Paul Kagame - Academy of Achievement

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Academy of Achievement</title>  <meta name="description" content=" As leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in the 1990s, Paul Kagame headed a successful insurgency against the Hutu regime that had murdered over a million of Kagame’s fellow ethnic Tutsis and many of their Hutu countrymen. When Kagame assumed the presidency in 2000, his country was embroiled in a seven-nation conflict that threatened to engulf the continent. President Kagame joined a regional ceasefire in 2003, and since then has dedicated his country’s energies to economic development. Rwanda is now experiencing rapid economic growth and has made dramatic progress in health care and education. With President Kagame’s leadership, Rwanda is overcoming the lingering trauma of civil war and genocide. The president enjoys a high level of popularity, although he is an ethnic Tutsi presiding over a majority Hutu nation. He has outlawed hate speech, abolished the death penalty, and joined the UN declaration of LGBT rights. Today, Rwanda enjoys the world’s highest representation of women in its national parliament. In 2017, Paul Kagame was elected to his third full term as president. "/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Paul Kagame - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<div class="page" title="Page 37"> <div class="layoutArea"> <div class="column"> As leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in the 1990s, Paul Kagame headed a successful insurgency against the Hutu regime that had murdered over a million of Kagame’s fellow ethnic Tutsis and many of their Hutu countrymen. When Kagame assumed the presidency in 2000, his country was embroiled in a seven-nation conflict that threatened to engulf the continent. President Kagame joined a regional ceasefire in 2003, and since then has dedicated his country’s energies to economic development. Rwanda is now experiencing rapid economic growth and has made dramatic progress in health care and education. With President Kagame’s leadership, Rwanda is overcoming the lingering trauma of civil war and genocide. The president enjoys a high level of popularity, although he is an ethnic Tutsi presiding over a majority Hutu nation. He has outlawed hate speech, abolished the death penalty, and joined the UN declaration of LGBT rights. Today, Rwanda enjoys the world’s highest representation of women in its national parliament. In 2017, Paul Kagame was elected to his third full term as president. </div> </div> </div>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Feature-kagame.png"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="<div class="page" title="Page 37"> <div class="layoutArea"> <div class="column"> As leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in the 1990s, Paul Kagame headed a successful insurgency against the Hutu regime that had murdered over a million of Kagame’s fellow ethnic Tutsis and many of their Hutu countrymen. When Kagame assumed the presidency in 2000, his country was embroiled in a seven-nation conflict that threatened to engulf the continent. President Kagame joined a regional ceasefire in 2003, and since then has dedicated his country’s energies to economic development. Rwanda is now experiencing rapid economic growth and has made dramatic progress in health care and education. With President Kagame’s leadership, Rwanda is overcoming the lingering trauma of civil war and genocide. The president enjoys a high level of popularity, although he is an ethnic Tutsi presiding over a majority Hutu nation. He has outlawed hate speech, abolished the death penalty, and joined the UN declaration of LGBT rights. Today, Rwanda enjoys the world’s highest representation of women in its national parliament. In 2017, Paul Kagame was elected to his third full term as president. </div> </div> </div>"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Paul Kagame - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Feature-kagame.png"/> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180804021711\/http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"WebSite","@id":"#website","url":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180804021711\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/","name":"Academy of Achievement","alternateName":"A museum of living history","potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180804021711\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/search\/{search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}</script> <script 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<h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Paul Kagame</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">President of Rwanda</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-41834 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-military-soldier careers-politician"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane fade in active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">I understood firsthand the problems of being a refugee. Second, it occurred to me that nobody needed to experience that kind of thing. Three, I thought that whatever I would be doing, whatever my responsibilities were, I would always try and find a way of addressing that problem.</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">Power, Genocide, Ambition, Vision and Triumph</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> October 23, 1957 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p>Paul Kagame was born in southern Rwanda, to a politically prominent family of the Tutsi ethnic group. The European colonial powers, Germany and then Belgium, had exploited ethnic divisions among the country’s population, favoring the country’s Tutsis over their neighbors, the Hutu ethnic group. As the country prepared for independence from Belgium in 1959, a Hutu rebel movement fomented violence against the Tutsis, and Kagame’s family fled their home, eventually seeking refuge in the neighboring British colony of Uganda. Paul Kagame was only two years old when his family went into exile, and he began school while living in a refugee camp. It is there that he met his friend and future comrade Fred Rwigyema.</p> <figure id="attachment_42234" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42234 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-GettyImages-461377391.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42234 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1512" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-GettyImages-461377391.jpg 2280w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-GettyImages-461377391-380x252.jpg 380w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-GettyImages-461377391-760x504.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-GettyImages-461377391.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">July 1994: Rwandan Vice President Paul Kagame, the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front commander, in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Kagame was born in 1957 to a Tutsi family in Rwanda’s Southern Province. In 1959, his family fled to Uganda when Hutu violence toward the Tutsis flared during the buildup to Rwandan independence from Belgium. Kagame and his family lived in Uganda for the next 30 years as refugees. In the 1980s, Kagame joined Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Army, helping Museveni to secure the Ugandan presidency, and serving as a senior military officer under the new government.  In 1990, Paul Kagame and three expatriate Rwandan military leaders formed the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriot Front and plotted an invasion of their homeland. (Alexander Joe)</figcaption></figure><p>The Kagame family arrived in Uganda not long after the country gained its independence from Britain, but in 1971, the country fell under the rule of the notorious dictator Idi Amin. Paul Kagame completed his education in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, while in the countryside, rebel armies waged guerrilla warfare against Amin’s regime from bases in Tanzania. On graduating, Kagame traveled to and from Rwanda surreptitiously to visit family members and reacquaint himself with his native land, while his friend Rwigyema joined the rebels in Tanzania.</p> <figure id="attachment_42220" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42220 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-1994-GettyImages-740093_master.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42220 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1505" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-1994-GettyImages-740093_master.jpg 2280w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-1994-GettyImages-740093_master-380x251.jpg 380w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-1994-GettyImages-740093_master-760x502.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-1994-GettyImages-740093_master.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1994: Skeletal remains are strewn on the grounds of the Catholic mission in Rukara, Rwanda. On April 6, 1994, the plane carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down outside of  Kigali. Following the crash, an organized campaign of violence against the Tutsi and moderate Hutu civilians spread across the country. Hutu extremists assumed the Tutsis shot it down. Immediately, Hutu extremists set out to destroy the entire Tutsi population. Approximately 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates were slaughtered over 100 days. (Scott Peterson)</figcaption></figure><p>In 1979, the Ugandan rebels, with the assistance of Tanzanian forces, ousted Amin, but the rule of his successor, Milton Obote, threatened persecution against Kagame’s fellow Rwandan refugees, and Kagame and Rwigyema joined a new armed movement against Obote’s rule, the National Resistance Army, led by Yoweri Museveni. With the resistance victory in 1986, Kagame became a senior officer in the new Ugandan army.</p> <figure id="attachment_42221" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42221 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-1994-GettyImages-455154312_master.