Rwanda

Rwanda:

Two weeks ago, I did a post on Malawi, a country along the great rift valley. This week, I looked two countries North of Malawi to Rwanda. Unlike Malawi, the country is relatively educated. School is free for all children, though many choose not to go due to costs of books and uniforms that are not included in the “free education.”

Movie:

What most people know about this country comes from the movie, “Hotel Rwanda”, which depicts the 1994 genocide of the Tutsis, but Hutus extremists. In this slaughter, over 500,000 people perished. To put this in perspective, this was about 20% of the population (Rwandan Genocide).

The movie itself follows a hotel manager who reluctantly showed bravery in a time of extreme adversity. Throughout the movie, we see cases of extreme violence perpetrated towards the Tutsis from the Hutus extremists. It shows how the U.S. and other foreign powers were hesitant to get involved, and how this factored into the punishing situation.

The movie creates the impression that the differences between Hutus and Tutsis was entirely created by Belgium colonists. It states that the colonists would check the height and skin color of the Rwandan’s, often resorting to measuring the width of their noises to determine whether or not a person was Hutu or Tutsi. However, the actually origin of the two social classes is not as clear as what the movie suggested. According to Wikipedia, no one knows how the distinction came about, though there are two theories. The first, is that they were two tribes, meaning that the distinction is actually one of race. The second is that difference is one of class, where different tribes slowly mixed and later split apart, distinguishing themselves by social class. Wikipedia does not mention the split being caused by European colonization.

Food:

According to Wikipedia, people here only eat meat a couple times per month. This is more often then what would be eaten in Malawi, but it is still fairly low. Telapia is eaten fairly often as a source of meat. Still I chose to eat an African dish that comprises of chicken. The dish is called Chicken Muamba. The dish itself actually comes from the Congo, one of Rwanda’s neighbors. I washed this down with Tuskas beer, which was imported from Kenya, which is not too far north east of Rwanda.

Here is how I made my Chicken Muamba:

Ingredients:

2 chicken thighs (Skin on/ bone in)

2 cups water

1 onion (sliced)

1/4 cup chunky peanut butter

1 tablespoon cooling oil ( I used grape seed oil)

4 tablespoons tomato paste

2 cloves minced garlic

½ tsp. black pepper

½ tsp. chili

1 tomato chopped

½ thyme

1 bay leaf.

Salt to taste:

Directions:

1.      Place all the ingredients in a crockpot except the oil and onions. Turn the crockpot on high.

2.      Sauté the onions in the oil until they turn slightly translucent. Add this to the crockpot.

3.      Let it stew in the crockpot for 6-9 hours (about the time you’re at work).

Work Cited:

George, Terry. “Hotel Rwanda”. Released: 2004.

“Rwanda” Wikipedia. Retrieved: January 31, 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwanda

“Rwandan Genocide” Wikipedia. Retrieved: January 31, 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide

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