Deepest Darkest Africa

It's hard to get anyone to say a bad word about the government.  A trip to the border with The Congo explains why.  The wooden shacks in The Congo shanty town clustered around the border post are in sharp contrast to the Rwandan tarmac , which ends abruptly at the barrier, turning into a sea of mud rather than a road on the other side. 


Keen to get a photograph of this stark contrast I hopped out of the car. "Is it OK to take a photo?" I asked my colleagues, their answer did not accord with that of the heavily armed soldiers, who quickly surrounded me.  I was interrogated by a well spoken and smartly dressed 'civilian', who with charm in his voice, forcibly grabbed my camera and deleted photographs. His eyes were as steely as the gun of his body guard, cocked towards me.  It was the beginning of a day that was to open my eyes to the darker side of Rwandan life.


Why, when the Democratic Republic of Congo is so rich with its abundant wealth of minerals, did it seem so much poorer, I asked Antoine.  "It's badly managed, it's corrupted" he replied.
I looked anew at the regular brick structures I was becoming familiar with, painted in the same earthen palette, the neat tea plantations and the blue and bright shiny corrugated iron roofs of the Rwandan landscape.  Here the government is in control, from the colour of the paint, to the planning regs. Dissent is not tolerated. It leads to a well regulated and ordered society, which I imagine, is preferable to the horrors of Genocide. 


The remains of the Hutu army are harboured by the Congo.  Living in dense tropical forests, they make insurgencies into Rwanda disturbing the fragile peace with continuing violence.  In Britain we prize individual freedoms, freedom of the press and free speech as rights to fight for.  Here violence breeds violence and the  'peace' is defended at all costs. What are a few photographs when your family has been hacked to death?


The darling of western governments Rwanda's regime is reluctant treat a white woman badly, I was lucky.  Others have been less fortunate, but then they are Rwandans. I imagine if I'd been imprisoned for asking too many questions and taking too many photographs you'd probably hear about it. Would the world's press even bother to report the story if the same happened to a Rwandan? No, they.., you.., you're not interested, its just another Banana Republic and not one you can buy nice clothes in.