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42221 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1507" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-1994-GettyImages-455154312_master.jpg 2280w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-1994-GettyImages-455154312_master-380x251.jpg 380w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-1994-GettyImages-455154312_master-760x502.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-1994-GettyImages-455154312_master.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">July 19, 1994: After Kagame and the RFP ended the genocide with a military victory, Hutu Pasteur Bizimungu was sworn in as president of the new Government of National Unity and Kagame became vice president, commander-in-chief of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), and minister of defense. (Photo: Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p>With his success in Uganda, Kagame’s eyes turned to his native country, and along Rwigyema and fellow Rwandan Tutsi exiles, he founded the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and planned a war of liberation against the regime in Rwanda.  In that country, leaders of the regime had turned on one another, and the RPF’s Tutsi founders were joined by moderate members of Rwanda’s Hutu ethnic group, disillusioned with the country’s Hutu-led regime.</p> <figure id="attachment_42230" style="width: 2048px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42230 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-July-2000-GettyImages-51396658_master.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42230 lazyload" alt="" width="2048" height="1522" data-sizes="(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px" data-srcset="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-July-2000-GettyImages-51396658_master.jpg 2048w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-July-2000-GettyImages-51396658_master-380x282.jpg 380w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-July-2000-GettyImages-51396658_master-760x565.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-July-2000-GettyImages-51396658_master.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">July 2000, Kigali, Rwanda: On the sixth anniversary of the liberation of Kigali, President Paul Kagame addressed the population and the guests at Amahoro National Stadium. President Kagame asked for peace in the region and cooperation between different partners to implement a peace agreement. He also asked the refugees to come back to Rwanda and the Interahamwe to depose the arms and to stop fighting against Rwanda and Tutsi people. On April 22, 2000, Kagame took the oath of office as President of the Republic of Rwanda, after being elected by the Transitional National Assembly. In August 2003, Kagame won a landslide victory — with 95% of the vote — in the first multi-party presidential elections in the country’s history. (Photo credit: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p>The Ugandan army selected Kagame for advanced study at the United States Army Command and General Staff College in Leavenworth, Kansas. Kagame was in Kansas in 1990 when the RPF staged its first attack on government forces in Rwanda. Fred Rwigyema was killed in battle and Kagame returned to Africa to become the movement’s military commander. By 1993, Kagame’s RPF had made significant territorial gains in Rwanda, and the Rwandan government agreed to a ceasefire.</p> <figure id="attachment_42229" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42229 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-December-2006-GettyImages-72759391_master.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42229 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1607" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-December-2006-GettyImages-72759391_master.jpg 2280w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-December-2006-GettyImages-72759391_master-380x268.jpg 380w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-December-2006-GettyImages-72759391_master-760x536.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-December-2006-GettyImages-72759391_master.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">December 2006: Queen Elizabeth II receives President of Rwanda Paul Kagame and his wife, Jeannette, at Buckingham Palace in London. During his five-day trip, Kagame met with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Hilary Benn, International Development Secretary, to discuss Britain’s aid budget in Rwanda. (Stefan Rousseau/AFP)</figcaption></figure><p>The combatants were negotiating a peace settlement when an airplane carrying Rwanda’s President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down approaching the capital city of Kigali. Habyarimana died in the incident, and extremist Hutu leaders called for the murder and expulsion of the country’s Tutsi population. Radio broadcasters and even members of the clergy fanned the flames of ethnic hatred, and a wave of senseless killing swept the country as neighbor murdered neighbor with any tools that came to hand. In 100 days, the Rwandan genocide claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children, mostly ethnic Tutsis, along with members of the Hutu population who opposed the slaughter. Estimates of the dead range from 800,000 to a million.</p> <figure id="attachment_42226" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42226 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April-2008-GettyImages-80833635_master.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42226 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1517" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April-2008-GettyImages-80833635_master.jpg 2280w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April-2008-GettyImages-80833635_master-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April-2008-GettyImages-80833635_master-760x506.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April-2008-GettyImages-80833635_master.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">April 23, 2008: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Paul Kagame address a press conference following talks at the Chancellery in Berlin during Kagame’s four-day official visit to Germany. (John Macdougall/AFP/Getty)</figcaption></figure><p>Kagame and the RPF resumed their war on the Rwandan regime, and by 1994, Kagame’s insurgency succeeded in deposing the Hutu-led government and put an end to the mass killing of their countrymen.  Pasteur Bizimungu, an ethnic Hutu spokesman of the RPF, became the new president, and Paul Kagame was named vice president and minister of defense. Kagame moved quickly to restore law and order and prosecuted a number of his own RPF soldiers who had participated in reprisal killings.</p> <figure id="attachment_42232" style="width: 2036px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42232 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-March-2009GettyImages-85529529_master.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42232 lazyload" alt="" width="2036" height="1696" data-sizes="(max-width: 2036px) 100vw, 2036px" data-srcset="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-March-2009GettyImages-85529529_master.jpg 2036w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-March-2009GettyImages-85529529_master-380x317.jpg 380w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-March-2009GettyImages-85529529_master-760x633.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-March-2009GettyImages-85529529_master.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">March 20, 2009, Johannesburg, South Africa: President Paul Kagame meets former South African President Nelson Mandela at the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Kagame stated that African nations should no longer rely on foreign aid and should instead create sustainable wealth from the continent’s own resources. (Denis Farrell/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p>Instigators and perpetrators of the genocide, known as <em>genocidaires</em>, regrouped and carried out raids from refugee camps in neighboring Zaire. Kagame’s army pursued the <em>genocidaires</em> into Zaire, and Rwanda became embroiled in the country’s civil war.  A rebellion had erupted against Zaire’s dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, and Rwandan forces intervened in support of the rebels. In a conflict known as the First Congo War, the rebels, with support from Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda, deposed Mobutu, and Laurent-Désiré Kabila became president of the country, renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Tensions appeared quickly between the new Congo government and its neighbors, and Rwanda and Uganda intervened for the second time. The conflict escalated into a regional war, known as the Second Congo War or the Great War of Africa, involving nine countries and as many as twenty separate armed factions.</p> <figure id="attachment_42222" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42222 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2009-GettyImages-91019856_master.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42222 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="2119" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2009-GettyImages-91019856_master.jpg 2280w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2009-GettyImages-91019856_master-380x353.jpg 380w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2009-GettyImages-91019856_master-760x706.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2009-GettyImages-91019856_master.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">September 22, 2009: President Paul Kagame addresses the Summit on Climate Change, ahead of the December Copenhagen Summit, at the United Nations in New York. Kagame argued that Africa will suffer severe impacts of climate change if no action is taken and called for a shared mitigation and adaptation strategy. (Timothy A. Clary)</figcaption></figure><p>The war impeded Rwanda’s troubled process of reconciliation, and in 2000, President Bizimungu resigned and Paul Kagame succeeded him as president of Rwanda.  In 2003, Rwanda adopted a new constitution and Kagame was elected to his first full term as president. That year, Kagame agreed to an international peace settlement and the Congo’s long war came to an end. Rwandan forces were withdrawn from the Congo and the DRC agreed to disarm and repatriate the Rwandan Hutu insurgents on its territory.</p> <figure id="attachment_42223" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42223 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2010-GettyImages-591741248_master.