Sifting through ethnicity proves challenging as country grapples with illegal immigrants from Rwanda. Christopher Rubamba Matata is 63 years old. He was born in Karagwe, Tanzania, although he is of Rwandan ancestry. Matata considers himself fifth generation Tanzanian and cannot even speak proper Kinyarwanda. His grandfather, his great grandfather and his great, great grandfather were all born in Tanzania. While many Tanzanians of Rwanda ancestry have retained their language and culture, Matata is completely removed from both - his only relationship with Rwanda is his tall and trim features stereotypically associated with the Tutsi.
"All my life I have lived in Tanzania," he told me when I visited the Rwandan border town of Kiyanzi in Kirehe district where there is a transit camp for thousands of Banyarwanda refugees that the Tanzanian government has expelled as illegal immigrants. All my family and friends live in Tanzania. I don't know anyone in Rwanda - I have no friend or relative in this country. I have never even visited this country. I have only come here as a refugee."
Matata says he has a wife and seven children back in Tanzania whom he has been forced to leave behind. He says government officials found him at a trading center sharing a moment with his friends and asked him to leave immediately for Rwanda. He says he was not even given a chance to go home and say farewell to his family or choose to move with them. Neither was he allowed to pick any of his personal belongings. However, his eldest son was also kicked out of Tanzania and came with his wife.
"The only reason they kicked me out is because of my physical looks," Matata tells me, "They said I look like a Munyarwanda, that was all the crime I committed. But this [Rwanda] is not my country. If I have to stay here, I want to do so as a Tanzanian. I was not a Rwandan resident in Tanzania. I am a Tanzanian now resident in Rwanda. I cannot accept government to take away my citizenship and give me another based on my ancestry."
I went to Kiyanzi to see first-hand the plight of the "Rwandans" being kicked out of Tanzania by the government on allegations that they are illegal migrants. After a day of interviews with many of them, I realised that while the government of President Jakaya Kikwete may genuinely have sought to expel illegal migrants on its territory, the actual policy implementation is as arbitrary as it gets.
There were many Rwandan immigrants in Tanzania who had not registered to become legal residents. Therefore, it is true that many of the people kicked out of Tanzania are actually illegal migrants (in the sense that they had not acquired the requisite residency papers). Yet from the interviews I did with many refugees, the vast majority of them are actually citizens of Tanzania being victimised by central and local authorities for being of Rwandan ancestry.
Matata's experience is shared by many refugees forced to leave their homes, families, and property on allegations of being illegal migrants. Take the example of Vena Kamihanda, a 50-year old born in Rwanda, who migrated to Tanzania in 1984. She got married to a Tanzanian man with whom they begot four children. She was kicked out and left her entire family behind. She says she had a residence permit and voting card both of which were confiscated when she was crossing the border, a sign that policy implementation has more than what the policy says.
The tendency of the local authorities in Tanzania has been to mistake the order to expel "illegal migrants" out of the country for an order to expel many people of Rwandan ancestry. Indeed, local officials appear to have interpreted and implemented it as an order to get rid of all people who speak Kinyarwanda. As a result, the exercise is less discriminating between illegal migrants and genuine citizens and residents. Indeed, many refugees think that the call to expel illegal migrants is a disguised form of a war against people who share Kinyarwanda culture.
Vedasti Nkurunziza, 33, migrated to Tanzania in 2004. He married a Tanzanian and now they have two children together and a pregnancy. They are expecting a child in September. However, he was forced to leave his family. He registered for citizenship because he was eligible as a migrant married to a Tanzanian. But he was kicked out before he could get his papers approved or rejected. Therefore, although he did not have residence papers at the time he was expelled, he was on track to get his citizenship as the law states.
"These do not seem to be mere mistakes by overzealous local officials," a civil society organiser at the camp told me preferring to remain anonymous, "The whole campaign against illegal migrants is a disguised xenophobia against Banyarwanda. Local officials have been spewing anti-Banyarwanda propaganda, which the government of Tanzania seems to have bought line, hook and sinker."
The process of expulsion has not been without violence. All too often, those being expelled are subjected to beatings. Gaudencia Nkarugwiza, 58, was born in Tanzania and married a Tanzanian. Together, they bore eight children. However, all her children and her husband remained behind as she was expelled. When being chased, she claims the soldiers beat her and she showed me bruises on her body. But she does not know anything about Rwanda. She knows no one in Rwanda, has no relatives or even friends. Her entire being and life is in Tanzania and she cannot understand why she is being forced to go to a country she does not know.
Grabbing property
The structure of incentives favours local officials declaring anyone of Kinyarwanda culture an illegal immigrant. This is because when people are being kicked out, many are forced to leave their land, houses, cows and other property behind. The local officials, the refugees told me, take the property.
The civil society activist said Tanzanian local officials supported by their superiors in Dar Es Salam accuse Banyarwanda of causing insecurity, of instigating land conflicts in local communities, and of being behind a spate of armed robberies. Pro-government activists in Dar es Salam have been active on social media accusing "Rwandese" immigrants of similar crimes against the people of Tanzania.
