Rwanda, a little territory residing in east-central Africa, resembles close to the size of Maryland. Many believe that the Kingdom of Rwanda was founded by European explorers in 1854. It was occupied by Belgian troops during World War I. On January 28, 1961 it became known as Rwandan Republic. On July 1, 1962 they established their independence from Belgium and then on June 4, 2003 it became known as the Republic of Rwanda. Rwanda has come a long way since its founding. Now one of the largest regions in Africa as far as population and economic growth, Rwanda continues to grow. Though some say that the poverty level remains much more than any other region, it is still a place I want to visit.
Rwanda stands as a beautiful country with huge mountains and deep valleys. Most of the countryside rests with full of grasslands and plenty of farmland. The divide between the Congo and Nile drainage systems extends from north to south through western Rwanda at an average elevation of almost 9,000 feet. On the western slopes of this ridgeline, the land slopes abruptly toward Lake Kivu and the Ruzizi River valley, which form the western boundary line with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) and constitutes part of the Great Rift Valley (Bureau of African Affairs).
At an elevation of over 4,500 feet, Rwanda’s Lake Kivu remains as the highest lake in Africa. Rwanda’s highest point isn’t Lake Kivu though. Volcano Karisimbi continues to obtain the record of Rwanda’s highest point at over 14,000 feet above sea level. Although the equator lies about two degrees north of Rwanda, Rwanda’s temperature stays approximately 70-75 degrees because of the elevation. Rwanda has two rainy seasons where heavy rain can happen and ...
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... punishment. Though not an easy task for a refugee of Rwanda to pick up and vacate their home, they do and find a place in America. They leave behind them all the bad things and look for a stable job. Most Americans have no problem quitting their job and finding another. A refugee from Rwanda has to go through many steps before they can even start the process of job looking. The jobs that the refugees receive are looked at by Americans as lower jobs. Most of them receive jobs as cleaners in hotels, dishwashers for restaurants, and assembly line jobs. These jobs to a refugee remain more than enough to feed their family, have a roof over their head, and send their children to school. A refugee from Rwanda does not care about being the next millionaire or driving a brand new sports car. Being able to take care of their family remains the top priority for a refugee.
A policy that has made it possible for the deportation of refugees back to their homeland has already affected 1,400 Cambodians. As a result of the Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, non-citizens of the United States who have been convicted of certain crimes are being targeted for deportation. The U.S. Committee for Refugees states that this harsh law has made it easy for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the U.S. government agency that enforces our immigration laws, to detain and deport legal immigrants who have committed crimes. Since 1996, the INS has been required to detain and deport any immigrant who is convicted of an “aggravated felony,” which includes such crimes as DUI’s, possession of marijuana, minor assaults, shoplifting, joyriding, and even writing a bad check. Any convicted Cambodian may be detained in INS up to 6 months by law. Although they have already served time for these past convictions, Cambodian immigrants still face possible deportation as part of their punishment. ...
“The Rwandan Genocide represents one of the worst human security failures, and the consequences still reverberate through the Great Lakes region of Africa nearly ten years later”, writes the Commission on Human Security in 2003. “Therefore, realizing human rights lies at the core of protecting and empowering people” (Bodelier, 2011). Canada's lack of response to the Rwandan Genocide was unfortunate, and it allowed for questioning of Canada's continued strength in peacekeeping operations, something Canada had been instrumental in creating merely 40 years prior. It is necessary to examine Canada's role within the international community's failure, to understand what external factors can still influence Canada's foreign policy, and to therefore
Belgian influence had shaped the government and environment for which caused the genocide. There has been always two main tribes tribes since the settlement of the land in Rwanda, the Tutsis and Hutus. The Tutsis tended to have a lighter complexion and be taller, unlike the Hutus who had a darker complexion and are shorter. The population of Rwanda was about 10 percent Tutsi and 90 percent Hutu. Both tribes shared the same religion and culture. In the late nineteenth century, German colonists arrived in Rwanda. After the defeat of the Germans in World War I, it lost control of Rwanda, which then fell into Belgian control. When arriving in Rwanda, the Belgians placed Tutsis in Rwanda’s government because the Tutsi’s had more “Caucasian” features than the Hutus. The Belgians had help from the Tutsis to run the government. In return, the Tutsis received great advantages, including better education and exemptions
Rwanda was a German colony but then was given to Belgium “who favored the minority Tutsis over the Hutus, exacerbated[exacerbating] the tendency of the few to oppress the many”(History.com). This created a feeling of anger towards the Tutsis, because they had much more power than Hutus. The RPF decided to create a government consisting of a Hutu and a Tutsi holding the highest government positions. As the RPF took control of the government, “some two million Hutus – both civilians and some of those involved in the genocide – then fled across the border into DR Congo.
Africa has been an interesting location of conflicts. From the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea to the revolutionary conflict in Libya and Egypt, one of the greatest conflicts is the Rwandan Genocide. The Rwandan Genocide included two tribes in Rwanda: Tutsis and Hutus. Upon revenge, the Hutus massacred many Tutsis and other Hutus that supported the Tutsis. This gruesome war lasted for a 100 days. Up to this date, there have been many devastating effects on Rwanda and the global community. In addition, many people have not had many acknowledgements for the genocide but from this genocide many lessons have been learned around the world.
