Che Guevara in Rwanda

Nyanza, the town I live in, is quite large and includes a number of small villages outside of the main town, where the market, bus station and shops are. I like to walk on the dirt paths leading to small villages. Today, my hike took me to several small villages and to a house with a door with the picture and name of Che Guevara. This was not the first time I’ve seen Che’s name in Rwanda; I’ve seen it a few times on trucks. As I was hiking today in a village about an hour’s walking distance from the town center, I did a double-take as I saw this door.

There were two boys nearby whom I greeted, and one of the boys said that he lived there. They looked to be about 12 or 13. I asked the boys who Che Guevara was. They responded confidently and without hesitation that he was a pop star, a singer. I had to stifle a laugh. I asked if he was alive or dead. Alive, they assured me. I asked if Che was Rwandan. No, they knowingly replied. What country was he from, I asked. They couldn’t answer. When I told them that Che was from Cuba and Argentina, they just stared at me blankly.

In the midst of this curious conversation, the mother of one of the boys came home, and we chatted. She knew that Che was dead and that he wasn’t a pop star. However, my limited Kinyarwanda language skills kept me from getting the answer to the question that had caused me to stop: Why did they have Che painted on their door?