The Eyes Watching Rwanda

Kigali, Rwanda–In June, all eyes will be on Rwanda as the east African nation gets its turn to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in the capital city of Kigali. Coming on the heels of the Queen Elizabeth II platinum jubilee celebration, the biennial summit of the Commonwealth of Nations will be meeting for the first time since 2018 because of COVID-19 restrictions.

With the queen as the symbolic head of a British-founded inter-governmental organization, the Commonwealth of Nations is an organization whose current members include the former colonial power along with its former colonies, protectorates and mandates. Today, 54 countries are members of the organization, including Rwanda, which joined voluntarily in 2009.

Commonwealth leaders will convene in Kigali under the theme of "Delivering a Common Future" with the goal of developing deeper connections, forging innovation and creating transformation.

This year's highly anticipated conference comes when the world and global democracies are at a tipping point with a Russian-provoked proxy war against NATO taking place in Ukraine, COVID-19 invoked supply-chain issues plaguing supply-side economics and high rates of inflation crippling buying power throughout the world.

In March, 17 African and four Caribbean countries abstained from the United Nations vote condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This year's commonwealth conference will be the focal point for Rwandans, diplomats, and a new generation of leaders of majority-Black countries looking to forge a new world order where their citizens’ needs supersede that of colonial or imperial power structures.

"It is high time for Africa and the Caribbean to work together in a direct and sustainable manner both through our respective regional organizations [CARICOM and the African Union] and bilaterally," Rwandan President Paul Kagame said during a visit to Jamaica in April.

Just 90 minutes away from the 2022 Commonwealth Conference, school is back in session for the more than 500 students of the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village (ASYV). For the students, faculty and staff of this transformational education institution, the conference is a sign of a brighter future for Rwanda, ASYV Executive Director Jean Claude Nkulikiyimfura said.

Philanthropist Anne Heyman established the village in 2008 to provide healing, education, and love to orphans and vulnerable youths between the ages of 14 and 23. With an approach centered on parental wholeness, students at ASYV are placed, by gender, into a residential family. Through this "brother" and "sister" dynamic, a Rwandan mother who’s lovingly referred to as “Mama” manages the day-to-day of the house and guides students to bright futures and healing.

Serving more than 1,500 young people since opening its doors 14 years ago, ASYV boasts a 100 percent COVID-19 vaccination rate and a 97 percent passage rate on Rwanda's National Exam. With alumni success stories in Rwanda, the UK, and the United States, the village serves as a poster child for Rwanda's bright future 28 years after the 1994 genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus and its post-COVID-19 recovery.

"We want our children to live in peace, so we have made the active choice to choose reconciliation and to live in peace," Nkulikiyimfura said during a global influencer roundtable discussion on ASYV’s 150-acre campus that Forbes attended. "The time it takes to get into conflict is the same time it takes to heal a nation. So it will take us a couple more generations to fully move beyond the horrors of 1994, but we are moving in the right direction."

For Nkulikiyimfura and the students of ASYV, bringing dignitaries like leaders from the Commonwealth countries to Rwanda is nothing new. From hosting Hollywood starlet Charlize Theron to creating the next generation of Rwandan stars, ASYV sees the conference as just another opportunity to expose the youth of Rwanda to a more globalized world and live out the village's name "Agahozo-Shalom."

The word "Agahozo" in Kinyarwanda–-Rwanda's official language besides English–means “tears are dried.” And Shalom in Hebrew means "live in peace."

As one of the five "non-British Empire" member states, Rwanda's hosting of the 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting will bestow prestige and soft power while showcasing the progress being made by the Rwandan people, like the students of ASYV, and the country's longtime leader, President Paul Kagame. The other four states include Cameroon, Mozambique, Mauritius and the Seychelles,

Nicknamed the "the west's favorite dictator" because of the lack of public criticism he receives from the United States and Europe, Kagame's leadership over the landlocked-and-resources- stripped country over the past two decades has led to an average 7.2% yearly GDP growth. And with international brands like Marriott, Radisson, Sheraton, KFC, Amazon, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Google Deloitte, Ericsson and KFC dotting the capital city of Kigali's skyline, Kagame's time as president has caused many to call the country "African Switzerland" or "African Singapore."

Visual observation can be seen by simply walking the streets of Kigali or driving through the nation's countryside, where there is immaculate upkeep of the roads and sidewalks and an unregistered amount of crime. During Forbes' visit to the Rubona neighborhood market in the country's Western Province, local public health officials had multiple checkpoints set up to enforce the country's mask mandate and vaccine requirement of public venues.

These strict COVID-19 policies have put Rwanda on the map as one of the African nations with the highest vaccine rate on the continent. Beyond just COVID-19, Kagame's expansion of Rwanda's soft power has included his reforms of the African Union in 2018 and 2019. The military hero was known for reforming the intergovernmental body's efficiency, narrowing its focus, and updating his annual membership dues.

From the eyes of international human rights organizations and activists, Kagame's time as Rwanda's president included repressing rivals at home, suppressing the free press, and jailing opponents aboard, including Paul Rusesabagina whose story was adapted into the Hollywood blockbuster Hotel Rwanda.

And while Kagame is seen as the leader behind Rwanda's post-genocide healing, reconciliation and recovery, in the eyes of the everyday Rwandans, their growth forward and journey toward peace was an effort that took everyone working together under the mantle of "One Rwanda"—a vision statement based on national unity, said Freddy Mutanguha, executive director of the Aegis Trust.

"We live in a country that doesn't have many resources. Our greatest resource is our people," Mutanguha said during a Forbes visit to ASYV. "If we were to keep the cycle of violence, we would not be a country today. It was hard for us to choose peace and reconciliation, but we had to do it."

With peace at the forefront, the commonwealth meeting will allow Rwanda and Kagame to not only showcase the nation's pro-information technology plan that includes providing every household with smartphones, but its favorable climate impact as the first nation to outrightly ban plastic bags, and tours of the 1994 genocide museum for visiting heads of state and government.

"We hope to see strong representation from the Commonwealth Caribbean, and you will be welcomed home," said Kagame, while addressing the Jamaican Parliament in Kingston, Jamaica.

With 12 members of the commonwealth hailing from the Caribbean and Americas, the post-COVID-19 head of government meeting will be an opportunity to bring Africa and the Caribbean closer together and elect a Commonwealth Secretary-General. Patricia Scotland, a British diplomat from Dominica who currently holds that position, has been plagued with allegations of cronyism following an audit of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s procurement practices.

With the rise in women's leadership throughout Africa and the Caribbean, the eyes of Jamaica's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kamina Johnson Smith, a candidate for Commonwealth Secretary General, will also be focused on Kigali. After launching a late bid for the position in an attempt to unseat Scotland, Johnson Smith has picked up the endorsements of the United Kingdom and Singapore, two commonwealth heavyweights.

Extending the recent, yet long history of Black women's leadership on the island of

Jamaica, Johnson Smith's road to Rwanda this June was paved by governmental figures such as former Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, current Jamaican Ambassador to the United States Audrey Marks, and current Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and Miss World 1993 Lisa Hanna.

Like Jamaica, Rwanda has also seen a strong emergence of women in governmental leadership. At over 60%, it currently holds the world record for the highest percentage of members of Parliament who are women.

With so many eyes on Kigali during these four days in June, maybe it's time for the world to focus on Rwanda.