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42223 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2010-GettyImages-591741248_master.jpg 2280w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2010-GettyImages-591741248_master-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2010-GettyImages-591741248_master-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2010-GettyImages-591741248_master.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">August 3, 2010: President Paul Kagame greets supporters while campaigning for his reelection in a Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) political rally in Gahanga, Kicukiro District, Rwanda. Days later, Kagame wins the presidential election with 93% of the votes, securing a second seven-year term. (Photo by Christophe Calais/Corbis via Getty)</figcaption></figure><p>Kagame was now free to pursue the process of reconciliation and economic development. He announced a program he called Vision 2020, with the goals of achieving middle-income status for his country by the year 2020. From 2004 to 2010, the country averaged eight percent annual economic growth and continues to meet milestones in education, income and other measures of development.</p> <figure id="attachment_42224" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42224 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2017-GettyImages-824862422_master.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42224 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2017-GettyImages-824862422_master.jpg 2280w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2017-GettyImages-824862422_master-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2017-GettyImages-824862422_master-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2017-GettyImages-824862422_master.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">July 31, 2017: Incumbent Rwandan President Paul Kagame greets a crowd of supporters as he arrives for a rally in Gakenke, ahead of Rwanda’s presidential elections. In August, Kagame wins a landslide victory —with 99% of the vote — securing a third term in office and extending his 17 years in power. The election came after a constitutional amendment, which ended a two-term limit for presidents and theoretically permits Kagame to remain in power until 2034. The amendment was approved by 98% of the voters. (Photo credit: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p>President Kagame has attempted to promote a sense of national unity, transcending historic ethnic differences, although old rivalries continue to threaten Rwanda’s hard-won peace. Former President Bizimungu was imprisoned in 2004  for attempting to form an armed militia, but President Kagame pardoned him in 2007. Genocide denial is a crime in Rwanda, but foreign observers and Hutu dissidents claim the law has been used to suppress freedom of the press and opposition parties. Kagame and his supporters believe the dangers of denial, including the possibility of resumed ethnic violence, justify legal limitations on the discussion of Rwanda’s tragic recent past.</p> <figure id="attachment_42318" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-42318 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp2-LondonSummit_0702.png"></noscript><img class="wp-image-42318 size-full lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1824" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp2-LondonSummit_0702.png 2280w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp2-LondonSummit_0702-380x304.png 380w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp2-LondonSummit_0702-760x608.png 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp2-LondonSummit_0702.png"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2017: Awards Council member Lord Jacob Rothschild presents the Golden Plate Award to President Kagame at a ceremony during the Academy of Achievement’s International Achievement Summit at Claridge’s Hotel in London.</figcaption></figure><p>In 2009, a French court accused Kagame of orchestrating the death of President Habyarimana, but Rwandan investigators have concluded that the presidential plane was shot down by Hutu extremists seeking to derail the peace process. Diplomatic relations with France were suspended over the accusation. Elected to a second term in 2010, Kagame has pursued close relations with the United States and the East African Community and sought an improved relationship with France. He was elected to a third seven-year term in 2017. A controversial revision of the country’s constitution permits President Kagame to run for two further terms of five years each.</p></body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 2017 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.politician">Politician</a></div> <div><a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.military-soldier">Military/Soldier</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> October 23, 1957 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <div class="page" title="Page 37"> <div class="layoutArea"> <div class="column"> <p>As leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in the 1990s, Paul Kagame headed a successful insurgency against the Hutu regime that had murdered over a million of Kagame’s fellow ethnic Tutsis and many of their Hutu countrymen.</p> <p>When Kagame assumed the presidency in 2000, his country was embroiled in a seven-nation conflict that threatened to engulf the continent. President Kagame joined a regional ceasefire in 2003, and since then has dedicated his country’s energies to economic development. Rwanda is now experiencing rapid economic growth and has made dramatic progress in health care and education.</p> <p>With President Kagame’s leadership, Rwanda is overcoming the lingering trauma of civil war and genocide. The president enjoys a high level of popularity, although he is an ethnic Tutsi presiding over a majority Hutu nation. He has outlawed hate speech, abolished the death penalty, and joined the UN declaration of LGBT rights. Today, Rwanda enjoys the world’s highest representation of women in its national parliament. In 2017, Paul Kagame was elected to his third full term as president.</p> </div> </div> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/MVK5zFgttRo?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kagame-Paul-MasterEdit-2017.00_58_53_05.Still006-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kagame-Paul-MasterEdit-2017.00_58_53_05.Still006-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">Power, Genocide, Ambition, Vision and Triumph</h2> <div class="sans-2">London, England</div> <div class="sans-2">October 18, 2017</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>Mr. President, your country endured an almost unimaginable calamity in 1994, the attempt by the government to annihilate the Tutsi population, minorities and dissidents. What was it like to run to a country in which nearly every tenth person had been murdered?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/rKs7QXh8DwI?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Paul-Kagame-4.00_01_05_06.Still004-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Paul-Kagame-4.00_01_05_06.Still004-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>What happened in 1994, of course, was on the scale that no one imagined, but we had had a history of killings in Rwanda since 1959. In fact, during that period we became refugees. There were many killings between 1959 and 1961. So many killings had been taking place, and that’s how people ran to different parts of the region. They were running away from these political killings. But throughout the years, up to the time we started the armed struggle in 1990, there had been oppression. There had been killings of people, targeted people. All along, a section of our population was the target from the ‘60s up to that moment, but the scale of this one was more than anyone could imagine. But during the fighting — during 1990 to ‘94 — what was happening — in ‘91, ‘92, ‘93, there were always indications that something like what happened in many years before could easily happen. Because the government was so much whipping up sentiments — ethnic sentiments — and saying, “These people are returning. They are the same people who survived the killings of the ‘60s…” and so on. “After all, these are foreigners. They shouldn’t be around to go back to home, you know. They should stay where they are. The country’s very small. It’s only for another section of the oppression of Rwanda, not for these ones who are foreigners,” and you could see they were building up these — and, in fact, they started arresting people. They started killing them in different parts of the country, those who had stayed in the country who were never refugees but who were identified as this group that they should exterminate.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_42228" style="width: 1840px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42228 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/WP-Bodies_of_Rwandan_refugees_DF-ST-02-03035.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42228 lazyload" alt="" width="1840" height="2820" data-sizes="(max-width: 1840px) 100vw, 1840px" data-srcset="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/WP-Bodies_of_Rwandan_refugees_DF-ST-02-03035.jpg 1840w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/WP-Bodies_of_Rwandan_refugees_DF-ST-02-03035-248x380.jpg 248w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/WP-Bodies_of_Rwandan_refugees_DF-ST-02-03035-496x760.jpg 496w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/WP-Bodies_of_Rwandan_refugees_DF-ST-02-03035.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1993: Bodies of Rwandan refugees wrapped in straw mats and blankets line the roadside. In the background, more bodies are offloaded from a truck. Because of the lack of fresh water and food, as many as 50,000 people died in crudely established refugee camps during an outbreak of cholera. (Credit: <em>Airman</em> magazine, December 1994 issue)</figcaption></figure><p><strong>When you look back at the genocide, is there anything you can imagine could have been done differently to avert this?  Some mistake we can identify and never repeat?</strong></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/dyCOuE2dmCQ?