“When thunder is wet, it’s mistaken for a dove”

For general information I have read world history from the earliest to the present. I also watch movies about nature. One thing is common to all creatures. They all defend their territory – broadly defined – and protect their young. When conditions are right all creatures live in peace with one another – they are peaceful like doves. But when disturbed disproportionately, all creatures strike like thunder, witness the French Revolution. Ugandans are no exception.

Sad events in Kenya in the 1950s and 2007 and in Rwanda in 1959 and 1994 should serve as a wakeup call that when people long considered docile are very disturbed and fear suffering heavy losses they can switch from dove to thunder behavior – with heavy destruction in the end.

The African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa had vowed to effect political change and gain majority rule by peaceful means. But after the bloody shooting at Sharpeville in 1960 in which many peaceful demonstrators were killed and others injured ANC changed from dove to thunder tactics.

The desire to recapture Tutsi power in Rwanda led to genocide and more

I know some Bahutu (Hutu) and Bairu (Iru) in diaspora who supported Tutsi return to Rwanda, by force if necessary, because they had been rejected in neighboring countries – witness their expulsion from Uganda in 1982 – and Rwanda government did not want them because there was no room for more people. Habyarimana government described Rwanda as a country unsustainably overpopulated and recommended that Tutsi should stay where they had been given asylum.

In recognition of Tutsi suffering in exile, the international community put pressure on Rwanda government to negotiate a settlement with the Tutsi-dominated Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) for a government of national unity and the return of Rwandan refugees. The RPF had a different idea – the restoration of their supremacy over Bahutu as they had done until 1959 when Bahutu ‘Social Revolution’ through Batutsi out of power and out of the country.