Brian Crawford - Rwanda--Culture Smart!

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ISBN 978 1 85733 879 9

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First published in Great Britain

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59 Hutton Grove, London N12 8DS

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Series Editor Geoffrey Chesler

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Printed in the USA

Cover image: Traditional Imigongo art. Wall designs using geometrical patterns made from organic material. Stuart Forster / Alamy Stock Photo

The photographs on pages .

Images on the following pages reproduced under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license: BryanKimenyi.

Reproduced under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license: Ji-Elle.

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Germany license: Hildenbrand /MSC.

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license: World Economic Forum.

Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication: Ahandrich; P. (bottom): National Museum of Denmark.

About the Author

BRIAN CRAWFORD is a multiple-award-winning teacher and the author of fourteen novels. His first, The Weavers Scar: For Our Rwanda (Royal Fireworks Press, 2013), is the first young-adult English-language novel dealing directly with the 1994 Rwandan genocide. It received two prestigious awards: the Skipping Stones Honor Award for Multicultural and International Books (2014), and the VOYA Top Shelf Fiction Award (2014). Brian has traveled many times to Rwanda, where he has coordinated educational partnerships between Rwandan and American schools. He has supported Intore Expeditions Kids to the Parks program, which raises money to send Rwandan students to visit their own national parks. Brian holds a dual M.A. in French Literature and Modern German Culture from Indiana University. He speaks six languages, including conversational Kinyarwanda. Brian currently lives in Seattle, Washington.

The Culture Smart! series is continuing to expand. All Culture Smart! guides are available as e-books, and many as audio books. For latest titles visit

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The publishers would like to thank CultureSmart!Consulting for its help in researching and developing the concept for this series.

CultureSmart!Consulting creates tailor-made seminars and consultancy programs to meet a wide range of corporate, public-sector, and individual needs. Whether delivering courses on multicultural team building in the USA, preparing Chinese engineers for a posting in Europe, training call-center staff in India, or raising the awareness of police forces to the needs of diverse ethnic communities, it provides essential, practical, and powerful skills worldwide to an increasingly international workforce.

For details, visit www.culturesmartconsulting.com

CultureSmart!Consulting and CultureSmart! guides have both contributed to and featured regularly in the weekly travel program Fast Track on BBC World TV.

Known as The Land of a Thousand Hills, Rwanda is a land of powerful images. It is the home of the endangered mountain gorilla, lumbering through the thick vegetation of the Virunga Mountains. It is a place of abundant natural beautyboth in the rainforest of the western perimeter, and in the dazzling display of wildlife. It is a land of tea, coffee, and intricately woven baskets; of drumming, artistic, and skillful Intore dancers, waving their white headdresses about and brandishing spears and shields. It has a growing film industry, a world-renowned cycling team, and a thriving contemporary music scene. The economy is burgeoning, and the capital, Kigali, glimmers almost weekly with new construction.

Despite its breathtaking growth, Rwandas international image was greatly tarnished by the 1994 Genocide of the Tutsi, perhaps the most efficient genocide in human history. This dark chapter is indelibly ingrained in the national psyche, and both the people and the government have worked tirelessly to ensure that such a horror never again occurs. The economy has been reborn; Rwandans have embraced forgiveness, reconciliation, and restorative justice as a path to heal old wounds; former ethnic labels have been effaced in favor of a unified Rwandan identity; and, according to the World Economic Forum, the country has become the ninth-safest in the world for tourists and businesses. Of course, some individuals, scholars, and international organizations have questioned the manner in which unity has been achieved, the freedom of political discourse, or the nature of democracy in contemporary Rwanda. There is a high level of security and stability, they point out, but at what cost?

Whatever the political reality, the Rwandans remain a dignified, reserved, and welcoming people. They harbor a deep pride in their common culture and history, which they are happy to showcase to the inquisitive visitor. Whether cultivating the land, building new infrastructure, positioning Rwanda as a high-end tourist destination, or developing the country as an investment and ICT hub for Eastern Africa, Rwandans are dedicated to development. But to make the most of your stay here, plunge below superficial interactions. Talk to the local people at home, at work, at leisure, and in Kinyarwanda, their own language. By making the effort to meet them on their own terms, you will find that you can make lifelong friends in a land steeped in a unique history and culture. You will discover why, according to the local proverb, Rwanda is where God comes to sleep at night.