DAY 23 – DELULU

Based on what delusion does one wake up and reject recorded history? I used to think of deniers as I thought of haters: RARE. Until one day I experienced the unprovoked wrath of a hater, (I have since forgiven her and she has repented from her sins (**hey honey-bear, wink/wink**)). Deniers much like haters live among us and they don’t care much for logic, history, witnesses’ memory, none of that; instead, they specialize in confusion and conspiracy.

Now that nations have enshrined laws that criminalize Genocide Denial, they can no longer dare say that in 1994, there was no targeted killing of Tutsis in Rwanda. Instead, what they do is compile all world issues in one sentence. If for example you are discussing the question of “what happened in Rwanda in 1994?”, they are capable of invoking Western Imperialism as well as South African Apartheid somehow tie that to the Great Lakes Region Crises and blame the after-effects of slavery (though the slave trade didn’t touch Rwanda, they couldn’t care less). In their speech, they will throw in names that invoke strong emotions but have no correlation to the topic at hand like, say, Elon Musk. They will then conclude with a personal-often-made-up story-they-think-is-tragic-but-isn’t. A story such as: “Based on all that chaos, my favorite Aunty no longer eats Mangos because Mangos bring bad memories.”

You, my dear friend, will just have to pick up your jaw and run. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, attempt to reason with them. Their lack of linear thinking will astound you and may create some PTSD. Ye, be warned!

Iyo bahamagaye imfura, nawe utonda umurongo?