Louise Mushikiwabo was born on 22 May 1961 in Kigali,the Rwandan capital.[6] Her father was Bitsindinkumi,from the Batsobe clan;[7] Bitsindinkumi worked as a farmer,managing the family's smallholding as well as working as bookkeeper for a colonial coffee plantation.[7] Her mother was Nyiratulira,a first cousin of the Abiru philosopher and historian Alexis Kagame.[8] She spent her childhood in Kigali.[9] The youngest of nine children,[10] her siblings included Lando Ndasingwa,who became a notable businessman and politician in Rwanda before being killed in 1994 during the Rwandan genocide,[9] and Anne-Marie Kantengwa,who took over Lando's hotel Chez Lando after his death and served in the Parliament of Rwanda from 2003 to 2008.[11]
After completing primary and secondary school in Kigali,Mushikiwabo went to study at the National University of Rwanda (currently University of Rwanda),in the southern city of Butare,in 1981.[6][12] She graduated from university in 1984,with a bachelor's degree in English,and then worked briefly as a secondary school teacher.[6] In 1986,she emigrated from Rwanda to the United States,[13] where she began studying for a master's degree in Languages and Interpretation at the University of Delaware,with French as her specialist language.[14] Upon finishing her studies in 1988,[14] she remained in the United States,settling in the Washington,D.C. area.[15] She started her career working for lobbying organisations,before taking a position with the African Development Bank (ADB);as part of her role with the ADB she lived in Tunisia for a short time,[15] and eventually became the bank's Communications Director.[10]
In 2006,Mushikiwabo wrote a book,Rwanda Means the Universe,[16] which was co-authored by Jack Kramer,an American journalist and ex-marine.[17] The book is semi-autobiographical,describing Mushikiwabo's family history,her early life in Rwanda,and her experiences upon emigrating to the United States.[16] It also describes the Rwandan genocide in detail,from a historical perspective as well as from Mushikwabo's own point of view living in Washington,as she received the news that many of her family members had been killed.[16]
In March 2008,Mushikiwabo was invited by Rwandan President Paul Kagame to return to her homeland Rwanda and take up a position in his government. She was appointed to the post of Minister of Information,[10] replacing Laurent Nkusi.[18] Early in her tenure,Mushikiwabo was responsible for deciding whether to take action against several local media organisations that had run defamatory stories about Kagame.[19] One newspaper,the Kinyarwanda-language daily Umuco,had published an article comparing the president to Adolf Hitler,and the High Council of the Press (HCP) had requested the government to suspend the newspaper's licence.[20] Nkusi had refused this request,and while Mushikiwabo did not officially suspend the paper,it nonetheless stopped printing in October 2008.[19] Mushikiwabo generally encouraged her colleagues to support freedom of the press,[21] but was also firm in ensuring that the media complied with Rwanda's tough laws surrounding genocide denial.[22] In 2009,she issued a temporary ban on the Kinyarwanda radio station broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC),because she claimed it had aired programmes "giving free scope to genocidaires and negationists of the genocide";[23] the BBC denied this claim,arguing that it and the government had different interpretations of the genocide.[23]
As well as being responsible for the ministry's decision making,Mushikiwabo also fulfilled the role of government spokesperson during her stint as Minister of Information.[24] For example when Rwanda had a diplomatic crisis with Germany following the arrest of President Kagame's chief of protocol Rose Kabuye,Mushikiwabo spoke to the international media to clarify the Rwandan government's position.[25] She made use of her linguistic skills,being able to give statements in all of Rwanda's official languages,Kinyarwanda,French and English.[24]
Other activities
Africa Europe Foundation (AEF),Member of the High-Level Group of Personalities on Africa-Europe Relations (since 2020)[26]
Her brother,Lando Ndasingwa,was the only Tutsi minister in the last Habyarimana government,but was killed at the beginning of the 1994 genocide.[30] Her sister,Anne-Marie Kantengwa,took over the management of their brother's hotel and restaurant,Chez Lando,after his murder. Mushikiwabo is also the niece of the distinguished Rwandan scholar and priest Alexis Kagame.[8]
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