While Africa’s engagement and partnership with developed countries is important, it ought to be on the basis of mutual benefit and not based on the West imposing their will on African countries, President Paul Kagame has said. President Kagame was speaking at a virtual engagement with Hoover Institution for a conversation on nation-building, leadership and US-Africa relations among other topics moderated by Herbert Raymond McMaster, a former US national security adviser. Speaking at the engagement, Kagame said that often mindsets of some western countries get in the way of their partnership with Africa as they try to impose their will on the continent. “They come with this mind-set that Africa is indifferent to human rights, to democracy, to freedom, so they come to do it for us. And we’re saying no. No human being anywhere would want to live by dictates from somebody else,” Kagame explained. The president went on to explain that with Africa emerging as the fastest growing economy, it would be ideal for the rest of the world to engage on a mutually beneficial basis with the entire continent. He noted that from experience, it’s a challenge maintaining a predictable sustainable relationship with individual countries. Citing the experience of Rwanda, he said that the country lost its eligibility for the African Growth Opportunity Act as punishment for attempting to reduce inflow of second hand clothes to develop its textile industry. “When Rwanda wanted to grow its industry and therefore, reducing on import of used clothes, some lobbyists who were benefiting from this trade influenced the powers in the US to strike off that deal, and we came under punishment for simply wanting to grow our economy,” he said. The Head of State said that among avenues for mutually beneficial engagement would be through investment that would develop countries industrial capacities. Responding to concerns that China was heavily indebting African economies, Kagame said that China is present on the continent in different capacities and models of engagement but has never forced any country to borrow from them to accumulate debt. He said that when borrowing funds externally, it is a responsibility of countries to factor in their limitations, needs, and what they need to give back. The President observed that it was rather interesting that there is much talk of China’s debt in African countries but little mention of the Paris Club. The Paris Club is a group of major creditor countries who include countries in North America and Europe. During the conversation, the President also spoke on avenues to reduce armed conflict in the continent where he said that good governance on the continent would eliminate a majority of causes of strife. He said that beyond military force, it is important for actors to understand the root causes of the emergence of the armed groups as well as cooperation among countries to curb networks of the armed groups.
