{"id":295776,"date":"2025-05-26T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T11:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=295776"},"modified":"2025-05-22T06:44:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T05:44:07","slug":"africa-propaganda-watch-kagame-is-not-traore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/05\/africa-propaganda-watch-kagame-is-not-traore\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa Propaganda Watch: Kagame Is Not Traor\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, center, with Michael Milken, Bill Gates, Tony Blair and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa after the “Investing in African Prosperity” panel at the 2013 Milken Institute Global Conference.<\/p><\/div>\n

A recurring social media trope casts Rwandan President Paul Kagame as a defiant African hero, like Burkina Faso\u2019s Ibrahim Traor\u00e9, resisting the West\u2019s dictates, but nothing could be further from the truth.<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

21 May 2025\u00a0<\/em>– Anti-imperialists, socialists, and peace and justice communities across Africa and the world are inspired by the newly federated Alliance of Sahel States and by its leaders, especially Burkina Faso\u2019s charismatic Ibrahim Traor\u00e9. Seeing this groundswell of support, Paul Kagame\u2019s propagandists have rushed to liken him to Traor\u00e9. Others may sincerely imagine a likeness that doesn\u2019t in fact exist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kagame has ruled Rwanda for 30 years, since seizing power at the end of his four-year war to re-establish Tutsi dominance in July 1994. Traor\u00e9 has been in power for less than three years, since seizing power in a popular coup in September 2022. So, if one were to emulate the other\u2019s example, wouldn\u2019t Traor\u00e9 be emulating Kagame, not the other way around?<\/span><\/p>\n

Kagame doesn\u2019t reject faux Western \u201cdemocracy\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The most common argument for likening Kagame to Traor\u00e9 is that they are both authoritarians who reject the faux democracy imposed by the US\/EU\/NATO Axis of Domination so as to prioritize development. Instead, like Thomas Sankara, this argument goes, they inspire and mobilize popular will to achieve development goals and foil counterrevolutionary attacks. Traor\u00e9 has famously said <\/a>, \u201cNo country has developed under democracy,\u201d and, \u201cwe are not in a democracy, we are in a popular, progressive revolution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Kagame has never rejected Western-style electoral process. He instead mimics it, staging elections, not allowing any other credible candidates to run, even imprisoning <\/a> them, and then declaring outlandish victories. He was first elected by Rwanda\u2019s Transitional National Assembly in 2000, then in a general election in 2003, which he claimed to win in a highly unlikely 94.3% <\/a> landslide. ‘\u201dIt’s a big democratic step that has been taken by our country,” he reportedly said. ”It’s a huge stride.”<\/span><\/p>\n

He has staged more Western-style presidential elections every seven years since, winning with 93% in 2010 <\/a>, 98.78% in 2017 <\/a>, and 99% in 2024 <\/a>. In 2015, he claimed to have won with 98% a referendum <\/a> that will allow him to rule until 2034.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once again, Kagame isn\u2019t rejecting Western electoral democracy. He\u2019s mimicking it, letting the West know he\u2019ll go through the motions while serving their interests. <\/span><\/p>\n

And what has come of his 30 years of de facto authoritarianism? According to the 2024 report on the state of global food security and nutrition, the number of undernourished people in Rwanda has increased from 3.3 million in 2004\u20132006 to 4.3 million in 2021\u20132023. Although the prevalence of undernourishment in the total population has decreased from 36.9 per cent in 2004\u20132006 to 31.4 per cent in 2021\u20132023, it remains above that of eastern Africa (29 per cent), sub-Saharan Africa (22.7 per cent) and Africa overall (19.9 per cent). It is also above that of low-income countries (29.7 per cent) and least developed countries (22.1 per cent). <\/span><\/p>\n

Kagame does not live on a captain\u2019s salary<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ibrahim Traor\u00e9 famously said, “Being the president of a country is an honor, not a business opportunity.” Upon assuming office, he announced <\/a> that he would continue to live on his military captain\u2019s salary. <\/span><\/p>\n

