Oasis of peace and order after the maelstrom

Published Jun 28, 2016

Share

Kevin Ritchie

 

Kigali - Gorillas and genocide tend to bookmark Rwanda, the tiny landlocked country that otherwise disappears between the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Uganda.

You can blame Hollywood for that, with films like Gorillas in the Mist and Hotel Rwanda, which is a pity because they are not the sum of the parts that make up what is widely being spoken of as a miracle tale, 22 years after the tragedy.

If you don’t go there as a tourist, you may find yourself visiting as a seminar or conference delegate as President Paul Kagame’s government works to position Rwanda as the conference centre du jour for Africa. He’s getting close. This year the World Economic Forum has met in Kigali and next month the AU summit convenes in the brand-new bespoke Convention Centre that lights up the skyline.

There are modern hotels aplenty, from that East African benchmark of luxury, the Serena, to the international groups, the Radisson Blu, Mariott, Sheraton and Hilton. There is also a host of other hotels, such as the legendary Hotel des Mille Collines (the inspiration for Hotel Rwanda), right down to the backpackers. It’s hard to imagine in a city that only 22 years ago was in rack and ruin as the genocide raged.

The genocide itself is hard to comprehend. Try saying one million slaughtered in 100 days; try deconstructing that to weeks, days or even hours – you can’t, any more than you can imagine dogs roaming the streets gorged on the flesh of their masters lying dead in their homes.

That, though, is the trajectory that Rwanda has followed, from ground zero at the time we were inaugurating Nelson Mandela at the Union Buildings to today and a country where there is no litter, where everything works, there are no monstrous traffic jams (like Nairobi), no beggars on the street corners (like Joburg) or legions of touts thronging every curio shop (like Zanzibar).

Outside the upmarket hotels, there’s plenty to see in Kigali and it’s easy to navigate, particularly on the back of the cheap motorbike taxis that go up and down the road all the time. Or you can get a traditional metered taxi, which can be quite a bit more expensive.

A must-see in the capital has to be the Kigali Genocide Memorial. Entrance is free. You pay a fee of $20 (R295) to take pictures and a further fee to buy a rose to lay on one of the concrete topped graves that lie just beyond and below the museum, final dignified resting places for 259 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus slain in an unimaginable orgy of violence in 1994 that ran from April 7 to mid-July.

It’s an important pilgrimage to make, to understand what untrammelled prejudice and vicious hatred can spawn, but most importantly what can emerge, literally from the ashes of humanity. You have to see it for yourself – and let it speak to you. The only guarantee is that you will not emerge, not as a South African, either unscathed or unmoved.

If you have time to see more of the country, take a trip west to Lake Kivu, the fresh water lake with its beautiful sandy beaches that separates Rwanda from the DRC. The trip is just under 160km, but you need to set aside three hours, even though the roads are beautifully tarred, because it’s a hilly country, particularly if you head north to the Virunga mountains.

Apart from the incredible vistas before you – paddy fields in the valleys and terraced fields on impossibly steep hill sides – there are two unique stops you have to make.

The first is Nyirangarama, where you can pick up a bottle of Akabanga. It’s packaged like eye drops, and you will probably have come across it on the hotel tables in Kigali. Whatever you do don’t apply it to your eyes – apart from the agony, you’ll blind yourself for days. This is Rwandan chilli oil, with a potency that has you putting the toilet roll in the freezer before you go to bed if you’ve put too much on your food. It’s a must for the chilli fiends, but also a great talking point as a curio – and fairly inexpensive.

Less than an hour further down the road, you can pull in at the Hotel Muhabura. It’s an unprepossessing place with the allure of a 1970s-era Free State motel, complete with chalets off to the side. The giveaway is the giant gorilla in cement perched atop the gate pillar.

This is the place that renowned primatologist Dian Fossey considered her home from home when she ventured down from the Volcanoes National Park, 14km to the north, for a bit of human company – and some cold beer. She saved the mountain gorillas from almost certain extinction, but don’t take my word for it, watch Gorillas in the Mist.

Today they are one of Rwanda’s most popular tourist attractions, but they have been priced out of the market for anyone but Americans or Europeans at $750 a person just for a permit to see the gorillas in their natural habitat for an hour.

For $150 you can spend the night in Fossey’s chalet, kept just the way it was, say the hoteliers, since she was last there before her murder in her beloved mountains almost 30 years ago, or you can downsize and get a single room for $45.

Whatever the case, try a Virunga lager. It’s novel, sweet and 6.5 percent alcohol, one of the many great beers you can down in the quest for the perfect East African brew. The hotel also does some of the finest beef kebabs (not sosaties), that are almost like a miniature espetada in their generosity.

As a former German colony, with an overlay of 40 years of Belgian influence, Rwanda has perhaps even better beers on offer than Tanzania; with Skol, Mutzig, Heineken and Primus all brewed on the shores of Lake Kivu and all around the five percent alcohol mark.

Duly fortified, it’s all downhill to Gisenyi on the shores of Lake Kivu, where Africa almost meets Europe, with stately homes converted into sprawling hotels, or you can check into the Serena Lake Kivu with its own beachfront.

You can hire catamarans, take boat trips or swim, before winding down with a beach braai and Rwanda’s finest lagers to wash down the pan-fried sambaza, the Lake Kivu fish that’s smaller than the sardines that run off the South Coast, but bigger than the kapenta at Kariba. It is far tastier than both combined, particularly when washed down with ice-cold Primus.

Lake Kivu is a haven in so many ways. It often rains at night, only to clear up during the day. It’s a bird lover’s paradise, a place to truly unwind. Early in the morning, you can run – or walk – the 2km along the lakeside to the border post with Goma in DRC.

It’s all peaceful now; “Bonjour” say the jogging middle-class locals, “ça va?” greet the workers heading off to build the Chinese-funded border post.

It’s a picture of peace and tranquillity. Twenty-two years ago it was a warzone as hundreds of thousands of Hutus fled over the border to refugee camps, fearing retribution from Kagame’s soldiers.

A couple of years later those self-same soldiers would help unseat the arch-kleptocrat Mobutu Sese Seko and install Laurent Kabila in his place in Kinshasa.

Today it’s an oasis of peace. Long may it stay that way.

Saturday Star

Related Topics: