“Mzungu” is the word some Africans in the Great Lakes region use to
describe a white person. This is what I thought before I arrived – and
being of African-American descent, I wondered if I might be exempt. But as
I found out on the first night when we met with our fixers, this was not to
be the case.

They told me “mzungu” can more broadly be used to mean any foreigner or
non-African, regardless of skin color, and I definitely fall into that
category. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit disappointed!

When we visited a genocide memorial site outside of Kigali on Monday, a
group of small children were lingering around the gate. A little girl of
about 3 or 4 years old came up to me, and smiling, greeted me with
“Mzungu!”

So much for trying to blend in… 😉

-Stephanie Siek