Angry at France and hungry for business, Rwanda turns to English

KIGALI, Rwanda -- In Bourbon Coffee, Kigali's hippest gathering spot, well-dressed young Rwandans lounge on the comfy couches, eat burgers and chat. They speak in Kinyarwanda, they speak in French, but more and more these days, when they call out to friends, when they order lunch, when they flirt -- they speak in English.It's all about English in Rwanda these days. Land at the airport, and the immigration staff say "Welcome to Kigali!" Grab a taxi, and the driver says, "Where to?" The road signs are in English, the government ministries that dot the hills around the capital are labeled in English, the beer billboards and cellphone ads and condom commercials are in English. One of the most popular newspapers in town and some of the most successful radio stations are English.That's all a little surprising, since Rwanda was colonized by French-speaking Belgians, is a long-standing member of the Francophonie -- the community of French-speaking nations -- and runs its schools in French.Or rather, it did until last week, when Kigali announced that, after the first few years in Kinyarwanda, students would be taught in English -- sealing the decision that English, not French, would be the language of the country's future.It's a bold move, perhaps the first time that a country ever switched languages --and all of the cultural and political associations that go with them -- overnight.The change had been brewing for a while, and it has its roots in Rwanda's tragic recent history. Around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered by Hutu extremists and their supporters in the 1994 genocide, which was ended after 100 days by a Tutsi-dominated rebel force led by Paul Kagame.He quickly took office as the new president, surrounding himself with advisers and ministers who like him, were Tutsis. Many of their families had fled previous episodes of ethnic-based slaughter to the neighboring countries of Uganda and Tanzania, and so grew up as English-speakers. They were profoundly angry with France, whose military had trained and armed the Hutu militia that carried out the genocide, also known as the Interahamwe.Just three months after the end of the genocide, they made English an official language -- even though very few people in Rwanda then spoke it. It joined Kinyarwanda, which remains the mother tongue of Rwandans of all classes, and French, introduced by the Belgians 90 years earlier.But hundreds of thousands of Tutsi refugees came home in the years that followed, and many took up new positions of influence in the public sector or business. French-speaking Rwandans began to learn English. Private English tutorial companies sprang up all over Kigali and the other major cities. Then the country's leading technical institute announced that English would be its primary language. Rwanda joined the East African Community -- a zone of political and trade co-operation that includes English-speaking Kenya and Uganda -- and applied to join the Commonwealth of Nations, which is comprised mostly of former British colonies.The decision about the country's schools is simply the latest, most decisive and formal step. "Look at the advantages of Rwanda being strong in English," said Yisa Claver, director of policy in the Education Ministry.Many tech-and-media-savvy young Rwandans had already decided that their future lies in English. "I grew up speaking French," said Jean-Pierre Niyitanga, 25, who manages a media training project. His parents still speak to him in Kinyarwanda. But these days, he goes by J.P. and when he chats at Bourbon Coffee, it's in English.Yet many people detect more than practical motives for the language shift. "I think it's politics," said Hajji Sadiq, a Kigali tax consultant in his 50s. Far more people speak English than French, and there would be no reason to make the abrupt official change if a larger point were not being made, he said.The French Cultural Center in Rwanda has been shuttered and abandoned -- like the French embassy -- since relations with the country were severed in 2006, amid competing allegations about France's role in the genocide and a move by France to indict Kagame for the murder of the previous president.Claver, of the Education Ministry, firmly denied that. "English is not the end result," Claver said. "It's an instrument to get better business."(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)