I think I have already commented on how Rwanda has really established a culture of forgiveness. Many people contribute this to the relatively famous Gacaca Trials where instead of trying to traditionally deal with the countries prison problems after the genocide, the country made a bold move to release 40,000 people to local courts.
So as I was saying my goodbyes in Nyagatare, many students and teachers were coming up to me and apologizing. Even my best student apologized to me. I had a string of text messages from students apologizing and asking for forgiveness if they have done me wrong. I was finally able to pin someone down to tell me why everyone now is asking for just vague forgiveness. Apparently it goes back to tribal times that people believe that they should always leave someone on good terms and if you do not then you stand the chance of being “charmed”. This really brings up and interesting part of culture. I have heard murmurs of students or people from my community claiming to be witched or charmed but although I don’t think many people still believe in it, it affects their actions.
People seek forgiveness from all different people for nothing because just in case they could be cursed. I find this quite interesting that something has become culture that people don’t really believe in but do it anyway. But I guess that happens everywhere.
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