The Tools of Democracy

This morning, still sleepy and coffee in hand I was met with news from Southern Africa.


News that a shipment of small arms had arrived off the coast of South Africa en route from China to Zimbabwe. The Chinese vessel is docked just outside of Durban harbor, waiting for a row to pass over whether it should be allowed to dock, be unloaded and have its cargo transported across the country and on to Zimbabwe. The ship contains millions of rounds of ammunition for AK-47s, thousands of rocked-propelled grenades and mortar rounds. South Africa's government has said that there is nothing it can do to prevent the cargo from being transported across their territory and on into the hands of Robert Mugabe. Meanwhile in Zimbabwe, opposition supporters endure beatings as they wait peacefully for election results.

Churning over this news with coffee slowly making its way round by system, and with it bringing the clarity that comes with caffeine, I began to feel sick to my stomach. This all sounded terribly familiar. I reached for the bookshelf and a copy of 'We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families' by Philip Gourevitch , but scouring the pages of the journalistic novel on the Rwandan genocide, I could not find what I was looking for. To google.

A keyword search using 'rwanda machete china' quickly turned over the pages of my memory to the information I was seeking as dreadful confirmation:

In 1993 the government of Rwanda imported, from China, three quarters of a million dollars worth of machetes. This was enough for one new machete for every third male. Machetes were used for many of the murders committed during the genocide.
- BBC

Arms from China. Used to by Africans. To kill other Africans.