Rwanda & France

AllAfrica.com has a headline that reads: Rwanda 'Turning' Its Back On French Language. The headline suggests a serious split with Rwanda's longstanding francophonic heritage, begun by the Belgian colonists. Not only does the article fail to mention the Belgians at all; the story (and the reality) fall far short of the dramatic expectations elicited by the misleading headline.

The reality? Rwanda has established a commission to investigate France's possible role in the genocide of 1994. In truth, I suspect both nations are at fault. The French certainly bear some fault in failing to do what was in their power to halt the genocide. Instead, they hemmed and hawed and did their best to keep a francophone government in place. However, the anglophones took over, and have promoted English a lot. This latest commission is more likely a smokescreen than anything else, seeking to shift blame onto France for a Rwandese-created genocide and shift focus from current problems to the horrors of the past. Paul Kagame is quickly becoming a dictator, and nobody inside or outside Rwanda has the heart to do anything about it - the risk of violence is too high to justify destablizing the political scene.