mchambawima1
JF-Expert Member
- Oct 16, 2014
- 2,487
- 738
By Jenerali Ulimwengu
Posted Saturday, December 26 2015 at 19:59
IN SUMMARY
- Nkurunziza’s intransigence should not be allowed to encourage other mavericks on the continent and in our region who may think that it is their sovereign right to kill their own people. There should be a threshold beyond which international and regional action becomes mandatory.
I doubt there is a place on earth where people’s names praise God as much as they do in Rwanda and Burundi.
All the Kinyarwanda and Kirundi names ending with “imana” are talking about God. These are names such as “It-is-God-who-creates”, or “ I-trust-in-God”, or “It-is-God-who-saves,” or even, “What-I-have-more-than you is-God.”
Then you have names that do not mention “imana” directly but allude to him, such as “It-is-to-Him-that-I-pray” or “I-pray-to-He-that-listens” or “I-belong-to-Him-only.”
Even Latin Americans, who were introduced to Catholicism by the Spanish conquistadores back in the 1400s, do not have so much God in their names.
And yet, for all that religiosity in naming their children, these countries have also demonstrated that they can be as God-forsaken as very few other countries have been and that they can do horrific things to each other that suggest that these are mere names whose owners have absolutely nothing to do with what their names suggest.
The genocide in Rwanda in 1994 succeeded in its evil enterprise partly because politicians with “God” in their names planned Armageddon, and executed it with the complicity of “men of God” who lured the victims to houses of prayer ostensibly for their safety, only for them to be massacred right at the altar.
In these cases, which were alas not isolated, the priest became his flock’s wolf. We are continuing to see the uselessness of names in the region as that very unlucky country called Burundi descends into chaos as its head of state watches with surprising nonchalance.
His name is Pierre, French for Peter, the Rock on which Jesus said he would build his Church. His last name, Nkurunziza, is “Good News” or “Joyful Tidings,” which would be just spot-on for this time of year as the world celebrates Christmas, the birthday of the baby boy who was born in a manger in Bethlehem and was named “God-With-Us” (Emmanuel).
But the people of Burundi will be marking this birthday in fear and mourning because politicians with God in their names have quite callously mismanaged their country, to the point where it is threatening to unravel.
Even talk of a possible genocide is on some people’s lips, and given what we know from the recent past, there is reason to worry. But what can the international community, especially the East African Community and the African Union, do to help this sad country pull back from the brink if its own head of state seems to think there is no problem?
Right now he apparently believes everyone else except himself is responsible for the killings and destruction. His refusal to allow an AU peacekeeping force, which he says would be an “invasion,” leaves all of us in a dilemma.
We have already seen what can happen when there is international paralysis in the face of approaching doom. For example, if the world had woken up to the dark realities of Rwanda sometime in April of 1994, who knows how many lives could have been saved?
Issues will of course arise here as to whether the AU and the EAC should just bite the bullet, call Nkurunziza’s bluff — if that is what it is — and send in a force to stabilise the situation and set up an interim administration made up of Burundian patriots to chaperon the country out of its current mess.
If Nkurunziza decided to play hardball with the AU and EAC, a lot of blood could flow, but what is likely to be the price of dillydallying?
As I look at, it is a case of damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Blood is already being shed, and if urgent action is not taken, more is likely to be spilt — and we all will be to blame.
Nkurunziza’s intransigence should not be allowed to encourage other mavericks on the continent and in our region who may think that it is their sovereign right to kill their own people. There should be a threshold beyond which international and regional action becomes mandatory.
Jenerali Ulimwengu is chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema newspaper and an advocate of the High Court in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: ulimwengu@jenerali.com
