FOR ME and the 40-somethings of Kigali, the Boyz II Men concert at the BK Arena on Saturday night, was one for the history books. It was an event, for me, that was tinged with nostalgia as I watched the three members of the iconic RnB group play some of the songs that were the soundtrack of my youth. ‘I’ll Make Love to You’, ‘One Sweet Day’ and their most famous hit, ‘End of the Road’. If you had told the 12-year-old me (back in 1993) that I would be watching them live in Kigali, Rwanda, I’d have laughed in your face. Firstly, because Kigali circa-1993 was no place to host any kind of concert and secondly, because even if there wasn’t a civil war going on, there wouldn’t have been the infrastructure to host such an international act. Three days have elapsed since the concert and I would like to share my main takeaways from Saturday night. My first take away was, ‘experience is just as important as infrastructure’. The iconic 10,000-seater BK Arena is a great piece of infrastructure, which is to be expected when one considers that it cost around $130 million to build. It has all the bells and whistles that one could desire such as ample parking, comfortable seating and plenty of exhibition space. However, what took my breath away on Saturday was just how curated the entire experience felt. From the romantic red lighting in the hallways, to the red roses in the bathrooms, what the event organizers were able to do was transform the vast BK Arena into a space that put you in the right frame of mind to listen to the headline artists. I might have taken the experience for granted if I hadn’t ever been in the Arena before. But as I had been there on countless occasions, the transformation was that much more bewildering (but in a good way). My second takeaway from the experience was ‘we deserve nice things and we are ready to receive them. It is my view that one of the hardest things we’ve had to navigate, as a collective, is determining what we ‘deserve’ as a people. For the longest time, we were brainwashed to believe that good things belonged to foreigners. A case in point; I was told that years ago whenever a ‘muturage’s’ chicken laid an egg, instead of eating it (or giving it to their children), they give the egg to the Caucasian padiri (as catholic priests are locally called) because ‘the eggs belonged to padiri’. I don’t know how true that story was, but it sounded quite plausible. A lot of the pushback that Rwanda has received over the years, due to choices the government has made for its citizens, are a result of the same mentality i.e., the mentality that we are unworthy of nice things (whether a protein-rich egg, or a world-class golf course). Especially as a developing nation. Which is probably why when RDB decided to invest millions in sports sponsorships, a lot of people (even in the country) framed the issue within the ‘poverty alleviation’ lens. “Why ‘waste’ the money on ‘vanity projects’ like PSG when we could have built a rural road”, they asked. What I found most interesting was the fact that none of the naysayers said that the ideas (whether building the Convention Centre or doing deals with Bayern) were bad per se, just that it wasn’t prudent for us to use our resources on them. So, back to the concert. The organizers didn’t cut corners cheap, whether on the headline artists, the set-up, the marketing or the ticket prices. They didn’t treat us like tier-2 customers. They didn’t attempt to create an experience for the ‘wealthy’ summer returnees or the ‘expatriates’ (which is who premium experiences used to be exclusively targeted to) rather they treated ‘locals’ with a modicum of respect. And guess what, the local audience responded positively. It was packed and the most expensive seats in the house were sold out. Looking ahead, I envision not only larger acts entertaining us, I also see Rwandans enjoying the very best things in the world right here in our country. And why not? We deserve the best, just like anyone else in the world. Even if we are not as ‘rich’ as we want to be. The writer is a socio-political commentator The views expressed in this article are of the writer
