4th July: Rwanda Liberation Day

Today is Rwanda Liberation Day. And there's much more to it than genocide. Here are some facts about the place you may not know:

1. The capital of Rwanda is Kigali, situated near the geographic centre of the country.
2. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
3. It's a very environmentally friendly place. Plastic bags have been banned completely since 2007, when Rwanda became the first country in the world to do this. The ban is so total that if a visitor lands at the airport with a plastic bag it will be confiscated. Not only that, but on the last Saturday in every month, every Rwandan takes part in a day of community service, which could involve anything from building a new school, rehabilitating wetlands to create highly productive agricultural plots, or cleaning their villages, towns and even cities. Hence Kigali one of the cleanest cities in Africa. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. Even the President takes part.
4. Rwandans are drawn from one cultural and linguistic group, the Banyarwanda, which has three subgroups: The Twa are a forest-dwelling pygmy people descended from Rwanda's earliest inhabitants. The others are the Hutu and Tutsi; some believe the two groups derived from former social castes within a single people, while others believe the Hutu and Tutsi arrived in the country separately from different locations.
5. In 1994, Rwanda hit the world stage for all the wrong reasons. There had, for a long time, been tensions between the three groups, the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. This may have been due, in part, to a very high population density (445 inhabitants per square kilometre/1,150/sq mi or over 11 million people living in an area about the size of the US State of Vermont). However, the flashpoint for the genocide was the assassination of the President, Juvénal Habyarimana, when his plane was shot down in April of that year. Somewhere between 800,000 and 1 million Rwandans, or 10% of the population, were massacred in the resulting violence. There is now a museum in Kigali commemorating these events.
6. 64% of Rwanda’s members of parliament are women, making it the country with the most female MPs in the world, and one of only two countries with a female majority in Parliament.
7. Mount Karisimbi is Rwanda's highest point, at 4,507 metres (14,787 ft). The whole country is at a high altitude. The lowest point is the Rusizi River at 950 metres (3,117 ft) above sea level. Rwanda has earned the nickname ‘Land of a Thousand Hills’ due to its mountainous terrain.
8. Rwanda is one of only two countries in which mountain gorillas can be visited safely, and tourists are prepared to pay high prices for gorilla tracking permits.
9. The Flag has four colours: blue, Green, and two shades of Yellow (standard yellow for the middle band and what the Pantone system calls "sun yellow" for the sun). The blue band represents happiness and peace, the yellow band, economic development; and the green band the hope of prosperity. The sun represents enlightenment. Rwanda's previous flag was a red-yellow-green tricolour with a large black letter "R" (to distinguish it from the otherwise identical Flag of Guinea).
10. Rwanda has a unique art form called Imigongo, which is traditionally made by women putting cow dung onto wooden boards in spiral and geometric designs. The dung is left to harden and then decorated using the traditional colours of Black, white, red, Grey and beige-yellow. During the 1994 Genocide the skills involved almost disappeared. However, a women's cooperative in the Eastern Province rescued and revived this unusual art form.