Liberation is a Journey, by Uwayo B. Edouard

Rwandese of Rwanda
Rwandese outside of Rwanda
All who speak Kinyarwanda
We descend from a common culture
Come, we’ll sit here in Rwanda
Immersed by the culture of Rwanda
Let’s remember how liberation came
Unleashing heavy burdens in my youth

When I was young and just a child
I played in mud and heard of hate
Rwanda readied children for war
Children chosen and armed against enemies
I heard that Tutsis were roaches
and must be stomped
With tails like snakes
They should be killed
We were given bows and spears
And foreign countries gave us guns
Really

Darkness came to Rwanda
Machetes instead of peace
I saw people killed
Muslims and Christians worked together
Joined by machetes and their will to kill
And our Rwanda burned
Rivers flowed with bodies
and corpses covered fields
Rwanda’s youth led the battle
Don’t you know that this is injustice?
That our Rwanda, its’ beautiful rivers and pools
Its beautiful fields with roads and no famine
became a cemetery and a shame
Don’t you know that this is injustice?

And the RPF Army I was taught to hate
decided it was time to defend Rwanda
Should Rwandese die?
Should there be widows?
Should the dead be shamed?
They said, “No”

War began in Kinigi, in the heat
Everyone was involved, so understand, my children
It wasn’t about guns or weapons
It was about a fight for truth
I will thank them wherever I am
Their heroics will be known worldwide
From Darfur in Sudan to the Comoro Islands
they will be admired
And I’ll see them the way the Pope sees his church

But now that they have conquered, I ask them
Free us from poverty and illiteracy
since liberation is a journey
I’ll start with the family, the foundation
I condemn the many men who
don’t allow their wives to have a voice
They hit them and think they’re mindless
Who gains from this?
Man of moustache and small mind
Hairy chested and without pity
You burden your wife to stay in your house
You are killing our vision of being a strong nation

And the children I see, working so hard everywhere
Picking tea and coffee, but they can’t even afford soap
What a shameful image of Rwanda
Give the child what he needs and he can become a king
His parents will live in peace and his family will be safe
Young girls miss school and are given a broom
and they dig in the valley
Because education is only for their brothers

A wife works all day and her husband hits her
and who will save her?
Where will liberation be?
And men work hard, sweat pours down
But he makes no money and it’s never enough
Don’t you see that this is injustice?

Let liberation come and let liberation be a journey
Away from prostitution
And towards wisdom and to new projects done with fervour
The rich one can prepare a gift to give to the poorest one
And how poor is he?
A house of wheat and bed of wheat and he eats just wheat
And then he’s thrown out like wheat
Really

Our beautiful Rwanda with beautiful rivers
Beautiful pools and fields with roads and no famine
Tell me, will it remain a cemetery without peace?
Don’t you see that this injustice?

Let me speak further
What happens in the village genocide courts?
Let justice liberate
Let truth replace lies in Rwanda
Sitting together on the grass
without division or hate
Without lying to each other
As we live in peace and the guilty seek forgiveness
Our future is already failing
Unless we begin our journey well
Helping widows and orphans
And food for the man in ruins with nothing

What is left is to share everything
As we battle against hate
I wish you all the best
And so I close here
I, a poet, will speak again

Peace to you in Rwanda
Peace everywhere