In January 1995, I returned to Kigali to see how life was progressing less than a year after the genocide. I found that despite a host of continuing social, economic and political problems, the quality of life was slowly improving. One sign of the return to normalcy was a boom in weddings, most involving members of the minority tutsi ethnic community who survived the massacres.30 year old Captain Jean Nkurikiye says he and 25 year old Sergeant Sandrine Uwamwezi agreed if they survived Rwanda's bloody genocide, they would get married.
Well, they did survive and, on a warm weekend in January, with dozens of friends and fellow soldiers looking on, they exchanged wedding vows at Kigali's Saint Michel Church.
These young veterans of the rebel Rwandese Patriotic Front were among a handful of couples married on this particular weekend -- usually in group ceremonies. Residents of Kigali say that since the fighting ended last year, after the Tutsi-dominated RPF ousted the former Hutu-led government, hundreds of weddings have been held, many involving Tutsi soldiers and civilian survivors of the massacres that tore Rwanda apart, killing a half million or more Rwandans, most of them members of the minority Tutsi community.
The wedding boom, and a corresponding rise in pregnancies, are clear signs that despite continuing serious political, social and economic challenges, life is slowly returning to normal in Rwanda.
Jojo Nzbamwita owns a shop in the capital called "Chez Jojo." She sells bridal accessories like veils and specializes in wrapping wedding gifts in colorful paper. She and her assistants are kept especially busy on Saturdays.
"Weddings are something we are not short of," she says.
But there are problems. Ms. Nzbamwita says most of the skilled tailors who fashioned the elaborate frilly white wedding gowns favored by brides were killed in the genocide. She says the successor generation of tailors in not yet good enough, so all the gowns used these days are brought in from Burundi or Uganda.
Following the church ceremonies, gala receptions are held at an assortment of restaurants and other locations. Since most of the new couples are short of money and often lost parents and other close relatives during the slaughter, friends now make donations to underwrite the costs.
Captain Nkurikiye and Sergeant Uwamwezi are lucky. As members of the new army, they are allowed to hold their reception at the Officers' Mess. As young soldiers with automatic weapons look on, the couple and their guests are entertained outdoors under canopied shelters by traditional dancers and drummers.
The bridegroom, wearing a burgundy double-breasted jacket and white gloves, looks a bit stiff as he sips a soft drink. His bride, dressed in white, seems equally ill at ease.
Yet as time goes on, smiles appear. Toasts are made. The crowd applauds. For the moment, the fighting and the guns, the massacres and the machetes are all forgotten. Life goes on.
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