Tomorrow, Rwandans will mark the country’s Golden Independence Jubilee and the 18th Liberation anniversary. It will be an opportunity to look back at how far we have come as a people, the challenges we have together endured as well as learning lessons as we steadily build a bright future.

The last half a century has been of mixed fortunes for Rwanda, with the first three decades marred by institutionalised exclusion, rights abuses and ethnic divisionism, which eventually led to the darkest days of 1994 when a million citizens were slaughtered during the Genocide against the Tutsi.Yet even during those lost 30 years or so that followed the country’s independence, there were gallant men and women who continued, albeit in difficult conditions, to fight social injustices – including those who had been deprived of their right to nationhood.Indeed, it is the repressive policies and actions under the first and second republics that forced Rwandans, both in exile and at home, to rise up and challenge these injustices, eventually leading to liberation and the halting of the Genocide in July 1994. And that ushered in a new dawn for the country and its people. Millions have since returned home and are exercising their inalienable rights to choosing own leaders, are enjoying the benefits of equability before the law and freely pursuing individual and collective aspirations.Over the last 18 years – despite the terrible legacy of the regimes of yesteryears – the Rwandan people can look back, with immense pride, at every single step they have taken thus far. Rwandans have progressed in leaps and bounds, and earned the global respect they lacked for so long.Therefore as the nation reflects on the past, it is important that every Rwandan recommit to the very values that have brought us this far, with a view of working even harder for the cause of sustainable development and ultimate liberation from any form of dependence.