Introduction
As we always mention, Africa is truly underrated with tons of places to visit and numerous facts that leave you stunned every day! There are countries like Benin that has a witchcraft religion as its official religion, or Namibia, where people speak German, or even Cape Verde, where it’s sunny all-year-round! If you are interested to know more about this amazing continent, visit our Africa Category.
In this post, we’re going to talk about a country that went from one of the worst countries on earth to one of the third fastest growing economy in the world (as well as the fastest growing economy in Africa).
Let’s jump right in by the recent history first.
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Recent history of Rwanda
Rwanda became a Belgian colony for a few years until it gained its independence on 1 July 1962. Soon after that, the country drowned into hardships, civil was, and genocide but only a few years ago, people were like, “We need to change!” and in less than 15 years, the country transformed so rapidly that you cannot believe it was once something like what the history says!
They are civilized now and even have a cleaning day on Wednesday that’s mandatory for all citizens to gather and clean their neighborhood. It’s the main reason why Rwanda ranked as the cleanest country in Africa.
The country is not a democracy yet, but as they say, one step at a time!
People in Rwanda
Rwandans don’t like to categorize themselves by tribe and identify as Rwandan since the tribal differences were the roots of the country’s problems.
They have 4 official languages, English, French, Kinyarwanda, and Swahili. The fun fact about English is that when the civil war was going on, tons of people escaped to Uganda where the official language is English, and by the time they came back to Rwanda, all of them spoke English! It even helped them to join the commonwealth countries even though Rwanda has never been annexed by Britain!
What to do in Rwanda
Kigali, The capital of Rwanda
Rwanda’s capital is officially the cleanest city in Africa (and one of the cleanest in the world) you simply cannot find trash on the streets, since people are motivated to keep it that way, not forced! Most of them don’t even know what the penalty for littering is! Plus, the city’s skyline has become modern and thriving at night!
Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda
This memorial building is dedicated to the belongings of more than 250,000 people who were killed during Rwanda’s genocide. It’s there to remind people not to step back again! the country’s young generation is constantly being educated by this memorial.
Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda
This national park is home to 5 volcanic mountains and their beautiful surrounding. As a tourist, you can have a tour of the park, and get amazed by mountain gorilla, where you can visit gorillas safely as well as the golden monkeys that live in that area too.
After what I’ve heard about the Rwandan genocide, I’m glad the country is doing much better now.
Right! If you visit it there, the genocide is only a memory and a museum. They’re improving too fast, especially culture wise. They have a cleaning culture now that you probably won’t find a piece of garbage anywhere! I only found a half eaten apple (which I’m pretty sure belonged to one of the tourists who were having a walking tour ahead of us!)
Without doubt this is one of my favorite countries in the world. Have you been there? I had the pleasure of being there for almost a month in 2014!
Yeah, it is an amazing country. If I were to be African, I loved to be Rwandan! Lol!
The way they transformed their country reminds me of those satisfying videos on YouTube! Lol
Have you read Left To Tell by Immaculee? (Rwanda genocide survivor?) Agreed! I recall seeing Rwandans carrying furniture on their head, walking up hills and acting like they were carrying pillows..
It is SO beautiful that when Our Lady appeared there in 1984 to three school children in Kibeho She said She chose that land, because the people are humble, I love that!
I haven’t read that book. I’ll add it to my list.
True! That is quite interesting!
Thanks for the recommendation!