Radio: Music's potent role in the incitement of violence in Rwanda
Kathryn Thomas is a vivid if surprising guide through the country's
rich musical heritage and brutal recent history

Rwandese refugees cross Rusumo border to Tanzania from Rwanda in May,
1994. Phorograph: REUTERS/Jeremiah Kamau/Files
Sat, Apr 26, 2014, 01:00
First published:
Sat, Apr 26, 2014, 01:00
Since Shakespeare wrote about it being the food of love, the idea of
music as a positive force has been embedded in our psyches. In common
with other art forms, it is almost unquestioningly seen as a good
thing, what with its charms to soothe a savage breast and all that.
Anyone subscribing to these notions might check out Music Passport:
Journey Through Genocide in Rwanda (RTÉ Radio 1, Monday), a
documentary that, in its chilling account of the role music played in
the carnage that befell the country in 1994, comprehensively debunks
such cherished assumptions.
That the person busting these myths should be Kathryn Thomas is an
even bigger jolt. Best known as an unobjectionably upbeat travel
presenter and gameshow host, Thomas is not the most obvious guide
through Rwanda's bloody recent history. Nor is her introduction
especially promising, as she talks about the power of music as
discussed by "philosophers, musicians and world leaders", from Nelson
Mandela to, ahem, Maria von Trapp. "We know it here in Ireland," she
says, "and in Rwanda, music has made that same journey, from politics
to hate to love and out the other side."
But such flourishes of fortune-cookie wisdom are thankfully rare, with
Thomas providing a vivid overview of Rwanda's musical heritage while
negotiating its traumatic past. Interviews with local musicians (and
the odd Irish musicologist) highlight the importance of music in
Rwandan life, but the story takes a darker turn. The genocidal
impulses that led to Hutu militias slaughtering the Tutsi minority
(and moderate Hutus) were fuelled by songs suffused with prejudice,
with the singer Simon Bikindi among the chief culprits.
Described by Thomas as "the Michael Jackson of Rwanda", Bikindi may be
a loathsome character – he was jailed in 2008 after an international
court found his music had an "amplifying" effect on the killing – but
his gifts were formidable. "I know he killed many people," the
musician JP Samputo dolefully says, "but that does not mean he was not
an amazing artist and singer." The brutal consequences of Bikindi's
work are made clear by Chantal, who recounts the fearful lead-up to a
massacre in which 3,000 people died but which she survived.
It is not all so grim. A more hopeful tone prevails in present-day
Rwanda, though, tellingly, many of the upbeat statements come from
returning expatriates such as the singer Mighty Popo. Throughout all
this Thomas refrains from expressing controversial opinions – "I feel
you have to be very careful not to mention Hutu or Tutsi," she notes –
preferring, perhaps understandably, to accentuate the positive.
"Rwanda's hope is for peace," she says at the end of her highly
creditable documentary, "and the artist's role is to refuel the
imagination." And, she might have added, to ensure that music does not
play such an insidious role again.
A much more inclusive and open vision of music is found in the work of
Andy Irvine, who talks to Peter Browne on The Rolling Wave (RTÉ Radio
1, Sunday) about the huge influence of different folk traditions on
his long career. It has been as much a physical journey as a musical
one. Irvine, who says he has "always enjoyed trying to live a hard
life", describes the road trip across Australia to record his new
album, Parachilna , as well as older travels through the Balkans and
Hungary.
The fruits of this are heard in his music – Australian ballads,
Bulgarian airs – but while Irvine describes himself as a "silly old
romantic male", he is refreshingly unsentimental about the peripatetic
life that has brought so much inspiration. He still enjoys going on
the road, but "it comes into contention with my desire to be at home,
so I'm looking for someone to clone me."
As this absorbing interview testifies, it would be hard to replicate
such an original figure.
The novelist Emma Donoghue turns up to talk about the music that has
provided her personal soundtrack in Songs in the Key of Life (TXFM,
Saturday). Presented by Nadine O'Regan on the newly rebranded
incarnation of the Dublin indie station Phantom FM, the show may not
feature the most startling choice of music, with U2 and Nelly Furtado
featuring, but it is illuminated by Donoghue's attractive and
deceptively breezy presence.
The Dublin-raised, Canada-based author's sexuality features
prominently, despite some mild dissent: "In Ireland I always have to
talk about being a lesbian, and in Canada I get to just forget about
it," she wryly notes. But she says that realising she was gay in her
teens made her feel different, and "given that fiction is about people
who are different, it really did set me on my path to being a writer".
And as she discovered her sexuality in "scary" 1980s Ireland, music
played a vital role in her life. "The first time I had the sense it
was possible to live a life which was different, sexually speaking,
was all through pop music," Donoghue says, citing David Bowie and
Freddie Mercury as exemplars of "this life outside". Sometimes only
music can hit the right note.
radioreview@irishtimes.com
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/media/radio-music-s-potent-role-in-the-incitement-of-violence-in-rwanda-1.1774102
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