U.S. Woman Answers Rwanda’s Cry

Rosamund Carr has had several farms in Africa. But her favorite is the flower plantation and orphanage at the foot of the mist-shrouded Virunga volcano range.

Carr’s ivy-covered stone cottage and English-style garden are straight from the pages of an Evelyn Waugh novel. But she lives in the northwestern corner of Rwanda, where Zaire and Uganda meet.

The seven acres of flowers that surround the house provide a small income for the 80-year-old former fashion designer. She depends on private donations to run the orphanage for Rwandan children.

“I’m doing it much more for myself than for the children,” she said. “I couldn’t be here and not do anything about all these homeless children.”

The orphanage is the latest chapter in Carr’s African adventure that began in 1950 when she left a life of luxury in New York, married an Englishman and agreed to set up housekeeping on a farm in the then-Belgian Congo.

Her first farm with her husband was in the fertile Masisi region of what is now northeastern Zaire. The young couple grew pyrethrum, a daisy-like flower whose oil is a natural insecticide.

In the Masisi of the 1950s, Hutus, Tutsis and other tribes--which are now fighting over control of the region--lived together peacefully under Belgian administration.

Carr, who speaks fluent Swahili, said she feels great sympathy for the 15,000 Tutsis who were recently driven from their homes there.

“Some of their grandfathers I knew. In the Masisi, the farms are fabulous; it’s a paradise for cows,” she said. “They left a wonderful place, had their cows stolen, only to come to a little overcrowded country.”

Carr said sounds of recent fighting across the border in Zaire between Zairian rebels and government soldiers gave her “a couple of sleepless nights” but did not otherwise affect her or her orphans.

Carr separated from her husband in 1955 and opted to stay and buy her own plantation in Rwanda. There, she raised pyrethrum and cattle until 1980, when she shifted to growing roses, carnations, gladioli and alstroemeria (Peruvian lilies).

Her house was built in 1938 by an Italian farmer who grew pyrethrum.

In 1994, Sembagari, her assistant of 39 years, converted the old pyrethrum-drying shed into a dormitory for orphans. Neither her home nor the dormitory has electricity or running water.

In the 46 years she has lived in Africa, Carr has witnessed the end of colonial rule, civil wars and genocide. She has had everything she ever wanted and then watched it all taken away in just 10 minutes.

On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down over the capital, Kigali, triggering the slaughter of Tutsis orchestrated by leaders in the Hutu-dominated government.

Carr was on her farm when she heard the news and tried to protect her Tutsi neighbors from the Hutu killing squads.

“The killers, not older than 17, surrounded the house with clubs, and the Tutsis fled,” said Carr. “I telephoned for help, but no one came. Then I heard it was happening all over the country.”

More than 500,000 people, most of them Tutsis, died in the next 90 days of massacres.

Carr said she did not want to flee at first, but when U.N. peacekeepers came a few days later she knew she must go. They gave her only 10 minutes to pack before the military convoy took her to safety.

When she returned four months later, her house was ransacked and 46 years of African memories were gone. But that has not changed her feelings for the people or the country she loves.

“After all these years, Rwanda is my home,” Carr said. “I couldn’t live anywhere else.”