A little know and unusual fact when it come to AFRICA, but it used to be a time in Rwanda, where all three communities (Twa, Hutu, Tutsi) forming the Rwandan society were sharing a culture, a unique language, political system, religion, values, songs, dance and traditions.
INTORE DANCER
Rarely aknowledge in western media reports and history books, this significant fact of Rwandan history has been conviniently set aside. In today's mainstream memory, only the man-made politically-motivated ethnic divisions of Rwanda is highlighted which correspond to a consistency in perpetuating mis-leading stereotyped ideas and imageries of Africa.
In this instance, ignoring and setting aside the knowledge of a society living together harmoniously promote a racist conception of African ethnicities as primitive and savage, it prevents observers from coming to an accurate understanding of the causes of conflicts and impoverishment in Rwanda and other contries of the continent.
Physical stereotyping took place too. The first missionaries wrote things like: ‘We met Tutsi who are tall...’ People came along with instruments to measure nose length and width. This was nonsense – but the stereotyping persists today. A report from the recent war describes it as ‘a war between the tall and the short people’.
source:http://www.newint.org/issue260/keynote.htm
Rwanda has a profound and beautiful endangered culture. For decades now, to preserve, showcase and to teach Rwandan culture many forms and complexities to the next generation has been the ultimate mission of concerned Rwanda intellectuals, creatives, poets, artists and musicians. For they know the dignity and strenght of a population imperatively start with the knowledge of self, its roots, its history.
Hollywood in Rwanda 60 years ago
Not to miss a good opportunity to generate audiences, Hollywood hastly unlocked the finances to produce the Oscar-nominated movie "HOTEL RWANDA", the film was shoot in South Africa because the Rwandan governement, rightly so, were not convinced that such production was in their best interests and so refused to give authorisation to film on their land. It was released in a hush in 2004 to coincide with the 10th anniversay celebration of the Genocide.
What HOTEL RWANDA did to collective consciousness is to reinforce the same old stereotyped about Africa. With no or little twisted explanation about the country colonial history. This film showed us an governemental army executing its population, wild-out thugs massacring innocent, regular people killing their neighbours for no apparent or at least rational reasons. Its the Hollywood version. No surprise there.....
HBO, the US TV network, also had the will to tell the incredible story of this little known country called Rwanda. So they asked director Raoul Peck to come up with a story for a film. Mr Raoul Peck took a very different view and accomplished his mission brilliantly by approaching the subject from a totally different angle....more about him and his great movie SOMETIMES IN APRIL starring Idris Elba, Carole Karemera) in next blog.
Meanwhile....don't believe the hype! All is not what it seem to be....
AFRICA IS THE FUTURE - BE INSPIRED - FOLLOW DA GROOV
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