"But how can one ethnic group be accused of all these crimes," the activist asked, "It is clear that they want to expel Rwandans in order to confiscate their property and share it among themselves. The local officials become rich while officials in Dar Es Salam are rewarded with political support for giving their voters free assets."
Agnes Nyirantegeyimana, 60, was born in Karagwe, Tanzania. Her parents were also born in Tanga, Tanzania. So she is a third generation Tanzania. She was married and is now widowed with eight children. However, three of her children were expelled with her while the other five remained behind in Tanzania. She does not know where they are. She told me that she was chased away and she left behind all her property and came to Rwanda with nothing. Like many Tanzanians of Kinyarwanda culture, she does not have friends and family in Rwanda.
"I cannot go back to Tanzania even if they allow me to," she said as tears rolled down her face, "Tanzania is the only country I have known since I was born yet they treated me badly. Rwanda is not my country but so far they have treated me with decency. These are proper human beings. Although I left all my friends and relatives in Tanzania, I don't want to go back to that country."
Shaming Nyerere's legacy Stranded
By 1961, many Rwandans of Tutsi ethnicity had run away from their country and had taken refugee in Uganda, Burundi, Congo and Tanzania. But Tanzania's (then called Tanganyika) founding president, Julius Nyerere, felt that Africans in Africa should not be refugees. Therefore, the 1961 blanket citizenship on the eve of independence was understood as aimed at helping Tutsi refugees in the country feel at home.
Thus, Serestin Ben, 26, born in Ngara is a second generation Tanzanian. His parents migrated to Tanzania in 1959. The father died in 1992. The mother then got married to another man who is a Tanzanian-Rwandan. When Kikwete issued his expulsion order, he says, Tanzanian officials came to his home saying "you resemble Banyarwanda."
"That is the only reason they used to ask me to leave the country of my birth and citizenship," Ben told me, "They said even if only one of your parents was Rwandan, you have to go back to your country. But Rwanda is not my country. They told us that we have 14 days to leave if not they would take stern action. I am told the order to expel us was issued by President Kikwete. I was also told that President Kikwete has problems with President [Paul] Kagame. But for us we are ordinary people and are not part of this quarrel. If Kikwete wants to punish Kagame, he can do it directly rather than punish us."
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Kikwete have had a frosty relationship since Kikwete proposed that Kagame talks peace to the Congo-based Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) militia that Kigali holds responsible for the 1994 genocide in which a million Tutsi died. The recent expulsions appear to be an extension of the rift. Unfortunately, the expulsion of the people who; whether they are considered Rwandans or Tanzanians are East Africans, is a major blow to the spirit of East African Community. The regional block is designed to allow East African to live and work anywhere in the region without encumbrances.
Tanzania's move is a tragedy because it is hurting ordinary people. Ben showed me a wound by an arrow. "These people have developed a phobia for Kinyarwanda speaking persons. Ordinary Tanzanian citizens were confiscating our property and cows," he said. Emmanuel Mugisha, 51, was born in Burundi and went to Tanzania in 1972 to join his auntie there. In 1987 he got citizenship. But then soldiers and local defense confiscated the papers and then claimed that he was not Tanzanian. He has a wife and three children. Two of the children are married and they all live in Tanzania. This means there are many other Tanzanians of Kinyarwanda culture who have not been expelled; at least not yet. But many families have been separated.
Fred Rwabuduguri, 39, married with three children was a preacher born in Karagwe. He says his parents migrated from Rwanda in 1959. Although he has a birth certificate, he did not apply to be a citizen. Even his parents did not apply for citizenship. They always assumed that the 1961 blanket citizenship was enough. But when local Tanzanian communities began a campaign against Banyarwanda, he and his entire family applied for citizenship and it was denied without reason. Meanwhile, his father returned to Rwanda in 2006 but Rwabuduguri stayed behind.
"I am not happy to leave my home," he told me, "I left all my friends and property - cows, land a house in Tanzania, the only country I have and know in all my life. I don't know Rwanda. [Idi] Amin gave Indians 90 days to leave Uganda; we Banyarwanda in Tanzania were given only 14 days to leave. Like Idi Amin's expulsion, we Banyarwanda leaving Tanzania are stripped of our property."
Fred Samuel Rurangwa, 27, is still single and was born in Karagwe. His parents migrated to Tanzania from Rwanda.
He says that President Kikwete came to Karagwe and said every Rwandan has to leave within 14 days. His parents left to where he does not know. Then local defense units came and chased him away after the 14 days expired. He was a cattle keeper and left all his 50 cows behind. He had land, which they left behind. He has been turned destitute now.
In Kigali, local officials are confused about what to do with these refugees. Should Rwanda grant them citizenship because they share its language and culture? There are many Kinyarwanda speaking communities in Uganda and DR Congo who are there by the arbitrariness of colonial borders, by decades of migration and by naturalisation or marriage. If every country decided to expel such persons, what would Rwanda's response be?
allAfrica.com: East Africa: Tanzania's Unusual Immigration Case