Editor,

RE: "Africa comes of age” (The New Times, August 21).

To get to where Rwanda is now – a development trajectory we have wrested out of the clutches of neo-colonial control and that we ourselves finally own — we had to traverse a veritable Valley of the Shadow of Death abetted by the close allies of those who have been engaged in vicious media attacks against Rwanda!

In that context, Dr Richared Sezibera’s view that we have been confronted with an arrogance reflective of the ‘soft bigotry of lowered expectations’ is way too mild. It has nothing with mere passive expectations but more actively working to ensure Africa should have no expectations at all; that we must remain under their tutelage in order for them to continue to control and exclusively prosper from Africa’s ample resources at the expense of the people of Africa.

The level of hysteria we now see of this vicious propaganda war reflects more than anything else the fear of the predators that the Rwandan model of self-emancipation from neo-colonial control may be becoming too attractive to too many other Africans. It is an unmistakable message to those who might wish to break from their own shackles that that won’t be tolerated. That they can expect the same, if not greater, kind of vicious attacks. That they should desist if they don’t want to be targeted.

But as President Kagame never ceases to tell Rwandans, the cost of breaking your shackles may be great, but that of not doing so is infinitely more. And, clearly, this is a message that we Rwandans have now internalised; thus the audience at his inauguration at Amahoro National Stadium completing his sentence for him before he could do so himself: Nta Ntambara yandera ubwoba; iyarinze Kagame izandinda!

Mwene Kalinda