During a Pan African Movement (PAM) cadreship programme event held at the University of Rwanda (UR)’s College of Arts and Social Sciences in Huye District on Saturday, students expressed the need for Africa to build the capacities and skills of its people and to foster African solidarity for self-reliance.

The event was intended to raise awareness about PAM among UR students’ representatives.

Students said Africa was still relying heavily on foreign aid, something that was unfavourable for the continent’s development. They also expressed the view that Africa still had its affairs controlled by foreigners.

Olga Sandra Uwiringiyimana, a fourth year Business, Information and Technology (BIT) student and the secretary of the UR Students’ Union Taskforce, said that as the PAM slogan states ‘Africa is for Africans’, it was Africa’s responsibility to find solutions for its problems.

"What we want to tackle first is to change the mindset of Africans and cease to feel that we are not able to do anything, that we cannot achieve anything”.

"We might need [foreign] support for instance in the technology domain as our technology has not yet advanced. But we have to be the initiators of our development projects,” she noted.

Uwiringiyimana, who is also the commissioner for sports and culture at PAM in UR, said the challenge is that Africans have not yet felt that they can fully be in charge of their own affairs.

Jean Marie Nsabimana, a third year student in governance and leadership and the coordinator of the Western University Students’ Association, said pan-Africanism will help Africa have real independence.

"Once we have understood the philosophy of Pan-Africanism, it will help us embrace the culture of self-reliance,” he said.

He added that that Pan-Africanism did not mean isolation but rather effective partnership between African countries to achieve the goal of self-reliance.

"African countries have to unite forces. What one country cannot manage to do, five others can do it. We have to adopt a new mindset that can lead us to self-reliance as Africans,” he said.

The students said the PAM ideology should be taught in schools and there should be PAM clubs in each class to ensure that all students understand it.

Pan-Africanism is an ideology and movement that encourages the solidarity of Africans worldwide. Modern Pan-Africanism began around the start of the twentieth century. PAM Rwanda Chapter was officially launched in August this year to further the goal of a unified, more dignified Africa.

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