Home » Tanzania Rwanda » Eastern Africa - part 2

TanzaniaRwanda is a beautifull country of mountains and fertile terraced valleys. Women carrying bright primary colourfull umbrellas and boys riding bicycles weighed down with green bananas. It's impossible to imagine what happened here but unfortunately Rwanda is better know to most people for the terrible genocide that occurred here in 1994. When half a nation went on the rampage and in 3.5 months almost 800,000 people were hacked to death with pangas (machetes), shot through the head or butchered with anything to hand.
I enjoyed Dar es Salaam as cities go it was both friendly and multicultural with it's African, Indian, Arabic and European flavours. Where as Zanzibar's stonetown was a bit too touristy after my recent journeys, nethertheless wandering the maze of alleyways I found it a place full of interesting Swahili culture and later history as a British protecterate. The island was important to the Arabs for both slave and spice trading and the sultan grew exotic spices and fruit from all over Asia. Nowadays the usual thing to do is go on a spice tour, I did too and really enjoyed being a tourist.

Eastern Africa - part 2

Stevemonty
2005-09-23 18:56:02

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as eagles sweeping above were making immediate swoops trying to snatch my sandwich from my hand.
An overnight bus via Nairobi (the start and end of this trip) and onto Mwanza, the busy southerly port town for Lake Victoria. On the way to the internet cafe a couple of riot vans passed me then while I was checking my email I heard a couple of loud bangs outside. Christians and Muslims had apparently been fighting in the street and the police had fired a couple of tear gas bombs to disrupt them. I could feel a peppery sensation in my nose as we looked out onto the street. But it turned out to be good thing as I met 3 Dutch doctors Mimosa, Anke and Jurian who'd been caught up in the riot and we spent the rest of the evening in the bar drinking and talking.

I left at 5 the next morning and crossed over to the Rwanda border by a mean looking orange coach called "Soldier of War" with windows decorated with large childlike transfers of soldiers, hawks and fighter planes. Rwanda is a safe country to visit now, all the same I was a little apprehensive at first. But soon found the people here to be very friendly.

Rwanda
Rwanda is a beautifull country of mountains and fertile terraced valleys. Women carrying bright primary colourfull umbrellas and boys riding bicycles weighed down with green bananas. It's impossible to imagine what happened here but unfortunately Rwanda is better know to most people for the terrible genocide that occurred here in 1994. When half a nation went on the rampage and in 3.5 months almost 800,000 people were hacked to death with pangas (machetes), shot through the head or butchered with anything to hand.
This morning I chartered a taxi and visited two genocide memorial sites, both were churches in the villages of Nyamata and Ntarama where people went for safety but were instead murdered. At Nyamata 10,000 people were killed in the church and 10,000 outside. It was the most disturbing place I've ever visited. The metal roof and brick walls are studded from grenade blasts, skulls, assorted bones and old clothing in one room and in newly created tombs outside there are piles of skulls and bones organised for display. In one pit 56 people were thrown in alive and killed with rocks.
Before 1994 there were 125,000 people living in this area, 80% were killed. Most of my driver's family were also killed at this time and it was his first visit to these particular sites. There is a visitor book there with people's comments from all over the world and all walks of life. It was a difficult morning today but I believe it's important to learn about such atrocities and hope that in the future we can help prevent anything like this happening again.