Part 1 & 2 of a 4-part series
Learning from Different Cultures
by Val Vickery
Part 1: I have visited Kigali, Rwanda several times. I have lived in Mississippi most of my life and 95% of that as an adult in Jackson. So why would I think I can tell stories connecting the two? Answer: only because of the friends I trust from Kigali who can help interpret my history and my experiences with theirs.
Notice the words, "friends", "help", and "history". My friend David took us to the Genocide Museum, telling the story of a 3 month blood bath in 1994 in their country. (Rwanda's Civil War). The headsets that were offered as we entered the museum were quickly discarded to be replaced by David's personal recollection. You see, David as a teen, lived through the horror and came out more determined than ever to become an educated man, making a difference in the world. That had happened so I trusted his narrative and toned down the internal emotional fires in me so I could learn, not hearing "blame of the European white man" that seemed at first to be their explanation for this horrible bloodbath.
Part 2: My stories here have a point. History is full of pain, different points of view, deep emotions and if willing, lessons to be learned. That was certainly true in Rwanda, and I believe it can be here in Jackson as well. As I have focused for almost 2 years now on how Jackson can heal from our long history of pain and blame, these memories of my African experiences have been helping me.
At first no one wants to relive a painful past but rather to try to temporarily put those memories aside and live as though the sins have been either atoned for, showing we as a people are healed or just carry on as two-faced people. We show one face to “ the ones we don’t trust and tell our true feelings to the ones on “ our side” . But that is narrow-minded thinking and seldom shows we have done the work necessary to truly heal.
So, in an effort to face reality, a Coalition of groups have begun to meet once a month for “ Happy Hour”. We hope the effort to make genuine friendships will lead to more trusting friendships where there is safety to open Pandora’s box. No longer can we afford to be two-faced.
Part 3 drops on December 15! - But first, read this next part.
An Important Story Interruption
BACKGROUND: I sent parts 1 and 2 of my Facebook J4J’s 4-part story to 5 trusted friends. So far, I have gotten feedback from only one person, but that feedback has resulted in this mid-stream interruption of my story.
Rwanda is an East African country. For economic reasons, it has changed from a country that did business in French to an English-speaking country. As an English-speaking visitor, I was most pleased. I went to Rwanda on a mission trip with an organization called African Scholarship Exchange. We were working to give post-high school education scholarships to deserving students. We went there hoping for English speakers, but if leaders didn’t speak English, we would find translators.
But that’s only an aside to why I am interrupting the flow of my story. You see, my friend who gave me feedback acted as a translator, explained to me that the history of The Rwandan Genocide drew worldwide attention in the 1990s and led to the writing of many subsequent books, memoirs, and historical recounts. That story, unfortunately, has been lost by the majority of even well-educated people in the world today. This story is not commonly known.
Oh my, see my naivety? The assumptions I made as I wrote about Rwanda were based only on my perspective. While I tried to put into context the similarities between the Rwandan people in the 1990s and the citizens of Jackson today, I left some holes in my story, and perhaps it wasn’t as clear as I had intended.
It is similar to Jacksonians admitting to one another that they have not only NOT visited The Civil Rights Museum but didn’t even know where it is located. To some of us, that would bring up negative emotions toward the person who revealed such a lack of knowledge (ignorance).
But such is our reality. Before this story is finished, I hope we can see how much alike we are all over the world and learn from the experiences on the other side of the world.
According to a paper written by the Holocaust and Genocide Studies in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota, "a Hutu Power ideology emerged, grounded in the Hamitic Hypothesis, in which Tutsi were recognized as foreigners to Rwanda, rather than an indigenous ethnic group. This racist ideology, initially propagated by Germany and later Belgium during colonization, argued Tutsis were inferior to the Hutu majority. This theory would be used to incite the genocide in 1994. In the months and weeks before the genocide began, Hutu radicals began compiling lists of potential Tutsi targets and moderate Hutus. In addition, the Hutu dominated government began stockpiling weapons, including machetes. These machetes and other rudimentary weapons would be the tools that carried out the genocide. On April 6, 1994, when the President’s plane was shot down, killing both the Rwandan and Burundian presidents, the radical Hutu radio channel announced the deaths, urging Hutus to “go to work” and attack the Tutsi population. The genocide had begun." Read more about it here
Because of these events and other false information and racism, a three-month bloodbath between neighbors, brothers, and sisters began. Please do not assume that as I point out commonalities between what happened in Rwanda and the attitudes we experience in Jackson, I am acting as an expert or even drawing exact comparisons. What I'm trying to do is point out that information and communication between all the citizen of Jackson is what we all have to work on. If we fail to lean on each other, listen to each other, and work together to make Jackson, it will be harder and harder to right the ship that is Jackson, MS.
All people throughout the world and in all generations have the same problems. How we communicate our issues is different and based on locale, generations, and circumstances. But those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
If we can listen to these stories and not get defensive, maybe we will be willing to examine our own problems and prevent Jacksonians from reaching “the tipping point.”
Our goal in Jacksonians4Jackson is to demand a better city. We demand it of ourselves as much as we do of our leaders.
With this interruption in the story, I hope you will now go back and reread parts 1 and 2. Keep talking to me so I can learn more and hopefully become a better storyteller.
I appreciate your patience. - Val Vickery
Stay tuned for parts 3 & 4 dropping December 15.