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Paul-Kagame-4.00_00_55_28.Still002-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Paul-Kagame-4.00_00_55_28.Still002-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Paul Kagame: It was ‘61, then ‘66, many killings. Then ‘73, so many killings. In fact, they had — some of my sisters had stayed. I have four sisters, and I had a brother who died in the struggle in Uganda. But two of my sisters had stayed in the country with relatives. They didn’t flee with us. They stayed with those who stayed. But in 1973, they actually ran away this time, and they became refugees because they almost killed them. So you can see, there were killings in ‘61, there were killings in ‘73, and then there were killings at this time. And as I mentioned to you — so unless one could really say, “If the war had not started, if we hadn’t waged an armed struggle, probably that would not have happened.” But that would only be leaving it to saying, “No, they could kill like they killed in ‘61. They could kill as they killed in ‘73. So let those killings of a certain low number — a small number — continue, and so continue with the people having no right to their country. Maybe this is the best way to manage it.” So if we hadn’t waged an armed struggle, maybe these things wouldn’t have happened.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>We know you’ve done a lot to achieve reconciliation in Rwanda, but how do you now deal with the fact that other countries didn’t intervene while this was happening?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/afvWSnqN8HM?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Paul-Kagame-4.00_00_29_17.Still003-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Paul-Kagame-4.00_00_29_17.Still003-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Paul Kagame: I have come to settle to the idea and understanding that problems of any country, or later on — I mean if we start with mine, my country, and my country’s problems, they will never be settled by people from outside. Never. I haven’t known of any country where problems of this kind are resolved from outside, rather than people themselves from inside. I don’t know of an example, so the outside having not helped, well, we can spend a lot of time blaming people or others, but we are not expected to do it anyway from experience. That’s what I know. That won’t be solved.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_42329" style="width: 1840px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-42329 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-A-Thousand-Hills-Front-Cover.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-42329 size-full lazyload" alt="" width="1840" height="2775" data-sizes="(max-width: 1840px) 100vw, 1840px" data-srcset="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-A-Thousand-Hills-Front-Cover.jpg 1840w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-A-Thousand-Hills-Front-Cover-252x380.jpg 252w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-A-Thousand-Hills-Front-Cover-504x760.jpg 504w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-A-Thousand-Hills-Front-Cover.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2008: <i>A Thousand Hills: Rwanda’s Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It</i>, by Stephen Kinzer, is the biography of President Paul Kagame. “Kagame grew up as a wretched refugee. He and a group of comrades, determined to force their way back home after a generation of exile, designed one of the most audacious covert operations in the history of clandestine war. Then, after taking power, they amazed the world by stabilizing and reviving their devastated country. Now, as President Kagame, he’s obsessed with a single outlandish dream: to make Rwanda the first middle-income country in Africa, and to do it in the space of a single generation. <i>A Thousand Hills</i> tells Kagame’s tumultuous life story, including his early fascination with Che Guevara and James Bond, his years as an intelligence agent, his training in Cuba and the United States, the dazzlingly original way he built his secret rebel army, his bloody rebellion, and his outsized ambitions for Rwanda. It is the adventure-filled tale of a visionary who won a war, stopped a genocide, and then set out to turn his country into the star of Africa.” (© Stephen Kinzer)</figcaption></figure><p><strong>But don’t you blame others for what happened?</strong></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/mArQ2c1_IEc?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kagame-Paul-MasterEdit-2017.01_06_25_17.Still007-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kagame-Paul-MasterEdit-2017.01_06_25_17.Still007-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/integrity/">Integrity</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Paul Kagame: I’ve found some logic that helps me to not spend so much time blaming people —other people — for the genocide, much as even the origin of it was contributed from outside. It has a history. You can trace it from outside, but it wouldn’t work unless conditions inside of the country allowed it to take the shape it did. So in other words, we are to blame, too, we Rwandans. And in the end, whoever — when it came from outside, maybe people from outside were very clever to start something and let us be the ones to carry it out. And it would be outside, as innocent people who would come to rescue us, when they’re the ones who actually started it. You see my point? So if we hadn’t really taken on this kind of politics that divides our society that later on ended in a genocide, we ourselves, if we hadn’t — meaning the Rwandans who were in power from independence up to the time this happened — for us, the blame — if one may call it so, meaning from outside, we, the refugees — is that we fought a war to better our country, to better ourselves. Maybe somebody comes along and says, “You shouldn’t have done that.” But my question would be, “What did you want me to do?” Well, if somebody goes, “Oh no, you should have stayed as Ugandan and become Ugandan.” Yeah, but there’s somebody somewhere else.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>So you’re not sorry you made war against the government?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/fJxhAJaznaA?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kagame-Paul-MasterEdit-2017.00_49_44_24.Still005-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kagame-Paul-MasterEdit-2017.00_49_44_24.Still005-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/courage/">Courage</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Paul Kagame: I was more than happy to get involved from the beginning. And by the way, we agreed, risking my own life — like many other people risked and even lost their lives — this was something much bigger than just feeling comfortable in Uganda, where I was, or somebody else, wherever they were, and saying, “No, no, no. This has gone on for too long. We are stateless. We are refugees.” We couldn’t just allow ourselves to live at the mercy of people, where we were refugees, or where somebody could decide what happens to us and what should not happen to us. No, this was something that any of us was happy to have stood up and fought against.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_42303" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42303 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-March-2014-Umugunda.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42303 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-March-2014-Umugunda.jpg 2280w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-March-2014-Umugunda-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-March-2014-Umugunda-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-March-2014-Umugunda.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2014: President Paul Kagame participates in Global Umuganda in the Kiberinka village of Nyamirambo, Kigali. “Umuganda is about development and rebuilding what was destroyed by our tragic history. We are not working to become other people. We know who we are and we are working to build a Rwanda we are proud of. Any external help must only come as an addition to our own efforts to better ourselves,” he said. (Photo: Paul Kagame Flickr)</figcaption></figure><p><strong>Now, as you work to rebuild and unite your country, what achievement are you most proud of?</strong></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/EyEbOv26D9M?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kagame-Paul-MasterEdit-2017.00_45_34_02.Still004-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kagame-Paul-MasterEdit-2017.00_45_34_02.Still004-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Paul Kagame: Very happy, very proud, apart from the loss of many lives, which can never be corrected, or we can’t do much about it. It’s probably the most expensive part of the struggle. But to have won the war and won the peace for ourselves, because if you look at those years of the war, of the genocide, and they are brought to an end, and then we started building and rebuilding and a sense of reconciliation, a sense of allowing Rwandans to live together as a nation. And now a proud people of Rwanda, and socially made progress politically, significant progress, economically the same. I think we could not have asked for more.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>Looking back, what was the key to winning the peace? Was there a single decision that you think has made peace possible?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/kfKVAySYkBs?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kagame-Paul-MasterEdit-2017.00_42_06_13.Still003-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kagame-Paul-MasterEdit-2017.00_42_06_13.Still003-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/perseverance/">Perseverance</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Paul Kagame: It will never be one single thing. It’s normally going to be a combination of things, but it builds around a determination, a single-mindedness of all of us coming together and saying we need to change the course of history and politics in our country, and we are one nation. We are different. We will be different, but we can use this difference to build rather than destroy what belongs to all of us. So that organization, that coming together, that vision, and deciding that this is what we deserve is really — so for that, you need to have vision, leadership, and organization, organization which brings in people to be part of that vision and to feel they own it.