Rosenberg, Matt. "Geography & Map of Rwanda." About.com. The New York Times Company, 2010. Web. 9 Apr. 2010. .
"Rwanda, Genocide, Hutu, Tutsi, Mass Execution, Ethnic Cleansing, Massacre, Human Rights, Victim Remembrance, Education, Africa." UN News Center. UN, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
Over the course of human history, many believe that the “Congo Free State”, which lasted from the 1880s to the early 1900s, was one of the worst colonial states in the age of Imperialism and was one of the worst humanitarian disasters over time. Brutal methods of collecting rubber, which led to the deaths of countless Africans along with Europeans, as well as a lack of concern from the Belgian government aside from the King, combined to create the most potent example of the evils of colonialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s. The Congo colonial experience, first as the Congo Free State then later as Belgian Congo, was harmful to that region of Africa both then and now because of the lack of Belgian and International attention on the colony except for short times, the widespread economic exploitation of the rubber resources of the region, and the brutal mistreatment and near-genocide of the Congolese by those in charge of rubber collecting.
According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, refugee is a term applied to anyone who is outside his/her own country and cannot return due to the fear of being persecuted on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership of a group or political opinion. Many “refugees” that the media and the general public refer to today are known as internally displaced persons, which are people forced to flee their homes to avoid things such as armed conflict, generalized violations of human rights or natural and non-natural disasters. These two groups are distinctly different but fall ...
Sub-Saharan Africa refers to the diverse landscape of more than 50 countries of Africa, which are south of the Sahara Desert. There are over nine million square miles of valleys, plateaus, and mountains in this region of Africa. Because of the prevalence of plateaus, Africa has been nicknamed the “continent of plateaus”. Between the plateaus, there are steep slopes, or escarpments. This continent has the highest overall elevation because of the plateaus it has. This area is mountainous with such mountains as the Atlas Mountains in the Northwest, Drakensburg Mountains and Mt. Kilimanjaro is the highest peak. The Great Rift Valley is also in this region. There are many rivers in this region, including the “Nile, Congo, Niger, and the Zambezi Rivers” (Physical Geography).
Kinyasi Monyi, RIT Deaf graduate student, came from the small island of Zanzibar that merged the United Republic of Tanzania in the East Africa. He was born on June 30, 1986, from a military hospital and raised as the only deaf person in family. He was born as hearing but later became deaf at age six when a doctor found out he has spinal meningitis. Now, he is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Computing Security from B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). During the interview, he recalled that his life struggled as a student in Tanzania, and how did he deal with the challenges included the family support into who he became today. There are also major differences in between the United States and Tanzania.
The history of Rwanda is very interesting. Rwanda is located in East Africa, in East africa people were not treated as equal. Today eastern africa is way different from how it is now. Back int the 1996s the africans faced many problems. Some of the problems include how the Tutsi people were treated and also how the Hutu people. Genocide was a big problem in Rwanda.
Gaining their independence in October 1962, Uganda shares borders with Sudan in the north, Kenya to the east, Tanzania and Rwanda to the south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. There exists a wide variety of flora and fauna in the region with rainforests, vegetation is heaviest in the south and typically becomes wooded savanna in central and northern Uganda. Dry acacia woodland, dotted with the occasional candelabra and euphorbia and interspersed with grassland, occurs in the south. The steppes and thickets of the northeast represent the driest regions of Uganda (Uganda 2010). In the Lake Victoria region and the western highlands, forest covering has been replaced by elephant grass and forest remnants because of human incursions. The medium-elevation forests contain a rich variety of species. The high-elevation forests of Mount Elgon ...
Middleton, John. "Rwanda." Africa: an Encyclopedia for Students. Vol. 3. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002. Print.
Namibia's land area totals about 319,000 sq miles, this makes it the thirty-fourth largest county in the world. It borders with Angola, Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa; and is between the Namib and the Kalahari deserts. Its unique location makes it the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa. The land area is broken up into five different geographical areas, the Central Plateau, the Namib desert, Great Escarpment, Bushveld, and the Kalahari desert. The Central Plateau runs north to south and consist of the highest point in Namibia, 8550 ft above sea level located in Konigstein. The Namib desert, also known as the world's oldest desert, stretches 1,200 miles down the Namibian coastline. Its sand dunes, created by strong onshore winds, are the highest in the world. Namibia was named after the Namib desert which means "vast place". The Great Escarpment, is a much more cooler part of Namibia, due to its high elevation of 6,562 ft above sea level. In the summer months, cool winds are forced over the Escarpment, and moisture is extracted as precipitation. The Bushveld is located in north eastern Namibia along the Angolan border. that area receives the most amounts of water then any part of the country. unfortunately, most of the land is flat and consist of sandy soil, which affects its ability to retain water. The Kalahari Desert, located on the southern border of Namibia, is the region shared with south Africa and Botswana. This is Namibia's most well known geographical a...