# The Death and Life of Kigali, Rwanda



## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*The death and life of Kigali, Rwanda *
Decimated by the 1994 genocide, the capital of one of the poorest nations on earth is surprisingly, miraculously on the rise again
August 26, 2007
Debra Black
Toronto Star Staff Reporter










Kigali, Rwanda–What is the nature of a city? It's a question that has dominated the political and urban landscape since Jane Jacobs wrote her influential The Death and Life of Great American Cities. In her eyes a great city is dense, vibrant, spontaneous and full of mixed-use neighbourhoods. Many cities around the world aspire to that vision.

But sometimes almost by happenstance that kind of vibrancy, density and spontaneity just magically explodes without much planning or forethought. Kigali – the capital of Rwanda – may be just such a city. After being decimated by the genocide 13 years ago it now seems to be exploding out of the ashes like a phoenix in the African heartland.

Cut into the hills of the country, Kigali is set in a lush landscape. It is like a giant maze wrapped around a series of hills. The streets–some paved, some just red dusty earth – go round and round the hills like a carousel, encircling the valley below. From the crack of dawn until dusk the city is alive – full of people, rich and poor, going about their daily lives.

Celebrating its 100th birthday this October, the city traces its roots to 1907 when German explorer Richard Kandt, who came to Rwanda in search of the source of the Nile, became resident governor of Rwanda.

He built the first Western-style home in Kigali. From 1916 until 1962 the city and the country fell under Belgian control. At the time of independence Kigali was made the capital city, but according to Rwandan oral tradition many of its ancient kings held court on the same hills.

Kigali was decimated during the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 to one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. The massacre capped decades of animosity and hate campaigns against the Tutsis. About 250,000 victims are buried at Gisozi, a Kigali memorial where an eternal flame burns in their memory.

Kigali was hard hit by the genocide. The heart of the city and its infrastructure were destroyed. Buildings were left gutted and bullet-ridden; homes and stores were stripped of belongings and property. Decomposing bodies were everywhere.

Today, this burgeoning African city of about 850,000 thrives with the hustle and bustle of Rwandans who are not only rebuilding their city but their country. Construction cranes dot the skyline. Downtown and in the suburbs apartments, hotels and plazas are being built. In the new chic suburb of Nyarutarama, sprawling single-family homes are springing up. Compounds for non-governmental agencies such as World Vision, Doctors without Borders and Plan International line the dusty streets of other enclaves.

Scaffolding covers Rwanda's parliament, which was damaged by bullets and grenades during the genocide. It's slowly being repaired. New hotels like the Stipp, in the suburb of Kiyovu, have opened to accommodate the growing eco-tourism industry. The city takes pride in its appearance. Hundreds of people tend the public lawns and gardens, watering the flowers and pulling weeds by hand and cutting the grass using machetes. There are wealthy, well-appointed neighbourhoods – home to many Westerners, NGOs, government officials and a growing middle class.

Their homes are often protected by barbed wire and fences topped by embedded glass shards, but there are also luxurious gardens full of bougainvillea and roses.

In the chaotic early morning, cars ebb and flow in an endless parade, making way for each other around traffic roundabouts. People drive with a reckless abandon at breakneck speed. There appear to be no rules of the road. Atraco Co. minibuses, with their ticket-takers dressed in yellow, zip around the city, providing quick transportation. But buses stop running at around 7:00 p.m.

Brave residents hop onto motorcycle taxis. Holding on to the driver for dear life, you speed your way through the downtown, missing pedestrians by a hair.

Every morning the city wakes to the sound of three things: the call to prayer from a mosque in Nyamirambo – the city's oldest district – the sound of roosters and the rumble of traffic.

A majestic procession of people take to the city's streets as they make their way to work or market. Some wear Western garb. Others are in traditional dress of brightly coloured batik material made from African cotton. Some carry bananas or other fruit in a basket on their heads, or have a young child or baby strapped to their back with a swatch of colourful material. Their posture is absolutely pin-straight. Many shade themselves from the hot African sun with umbrellas.

School children in bright blue shirts and shorts carry their satchels on their backs as they head for the classroom. Forty-two per cent of Rwanda's population is younger than 15 years old.

Kigali is a mix of old and new. At the city core is the modern Union Trade Centre which houses Bourbon – Rwanda's version of Starbucks where both locals and tourists go to hang out, sip Rwandan coffee and use wireless Internet if they're lucky enough to have a laptop with them. Nearby is the City Market – a kind of African Wal-Mart, selling products from fruit to exercise bikes.

Like most places in the world Kigali has its share of beggars. Young children ask tourists for money constantly, reciting in French: "Manger, manger." Downtown in front of a local African art store a few beggars wait to demand money from tourists. A fight briefly erupts between a beggar and a local woman over a headscarf. The beggar wants it, as does its owner. A tug of war ensues. After a few minutes the proprietor of the art store intervenes and shoos the beggar away.

Not far from her store in an alley is a tailor who sews made to measure clothes. There is no sign, no street address. But the tailor has a steady, growing clientele in Kigali. His salon is hardly bigger than a closet. He has two sewing machines, a table for cutting the cloth and a small change room behind a curtain beside stacks of leftover material.

