- Jan152014
Rwandan dance gallery
Read more“There’s a lot of demand for them to perform at weddings and other public ceremonies so I think they’re well preserved. But if you talk to the younger generation, everyone wants to learn salsa or hip-hop.”
5 - May072013
Reconciliation in Rwanda today
Read morePhil Clark is Lecturer in Comparative and International Politics at the University of London. He is a political scientist specialising in conflict and post-conflict issues in Africa. His work also explores the theory and practice of transitional justice, with particular emphasis on community-based approaches to accountability and reconciliation and the law and politics of the International Criminal Court. Previously he
- Apr132013
Survivors and perpetrators
Read moreYESTERDAY WE SPENT SEVERAL HOURS FILMING with Ukuri Kuganze, a group of genocide perpetrators and survivors. They actively share their stories and provide practical help – like building houses and distributing food – in their communities. They hope to provide the courage for others to confess and ask for forgiveness and, as they put it, the ‘energy’ for survivors to be able to
- Apr112013
Tourism: Akagera National Park
Read moreTOOK A ONE DAY BREAK in the beautiful Akagera National Park. Rusizi Tented Camp was officially opened on March 26 this year, and is a huge leap for Rwandan tourism in the area. Couldn’t recommend it more highly: dinner by firelight on a deck at the edge of Lake Ihema with monkeys, birds and hippos shrieking, grunting and puffing all around.
- Mar052013
Ikobe Musik Group
Read moreLet yourself go to a world beyond hipster irony or the fastest-ever double-kick Mexican death-core… to the intricate, melodic crossroads between tradition and modernity.
- Jun182015
Ideologies and illusions
Read moreIn his superb but harrowing book, A time for machetes. The Rwandan genocide: the killers speak, Jean Hatzfeld records an interview with one of the perpetrators of the genocide. “You will never see the source of a genocide,” he says. “It is buried too deep in grudges, under an accumulation of misunderstandings that we were the last to inherit. We came of
- Apr042014
LoveRadio: episodes of love and hate
Read moreI’m looking forward to following this beautifully presented story over the next three months… Love Radio is a trans-media web documentary which explores the thin line between fact and fiction. Using film, photography, audio, text and archive material, it tells the story of the popular radio soap Musekeweya (New Dawn). Musekeweya was launched in 2004 by the Dutch NGO Radio La Benevolencija. The soap applied
- Apr032014
What is Kwibuka?
Read moreIn kinyarwanda, Kwibuka means ‘remember’. It describes the annual commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Kwibuka20 is a series of events taking place in Rwanda and around the world. These events lead up to the national commemoration of the genocide in Rwanda, which begins on 7 April 2014. The genocide began on 7 April 1994. “Kwibuka20 is also a time
- Jan202014
Akagera National Park wildlife
Read moreTHE FRESHWATER LAKES, rivers and papyrus swamps of Akagera National Park form the largest protected wetlands in central Africa. Located in north-eastern Rwanda, along the border with Tanzania, the park is named after the Akagera River which feeds a network of lakes within the park – the largest being Lake Ihema. Since 1994, a number of local and international organisations
- Jan102014
Teacher resources: conflict and peace
Read moreThe personal encounters with survivors and perpetrators challenge students to think through the ideas and actions which lead to conflict – or build peace. They also hold out the possibilities for recovery, unity and hope.
- Jun272013
Rwanda growth surpasses China
Read moreRwanda’s total production or gross domestic product (GDP) has hit an all time high – topping more than $8.7 billion as of the first quarter of 2013, from just $5.5 billion in 2010, according latest data from the Institute of Statistics. GDP expanded to Rwf 5.4 trillion ($8.7bn) in Q1 by adding some Rwf 1.2 trillion worthy of production to
- Jun092013
Rwanda National Police: helping build community
Read moreRwandans seem to really love their police force. One of the things I noticed while we were there in April was that the police have a big focus on building relationships with ordinary people. When there is Umuganda – the once-a-month community work day that happens across the whole country – the police help out. They also have a police
- May172013
Democracy in Rwanda today
Read moreThe question of democracy in Rwanda is a really difficult one. “The first reason it’s a difficult question is that there’s a memory in this country of multi-party democracy in the early 1990s which opened up a space in which very extremist voices were heard, and extremist political parties emerged, and those things were contributing factors to the genocide in
- Apr212013
On the DR Congo border
Read moreAfter a beautiful twisting drive from Kigali, over the ranges which form the watershed between all rivers which flow west to Congo and the others which flow east to become part of the Nile, we arrived in Kibuye.
