Ezra Ben-Shalom
jewishstate.com
5 February 2005
Addis Ababa
Der Spiegel, a German magazine, today published a poorly-researched and inflammatory article about instability in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Indeed, "The Forgotten War", by Thilo Thielke, contains so many clear fallacies and errors that I might render it undeserved homage in discussing it.
It manifests the low of quality of journalism that passes as acceptable -- as long as the subject is Africa.
Consider, for example, a blatant mistake such as this: "In 1994, a cholera epidemic drove thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees into the city [Goma] on the banks of picturesque Lake Kivu." No, they fled to Goma following the genocide of the "Tutsis", whose ethnic group is actually one in the same with that of the "Hutus". They have the exact same religion, language, culture, and geographic area, which constitute all of the traits of a single ethnic group.
Some of the refugees in Goma had committed genocidal murder, and feared justice, while others simply wanted to stay clear of the shifting battle lines as the FPR liberated the country. In fact, the epidemic started because the refugees did not have access to toilets or clean water. To say that the epidemic drove them into the city is like saying that a lack of food and water drove someone onto a desert island.
Thielke writes the article as if he was in Goma recently. Is it possible that he really went to Goma and did not speak with any eyewitnesses about these events?
My friend, Tessa "Petite" Bwandinga, was living in Goma before, during, and after the Rwandan genocide, and did not leave until the volcano destroyed her family's house in 2002.
But let us go back to the indistinguishable "Tutsis" and "Hutus". The only reason that some Rwandans continue to think of themselves as "Hutus" or "Tutsis" is because of the completely insane racial ideas that German and Belgian colonizers taught in schools and put into practice in their administration.
Now Der Spiegel has apparently retrieved some dusty Nazi-era books about Africa's "races". Thielke offers up a quick history and biology lesson à la 1933: "The Tutsi dominated the tiny kingdom for centuries. They saw themselves as a master race -- not just as goatherds." A lot of Rwandan babies do not know that they are "Hutu" or "Tutsi". So they might react with shock at the revelation that they have victimized another group. Maybe Thielke should start a lecture circuit in Rwanda explaining his idea of collective guilt.
(Thielke confuses "goat" with "cow". Rwandans are famous for their cows, which are a rarity in equatorial Africa, but which survive here because of the high elevation. This also makes me wonder if he actually set foot in the region.)
Did Africans really come up with the concept of a "master race"? Does this supposed coincidence; that an African people independently came up with this Nazi idea, and then got colonized by Germany; hold water? Or is it possible that the Germans, and later the Belgians, misunderstood and corrupted the idea of "Tutsi" and "Hutu"? In truth, was it not pre-Holocaust Europeans who created the destructive rivalry between the two "groups", by implementing their own racist ideas in the administration, by labelling everyone either a "Hutu" or a "Tutsi", and by favoring the latter "group"?
Consider that before the Europeans imported their ideas, a "Tutsi" could become a "Hutu", or vice versa.
The bottom line is that no one really knows exactly why the idea of these groups existed during the time of the Kingdom of Rwanda. But there is absolutely no evidence that there was social unrest between them or conflict within society.
Every time German journalists speak of "Hutus" and "Tutsis", as if these groups had a basis in fact, they perpetuate the crimes of their grandfathers, and delude themselves and others. It is hard enough to convince people that skin color does not divide humanity into races. Thielke and his colleagues apparently need to create racial identities where none existed before. Because these inaccuracies have already been widely distributed, it is the lazy solution for a lackluster journalist. It is so much easier than researching the country and uncovering its true story.
Long ago, Germans tired of speaking of themselves and others as Aryans and Natural Slaves. Some Americans have tired of the baseless idea of "black" and "white". When will Thielke get bored of "Hutu" and "Tutsi"? Racial ideas which are obsolete in Europe are just as useless in Africa.
Thielke blames the Congo's problems on Rwanda, instead of on its own corrupt and dysfunctional government. He even describes how the Congolese government's soldiers flee at the sound of gunfire and pillage the country's infrastructure (in lieu of a salary), but somehow he leaves this out of his hypothesis of Rwandan guilt.
By contrast, the Rwandan army is Africa's most disciplined force. The few Rwandan troops that committed crimes in the Congo are sitting in prison in Rwanda. Rwandans cannot hide under the impunity and lawlessness that prevails elsewhere.
In questioning Rwanda's right to secure its western border, Thielke totally overlooks the danger posed by the Interhamwe -- the people responsible for the genocide who think they can hide in the Congo and even plot against Rwanda.
But of course self-defense is not fashionable in Europe these days. Maybe President Kagame should make regular cash payments to these authors of crimes against humanity, the way the German government pays ransoms to terrorists and seeks to counter Iran's nuclear program with sweet trade concessions.
Thielke uses the word "impotent" to describe the UN "peacekeepers". He speaks of their child molestation and utter cowardice. But who else would defend Rwanda from the Interhamwe, if we are not permitted to defend ourselves? Thielke's message is clear: Rwanda is expendable.
At one point, Thielke refers to the Banyamulenge, a Rwandophone group in the eastern Congo, as "Rwandan refugees". Actually, no one knows how many centuries these people have been in the Congo -- possibly since the beginning of time. Linguistic groups did not always conform to the boundaries established by the Berlin Conference. Perhaps the Banyamulenge will forgive Thielke's denial of their Congolese nationality: most Africans are accustomed to European journalists who do not care enough about the continent to actually do their homework.
