The president of France, Mr Emmanuel Macron, is visiting Rwanda this week. This will be the second visit by a sitting French president in eleven years. The last was by Nicolas Sarkozy in February 2010. Before that, the previous one had been 25 years earlier. That sort of gives an indication of the state of relations between the two countries. They are either so important that they require frequent attention or they are fraught with thorny issues that need to be sorted out. Or they represent a testing period in the history of each and a sensitive aspect of the two countries’ respective foreign policy that they cannot run away from. It’s perhaps all of these and more. And in the context of the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, there is an added moral and political dimension. The role of the French in Rwanda during that period has been at the heart of relations since then and the reason they have been strained. But the need to return to normal has also always been present. Indeed, the two presidents, Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Emmanuel Macron of France have said it is time to normalise ties and the visit and recent events form the basis for that. The path to the present state of affairs has been paved by a number of actions, the most recent of which is the publication of two reports on French involvement in the genocide. The first was the report of a commission of French historians set up by President Macron, commonly known as the Duclert Report. It concluded that the French bore overwhelming responsibility for what happened in Rwanda in 1994. It also faulted them for political, institutional and moral failure, and likened this failure to a final imperial defeat. The second was a report of an investigation commissioned by the government of Rwanda to enquire into the role of the French government in connection with the genocide against the Tutsi. Popularly known as the Muse Report, it detailed French role and leaves no doubt about its level, extent and depth. Getting to this point - the publication of such reports and the setting up of a basis for normalisation, and now the visit - has taken a lot of effort. It is the result of dogged diplomacy, of many steps and missteps and more steps to put things back on track. More importantly for Rwanda, it is proof that facts and truth cannot be kept under cover for very long, a false narrative, lacking a factual base, will not hold, and dignity cannot be denied. But as both presidents have noted, this is only the basis for the beginning of re-establishing normal ties. More work needs to be done and getting them back on the right footing will require more than a presidential visit and expressions of intent. It will also be necessary to change certain attitudes, especially in France, that have stood in the way of better understanding. Old-style colonialists who live in the past and still hold sway in some sections of French public life must abandon their prejudices and come into the present. Many of these cannot countenance losing to an African in any argument. Of course, time might sort this out, but that is rather slow. Indicted genocidaires, many of them so prominent they cannot be unknown to French authorities, live and work in France. Some have even taken on French citizenship. All this while they have counted on the bad relations between Rwanda and France for their continued stay there. For business to return to usual, they have to be apprehended and put on trial. Some opportunists in the region with ill-intentions towards Rwanda have sought to fish in the muddy waters of these relations and added their own mud to make them even murkier. They must be denied this opportunity and kept at the appropriate distance. A return to good relations must also recognise certain, generally accepted realities. Some countries have more power, more resources and are more advanced than others, which gives them certain advantages. This is the reality of inequality that we must live with. But there are areas where this is not the case. Right, truth and dignity, for instance, cannot be derogated by any power relations. History may be written and even imposed by those who have power, but the true version will always come out as long as there are those who have truth on their side and are willing to fight for it. One of the important lessons that have been learnt from the last thirty years of Franco-Rwanda relations is that it is important to separate personal interests from those of the nation. The personal are transient and end with the persons; the national are more permanent and enduring. It can be assumed that diplomats of both countries working on normalisation of relations must be taking all these and more into account. Recent events, pronouncements by the leaders of both Rwanda and France, and now President Macron’s visit indeed provide a good basis for a reset in relations. The next step is to make sure they grow and become stronger. For all this we must say: Bien venue Monsieur le President.
