An advanced class on etiquette.. Urban legend has it, President Kagame was traveling to the Eastern province and happened upon old sages sipping on local Kanyanga as the cows grazed nearby. The ever pious that he is, advised them to stop drinking so early. The elders shook their heads in disbelief, the most eloquent among them begun, clearing his throat ...

An essay about the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)’s Business Arm: It isn’t an easy fit for political parties in power to run clean, efficient and profitable businesses. So many things can go wrong and often do. Most parties have tried and failed, others still run white elephants, parasites to the systems they rule. Yet a political party without a stable ...

S’il y a un Français qui de son vivant a pu heurté la conscience des rescapés du Génocide perpétré contre les Tutsi en 1994, il s’agit bien de Pierre Péan. Son livre “Noires fureurs et Blancs menteurs” était d’un cynisme sans nom. Confondant les bourreaux aux victimes, et accusant ceux qui ont stoppé le genocide, à savoir l’Armée Patriotique Rwandaise d’avoir provoqué la mort de leurs propre frères et soeurs pour accéder au pouvoir. Le livre de Péan ...

‘with friends like these eh, who needs enemies…’ Following a quadripartite summit held in Angola under the auspices of President João Lourenço and bringing together Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and DRC President Felix Tshisekedi to discuss security issues within the region, I would like to come back, for the layman to the outstanding issues between Rwanda ...

I am standing here with my sister Yolande. In the Car Free Zone, in Kigali, in Rwanda, in April 2019.  It has been 25 years since the Genocide against the Tutsi ended. Behind us is a #Kwibuka25 sign. Kwibuka means remember.  On the right is former president Habyarimana’s office, which also housed the media. On the left is the former headquarters of #RTLM, ...

In a candid interview, the head of Ugandan opposition, Colonel Kizza Besigye explains in details the source of conflicts between Rwanda and Uganda. The interview is in Luganda on this link: https://youtu.be/sBmf3_iECmE “If you want to understand the problem between Rwanda and Uganda, you have to understand two things: One: Mr. Museveni thought that since President Kagame was here as ...

Last week I read with bewilderment our Nigerian expert Chude Jedeonwo declaring: ‘Kagame could be the next Mandela -if he steps down’.  I know he thinks he means well, but although I do not speak for all my countrymen, I must decline the offer, here is why. As we commemorate a century since Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born, this is ...

‘La guerre est la continuation de la politique par d’autres moyens’, disait Carl Von Clausewitz, officier prussien qui a combattu Napoléon au XIXème siècle. Beaucoup ont dû être surprit, à juste titre, par l’annonce de la candidature de Mme Louise Mushikiwabo, ministre rwandaise des Affaires étrangères, à la tête de l’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). Depuis presque trois décennies, le Rwanda ...

My mother was arrested in ‘Ibyitso’ (spies) After I was born, she stopped studying and came to look for work in Rwanda. She opened a hair saloon for women in Kigali, she seemed to do well, or at least in my baby opinion, because she came to see me in Goma every month with bags full of gifts for me, ...

IN Rwandan culture, nothing is more precious than a visitor; the ‘milk for visitors’ is set apart and handled with special care. An evening chat with visiting colleagues last week however, revealed that the culture is shared across the continent; a Senegalese insisting that ‘Teranga’ (hospitality) is even a national slogan. So too will I not diverge from the culture ...