Breaking bread with the President

There were other articles I had written that had appeared elsewhere in the international media where I had argued that the many things that Kagame had pioneered were a product of the 1994 genocide in which nearly one million people, mainly Tutsi, were butchered — and the fact that he is Tutsi.

My argument was that because he is Tutsi, his government’s admittedly impressive delivery on public services was a partly a “bribe” to the Hutu majority to accept Tutsi-dominated RPF rule.

Secondly, that precisely because of the genocide, the price of failure (and therefore possible collapse of the RPF) would be too high — possibly another genocide.

That very high penalty for failure drove Kagame to try to succeed as president, basically as a strategy to avert a future genocide.

Now, many leaders would not be too concerned by such a fine splitting of hairs. But it is revealing about Kagame that he was.

His view, as he sent an emissary to tell me, was that he and the ruling RPF, like all other African leaders and parties, had a choice.

That they are not just robots merely responding to the forces of history.

You can see where Kagame is headed with this.

His view is that human beings can break through the prison of history; that if the genocide was caused by tribal politics run amok, it was possible to deliberately choose to build a different society – one that rises above ethnicity.

If we explain away everything as a result of historical forces, then it means you cannot give people who choose successful options credit for it — and you cannot blame those who fail or do wrong.

Therefore, to understand Rwanda today, one needs to also understand Kagame the man, how his mindset is reflected in the RPF, and what the Rwanda society the RPF is building says about the delicate “Tutsi-Hutu pact” which underlies everything in this country. So, we shall begin with Kagame.

It is said that if you don’t like Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, then don’t visit him privately, because he will impress the shirt off your back — or charm the blouse off your chest.

Likewise, if you detest Kagame, don’t go to Rwanda, because it is very likely to make a deep impression on you, or, at worst, leave you ambivalent.

There are strong elements of former South African president Thabo Mbeki and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi (whose works the Rwanda president says he admires) in Kagame.

He has Mbeki’s distaste for platform politics and campaigning, and loves policy wonking.