. The stories of the genocide survivors, for me, are sure currency to prevent revenge in Rwanda.

Infrastructure development

It is obvious to note that as part of the plan of the Rwandan government, to put their past behind them, they have resolved to build strong institutions of state to champion this effort and vision.

Clearly, on the agenda of President Paul Kagame’s administration, it is to position Rwanda as the conference destination in Africa and perhaps the world. To this end, tourism infrastructure such as hotels, link roads, tourist sites, etc., are not in short supply at all.

The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and its partner agencies are constantly looking for space and avenues to increase tourist sites and to improve the existing ones.

My Take

It is clear on the phase of the record that Rwanda has a plan in motion and step by step, the leadership of the nation-state is executing the plan a step at a time.

The rest of Africa quite frankly, has a lot to learn from Rwanda. The continent can learn from their pain, their commitment to change, their progress, their leadership and their passion.

The writer is Wilberforce Asare, legal and political editor at Asaase Radio

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