The Republic of Rwanda (or "Rwanda" for short) is a small landlocked country located a few degrees south of the Equator at the central part of Africa (just at the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo).
The Republic of Rwanda shares borders with the Republic of Uganda to the north, the Republic of Tanzania to the east, the Republic of Burundi to the south and DR Congo to the west.
The Republic of Rwanda has a total land area of about 26,338 squared kilometers (about 1,670sqkm of which is covered by water). Although Rwanda is landlocked, several great lakes span the country. Rwanda unlike most surrounding countries, is at high elevation with its geography dominated by mountains (especially in the west) and savannah in the east.
Rwanda has an estimated population of 14 million people with the population growth rate hovering around 2.3%. Just about 19% of Rwanda's total population lives in urban areas. Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, has an estimated metropolitan area population of 1.3 million people.
A greater part of Rwanda's population is into agriculture with the majority being subsistence farmers who grow crops and rear animals just to feed themselves and their families.
Although there are "3" major ethnic groups living in Rwanda today, Rwandans are drawn from just one cultural and linguistic group, the "Banyarwanda". Within this group there are three subgroups: the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. The Twa are mostly forest-dwelling "pygmy" people who descended from Rwanda's earliest inhabitants. Scholars disagree on the origins of and differences between the Hutu and Tutsi. Some believe differences arrived as a result of former social caste structures within a single people.
Kinyarwanda (official language, universal Bantu vernacular), French (official language), English (official language), Kiswahili, etc. are some of the major languages spoken in Rwanda today.
Christianity remains the most dominant religion in Rwanda today with over 90% of the population identifying as Christians. Roman Catholics make up about 56.5% of the population with Protestants forming about 26%. About 11.1% are Adventists. Muslims make up about 4.6% of the total population.
Rwanda just like its neighboring countries is blessed with abundance of natural resources such as gold, tin ore, tungsten ore, methane, hydropower, etc. However, despite the abundance of natural and human resources, just like its neighboring countries, Rwanda is crippled with so many political, social and developmental challenges.
Rwanda has a literacy rate of about 70.4% for the total population with the female literacy rate hovering around 64.7%. In other words, about 70.4% of Rwanda's population above the age 15 can at least read and write. Although this isn't too bad, education in Rwanda still falls below expectations compared to some of the other lower middle-income countries in Africa today.
Despite the abundance of human and natural resources in Rwanda, a huge portion of the population still lives below the international poverty line (living on less than $2.15 a day). Poverty in Rwanda is worse especially in the rural areas where the majority of the population lives.
Considering its total land area and population size, the Republic of Rwanda is one of the most overpopulated countries in Africa today. In fact, Rwanda is the most densely populated country on mainland Africa. Rwanda's population more than doubled between 1978 (4.8 million people) and 2012 (10.5 million people). Rwanda currently contains about 14 million people and the population is expected to grow at a faster rate in the next decade.
As mentioned earlier on, a greater part of Rwanda's population is into agriculture. However due to the overpopulation issue, fertile lands for farming are very hard to come by, and this also explains the rising tensions among the various factions who depend mostly on the land for survival.
The overpopulation issue is putting much pressure on the available limited resources. For example, the overpopulation issue in Rwanda is resulting in land degradation (the gradual deterioration of agricultural lands and forest reserves due mainly to human activities) which is not only affecting food production but also severely affecting wildlife population.
Poaching and deforestation (rampant cutting down of trees mostly for timber, firewood, charcoal, etc) are other human activities severely affecting wildlife population in Rwanda today. Rwanda is one of only two countries in the world where tourists can see mountain gorillas in all their glory. However, poaching and other human activities have severely affected mountain gorilla population to a point of extinction.
Rwanda has an HIV/AIDS Adults prevalence rate of 2.9%. Officially, there were more than 170000 people were living with HIV/AIDS in 2009 with about 4100 deaths recorded within the same year. Malaria, bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, yellow fever, etc. also continue to threaten several lives in Rwanda today.
