Rwanda Reborn
From the horrors of genocide, this tiny nation is emerging as a surprise success story in Africa. But can it truly overcome its past?
The other bright spot has been tourism and Rwanda's famous mountain gorillas. More than 12,000 tourists (including nearly 4,000 Americans) made the trek last year to see the endangered primates. But there is limited room for growth. The number of visits is sharply restricted for conservation purposes (only eight visitors per day for each of the seven gorilla families). Instead, Rwanda is trying to bill itself as a luxury destination to attract tourists willing to spend $200 a day for a weeklong stay. The government is working now to market its other attractions, including Africa's last high-altitude national forest.
And then there's the high-tech sector. For now, Rwanda has focused on getting the basic infrastructure in place, including miles of fiber-optic cable. By the end of June, Rwanda will have broadband wireless Internet access nationwide, thanks to Terracom, an American-led company. Christopher Lundh, an American who is the company's recently arrived CEO, says Rwanda is very different from other African countries. "The one thing I have not run into here, at all, is corruption." Yet Rwanda can still be a frustrating environment for companies, as well as aid groups, to operate in. While the national leadership is well stocked with experienced technocrats, local leaders are more of a mixed bag. "Are there enough capable managers in this country to make things happen?" asks Josh Ruxin, a health expert at Columbia University who runs a development project in eastern Rwanda. "That will remain one of the top challenges in this country for some time to come."
The landlocked country has also never had much of an industrial base, and it has not yet been able to persuade major foreign investors to plunge into the Rwandan market. In part because of its ugly past, Rwanda has no shortage of high-profile visitors, from Microsoft's Bill Gates to Google executives. But that has not yet translated into an economic vote of confidence. "You haven't really had a major investment in Rwanda," says Arietti, the U.S. ambassador, "and that's what you need—a demonstration that there is the possibility of a big commercial success here."
Unfortunately, any progress could easily be overwhelmed by Rwanda's runaway population growth. The traditionally Roman Catholic country has been slow to face up to the need to reduce its family size. "Rwanda won't get anywhere with a birthrate of 6.1 [children] per woman," says Christophe Tocco, the acting director for the USAID mission in Rwanda. President Kagame has started talking about the problem in public, but solutions have been slow.
Still, Rwanda does get high marks for its investment in the next generation. One of the largest and most modern buildings in the country is the new Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, which aims to enlarge Rwanda's nascent science and engineering community. About one quarter of Rwandans are currently enrolled in primary or secondary schools. Rwanda has signed up for a program that promises to deliver one $100 laptop computer per child in the next five years, while most secondary schools already have at least 10 computers and Internet connectivity. Murenzi, the science and technology minister, says the key for the future is to develop the skills for critical thinking among Rwanda's youth. "During the genocide, critical thinking was absent," he says. "With access to the Internet, these kids will develop critical thinking. You bet on those who will be your workforce in 2020."
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