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_42310" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42310 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April2016-Commemoration.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42310 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1565" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April2016-Commemoration.jpg 2280w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April2016-Commemoration-380x261.jpg 380w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April2016-Commemoration-760x522.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April2016-Commemoration.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">April 7, 2016: President Kagame and President Magufuli of Tanzania light the flame of remembrance at the Kigali Gisozi Memorial. The flame will light for a hundred days, signifying the dark period the genocide lasted. Across the country, Rwandans are gathered at memorial sites and rivers where bodies of Tutsi were dumped during the genocide. Some have braced the rain and chilly weather to honor the victims. (Photo credit: Paul Kagame Flickr)</figcaption></figure><p><strong>What do you say to people who are angry? If their neighbors killed their family, they must want revenge.</strong></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/PcqCbtL85Mg?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kagame-Paul-MasterEdit-2017.00_23_16_01.Still002-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kagame-Paul-MasterEdit-2017.00_23_16_01.Still002-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/courage/">Courage</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Paul Kagame: It’s painful. It’s very hard even to explain. In fact, I remember, on one occasion we were commemorating the genocide. Every year we do it. Every 7th of April of every year we do that. We remember our people. And I remember there was a story. Indeed, the survivors and others were agitated, and rightly so, and were saying, you know, it’s like the story of the cost of reconciliation is only carried by them. Meaning they are the ones who lost people, and they are the ones who suffered, but they are always asked to do something so that the reconciliation process succeeds. And they had to engage them at various levels, and had a discussion with them and had even to make a public speech on that day, telling people that, first of all, we hear them. We are part of them. This is not that we are dealing with a foreign situation or a foreign idea or anything. It’s us. They and us are the same. There’s no distinction. And that the reason, the fear — or anybody would see that they are the ones carrying the burden — is to be explained only by one, and I put it to them, I said, “Yes, I can come to you and look you in the eyes and ask you to forgive and not forget, and I am with you on that. But it’s only you that I can ask that, and it’s only you that can be asked to do something about this story of Rwanda.” Because I can’t go to the perpetrators and ask them anything. There is nothing to ask from them. I can’t go to these ones who killed, who are in prison or who are wherever they are, and say, “Please forgive us, and next time don’t behave like this.” No. I said, “There’s nothing to ask from these people. They are condemned. They killed, carried out a genocide of other people. We just have to decide what to do about that.” We don’t even have to ask their consent because they have condemned themselves to being in a situation where forgiveness — they should be forgiven or they should be tried. “So there’s nothing to ask of these people, but there’s a lot to ask from you.” And this conversation helped people to understand and say, “Oh, this is why we carry the burden.” And I said, “You — <em>we</em> — lost people. Your people, our people. I lost many relatives in the genocide. So when I’m saying this, I’m with you. I’m one of you. But we need to live beyond this tragic story. We don’t need any more, and the only way is to ask you — is to ask ourselves — to forgive but not forget.” Yes.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_42231" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42231 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-mar-2017-GettyImages-655524182_master.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-42231 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-mar-2017-GettyImages-655524182_master.jpg 2280w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-mar-2017-GettyImages-655524182_master-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-mar-2017-GettyImages-655524182_master-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-mar-2017-GettyImages-655524182_master.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">March 20, 2017: Pope Francis meets President Paul Kagame at the Vatican in Italy. The President and the Pope discussed the relationship between Rwanda and the Holy See, as well as the role of the Church in the most tragic chapters of Rwanda’s past, leading up to the Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994. (Photo by Alessandra Benedetti)</figcaption></figure><p><strong>Your country, Rwanda, now has a female majority in Parliament.  That’s very unusual. How did that come about?  Is that something you specifically tried to achieve?</strong></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/kIpNkWoGOpw?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kagame-Paul-MasterEdit-2017.00_03_00_10.Still001-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kagame-Paul-MasterEdit-2017.00_03_00_10.Still001-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Paul Kagame: We pushed that from the beginning, to have women be in their rightful place, and that — from the beginning, even in our conversations with different people, leaders of our country at different levels, I have always emphasized that this is not doing them a favor. We are not doing women any favors. It’s their right. We are only allowing them to have their rights. In fact, even in a joke, I say, “If these women were like me, growing up and having to take up arms to fight for my right, maybe these women should take up arms and really fight those who are denying them their rights.” But the situation is such that we can handle it differently. There’s no need for there to be fights. Generally, women are 52 percent of our population. Right? And from what I said, that being their right, I think if you give 52 percent of our population their right, that’s sort of the big thing. That’s huge, but now in Parliament — 64 percent — so I’m just saying, even if things just remain the same — that these are just rights being realized — you’re already gaining. But now, 52 percent of the population empowered and being part of whatever is happening in the country, you gain socially, you gain economically, you gain in all ways. Now when we have them in Parliament, 64 percent, and Parliament making laws and so on, they are already helping this transformation.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_40916" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-40916 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0398.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-40916 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0398.jpg 2280w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0398-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0398-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0398.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2017: President Paul Kagame addresses Academy delegates and members at a symposium during the American Academy of Achievement’s 52nd annual International Achievement Summit, held at Claridge’s Hotel in London.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>Is there a woman you’d like to see succeed you as president?</strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame:  I don’t want to think about that from such an early stage because it might even create problems for her.  I know there’s no need because I may mention somebody and then after that, I realize that so many other women probably deserve it or are more qualified. So I wouldn’t want to do that.  That should happen at the right time. Every time you are scanning and looking around, wanting to see the evolution of things, and then people as they call out different — there are so many women at leadership level, and they are doing amazing things, you know. They are part of this success story of Rwanda, and you don’t want to zero on one woman so early when there are so many wonderful women who can. Whereas there are men — there are many — when you are talking about women and so on, we are not really saying that men aren’t there or useful or considered, but I think we men have dominated this for a long time.</p></body></html> </div>    <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">We’d love to know more about your journey and how you came to leave the country you were born in.</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: From the earliest part of my life — close to four years old — that’s when my family went into exile. That was around ‘61. That’s when we became refugees in Uganda, lived in a refugee camp. Camps shifted. We went to different parts of Uganda as refugees, but life was the same to us living in a refugee camp. Of course, that was very difficult from whatever angle we look at it. Family, myself, and others, many other Rwandans, had to go into exile at the time. So the growing end of those conditions was quite an experience that shaped people, their thinking, and even later on, it was both physical and many things.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">What was the hardest part about the refugee years?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: I was a refugee for 25 years almost. The first part — 15, 20 years — were difficult. There’s no question about it. The conditions under which we lived, whether it was feeding the family or going to school, and we used to move on foot, distances, and covering about 10 kilometers, sometimes more, back and forth. So every aspect of life was complicated.