Rwanda has witnessed huge progress the past two decades thanks to its peace and reconciliation efforts. In fact, a recent survey by UNDP indicated that the percentage of people living in poverty in Rwanda, has dropped by about 5.8% from 44.9% in 2011 to 39.1% in 2014. However, several Rwandans continue to wallow in poverty today.
According to Transparency International, Rwanda is one of the least corrupt countries in Africa today thanks to Rwanda's many anti-corruption policies and whistleblower protection laws. In fact, Rwanda was the 52nd least corrupt country out of 180 countries on the Transparency list in 2021. The United States was 43rd on that list. In other words, Rwanda, which once ranked on par with Russia and the Phillipines and suffered worse corruption than Yemen, Libya and Iran, has virtually eradicated major corruption. Transparency International now ranks Rwanda on par with the Czech Republic which is much better than Italy and Greece.
However, Rwanda is not corruption-free. Administrative and rampant corruption exists in some parts of the country due to the lack of enforcement of Rwanda's many anti-corruption policies and regulations.
Although the Republic of Rwanda is healing physically, the psychological effects of the 1994 genocide remains in the minds and souls of some Rwandans today.
I've read online that scamming is also a problem against people coming from the U.S. This family from the U.S were sharing some negative experiences they had with some locals about this matter.
Does the President of Rwanda, the Honorable Mr. Paul Kagame, known and respected around the world as a true African leader especially among blacks such as myself, know about this problem? And if so, is he doing anything about it?
To my beautiful Rwandan people, do not believe the lies of movies, tv, internet, etc. that most black Americans are flowing in money, when the truth is the overwhelming majority of us are struggling every day to survive in this inflation riddled economy.
Believe it or not, rampant poverty, thousands of home owners who have become homeless, crime, racism, just to name a few are all ugly growing realities in this country called America. I've worked over half my life and still only earn a modest income.
In conclusion, I would like to say most of us come from poor backgrounds, myself included and would greatly appreciate our African brothers and sisters stay mindful of that and respectfully charge us fairly...,blessings.
Hello James, I am an African from Ghana and I can tell you there are Black American expat communities in almost every country in Africa today. There are more expats in some countries than others of course. However, any place you visit in Africa today, there is a huge chance you will find an expat community around. Ghana for example has a huge Black American expat community officially recognized by the government of Ghana. You can find several youtube videos of Black Americans living happily in Ghana today. And the reason is because, Ghana is one of the most peaceful countries in Africa. Ghanaians are very friendly people and love African Americans. Also, English is the official language of Ghana so an African American can easily get around without a translator for the most part. Another reason is that, Ghana is a middle income country. In other words, Ghana isn't too poor and isn't too rich which means you can stretch a dollar further in Ghana than in America.
One thing you need to know though is that, the major cities like Kigali, Accra, Abuja, Lagos, Cairo, etc. tend to be a little bit more expensive. Even at that, I have a strong feeling you can get a decent $250 per month 1 bedroom apartment in most cities in Africa. As long as you are not looking for a mansion type treatment, $250 can go a very long way.
On the issue of scamming, Yes, it is true there are scammers roaming the continent preying on unsuspecting people especially Europeans and Americans. It is mostly due to the poverty and high unemployment situation in some places in Africa. Not that the government doesn't care. In fact, there are laws against corruption and scamming in every country in Africa. The problem is the lack of resources to enforce those laws. Nigeria for example has dedicated entire divisions of its police force to the fight against corruption and scamming. Yet, about 70% of the scamming stories from Africa involve Nigerians. Rwanda too I believe has some very strong anti-corruption and anti-scamming laws in the books but once again, lack of resources to enforce those laws.
In conclusion, if this is your first time visiting Africa then I will highly suggest you start from a country like Ghana where there is a well established and thriving expat community so you can get that initial help to enable you smoothly adjust to the African way of life. You can move to Rwanda later on if you wish.