Liberation in a Journey

I discovered this poem today:

“Liberation is a Journey” by Uwayo B. Edouard


Liberation is a journey

Rwandese of Rwanda and Rwandese outside of Rwanda

All who speak Kinyarwanda

We descend from a common culture

Come, we’ll sit here in Rwanda

Immersed by the culture of Rwanda



Let’s remember how liberation came

Unleashing heavy burdens in my youth

When I was young and just a child I played in mud and heard of hate

Rwanda readied children for war

Children chosen and armed against enemies



I heard that Tutsis were roaches and should be stomped

With tails like snakes, they should be killed



We were given bows and spears

And foreign countries gave us guns



Really

Darkness came to Rwanda , Machetes in place of peace

I saw people killed

Muslims and Christians worked together

Joined by machetes and their will to kill



And our Rwanda burned

Rivers flowed with bodies and corpses covered fields

Rwanda’s youth led the battle,

don’t you know that this is injustice?



That our Rwanda, its beautiful rivers and pools

Its beautiful fields with roads and no famine

Became a cemetery and a shame

Don’t you know that this is injustice?



And the RPF ARMY I was taught to hate

Decided that it was time to defend Rwanda

Should Rwandese die?

Should there be widows?

Should the dead be shamed?

They said, “No”



War began in Kinigi, in the heat

Everyone was involved so understand, my children

It wasn’t about guns or weapons

It was about a fight for truth

I will thank them wherever I am

Their heroics will be known worldwide

From Darfur in Sudan

To the Comoro Islands, they will be admired

And I’ll see them the way the Pope sees his church



But now that they have conquered, I ask of them

Free us from poverty and illiteracy since liberation is a journey

I’ll start with the family, the foundation

I condemn the many men who don’t allow their wives to have a voice

They hit them and think they’re mindless

Who gains from this?



Man of Mustache and small mind,

Hairy chested and without pity

You burden your wife to stay in the house

You are killing our vision of being a strong nation



And the children I see working so hard everywhere

Picking tea and coffee but they can’t even afford soap

What a shameful image of Rwanda

Give the child what he needs and he can become a king

His parents will live in peace and his family will be safe

Young girls miss school and are given a broom

And they dig in the valley because education is only for their brothers

A wife works all day and her husband hits her

And who will save her?



Where will liberation be?



And men work hard, sweat pours down

But he makes no money and it’s never enough

Don’t you see that this is injustice?
Let liberation come and let liberation be a journey

Away from prostitution

And towards wisdom and to new projects done with fervor

The rich one can prepare a gift to give to the poorest one

And how poor is he?



A house of wheat and a bed of wheat and he eats just wheat

And then he’s thrown out like wheat



Really

Our beautiful Rwanda with beautiful rivers

Beautiful pools and fields with roads and no famine

Tell me

Will it remain a cemetery without peace?

Don’t you see that this is injustice?



Let me speak further

What happens in the village genocide courts?

Let justice liberate

Let truth replace lies in Rwanda

Sitting together on the grass without division or hate

Without lying to each other

As we live in peace and the guilty seek forgiveness



Our Future is already failing

Unless we begin out journey well, helping widows and orphans

And food for the man in ruins with nothing

What is left is to share everything

As we battle against hate

I wish you all the best



And so I close here

I, a poet will speak again

Peace to you in Rwanda, peace everywhere."