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">What was your first job? </span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: Well, my first job actually ended up — so to speak — my first job being in the military, because I started getting involved in, I don’t know how to say, whether it is politics or the business of the struggle when I was 20 years old in Uganda. I go to Burundi, and the struggles in Uganda. In fact, I got involved in the armed struggle in Uganda from ‘81 to the end of 1985. Then I became a member of the military, the army in Uganda, from ‘86 to 1990.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">During that period, when you were four to when you joined the army, did you have an influential teacher? Was there somebody who really made an impression on you?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: Those conditions started shaping my thinking, or the thinking of those who were in that kind of condition, and that’s how, in the end, we came to join the Ugandan army. It’s complicated, in a sense, because we were refugees in Uganda. Then later on Uganda had changes. There was Obote, then Amin overthrew him. Then later on Amin was removed from power, and then these different struggles affected us.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">What do you mean by the conditions that shaped you?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: When you’re a refugee, you are stateless. You don’t belong anywhere. You’re just under that, and of course, in the end, directly and indirectly, you are affected. For example, at school we’re known as refugees and sometimes for anything that happened, anyone finds it easy to say, “It’s because of these refugees or non-citizens who were part of it.” You need paper to work. If they have no job they think the refugees have taken their place in the job market, or all kinds of critics happened. In fact, not just to me personally, but to everyone who was in that category. There are always stories about that.</p> <p>I’ll tell you, I remember in 1977, ‘78, I had wanted to be — for some reason I had a liking for airplanes. I wanted to become maybe a pilot or an aircraft engineer or something. That was the reason in my mind. So I went for competition when they call people to —they were recruiting pilots for what existed as the East African Airways, but it was in Uganda, part of it. So I went there and did the exams, and I was actually one of the few who passed the exams from so many. They were aptitude tests carried out, and mathematics, physics.</p> <p>So I passed that, and so when they called those who had passed the exams to report and — so when I arrived at a place, someone looked at me and just by my features, I think, he could tell that I am Rwandese, therefore — not the Rwandese of Ugandan citizenship — but the refugee. So he asked for my identity card. I gave it, and he cross-checked, found I was the one who had actually passed, and said, “What are you doing here?” I said, “Well, I came and did exams, and now I’ve just reported, like you called me to report.” So the person was very angry with me, almost kicking me out of the door of the room, and said, “You don’t belong here. You’re not Ugandan.”</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">What were you thinking at that time?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: At that time, I think the thinking was more or less blurred by anger, so to speak. The fellow almost tore my identity card, but it was a school identity card, and so he said, “Get out of here,” so I was hesitating and said, “Why? Why are you treating me like this?” And the guy stood up and was charging at me. So I walked out, and from that time, for a long time, it never stopped ringing in my mind that this kind of situation is something one doesn’t need to experience in their lives, but it was with me. And I could imagine it was the same with many of my colleagues who were in other places. So I never forgot that moment.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">That moment when you felt such utter discrimination — and later, when you were running a country, is there anything that you did or did not do because you remembered that ringing in your head?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: Oh, yes. I think it had a huge impact on my life and different experiences in my life, or even in making decisions. First, I understood firsthand the problems of being a refugee. Second, it occurred to me nobody needed to experience that kind of thing. Three, I thought whatever I would be doing, whatever my responsibilities would involve, I would always try and find a way of addressing that problem, even for other people. In fact, later on, so many years after, in my position of responsibility, my country is one that treats refugees from other countries — we have many of them, from Burundi, from the DRC, that’s Congo, from different parts — we try as much to treat them very fairly. In fact, we have, as I just said to them, if they want to become citizens of our country, we will be happy to use our laws to make them so.</p> <p>So if they prefer to stay like that because they maybe hope and want to go back to their countries, still it’s okay. We have given them pieces of land. They enjoy education like our own citizens. They even get employment, and there’s no such a thing as discriminating against them as refugees. It has a relationship with what happened to me as well, decades ago.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">Take us back to your education. </span></strong> <strong><span style="font-family: Times;">Did you really learn outside, under a tree?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: Oh, yeah. When I was studying primary education, I think for the first three years we were studying under a tree. Not only were we studying under a tree, it was ridiculous because we used to write on our thighs. We didn’t have exercise books. We had no pens. We used to use dry pieces of grass, or something hard, to learn to write on our thighs, and you would carry your thigh to the teacher to show how… Later on we upgraded when we started getting something — like sometimes we would be offered by a friend, a relative — a Bic. We would use banana leaves — green, so you can write on them. We used to use banana leaves to write notes and do things. And, of course, there were no classrooms. We would be under tree, indeed. We used to pass our days like that, and sometimes getting a meal, one meal a day, was difficult. We would study and go home. So it was a bit difficult, but we went through all that.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">Was there anyone in particular when you were young who told you to keep reading and keep learning?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: My family, both my father and my mother, were very good at that, and they always — even under those conditions — they would always remind us how you thought about this, how you are thinking about school. “You must study.” It was every day instruction, almost. If we were leaving home, going to school, it’s like, “Make sure…” And for me, of course — I used to think parents were harder on me than my siblings because they used to get reports back from school that I was stubborn.</p> <p>I was — you know, sometimes I’m out of class playing football when others were studying, but what used to save me was that for all those years I was always on top of my class. But still, my parents would sometimes not be forgiving. When they learned from the teachers that I was very stubborn and involved in petty fights with colleagues and very naughty at school, they would still really not be very kind to me.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">Today your self-discipline is very well known. How did you learn that?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: Discipline also came from my parents. I think I outgrew my stubbornness and being chicken and naughty around with kids, my age mates. So then, of course, as I was growing under these conditions, as we said, and being affected by them and being angry at — just that happening to me and others, and even my family and my parents, as I was seeing it, and always wondering what we needed to do. I think that became a transition to switching from just the usual routine of being the child that everyone wants to be.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">We’ve read that you don’t drink. Do you exercise a lot? What are your daily discipline habits?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: Now I do exercise. I do workouts. The alcohol I drink today, sometimes I take a sip of wine or things when the environment affects that, for dinners. It’s more or less to fit in with the environment, but long before that I wasn’t drinking. I never drank alcohol or smoked. No. Though my father was a very heavy smoker, and I think probably it’s part of what took his life. He used to smoke heavily.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">What do you think makes you such an effective leader? </span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: I think it must be a combination of two things. Must be these conditions under which I grew, and then my parents demanding that — they always insisted you have discipline, all of us children. I was born in a family of six children. I was the youngest, and discipline, respect for people, and even respect for ourselves, they really emphasized that a lot, and I think that stuck. There’s no question about it. I got a big dose of it from that environment, from my parents, what they emphasized. Sometimes I would go off track and wasn’t fitting in with the demands they were making, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t having an effect on me.</p> <p>It absolutely — maybe I was absorbing it even without realizing. So when I grew up, I could see that had an impact. But two things, I think, it’s always going to be the conditions maybe under which one grows, the environment, the conditions and so on, but the other part is the nature, in the end, the personality that one can’t claim one is responsible for. Sometimes it’s just in you. As they say, it’s nature and nurture that really combine to shape us. So I think I got a big dose of that myself.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">How did you come to study at Fort Leavenworth?