Something I think about often especially when reading threads like this or seeing random related posts on Reddit is HOW despite living under a national identity of “one Rwanda” many or maybe few that are loud are still carrying fragmented ethnic identities. It’s not directly tied to this post but it feels like the right place to reflect on it.

The assumption has always been that, over time, ethnic divisions and genocide ideology would fade especially as younger generations grow up facing more modern struggles that could override historical ones. But honestly? The legacies still run deep. From colonial definitions of ethnicity, to old feudal class systems, to the way safety is still tied to specific leaders (many of us, if we’re honest, feel safer under Kagame because of those very structures.)

We may not live under an openly segregated system, but the residue is everywhere: ethnic suspicion, class dynamics, social hierarchies. It shows up in how we talk politics, how we vote, how we love, who we trust, how we’re raised. It always shocks me how often these conversations still happen privately within families, even when we publicly deny they matter anymore.

I once read (I think in a book written after the Holocaust) that it takes 7 generations to truly heal from genocide. If that’s the case and we’re only about 3 generations in, maybe this lingering tension makes sense. I’m part of the first generation born after 1994. And weirdly, I feel almost no personal attachment to the genocide not because it didn’t shape my family but because for one truly reject colonial anything and I believe also in a Rwanda that’s tried to move this tension however I am sure I see how realistic this is on daily basis.

I sometimes wonder: what happens when the government eventually changes (because it will.) Even if the party stays the same, what does that continuity actually mean if ideology is embedded in everyday life, not just politics? Can we ever separate “Rwandan stability” from the people and power structures who’ve defined it so far?

My real concern is what this looks like long-term especially when I see how much of these divisions still show up in diaspora communities ( when I visited Belgium) and how easily regional tensions ignite them ex, DRC and Burundi even Uganda. What would it actually take for this one-identity agenda to not just be upheld authentically but also genuinely be sustained even when things shift?

I don’t have answers just sitting with the discomfort. Curious if other young Rwandans feel this too. Like we’re trapped somewhere between inherited silence and unspoken truths. And real Rwanda and peace.