Kagame has famously enriched himself via Crystal Ventures <\/a>, which owns businesses and properties in Rwanda and the West. He constantly travels the world in a private $65 million Gulfstream G6 jet, while his son Ivan lives in a $6.9 million Beverley Hills mansion <\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

While at the UN General Assembly gathering in New York City in 2011, he rented the $16,000-per-night presidential suite <\/a> at the Mandarin Oriental hotel, raising eyebrows in the UK, which was then giving \u00a380 million a year in aid <\/a> to Rwanda.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kagame Has Long Been a Darling of the West<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It would be difficult to find an African president who has enjoyed more photo ops with Western presidents, prime ministers, and billionaires. He is a special favorite of Tony Blair <\/a> and Bill Clinton <\/a>, who presented him with a Global Citizen Award <\/a> in 2009, and of Emmanuel Macron <\/a>. Evangelical megachurch pastor Rick Warren presented him with his International Medal of Peace <\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Kagame is especially beloved in Davos <\/a>, playground for the global elite, where he appears with the likes of Bill Gates <\/a>, Antony Blinken <\/a>, Klaus Schwab <\/a>, and Donald Trump <\/a>, and he can\u2019t do enough to serve the Davos Agenda <\/a>. He has also been a favorite with Israel and all of its leaders since they formed a victim\u2019s pact<\/a> in 1995.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ibrahim Traor\u00e9 has never been invited to Davos or Israel, and neither have the other revolutionary AES presidents, Niger\u2019s Abdourahamane Tchiani and Mali\u2019s Assimi Go\u00efta, for obvious reasons. <\/span><\/p>\n

When it suits Kagame, most of all when he\u2019s called out, sanctioned, or cut off from Western aid for his crimes in Congo, he lashes out, claiming to be a defiant African. The most recent example was at this year\u2019s genocide memorial <\/a> in Kigali, where he told his Western critics to \u201cgo to hell.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Traor\u00e9 resists the US\/EU\/NATO Axis while Kagame serves its needs in Africa<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Traor\u00e9 and the other AES presidents have been resisting coups and assassination attempts ever since coming to power. US Africa Command Commander Michael Langley recently threatened<\/a> Traor\u00e9 in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, but Kagame\u2019s Rwanda is a longstanding AFRICOM collaborator <\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Kagame has put his troops in service to Western economic interests, most recently in Mozambique where they defend French <\/a>TotalEnergies\u2019 $20 billion Liquified National Gas (LNG) project. In November 2024, even as the Rwandan army waged war in DRC, as documented <\/a> by the UN Group of Experts, the European Union awarded it another \u20ac20 million in military aid.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, after 30 years of Rwanda\u2019s US\/EU\/NATO-backed war and plunder in DRC, Trump is apportioning Kagame\u2019s reward. According to Reuters <\/a>, Trump said on X that the US had provided the first draft of a deal to both sides, Rwanda and DRC, though its contents have not yet been disclosed. <\/span><\/p>\n

You won\u2019t see Traor\u00e9 or Assimi Go\u00efta or Abdourahamane Tchiani cutting any such deals in their part of the world, just as you won\u2019t see them in Davos or Israel.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Ann Garrison is an independent journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She attended Stanford University and is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/em><\/a>. In 2014 she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize<\/em> for her reporting on conflict in the African Great Lakes region. She can be reached at <\/em>ann@anngarrison.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 blackagendareport.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

21 May 2025\u00a0– A recurring social media trope casts Rwandan President Paul Kagame as a defiant African hero, like Burkina Faso\u2019s Ibrahim Traor\u00e9, resisting the West\u2019s dictates, but nothing could be further from the truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":110030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[237,2989,3494,2388,372,1412],"class_list":["post-295776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-africa","tag-burkina-faso","tag-ibrahim-traore","tag-paul-kagame","tag-propaganda","tag-rwanda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":295778,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295776\/revisions\/295778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}