Nearby is a commercial building full of vendors who sell nothing but fabric from all over Africa – brilliant orange, yellow, lime green, red, blue batik and printed cotton with wild patterns of animals and birds. A cascading rainbow of colours envelops buyers as they choose material.

There are no real street addresses in Kigali. People get around much like they do on the Canadian prairies, giving directions by mentioning landmarks.

But downtown some of the streets – many of which are just dusty red dirt roads – have names such as Boulevard de la Revolution, Avenue de la Justice and Avenue de la Paix (One of Rwanda's official languages is French, a legacy of Belgian control).

Hand-painted signs for a product called Sleeping Baby, Colgate toothpaste, or Fanta soft drinks are prominent on the city's landscape. Signs for "beauty saloons" advertise services from braiding to styling.

On one dusty downtown street a man balances about a half dozen foam mattresses on his head.

Across the street from the Union Trade Centre "Joe Cool Prêt a Porter" is open for business, luring locals and foreigners with the latest Western fashions.

Occasionally a man or woman asks a tourist to snap their picture. They smile when they look at themselves in the digital screen and then continue on their way. But most residents prefer not to have their picture taken.

The famous Hotel des Milles Collines sits majestically on a hill, overlooking the entire city. It is here where some Rwandans took refuge during the genocide. This hotel has become known around the world as `Hotel Rwanda,' thanks to the Hollywood movie. The chic hostelry with brocade sofas, lush tropical flower arrangements and beautiful gardens was one of the few safe havens for frightened Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the spring of 1994.

The hotel is not far from President Paul Kagame's home. Kagame is venerated in many, but not all, circles here. As one taxi driver put it: "I love the President. He stopped the genocide." Now this taxi driver's son can study anything he wants without facing discrimination. For him this is simply a miracle since when he was young boy he was forced to leave school because he was a Tutsi.

Life in Kigali swirls about, changing, evolving. Rwanda is one of the poorest African nations with the average salary at about $230 U.S. a year. Life expectancy is about 44 years for men and 47 for women. Estimates vary but there are between 200,000 and 600,000 orphans in the country; many of whom saw their parents killed in the genocide or watched them succumb to HIV/AIDS. Life can be tough.

In Nyamirambo, one of the poorest districts of Kigali, many young children carry water from a nearby well to their homes made of little more than mud. In Kimasagara at the "Centre des Jeunes" young kids – off for a short school break with nowhere in particular to go – play basketball and soccer to keep busy. Some women squat on the dusty road, selling fruit and vegetables. Not far away is the orphanage known as Chez Gisimba (formal name Centre Memorial de Gisimba) housing youngsters left parentless after the genocide or because of HIV. Here at night women cook what little there is for dinner on the street over an open fire. In Matimba – an area in Nyamirambo – teenage girls, and some younger, hang out at night, prostituting themselves to get money for food.

Across town in the "Village of Hope" in Nyarutarama on the outskirts of Kigali, a group of widows, some of whom have HIV after being raped in the genocide, have chosen another way to combat poverty. They work together sewing, making rugs, beading, making toys to sell to tourists. Often they come together to spend an afternoon singing and dancing. Their arms and hips undulate to the beat of an African drum. They look like eagles in the sky, arms like wings. They sing a traditional Rwandan song as they dance, lost for just a moment in paradise; in the sheer joy of the music and the movement.

Their dance is regal – a prayer to the fact they and their city have survived. Their voices are raised in unison, their bodies moving as one. They are part of the moving, breathing, frenetic fabric of Kigali.


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

New hood in Kigali;










Commercial road in Kigali;










Kigali hood










Union Trade Center, Kigali










Another hood in Eastern Kigali


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## superchan7 (Jan 21, 2004)

Good to hear of this. But the age distribution is hard to imagine! 42% under 15 years old??


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## Xemita (Jul 3, 2007)

After that war, a lot of adult people died hno:


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## ichabodius (Jan 11, 2006)

Actually it is because it has one of the highest birth rates in the world.


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## Xemita (Jul 3, 2007)

So that's why they are growing so so fast.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

I was watched *Hotel Rwanda* and saw Kigali through the pictures. Its good to hear that the city is one the rise and the genocide is over. The genocide dealt a great blow to the Rwandan economy.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

2 countries were hard hit by the genocide - Rwanda and Burundi. I'll try to look for an update on Burundi.


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## fcarvall (Nov 6, 2004)

nice


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## gladisimo (Dec 11, 2006)

I can't live there with the knowledge of the bloodbath that took place. Especially since I'm somewhat superstitious.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

gladisimo said:


> I can't live there with the knowledge of the bloodbath that took place. Especially since I'm somewhat superstitious.


The bloodbath were between two tribes, Hutu and Tutsi. There was UN intervention but it failed to stop the genocide. On other parts there were reports that The UN only protected foreign citizens living in Rwanda.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

The question among the international community is whether the response was lukewarm at best and would it have been different had it happened in, say, Europe?


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

Genocide has occurred on the Balkans too, in the 1990's. The Dutch UN batallion wasn't able to secure Muslim refugees, so Serbians slaughtered the muslims. 8.000 people had been massacred. But not on a scale like in Burundi and Rwanda, where 500.000 to 1.000.000 were murdered within 100 days. That's 10.000 dead each day.


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## DanielFigFoz (Mar 10, 2007)

Good to hear.


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