Notes from the Field

Inis Jane Bardella, MD, FAAFP, is an Associate Director of the Center for Global Health at the University of Colorado Denver. She is currently living in Rwanda as the CGH family medicine faculty working on our USAID contract with NUR. During her time in Rwanda she has agreed to send monthly updates of her progress and experiences. The following is a description of her experiences and work in Rwanda in her own words.

RWANDA
Description

In 1959, three years before independence from Belgium, the majority ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king. Over the next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed, and some 150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries.

The children of these exiles later formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and began a civil war in 1990. The war, along with several political and economic upheavals, exacerbated ethnic tensions, culminating in April 1994 in the genocide of roughly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu regime and ended the killing in July 1994, but approximately 2 million Hutu refugees - many fearing Tutsi retribution - fled to neighboring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and the former Zaire. Since then, most of the refugees have returned to Rwanda, but several thousand remain in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo and formed an extremist insurgency bent on retaking Rwanda, much as the RPF tried in 1990.

Despite substantial international assistance and political reforms - including Rwanda's first local elections in March 1999 and its first post-genocide presidential and legislative elections in August and September 2003 - the country continues to struggle to boost investment and agricultural output, and ethnic reconciliation is complicated by the real and perceived Tutsi political dominance. Kigali's increasing centralization and intolerance of dissent, the nagging Hutu extremist insurgency across the border, and Rwandan involvement in two wars in recent years in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to hinder Rwanda's efforts to escape its bloody legacy.

Facts and Figures

Official Name Republic of Rwanda

Capital City Kigali

Languages Kinyarwanda, French, local dialects

Official Currency Rwanda Franc

Religions Catholic, traditional beliefs

Population 8,648,248

Land Area 24,950 sq km (9,633 sq miles)

BOTSWANA
Description

The first known inhabitants of present day Botswana were nomadic foragers, Khoe San speakers, who lived, passed through and hunted here in small, egalitarian families for millennia prior to the arrival of the Tswana and Bantu people.

Prior to being organized as a British protectorate in 1885, Botswana (though not yet a nation) operated in a multicultural coexistence in which small scale trade between tribes flourished.

Population pressures and colonial rivalries prompted the formation of Bechuanaland which remained a poor and peripheral land until it achieved independence in 1966.

Today this pro-western country is one of the most progressive and successful on the African continent, with dramatically improved overall health care and educational systems.

Most of the country's population base congregates in the eastern savanna grasslands, along its borders with South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Botswana's economy is given a serious boost by being the world's third-largest producer of diamonds, and a large exporter of beef to Europe. In addition, it has a solid level of tourism, highlighted by a series of national parks, including the Chobe NP, and the Okavango Delta wildlife areas in the north.

Weaknesses include a continuing high birthrate and the insidious spread of AIDS.

Facts and Figures

Name Botswana

(long form) Republic of Botswana

Population 1,600,000

Capital City Gaborone (178,000)

Languages Setswana 78%, Kalanga 8%, and others

National Day September 30

Official Currency Pula (BWP)

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Religions Christian (75%), Badimo, and others