“Being who we are as Rwandans, we strive to make it a positive identity. To make it positive means that when someone mentions a Rwandan, people should think of us as a people who act and speak in a way that embodies good values. That is what is most important.
There are places in the world where people know Rwanda well. They understand it, having followed the history of the past 30 years, seen where we came from, and observed how we continue to make progress. But there are still places where Rwanda is known as the Rwanda of more than 30 years ago—a country of killers. We still bear that stain. As Rwandans, we committed the unforgivable, and that bad name, that stain, will stay with us for a long time because what is written in history and books cannot be erased.
But we can redeem the tragedy of our past, by transforming the country and the lives of its people. That is the struggle we are fighting today.
For Rwanda, with our history and this world we live in, we must understand how it operates. There is no reason why we should lack the strength, the determination, or the knowledge about what we need to do, how we need to do it, and how to lift ourselves from where we are to where we want to be. None. That determination, that grit, that ability I spoke of, it’s within us. But if you choose not to use it, you will become like someone whose life is determined by someone else.” President Kagame | 17th Annual Unity Club Forum.