Anonymous

Rwanda

“I once heard, we are all different, yet the same.

“Diversity, culture, traditions, beliefs, differences, complexity.” These are how we proclaim our differences to others.

“What!” She screamed, with her pupils dilated in shock. “You do what?” She asked again, almost as if she could not believe it. Her reaction was funny to me. She was taking this issue more seriously than it was. That was how I felt as I watched Jeanne, my Rwandan roommate, and friend, open her mouth and eyes widely in utter disbelief at burial ceremonies in Nigeria. I understood her.

Despite being Africans, we were from different parts of the continent, and as such, our culture was not the same. Jeanne couldn’t believe we partied at burials and sent our loved ones off with a bang!

She thought it bizarre that we killed cows (sacred animals in Rwanda) and found it absolutely vile that we sometimes baked colorful cakes. I had to patiently and countlessly explain to her that it was a “celebration of life”- the lives our beloved had lived.

After a while, she somewhat understood. “I guess we celebrate our dead differently,” she noted solemnly, smiling at me. “Yes, we do, I said, but we celebrate them, and that’s what counts.”