Rwanda in EAC, brother worth emulation with true African spirit

Correspondent REHEMA KULWA

GROWING up in the countryside which I believe is three quarters of East Africa Community (EAC) area in comparison to urbanized land, my parents taught me to smile, which to them was a magic language of diplomacy to be shared everywhere, that even a baby understands, and in this context a true spirit of expressing true African brotherly affection wherever one goes.

In the countryside the residents are brothers/sisters, eat together, share woes and bury collectively when one departs and do not mind one being a brother from another mother, unlike in urban areas where one is for oneself and God for all, a practice Rwanda recently rebuffed by being ready to accommodate over 30,000 fellow Africans stranded in Libya and branded illegal immigrants only fit to be auctioned as commodities.

Reminding me of a book Carcass for the Hounds by Meja Mwangi that surely if have to kill a fellow human being, then we ought to hew him, as a dish fit for the gods not carcass for the hounds.

Talk of 30,000 African immigrants currently stuck in Libya where they are exposed to all forms of abuse, including being sold openly in slave markets in the Northern Africa country. May God forbid.

Speaking to The New Times, Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs minister Louise Mushikiwabo said her country is currently in talks with the African Union (AU) Commission to determine the entire extent of intervention to the crisis.

Rwanda’s intervention comes amid harrowing revelations that the immigrants, most of them from West Africa, are being sold openly in modern-day slave markets in Libya.

Mushikiwabo said Rwanda, despite not having much resources, was stepping in to offer logistical support for those willing to return to their countries of origin and give sanctuary to those not willing to return to their home countries.

Noting that the country was not oblivious to the financial resources and other costs that could come with the decision, she said it would be against national values of Rwanda to turn a blind eye to the plight of the immigrants.

“What I expect and know is that Rwandans will welcome these people. As Rwandans we are sensitive to people who are helpless and have no way of protecting themselves. It is something that is deep in ourselves, we take pride in human beings,” said Mushikiwabo who is also the Government Spokesperson.

I salute Rwandan President Paul Kagame for the gesture, pure human and African spirit of helping a neighbor in problems unlike the capitalistic world of ‘manyang’au’ who would only befriend you when you live in symbiosis relations with well calculated moves to waylay and prey on you once you are ‘maimed or wasted’.

The spirit the Rwandese have shown to accommodate the people, almost a tribe in their tiny country with approximately 19 million people with meager resources just like any other third world country, without planning to ditch them in refugee camps, but offer them to live just like any other citizen should actually be emulated in the human race.

It’s now known worldwide that President Kagame, a true EAC citizen has put the name of the bloc in the world map with the move without citing any political conditions or fielding a bargain chip to help the ‘orphans’, and for that matter, may the Almighty God abundantly bless him.

Kudos once more Kagame and the people of Rwanda because the ‘disadvantaged people’ located miles away from EAC member states, could also have been rescued by the rich and powerful countries and blocs like ECOMOG/ECOWAS just a distance of a stone’s throw as well, including other Western nations, but it turned to be business as usual.

Listening to BBC Kiswahili news and reading other press articles, it was pointed out that Rwanda took almost two months discussing how the people enslaved in Libya should be transferred to the country without ‘ifs and buts’.

It was painful really to learn that in this 21st century, some human beings (worst of all fellow Africans) still harbor the thought of enslaving others just because they stink money and know how to mint it.

To make it worse even the people who practiced slave trade in the olden days and sold our ancestors to the colonial masters buried the primitive and inhuman culture to the extent of outlawing it, only for it to resurface in the African continent in style.

As a true member of EAC what Rwanda has done should be weighed with a lot of wisdom in the bloc, because whichever way one may look at it, once a brother (neighbor) has adopted a child or children, those children are definitely also your children and you can not enclose yourself in a mansion and pretend that nothing is wrong at the neighbour’s doorstep, that is not African.

Rwanda has not asked for any financial, land or you name them from the bloc to host and run the lives of the people she has shown mercy on, again remember these were to be auctioned by fellow Africans, as if they are merchandise on sale, but in the African realm, other brothers (member states) now ought to be shy, and at least also show concern or even pray that Rwanda succeeds in the mission.

By incorporating Rwanda in East Africa Community way back on 6 July 2009 reminds one that if you love one, you also have to love one’s dog which may be a strong term here.

But the concept is that Rwanda’s remorse, humane, policy and culture of helping the immigrants/slaves to be, thousands of miles away in the continent should make EAC feel that the 30,000 people (creation of God) is the bloc’s baby now to nurture, educate, cloth and house just like any other citizen in the community.

In the cooperation of EAC realm, member states will find that if one share a brother’s burden, both or all will walk a little straighter and not sway, but if one thinks corporation is not necessary, just watch what happens to a wagon if one wheel comes off, lastly, we can not all play the same instrument (show mercy to the disadvantaged in this case), but we can all be in the same key.

Now that EAC is being envisioned by some neighbor(s) who want to be members also, we ought to know in time what the new neighbor(s) would move in with, that would be worthy borrowing instead of enlarging the bloc as a forum for them to start disrupting/rocking us from within.