The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

are sufficient, it would be enough to try to find some human reality that
is not subsumed under them, and depended on factors different from
those three. One might make it a parlour game.
In addition, these three factors outline the current core issues for Rwandans.
Kuba is the issue of identity: What are Rwandans, that do they
want to be, what do we want them to be? Kubaho is the problem of
survival of the one and the other, particularly the survival of those whose
extermination was attempted. Kubana is the problem of coexistence,
particularly among victims and perpetrators. This is the problem of the
rules of coexistence, hence the choice of a project for society. All these
problems may appear theoretical at first glance, but are really very concrete
and immediate.
The Cornerstone of Coexistence: Rwandaness (Being Rwandan): Everything
is as if, in the beginning, the Rwandans, finding themselves in each
other’s presence and discovering that they were different, had felt the
need to be the same in some way. They were (kuba), that was obvious;
and they were there, and at that time (kubaho); all that remained was to
organize their coexistence (kubana).
The best way they found to be somehow the same was to invent (in the
sense of discovery, invention) the myth of Gihanga: Gihanga was the man
of creativity (guhanga) and accomplished knowledge (ubuhanga), whose
son Kanyarwanda begat Gatwa, Gahutu and Gatutsi. Thus did Kanyarwanda,
son of Gihanga, combine the three sons to a new common identity:
Rwandaness. Myth or history? That is of small consequence.
On this cornerstone of Rwandaness, the three brothers became one
(Rwandans), built a country together, initially with set boundaries, even
if they were expandable, a nation, with a common home, a common
language, a common culture, etc.; in short, Rwanda.
The Failure of Equality: Throughout Rwanda’s history, the myth of equality
between brothers experienced many difficulties in embedding itself
in the concrete facts of everyday life, it even experienced failure. We
will first see the origins of the failure of the idea of equality and then the
journey from the idea of difference to the idea of extermination.
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