Language clash clash opens old wounds

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the Sunday Herald - 26 September 2004

Language clash opens old wounds

Rwandas new elite wants English to replace French as the official language
as Paris is probed over its role in the genocide, writes Fred Bridgland


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in 1994, reporters advancing on Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, with the
Tutsi-dominated Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) were fascinated by both the
guerrilla fighters fluent English and their ignorance of French.
The country they were about to take over, following the genocide of about
one million Tutsis by the Hutu majority, was a French-speaking nation that
had been firmly in Frances sphere of influence in colonial Africa for
decades.

Nonetheless, the Tutsi guerrillas had either grown up or been born in
English-speaking Uganda and Tanzania, both former British colonies. Paul
Kagame, the RPF commander destined to become Rwandas austere president,
spoke only English and Kinyarwanda, the indigenous language of both the
Hutus and the Tutsis.

Most of the guerrillas had French names  such as Jean-Jacques and
Christophe  but they had already lost many Gallic customs because of their
long exile in Anglophile states. They didnt sing French songs, and
certainly not the Marseillaise, as they advanced past villages dotting
Rwandas green hills where boys drove herds of long-horned cattle through
tree-shaded valleys. Instead, Bob Dylans Blowin In The Wind was much
favoured.

Not only had the imminent victors become Anglicised, but they loathed the
French government, which had supported the Hutu regime of Juvenal
Habyarimana, an ally of Paris and a great supporter of the French-speaking
world.

When President Habyarimana was killed in a mystery plane crash in April
1994, Mille Collines, the French-language radio station, began inciting
Hutus to eliminate Tutsi cockroaches. Announcers said: The graves are half
full. Who will fill them? In truth, all Tutsis will perish. They will
vanish from this country.

The Tutsi victory was a huge shock for Paris. The RPF accused French
soldiers of training the Hutu genocide militias, known as the Interahamwe
(those who fight together) and of protecting the militias when they
retreated before advancing RPF troops.

Now President Kagame  infuriated with France and President Jacques Chirac
has signalled that Rwanda, whose strongest relations are with
English-speaking countries, is poised to supplant French  the official
language since independence was won in 1962  with English, backed by
Kinyarwanda.




English is growing in dominance despite only 3% of the population speaking
the language fluently against the 8% who speak French. Already, the
countrys three main newspapers are published in English and a decree has
been issued that all laws be made in both French and English. Anyone
applying to enter university must speak both , as classes are taught in
the two tongues .

Kagame has ordered that all cabinet ministers and civil servants must
speak English as well as French, a language he has not yet mastered.

This blow to French cultural pride comes as Kagame has ordered the
formation of a commission to scrutinise Frances role in the genocide.

At the 10th anniversary commemoration of the slaughter in April, the
president denounced the French as criminals who refuse to acknowledge
their role in the genocide and ask forgiveness. Kagame said the French
consciously trained and armed government soldiers and militias who carried
out the killings inside 100 days.

They knew they were going to perpetrate a genocide, he said, prompting
Frances representative, a junior minister in the foreign ministry, to walk
out. France prepared a strategy to protect the killers and not protect the
victims. The French supplied weapons. They gave orders and instructions to
the perpetrators of genocide. They were there when the genocide took
place. They trained those who carried it out.

Reporters who covered Rwanda in the early 1990s said that French
peacekeepers appeared to side with the Hutu government and against the
RPF. In at least one case, French troops moved United Nations peacekeepers
away from a college where they were protecting 2000 Tutsis. After the
peacekeepers were moved, the Tutsis were slaughtered.

Nevertheless, Kigali does not yet seem to be ready for a full divorce from
Paris. Its a bit like a woman who pretends she wants a divorce, while not
really wanting one, said Valerie Gatabazi, a worker with the Rwandan
charity Duterimbere.

Gatabazi said that in about 300 of the countrys 350 secondary schools
French remains the language used by teachers , although intensive English
courses are also run. She added that her country must avoid cutting off
its nose to spite its face, pointing out that Rwanda receives more aid
from Paris than its two neighbouring Francophone countries, Burundi and
the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

And Gedeon Habimama, of the Rwandan Alliance for Human Rights, warned:
France is a great power, and its not in our interest to be too annoying.

Whether Rwanda finally adopts English  and perhaps becomes a member of the
Commonwealth  or French as the national language hangs, in the end, on the
outcome of the inquiry into the role of Paris in the genocide.

The commission will begin hearing evidence  in English, French and
Kinyarwanda  early next year. If the verdict is that French troops helped
the Hutu army and militias, English will probably become the national
language of Rwanda by the end of 2005.



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