One Village, Six People:

Living in Rwanda After the Genocide

Confidential Instructions for Bernadette

At today's meeting, you will be discussing three issues:

1. Who should own the land that your family has been farming?

2. Where should Frederic graze his cattle?

3. Who should decide the answers to these questions?

Joseph, the new governor, arranged for this meeting yesterday, when Frederic returned to the village and claimed that his family owns the land that your family has farmed since 1962. Frederic showed Joseph a land ownership document signed by the bougmestre (mayor) of Gisenyi in 1962, just before Frederic's family ran away from Gisenyi. When she heard about Frederic's claim, your neighbor Ancille told Joseph that she and her daughter Anne own the land. Ancille's daughter Anne married your son in 1993, but your son as well as your husband were murdered by the Hutu in 1994. Now Ancille says that Anne is the rightful owner of the land. She and Anne have already planted crops on part of the land.

As you think about today's meeting, you are frightened that you might lose your land. You have not planted any crops this season, because you are too weak, but you do not want to lose the right to farm your land in the future, when you are well again. You are also angry that your land might be given to Anne, a Hutu whose father raped you and helped murder your husband and your son (his own son-in-law!). It would be just as unfair to give the land to Frederic, a Tutsi whose family left Gisenyi many years ago and has only now returned. Frederic is already a rich man with many cattle, and his family did not suffer in the massacres. With all that he has, why must he also have your land?

If you lose your land, it may be the end for you and your daughter Constance. Until you became sick earlier this year, you were able to plant some crops on your land and feed yourself and Constance. Now you are only surviving with the help of some generous villagers and with government food aid. You cannot count on the villagers or the government to feed you for much longer. Many Hutus in the village hate you because you are a Tutsi. Most of the Tutsis in the village are ashamed of you because they believe that you let Hutu soldiers rape you. They cannot accept Constance as a Tutsi because her father is one of the Hutu soldiers who raped you. If Charles becomes the local bougmestre again, he may try to deny government food to you and other Tutsi villagers in Gisenyi.

You are also very angry that Charles might be allowed to decide who owns your land. As the bougmestre in 1994, Charles encouraged the Hutus in the village to murder their Tutsi neighbors. He also helped the Hutu interhamwe (militia) who came by airplane to hunt down and kill the local Tutsis. Charles then escaped to Zaire with many of the Hutus from Gisenyi. Now he has returned to Gisenyi, and he claims the right to govern as bougmestre again. You believe that Joseph, the new governor, may be more fair than Charles. Even though Joseph is a Hutu, you have heard from others that he is fair to the Tutsi. Still, you are not sure that Joseph can be trusted.

Last night you lay awake for many hours thinking about your problems, and about what to say at today's meeting. You have some arguments you want to make about why you should be able to keep your land. You also have some proposals you can make to other villagers about this issue. You are willing to let them use some of your land, or even take some of it if there is no other choice. You also have some ideas about who should make decisions about the land and about Frederic's cattle.

1. Who should own the land that your family has been farming?

Your first choice is to keep all of the land your family has farmed since 1962. You do not have a document to prove you own the land, but everyone in the village knows that the bougmestre gave the land to your husband's family after Frederic's family ran away from Gisenyi. Why should Frederic have any right to this land, which his family abandoned so many years ago?

Ancille claims that her daughter Anne owns the land, because she inherited it from your son. Your husband and your son both died on the same terrible night, murdered by Hutus. Ancille claims that when your husband died, your son inherited the land, as is the custom in Rwanda. Since your son wrote a will giving the land to Anne after his death, Ancille claims that Anne should have it now. This season, when you were too weak to plant your land, Ancille and Anne planted crops on it, with help from Perpetune's children. You asked them for a share of the crop at the time, but they refused.

Ancille's claim is crazy, or evil, or both. Your son never expected that he would die before you did. If he had lived, he would have made sure that you had a piece of land or at least a share of the crop for as long as you lived. He would never have agreed to give Anne your land if he had known that Anne and her mother Ancille would treat you so badly. Now you wonder whether Ancille and her husband had been plotting with the other Hutus in Gisenyi all along, and only arranged Anne's marriage to your son so that they could kill you and take your land.

Whatever happened in the past, your first concern now is to survive. If you can get the villagers to agree to give you full ownership, then Ancille and Anne must give you a share of the crop they have planted on your land after they harvest it.

Your second choice, if you cannot convince the villagers to give you full ownership of the land, is to give a portion of your land (no more than one-third) to Frederic. In exchange, you want him to give you at least five of his cattle, and a share of the crop he harvests from the land each season. If you give up more than a third of your land, you will not be able to grow enough food to feed yourself and Constance. If you cannot get Frederic to agree to both of these requests, then you want at least the cattle, and share of the crop for the next few years, until Constance is old enough to begin helping you plant and harvest your own fields.

Your third choice is to give a portion of your land (no more than one-third) to Ancille and Anne. You do not think it is fair that they get any of the land, but the other villagers may insist. If you must give them some of your land, then you will make the same request to Ancille and Anne that you would make to Frederic: they should give you a portion of the crop each season for the next few years, until Constance is old enough to begin helping you.

You cannot agree to give up more than one-third of your land, unless someone can give you equally good land in another part of the village, or some other way to support yourself and Constance.

2. Where should Frederic graze his cattle?

As far as Frederic's cattle are concerned, your first choice would be to offer Frederic the portion of your land that Ancille and Anne have not already planted crops on. In exchange, you want Frederic to give you at least two cattle. This arrangement would be very good for you and Constance, since you could milk the cattle now, use them to plow your fields, and sell them later if necessary. If Frederic is not willing to give you cattle, then he should at least give you milk from the cattle for as long as he is grazing them on your land.

If Frederic insists that this land is not enough for his herd, then you have another idea: Frederic should graze his cattle on Perpetune's land. Perpetune arrived back in Gisenyi from Zaire too late to plant crops this season, so her land is available for Frederic to graze on. Maybe Frederic would agree to give Perpetune some cattle in exchange for grazing on her land.

3. Who should decide?

Your first choice is that after all the villagers have had a chance to speak their minds and discuss the issues together, Joseph should decide. You talked with Joseph yesterday after Frederic returned, and he seemed sympathetic to you. He is also the highest government official in Gisenyi.

Your second choice would be for all of the villagers to decide together. You do not really want this to happen. You are worried that Ancille, Frederic and Perpetune all want your land. You doubt that they will be fair to you.

It is totally unacceptable for Charles to make the decision. Charles was a bad mayor, always unfair to the Tutsi in Gisenyi. At the time of the massacres, he became a cold-blooded murderer. You have heard terrible stories of the way he manipulated and stole from the Hutu who went with him to the refugee camps in Zaire. Now that he is back, he should be put in jail, tried for his crimes, and punished, maybe by death.

Though you feel very strongly that Charles should be punished, you are afraid to say so during the meeting. No matter what you want, Charles may still be able to reclaim his position as the bougmestre of Gisenyi. Unless it seems clear that Joseph has the power to put Charles in jail, you should be careful not to attack Charles directly. Charles is still a dangerous man, and he could threaten your life.

Summary of Your Goals

1. Land Ownership

Goals

Unacceptable

2. Cattle Grazing

Goals

3. Decision-Making

Goals