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: First, I’m in Uganda. I’m the army in Uganda. I was at the rank of a major in the army, and in fact the position at Fort Leavenworth was meant for somebody else, and something happened. The government or the commander-in-chief or the commander of the army in Uganda changed their mind at the last minute and decided that I was the one to go, so I wasn’t even given time to prepare. I think it was, like, I was informed on a Friday, and I was being told to leave on a Tuesday next week, so I had only the weekend. But being in the institution where I was used to taking orders, and you know, there was no questioning, so I just — they asked me, “Are you ready?” I said, “I’m ready.”</p> <p>I took a plane, went through Kenya — Nairobi — and flew. I remember experience, I think, I had a stop before I went Fort Leavenworth in Chicago, the airport, that’s where I landed, and it was, like, a place I had never imagined to be, and so — and I was alone, so I was finding my way, and, you know, later on reached Kansas, at Fort Leavenworth, so I was received very well. The environment is also good, but I found there other officers who had come from different countries, even on the continent, from Senegal, from Nigeria, from Kenya. There was one from Malawi and so on, so I immediately connected with them, so it was easy for me to cope, but then studies, there was no problem.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">Even though you were there for only a brief time, is there anything in that experience that you still think about?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: Yes, there was. I was doing a lot of reading, you know, military science. It’s about tactics; it’s about strategy. I thought it was very interesting for me, given what we had gone through in the years fighting wars in Uganda and the experience, the environment. I think it was coming together quite well, I think. Some of the things I had just experienced, but could not interpret or relate very easily with the actual sense or the art behind it, I was able to do that in the few months I was there, because I was there I think only for five months.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">You left rather quickly.</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: Yes, because I started there in June. Then by October, that’s when the war started in Rwanda. Before I left, we had already been planning things, and by the time I left I knew what was going on. We communicated with the people in Uganda, on the ground. So I was following almost on a regular basis, and even at the time the war started in Rwanda, I was briefed. And so I left, knowing that at a certain point when it starts, I wasn’t sure of the date — because even others they left behind weren’t sure they were to act on it — which would be the best timing. But when the best timing was identified, I was informed. So all along I was to leave college and join when things started, when the fighting started, so that’s what I did.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">What was your role at that point?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: My role was linked with what I used to be even in the organization before. Before in the organization, before I left for Fort Leavenworth, there are no formal positions as such. We avoided that so that it doesn’t end up in the wrong place, but we had a way of communicating among ourselves, but I was one of the top three at the time. We had, so to speak, also maybe a number two. There was somebody that was senior to me who had started from the beginning, and when the war started, I was supposed to come and join anyway, not bothered by which position I’m holding or anything. That one we would figure out when we reached the ground.</p> <p>So the leader, that one who was heading us — he was our commander. He was the head of the organization, the Rwandese Patriotic Front, but was also the commander of the forces — was actually killed on the second day of the invasion in Rwanda. So the army — the insurgents, the fighters — remained without a leader, but that is the time I was also planning to leave Fort Leavenworth. Naturally, what was expected on the ground was that since the first leader was killed, I was coming to take over.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">Weren’t you worried that you’d be killed when you went back?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: It’s funny, because in those moments, you are not really thinking about what is going to happen to you. The body and mind were so charged about doing something that you weren’t bothered with what is likely to happen, that could happen.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">So what was in your mind when you were heading back? </span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: My mind was, one, I was going to join the activities that were there, that had started around the struggle, and I wasn’t bothered about what position or what I was going to hold. I wasn’t even thinking about what could easily happen to me, like it had happened to others, because already the commander had been killed.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">A lot of human rights groups have raised issues recently that it’s dangerous to be your political opponent. That some of the rivals or people that could unseat you end up dead or in jail. Are you a dictator or an authoritarian leader, as they say?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: We have had studies going on by human rights groups, some people in the media, and so on and so forth. But if fairness was part of this life we lead and across the board in the world, one, it should have been clear long ago that there are lots of contradictions, serious contradictions in these studies peddled by human rights groups and others. Contradictions. Open contradictions. There is nothing that has been happening in Rwanda that suggests a situation of dictatorship, of violation of human rights or gagging the press or anything, really, the last decade, the last 23 years.</p> <p>To say that everything else is fine, is going well, is good progress almost in everything, except this, I think in a way we just leave it to look ridiculous on its own without even us… and what you concentrate on is doing things so that the results tell the story. Other than the results themselves, the other people who can tell this story are the people of Rwanda. What is so unfortunate is that the human rights groups and some people in the media can… I mean, they dare to tell Rwandans — the majority of them, the biggest majority of them — that they are wrong in what they are doing or in the choices they make.</p> <p>To dare tell people that, “You are wrong in your choices.” You’ve got to explain, who are you? Who are you who are saying, “You Rwandans are making a mistake.” Let me say it this way. We had elections recently. Seven million people went for elections, and the majority of them — meaning 98 percent of 7 million — made this free, open choice. Where they had come from up to that point, they made elections. And they said it openly, publicly. And even put to test of expressing it secretly, because publicly you can say, “Oh, maybe there’s influence and there’s pressure, there’s force.“ But secretly people will tell you the truth. And secretly, the secret ballot by those inside the country and outside, because you have people outside also voting, and the pattern remains the same.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">When people from other countries hear that one side wins 98 percent of the vote, they may think there’s no room for opposition. What do you say when people who might be opponents end up in jail or injured?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: Room for opposition is there. That’s why there’s at least two percent, and the two percent is not in prison, but I think also, this is where the problem now has come. It’s what we started talking about in our discussion, in the story of Rwanda. Does that matter? Does that create a context? From where we started in ‘60s, colonial times, and da-da-da, division, and then the genocide and so on. Does this matter to anyone, to any observer from outside, so that they are able to put all this in a context and therefore see this as a result of that? If we just want to look at it on its own, so like, there’s an election in Rwanda, so it should happen like it happens anywhere, like it happens in America, in UK, in France. By the way, some of the happenings there are also not being so clear to me in those places!</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">Do you get tired of other countries imposing their standards on your country?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: I don’t even bother about it. I’m not tired because it doesn’t really matter so much in the lives of Rwandans. I’m so bothered about what matters to lives in our country, of our people. Those are the stories from the West, which is messed up by itself! So I’m just struggling with my own situation — people in Africa, people in Rwanda, struggling with our situations that have a completely different context.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">What do you hope to accomplish in the next seven years?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: We’ve unified the country, more or less erased this ugly history of division and that even led to genocide and hatred and so on, and solved political, social, and economic problems of our country and united the country. So we now need to keep concentrating on how do we lead our country to prosperity? How do we enable Rwandans to realize their own aspirations, their ideals, themselves being a part of it? And how do we allow this to happen without actually contradicting now some of the things people talk about out of context? Out of context, because people talk about Rwanda. “There is progress, there are nice things, good governance…” Then they end up with “but.” But what? That “but” should not be there because it is what even Rwandans are saying. It’s not me saying it, by the way. In fact, even it’s being said and realized by people from outside, other than these human rights organizations or the media. The ordinary people of the whole world — the Americans, ordinary people from America, whether it is business or other — when they come to Rwanda, or Europeans, they can’t except admire what has been done, what has been achieved in such short years. And by the way, these are people who really relate to ordinary people in Rwanda. They talk to them. They stay with them. They employ them. So they know the story, and they simply understand completely different from what these stories are in the media and with the human right groups.