How la Francophonie lost Rwanda

How la Francophonie lost Rwanda, in Little Jars , January 23, 2008:

First it was the Francophone schools, then there was this thing about him wanting his country and all its people (obviously) to be one of the Commonwealth countries… All Hail the Queen, Long Live England (that’s the French chanting).

And now, now, uncle Paul has asked Mr. Blair to come on board, become his right hand man…. someone hit speed dial for Bush in 2009. Kigali is gonna be the new Camp David.

So Mr. Blair is becoming an ‘aide’ of another third world country. Very good PR. More news space for him.

(…)

I admired his guts when he said no to the British and all the other Anglophone countries when he refused to turn Rwanda around from Francophone to Anglophone.

It is what everyone expected he would do- go the Anglophone way.

He, together with his boys (and some girls) had been fighting the French and the Belgians, so to speak.

But he did the ‘upright thinker’ deed. There were people in that country before he (and his boys and some girls) took over. Those people were Francophone. They were teachers, professors, doctors, drivers, citizens of Rwanda. And besides, he insisted, Rwanda was not to be Uganda, or Kenya. It was to stay as it is, only with some adjustments- improvements.

So students, at whichever level would have to learn French because classes would be conducted in both English and French.

Those students who felt that they couldn’t handle this, were to leave the schools, or the country ASAP. And they did leave. I remember them- especially those from Butare University. Always saying that Kagame was being impossible.

Eventually, everyone got into the system and it has been no complaints. They study in French and English, and especially if it is in an Anglophone school. They follow the French system.

And all the ladies there, they are all soooo French.

So in short, even with an administration that was/is hugely Anglophone, the French still had a hold on the one African country that is constantly in the news for the right reasons- since the Genocide. And then BANG! Someone in some French courtroom over there went and said unspeakable things about this very His Highness. Some people have got guts… and little forward thinking.

And now, now, the Brits are becoming the ‘insiders’. Before we know it, it will be the Americans, and before we know it, those sweet smiling Francophone ladies will be dancing on tables, holding beer bottles to their mouths and engaging in public ‘muscular’ arguments. Very un-French.

And once it is in Rwanda, it will spill into Congo and Burundi. And just like that, death to the French cultural (and everything else) influences in central Africa will be declared.

And just the other day, I watched their teary documentary about how their culture, art and general relevance is dwindling in the world, and even in France.