A Thousand Hills however is not only about the hard issues of politics and revolution. The third half of the book is a tour through today’s Rwanda, comprising about a dozen snapshots or mosaic pieces of varying lengths and tones. The book also contains romance… that of Jeannette, the future first lady of Rwanda, and Paul.

Kinzer writes: He (Kagame) had remained single. This was even after the NRA took power in Kampala, with Kagame as one of the successful leaders of the movement. He focused intensely on the clandestine project that obsessed him, while most of his Rwandan friends married and began raising families.

After a time he found himself the only bachelor among them. They rarely missed a chance to tell him it was time for him to marry. Slowly, Kagame came to agree.

The author continues: Following Rwandan tradition, Kagame asked relatives to help him find a suitable wife. One had a suggestion. She knew a poised and educated young Rwandan woman, Jeannette Nyiramongi, who had been born in exile in Burundi after her father, a Tutsi sub-chief, had fled his homeland.

From his contacts in Kenya, where this eligible lady had taken a job, Kagame learned enough about her to intrigue him. He decided to take a trip to Nairobi, even though it would not be without risk. Kenya and Uganda were on bad terms, and the appearance of a senior Uganda intelligence officer in the Kenyan capital would be grounds for suspicion or worse. Certainly no one would believe that he had come to court a woman.

In Nairobi, Kagame enlisted the help of a friend who knew Jeannette. They decided to drop in on her at work and offer one of the hoariest clichés in the history of courtship, the excuse that they were “just passing by.”

As a teenager, Jeannette had belonged to cultural groups where older people taught younger ones Rwandan songs, dances and traditions. Like may Rwandan refugees, Jeannette included RPF leaders in her panoply of heroes. Kagame, whose name had for years been whispered from ear to exile Rwandan ear, was among them. Now he had come to court her.

The chapter continues: Sensing his innate shyness and utter inexperience with women, she casually mentioned that it was lunch time and invited him and his friend for a snack at her apartment.

“No, I am in a hurry,” Kagame lied.
“Well,” she persisted, “if you can’t have lunch, how about just a glass of milk?”

Jeannette guessed that she might tempt Paul out of his awkwardness by offering him some, and she was right. Their romance developed over glasses of milk. Kagame narrowly escaped arrest in Nairobi, and left in a hurry.

He told Jeannette by phone that he could not return to Nairobi, and persuaded her to visit him in Uganda. She agreed and during her visit he proposed. She said yes, and they were married in the June of 1989.