Rwanda the African Phoenix

In an ancient Greek folklore, a phoenix is a long-lived bird that regularly regenerates or is otherwise born again. Associated with the sun, a phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor. Some legends say it dies in a show of flames and combustion, others, believe that, it simply dies and decomposes before being born again.

The most important theme about the phoenix, is that it never fully dies, and so is Rwanda.

Radios and televisions were invented by the west. And the western media is a strong believer of “no news is good news”. Which said bluntly, there is nothing newsworthy if a dog bites a girl’s ear? But if a girl gets so annoyed with her pet dog and bites its ear it is “headline” news.

And so the media has so much reported the negative news about Africa to the extent that the rest of the world believes nothing good can come out Africa. For example every time my country Rwanda is mentioned, what comes to everyone’s mind is:  machete-wielding Hutu militias on a mission to annihilate their Tutsis brothers.  Of course the genocide against the Tutsis is a huge scar on Rwandan History. It did not start in 1994, when over a million Tutsis, were slaughtered. During that ugly climax for 100 apocalyptic days, a bloody campaign unfolded while the rest of the world silently looked on, what is not wildly known however is that, 1994 was a climax not the beginning. Nevertheless, for the sake of this article, I will not go back to several years before 1994.

Ugly, and sad as it may be, what no one says is that Rwandans, not UN not the Americans, not Europeans, but Rwandans themselves, decided that their fate was in their own hands. The Rwandan Patriotic Army, under the leadership of Paul Kagame, the then, chairman of High Command, unilaterally fought and defeated the genocidaire forces.  Since then, like the proverbial phoenix; rose from the ashes.

26 years after the genocide, Rwanda that has been written off, as a totally failed state has moved on, economically, socially and politically. It has one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, averaging 8% per year. The most recent figures show that Rwanda’s economy has expanded by 10.9 percent in the first nine months of 2019 compared to 8.2 percent growth in the same period of 2018. Thus with the exception of 2020, when COVID 19, slowed it down, Rwanda has witnessed constant annual growth. But even with COVID, Rwandans, known to fight against all odds; did so well to the extent that by July 2020, Rwanda was the only Sub-Saharan African country considered Covid-19 ‘safe’ by EU. Whereas American citizens could not enter EU Rwandans were free to enter EU, and Rwandans did not need to be quarantined when they enter Brussel – The EU’s capital.

Doing Business in Rwanda

In 2017,  Rwanda was ranked the second position on the African continent in the World Bank’s annual Doing Business indices. According to the Doing Business 2020, the country is among a few economies in Sub-Saharan Africa that improved their business climate in the year that ended on May 1, 2019, ranking just behind Mauritius in Africa. Globally, Rwanda ranked 38 and scored 76.3 points against 100, a slight fall below the previous ranking not because of poor performance, but simply because Rwanda’s stock exchange market is still in its teething stage.

Furthermore, the 2017 Corruption Perception Index, ranked Rwanda the third least corrupt country on the African continent behind only the Seychelles and Botswana. Whereas the rest of us were impressed, Rwandan President Paul Kagame was not: “why should we be happy that the third least corrupt country on the African continent?” he asked. “Our target should be the first”.

Despite Kagame’s unimpressed about being number 3, many consider Rwanda one of Africa’s most success stories, giving an example of its leading glows on information communication and technology. Nicknamed “the Singapore of Africa” for its technological advances. As far back as 2013, the World Bank listed the country “among the ten most improved economies.  Rwanda’s goal has been to be the technological hub of East Africa. It has an impressive e-government system, which ensures that most of the government’s financial transactions and other tasks are done electronically.  Due to this focus, in 2019, Rwanda was the first African country to join the membership of the Electronic World Trade Platform  (eWTP), an Alibaba-led initiative that aims to lower barriers to global trade for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) via e-commerce.

In addition, Alibaba Business School, signed a memorandum with the Rwanda Development Board ( RDB) to start an undergraduate program that will train students in international business and cross-border e-commerce to support the development of skills relevant to growing the sector in Rwanda.

Women and youth

Unlike many other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, where economic growth has so far not translated into visible signs of development, Rwanda has an impressive record. For example in 1994, as high as 78% of Rwandans lived below the poverty line (less than $1.25 a day).  By 2011, that figure had dropped to 45% while in 2019, the figures has significantly dropped to a mere 16%!  In addition, Rwanda has a 99% primary school enrolment, the highest in Africa, according to the World Bank.

Rwanda has been classified as the best place to be a woman in Africa, and the fifth in the world, beating Western developed countries like USA, France, and United Kingdom

For example, unlike in the US, women in Rwanda benefit from three months of paid maternity leave, making it much easier for them to stay in the labour market once they have started a family. The purpose of this article is not to compare Rwanda with the US, but since the US claims to be the greatest country on earth, it is worth being proud to beat her on some areas of human development.

These pro-women laws might have something to do with the second area in which Rwanda leads: female political participation. Every year for over a decade, Rwanda has topped the global list of countries with the most female political parliamentarians with a percentage above 61%. That’s in large partly thanks to quotas, put in place meant to deliberately empower women, stipulating that women must make up 30% of parliamentarians. Compare this to the US, where it’s been predicted it will take 500 years for women to reach fair representation in politics”.

In an article for Solutions Journal, an online publication that showcases innovative ideas for dealing with, among others, the world’s socioeconomic problems, a scholar Roxane Wilber advises nations looking to improve governance to learn from Rwanda’s experience and women empowerment. “Women bring instructive perspectives and innovative approaches to governance,” she explains, adding that Rwanda’s achievement is not an accident. The government “prioritized women, introduced structures and processes designed to advance them at all levels of leadership.”

Access to affordable health services

Access to affordable health services has expanded through the introduction of community-based health insurance known as mutuel de Sante. In his book “a thousand hills to heaven” Josh Ruxin, a Jewish American based in Kigali-Rwanda credits Rwanda for having a universal health care whereas advanced countries like the US have failed.

A lot of the changes for Rwanda’s transformation were initiated by President Paul Kagame, who is credited for ending the 1994 genocide and establishing political stability. In 2000, Mr. Kagame’s government crafted a development programme dubbed “Vision 2020” whose goal is to transform Rwanda from a low-income agriculture-based economy to a knowledge-based, service-oriented economy by 2020. The plan is to make Rwanda a middle-income country by shifting from a humanitarian assistance phase associated with the 1994 genocide into one of sustainable development.

An audit towards the achievement of this vision is yet to be carried out, nevertheless, many believe it is achievable. All the above have been achieved thanks to Rwanda’s steadfastness and committed leadership under President Kagame.

President Kagame’s leadership with its impact on the lives of  over 12 million Rwandans has made him a rising star among several world leaders such as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair who named Kagame  “a visionary leader.” Former US President Bill Clinton was even more unrestrained, referring to him as “one of the greatest leaders of our time.”

Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka , summarizes Rwanda’s rise from  ashes in following words “Given the scale of trauma caused by the genocide, Rwanda has indicated that however thin the hope of a community can be, a hero always emerges. Although no one can dare claim that it is now a perfect state, and that no more work is needed, Rwanda has risen from the ashes as a model of truth and reconciliation.”

Rwanda like the proverbial phoenix has refused to die.

Mweusi Karake is a veteran journalist and former head of Public Relations/Corporate Communication at the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

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