We started our day today with a lecture from Pierre Celestin Rwabukumba, an economist who works in the Rwandan Stock Exchange and the East African Securities and Exchange Commission. He lectured in two parts, the first being on Post-Genocide Economic Development and the second being on East African Regional Integration. He explained much of the current economic situation within Rwanda, discussing the evolving relationship between Rwanda and international investors, particularly the World Bank and the IMF. During his discussion of the modern push for East African Unity, many of us asked critical questions about the difficulty of implementing an East African governmental body.
After getting lunch on our own, we went to a discussion with the Rwandan Governance Board, a governmental organization that collects data on numerous variables. During our time in this country, we’ve learned that the Rwandan government puts a huge emphasis on numerical statistics. Many of us asked the woman representing the RGB tough questions about their attempts to measure very broad ideas such as “reconciliation” or “rule of law” with a single number. While the discussion certainly provided insight into their methods, some of us were left with questions about how the data is collected and used in an impartial manner.
To end our day, we spoke to Claver Irakoze, a genocide survivor who has just released a children’s book about recovering from a violent national history. He made the point to us that children need to understand the history and not be scared to talk about it. His personal testimony was very moving, with him discussing the long and arduous process of trying to find personal forgiveness for the perpetrators. We also learned about the place of artistic expression within the healing process, particularly through Claver’s methods of storytelling and music making.
In conclusion, today we heard a wide variety of perspectives. An economist told us his opinions on what is best for the Rwandan economy, the RGB told us what meaning their research holds, and a survivor allowed us a look at his trauma and his process of recovery.
