"There are two things a person should never be angry at: what they can help and what they cannot.” (Traditional African proverb)

When I moved to Kigali just over two years ago, I had three main goals: to get to know Rwanda and the rest of Africa as a long-term resident and sojourner; to listen to and work with local colleagues to help develop, coach and train Rwanda’s and Africa’s next generation of leaders; and to escape the toxic socio-political environment of the USA and other countries veering towards populist autocracy and violence.

Clearly, the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and the worldwide outrage at the savage, deliberate murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis have shaken up many people’s plans and I am no exception.

I have not ventured out of Kigali – let alone Rwanda – for just over 16 months; my local and continental leadership development work has been largely put on hold; and I have not been able to ignore what is happening in the rest of the world.

So I have tried to turn the Corona devastation and increased political polarization and economic disparities within the USA and other countries into something positive, taking on two additional, externally focused roles.

Firstly, I have patiently tried to inform both the arrogant and the ignorant in the Global North – which I myself was a highly privileged member of when I was living in Europe and the USA for most of my life, apart from extended stays in China and Israel - about how things really are here in Rwanda, Africa and the Global South. No, we don’t have famine, disease and war everywhere and no, colonialism was not a universal good for the subjugated peoples of Africa and elsewhere.

Secondly, I have been sharing stories of Rwanda’s successful reconciliation, reunification and rebuilding after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis, which few people in the Global North know about beyond "Hotel Rwanda” and some more recent, rather biased books and articles.

These stories are not just examples of the triumph of the human spirit, strong leadership and collective action. They are also meant to serve as both a warning and a motivation to people in other countries to heed any signs of social deconstruction and head off the dangers of mass violence that are currently threatening the USA and other countries.

Unfortunately, these attempts to share and inform others about what has happened and what is happening here in the Global South and what could happen there in the Global North are not always successful.

Some people in the Global North have had real difficulty shedding their long-held preconceptions about the Global South and the global pandemic has only made them retreat further inward and not seek to engage with or at least listen to other voices.

On a simple professional communication level, internet connectivity is a big issue here in the Global South and it seems that quite a few people in the Global North are not sensitive or even interested in the impact that video can have on bandwidth and participation in a typical Zoom meeting. They want all 50 participants to be on video all the time, no matter what. I find this irritating.

On a more global strategic level, political leaders do not seem to have got the message about us all being in the same boat, particularly in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. I find this frustrating.

While some rich countries have bought up and hoarded vaccines so they can protect up to 70% of their population – resulting in group rejoicing and fun, ‘freedom’ TV commercials like this one: – as of 14 June, less than 1% of people in low-income countries have received even one dose so far. If we are lucky, our Post-COVID world may open up in 2022 or 2023. I find this annoying.

Yes, the leaders of the powerful G7 nations did pledge one billion vaccines for lower-income countries last week but this came more than six months after their launch, only 60% of these doses are actually new and the WHO estimates that 11 billion vaccines need to be administered to eradicate the pandemic worldwide. I find this infuriating.

So what can I do as an "angry white man” in the Global South?

I could try to suppress or cover up my righteous rage and pretend it doesn’t exist, as I was taught to do growing up in England - the nation of the ‘Stiff Upper Lip’ and ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’.

I could give up and try again to disengage from the rest of the world, which I would not do and could not do because I have a daughter in Texas – whom I have not hugged in 20 months - and friends and colleagues across the globe.

I could continue to stew in righteous rage and shake my head and my fist from afar at global vaccine inequity – amongst other imbalances – which also affect me very personally: I cannot visit my daughter because there are no available vaccines here in Rwanda right now. That would not be good for my mental or physical health and would certainly not benefit anyone else.

Or I could try to find new virtual ways to identify, connect with, listen to and build trust with those in the Global North, who are genuinely interested, engaged and grateful for new information and different perspectives on how to develop a more global consciousness.

And then I could hopefully influence and maybe even inspire them to apply the reality of post-Colonial Africa and the successes of post-Genocide Rwanda in order to come up with fresh, creative and sustainable solutions to their own challenges in their countries, communities, workplaces and homes. I find this encouraging and exciting.

"It is better to walk fast than to grow angry at the forest” (Senegalese proverb)

This is the sixth in a monthly series of personal columns, entitled "Letter from Kigali”. Each month, local resident and writer, Jeremy Solomons – who was born and educated in England of Jewish, Lebanese and Persian heritage and naturalized in the USA - shares a unique perspective on what is happening in Rwanda, Africa and the rest of the world.

The views expressed in this column are entirely those of the writer.