Book review: what dictatorship looks like to journalists on the inside
Anjan Sundaram was a mentor in an internationally funded programme to develop the press in Rwanda but he and his charges were no match for a state that wanted them cowed and obedient
by Anjan Sundaram
Doubleday
In 1994, the world watched in horror as Hutus slaughtered Tutsis (mostly) in Rwanda. When it ended, Paul Kagame was heralded as one of the leaders of forces that ended the bloodshed.
As president since 2000, Kagame has fooled much of the world into thinking his country is a happy democracy. It has received tonnes of international funding because, on the surface, Rwanda is a shining example of stability. The capital is clean, it has modern roads and lighting, malls – all the trappings that look good to the Western eye – and many of his measures have improved people’s lives, from a reduced mortality rate to an expanding economy and national health insurance.
But Anjan Sundaram tells a different story, one so chilling and painful that it should encourage international eyes on elections there. Sundaram, a mathematician by training, published Stringer: A Reporter’s Journey into the Congo in 2014. In his latest book, Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship, Sundaram writes of his years as a mentor in an internationally funded programme to train young journalists in the fledgling democracy.