ROADBLOCK

Radio Announcer

“La cruauté des Inyenzi
ne peut étre guérie
que par leur
totale extermination"


The cruelty of the cockroaches
can be cured
only by their total
extermination.
Let the people at the
roadblocks be strong,
RTLM Radio is with you …
it follows you the
whole time while …
you are at the road-blocks,
night and day.
… that is how RTLM Radio is …
it supports our own people.

I would also ask that
each neighbourhood
try to organize itself
to do communal work,
to clear the brush,
to search houses,
beginning with those
that are abandoned,
to search the marshes
of the area to be
sure that no inyenzi,
no cockroaches, have
slipped in to
hide themselves there...
so they should
cut the brush,
search the drains
and ditches...
put up barriers and
guard them, choosing
reliable people
to do this,
who have what they need...
so that
nothing can escape them.




Fight them with
the weapons
that you have at hand.
You have arrows,
you have spears...
go after the enemy,
blood flows in their veins
as it does in yours.

All who try to
protect themselves
by sympathizing
with both sides,
they are traitors.
It is they who tell
a lot to the cockroaches,
to the enemy. It is they
whom we call accomplices.
They
will pay for what they have done











Hello my dear friends
and listeners,
hello to our army,
hello the whole
Rwandan population
and a particular salute
to those inhabitants
of Kigali
and elsewhere,
throughout the
whole country,
making the nightly rounds each day.

Victoria













































Nothing can escape them. The Militia are
everywhere. But, if I can get through one more road block,
I can get to the Church. I will be safe at the Church.
I pray that I may get to safety.
Oh! Please God! I am weak. I cannot
fight them.






















 Give me some time to pay you.
I gave my watch
and all my money to
the men at the last Road Block.
I have nothing left.
You have nothing
to fear from me.
I am your neighbour.
Hello my dear friends



















Hurry! Choose! I can choose to die,
or choose to die. You are
Christians. Let me visit the Church
to pray with my Pastor. Then
you can do what you like with my body.
One final request.
Let me visit the Church.

At the roadblock (1st voice)





































































You will pay for what you have done.
Come here Cockroach.
Take off your clothes so I can search
you.
Give me your money, your life.


















Each day, I have to listen to cockroaches like you begging for their lifes.
If you pay me well, and do your best to please me,
you will die from my bullet. If you are too mean to pay me,
then you will feel the well-used edge of my machete.
I have much work to do tonight.
Hurry! Choose!





Let you visit the Church?
Why? It is an open Grave. We worked hard there,
destroying Cockroaches like you. Young and old.
Men and women.
We don’t discriminate against anyone.

At the roadblock (2nd voice)





































































You will pay for what you have done.
Come here Cockroach.
Take off your clothes so I can search
you.
Give me your life, your money.







































We don’t discriminate against anyone.
All are included.
 The cruelty of the cockroaches
can be cured
only by their total extermination.

Before the Poem properly starts, all the voices (apart from Victoria) loudly chant "Pawa, Pawa" ten times. This starts as a single voice whisper but gets louder and louder as more people join in. "Pawa" means power and in this context, Hutu power. It was a chant used by the militias. The original line (which was broadcast in French) “La cruauté des Inyenzi …”can be read through once after the chant and before the English translation starts the main body of the Poem. Road Block is a Multi-voice Poem. Words / Phrases that are underlined are to be be read at the same time. So, up to three voices may be reading at the same time. The Radio Announcer part in the above Poem uses translations of the actual words used by Radio Rwanda and Radio Télévision Libre Mille-Collines during the events of 1994. Voice 1 and Voice 2 wear the black, yellow, and red neck kerchiefs and hats of the Impuzamugambi Militia. Ashby McGowan. 2008.