Closing an international Youth Conference in Kigali about nine years ago, the then Rwandan Vice-President, Paul Kagame, fielded several questions from the participants.

In attendance as an observer, my question to him was: ‘Your Excellency, your generation in this country and the region achieved what they did for their countries because their task was cut for them: colonialism was live and kicking, apartheid was crimson-red and the world was clearly polarised: East against West! What advice do you have for the youth of this generation, in this era of ‘liberalisation’, ‘democracy’, ‘good governance’, ‘human rights;, ‘globalisation’, ‘gender equality’, freedom of expression’, et coetera?

Well, I will not quote his answer verbatim, but this question almost started the Conference afresh, as it became the central topic of discussion during the closing cocktail.

Virtually everybody, including the chief guest himself, was of the opinion that these times are more challenging, with threats more delicate, thus less readily recognisable as such. So, no immediate, spontaneous anger against them.

Look anywhere in Africa, and you will agree with me that we are in for ‘bad times’ unless we launch liberation wars again. I am yet to know what structure replaced the OAU ‘Liberation Committee’ in the new AU, but the architects had better get back to the drawing board for a different type of liberation, requiring more brains than grenades, statesmen than politicians, leaders than rulers!

If multipartyism has not equated democracy, what do we adopt and adapt? Can we invent and use a ‘sphere’, if the ‘wheel’ has failed?

We need more ‘soul-searching’ retreats than grandiose summits!

KIGALI