RWANDA ' S LIBERATION
‘ In My Four Years , France Has Not Lectured Anyone ,’ Macron
Lonzen Rugira
" I the next few hours , we are
take off for Kigali ; I have a deep conviction that over
going to write together a new page in our relationship with Rwanda and Africa ", Macron tweeted on May 26 . During a joint press conference with President Kagame in Kigali , the French President added , “ For the last four years , France has not lectured anyone ,” Macron said in reference to his time in office , thereby distancing himself from the traditional patronising attitude of the Élysée towards Africa . Macron said he is setting the stage for a new generation of French and African youth that will relate on the basis of mutual respect . But Macron added that his efforts to steer a new path for Europe and Africa pose significant threats and “ risks .” He is right , and here ’ s why .
Ever since Africans got political independence , they have clamoured for respect . They understood that , as a colonised people , they had no basis to demand respect from their colonisers since to be colonised is to lose one ’ s dignity . This is why this demand accompanied formal independence . However , Europeans , from whom the demand was being made , were not quite ready . And so , just like the cosmetic independence they had given , they extended respect in form but not in substance .
In the 1990s , Europeans were eager to perform sensitivity towards this clamour for respect . It was wrong to refer to these countries as “ third world ”, and it was an outdated terminology that belonged to the cold war days and not in
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