What global north media should learn from Rwanda visit by UK Royalty

The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, Charles and Camilla, respectively, attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM), in Rwanda.

The UK Royals represented Queen Elizabeth II of The United Kingdom, who is the head of the Commonwealth. On their second day in Rwanda, they visited the Kigali genocide memorial. At the memorial, they left a message: “We remember all the victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.  The Kigali memorial is the final resting place for more than 250,000 of the approximately 1 million victims of the genocide.”

The first lesson in the above statement from the British Royals, for the global north media, especially the UK media, and politicians, is the value of respect.

More than one million people were killed during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

 But the UK media and the rest of the global north prefer their own invented figures of 800,000 people. This is done purposely, ignoring that Rwandans are the ones who know better how many people died. 

On every village there are survivors who gave account of their beloved ones and neighbors who perished and that’s how the more than one million aggregate estimate was arrived at. For the UK media and much of the global north to say the contrary, it means that they lack respect for the Rwandan people. They take Rwandans as liars who are exaggerating the figures of genocide victims. This is an insult and disrespect to millions of Rwandans.

Secondly, His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, used the right terminology by recognizing that what happened in Rwanda, in 1994, was, “the genocide against the Tutsi,” and not ‘the Rwandan genocide’ as the UK media prefers to call it.

Despite the fact that the United Nations General Assembly designated 7^th April as the International day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, UK media and politicians decide to use some other vague naming as they deny and trivialise the genocide against the Tutsi.

The pretext of using the terminology of ‘the Rwandan genocide’ recognizes  the claim by genocide perpetrators and deniers who fight hard to “balance the equation” that even the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) which stopped the Genocide also killed the Hutu.  

‘The Rwandan genocide’ terminology therefore, creates ambiguity and obscures the truth.

Easily put, saying the ‘Rwandan genocide’ is another way of believing that there was double genocide in Rwanda, yet this has never been possible in any other part of the world.  Those who were targeted to be wiped out were the Tutsi, hence the right naming as the genocide against the Tutsi. The terminology of “the Rwandan genocide”, used by the UK media aids genocide deniers and revisionists to distort historical facts surrounding the genocide against the Tutsi. 

Prince Charles and Camilla also travelled out of Kigali, the Rwandan capital, to visit women survivors of the genocide against the Tutsi. They visited Ntarama genocide memorial as well as the reconciliation village in Mbyo, where genocide victims and perpetrators live together. The royals twitted: “… reconciliation villages, such as Mbyo, help to build the resilience needed for Rwanda to leave the past in history and for communities to live together.”

Again, the message by the royals, showed humility, empathy and love, unlike UK media  coverage that gives genocide deniers and perpetrators space to dance on the graves of genocide victims.

Most UK journalists write about Rwanda from the comfort of their newsrooms and out of touch with the reality. Most depend on hearsay by Rwandan critics. The royals travelled all the way on dusty roads to have a personal experience and listen to the real voices of victims. They could have stayed in the comfort of their hotel and asked someone to tell them the story about the reconciliation village. They did not. 

The infamous BBC documentary, “Rwanda the Untold Story,” produced by Jane Corbin, and several other stories that minimize the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, showed lack of a human heart and double standards by UK media houses which cannot dare  host people who deny the Holocaust, or host people with the  neo-Nazi ideology.  

Freedom of speech and expression claimed to be practiced by UK and the global north media should not be at the expense of losing humanness. The UK media keeps opening the wounds of millions of Rwandans’ hearts which are still bleeding, and the sensibilities of what happened to Rwandans cannot  be judged by others. Give them a chance to heal gradually.  

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson also visited the genocide memorial. He had this to say: “It has been utterly shocking to see these images and so many physical memorials of the appalling and inexplicable genocide against the Tutsi. I would like to thank my hosts here in Kigali for bringing it home to me, with such clarity and horror. We must do everything we can to ensure that human hearts never again are allowed to breed such hatred.”

UK politicians and the global north media can do much better.

Thank you to The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall. Thank you to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Thank you for showing your humility, respect and love to the Rwandan people.