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">Do you have a plan for succession? You have been such a central figure, leading your country out of one of the worst things that’s happened in the world. How do you see the succession after Paul Kagame?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: It is going to happen, and it could happen in a stable way — and it will happen sooner or later.</p> <p>You know, irrespective of what the accusations are against us, against me, or what anybody — it will happen. What should I say? But why should the people be fixated on it in the first place? The people of Rwanda are writing their own story. They are, you know, living their own lives in the manner they have chosen. That doesn’t and shouldn’t offend anyone. But for them, this country has suffered. They are working out a way to live their lives just like any other people in this world, and somebody keeps saying, “No, no. When is this one going?“ How does this become part of the story and the lives people of Rwanda want to live?</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">Are you worried that with all you’ve built in the country, that it is still somewhat fragile? </span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: No. Rwanda is not fragile. It is being made fragile by these busybodies, you know? These people who want to manage our politics. That’s what would make it fragile. If we allow people from nowhere or from everywhere to dictate to a nation, to tell people how they should live their lives, that makes it fragile. But I would be a fool if, for all that passion I have contributed to and done with my people — every day what is being done or happening — we don’t factor in that which will give us the more stable future. I would be a fool, and for anyone to really be more worried about it than I am, I think just doesn’t make sense!</p> <p>This is what I tell to these people. They keep coming and saying, “No, no, no.” They keep — these so-called prophets of doom — it’s like, “Tomorrow is going to crash!” And they really come with so many worries and suggestions. But I think people should be humble enough to say, “You know, these people, where they have come from, where they are now, maybe they know what they are doing.” I think people should give us —meaning the whole country and the people of Rwanda — some benefit of the doubt. First of all, we mean well for ourselves. We are the first learners of our own mistakes, if we have made any, and we are the ones interested the more in our future.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">You’ve made enormous economic gains that are the envy of most of the continent. What’s the cornerstone of that? Is it the investment in education?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: Almost everything starts and ends with people, involving people, investing in our people. It has been the key. This is why I’m saying that progress, whether economic or social, political, hasn’t been happening by accident. It’s because of the people of Rwanda who have come together. Therefore the short thing for Rwanda’s future starts with investing in our people, and that is education, and then we mind their health. So education has been the key, but it’s education to improve this person, the Rwandan, the people, so that they’re able to move.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">Do you like Twitter?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: Well, I’m on Twitter. Not necessarily that I like it, but I’m there! I think there may be that difference. But I’m on Twitter. I tweet back and forth with people. We argue. In fact, it does serve as a very good channel of communication. Some ordinary Rwandan tweets and raises an issue, and they pick it, and immediately, whether it was an idea or a problem solved or something, and it’s worked on, and it has had significant impact. It’s a very interesting thing.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">What impact do you think it’s had?</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: You know, you reach audiences timely, you know. There are no corners. There’s no bureaucracy that is going to slow down the process of communication. It goes directly. If it’s an idea, you put it there, and hundreds of thousands of people pick it straight that same moment, and so whatever it is that you find you have identified that would be solved well by that, and there are many, then that’s it.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">You have a million-and-a-half followers right now, and growing — more than any leader in the continent.</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: Now 1.7, actually. Yes, it’s now 1.7 million. So it’s a very interesting tool, and it doesn’t just reach people in the country. In fact, these followers aren’t just from Rwanda. They are from across Africa and beyond. There are others beyond Africa. So it’s like whatever idea you have, you communicate it, or you see what others are communicating, so that you pick it and maybe use it for whatever good effect.</p> <p>One time — I think he is a journalist or something from the UK — tweeted something about me, and I thought — and it actually turned out to be — it was a distortion about me, about my country, about who I am, and so on. So I took exception and actually tweeted about it, and that was a long exchange, back and forth, that took some time, and many other people joined in, and it was really busy.</p> <p>But what I’m talking about that is — now this one, I think, was a journalist or something, and he was in the UK. But it was as if he took offense, but actually made a clarification of what he was distorting. And in that I kept saying, “But you talk about freedoms. You talk about freedom of expression. You talk about things, but it seems you say it only for you, but not for others, because what is wrong if I’m writing?” “Because, no, you see? He doesn’t like criticism.” But he was actually showing he doesn’t like criticism himself.</p> <p>Because he took offense by what I tried to clarify. I said, “Look, you are distorting things. That’s not who I am,” and I was only explaining. I didn’t even insult him. I didn’t do anything, but he took offense. He says I don’t like criticism. But this was an argument; so if you want an argument, let’s have an argument. Why should you be offended that I have pointed out that you are wrong? And not only that, but given you an answer. So this was part of it, and for me, I enjoyed it.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">President Trump also uses Twitter very frequently. He says he likes that there’s no filter between him and the voters. Do you have a different Twitter style than he has? Would you say it’s the same or different? </span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: Well, I don’t want to sound like I’m judging Trump or anybody, but I just concentrate on my style and what I use it for. I’m not there too often, first of all. I’m not there every day. I pick moments when there’s something to say. I have senators, many others, even including other leaders — not Trump, but even in Africa and somewhere else — where they just tweet everything they are doing. They are going somewhere, or they are saying this, or da-da-da, just so it’s always… I don’t do that. I don’t use my Twitter account for that, but I do it once in a while, if I’m replying to something that I’ve also selected that maybe deserves my response. I don’t reply to everything, or I express an idea that I think I need to express, even certain days that have meaning to me or to Rwanda, and so I do that. So I’m very selective about it.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">There’s a long history of the West coming to Africa and offering advice or aid. From where you sit, what advice or words of wisdom do you have for the West? </span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: For the West, they shouldn’t do too much of that. It just doesn’t make sense. To think that you know everything, you are right about everything, and you need to take charge of other people’s lives and ways and even ways of doing things, I don’t think is right. It’s not. But they have good things people wish to emulate or think about. But why doesn’t that come in a way of working together? You know, I actually liked what Trump had to say at one point. I think it was in his inaugural speech, and then later on, to the effect that — I am not quoting exactly, but the meaning of it was, they don’t seek — meaning America should not, or his administration, should not be seeking to dictate to others to change their ways and live like maybe Americans want to live their lives. But, very importantly, he said, “Let us be…” — I think it was like, “Let us be the light.” The shining light that can influence people to follow their ways. Here there’s a distinction, which I think is the most important thing I’m pointing out. Instead of dictating to people to live in a certain way that you have decided for them, actually enable them to see the good in the way of your life and the way you live your life so that they’re attracted to it and they can actually emulate.</p> <p>See what I mean? So to the West I would say, “No. Be the shining light that we can look at and like and actually follow, rather than forcing people, things, down their throat, of your way of life.” But there is the other part of politics, as we know it. Powerful countries want to take responsibility to make sure that they help address problems elsewhere — you know, they want to be present because anyway, in the end, if they don’t, these things will affect them one way or the other. But again, it’s not too difficult to choose the best way to do it. Yes.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">So the very last question is just what is your vision for Rwanda 20 years from now? What do you hope? How is it changed? </span></strong></p> <p>Almost everything starts and ends with people, our people. Involving people, investing in our people. It has been the key. This is why I’m saying that progress, whether economic or social, political, hasn’t been happening by accident. It’s because of the people of Rwanda who have come together. Therefore, the short thing for Rwanda’s future starts with investing in our people, and that is education. And then we mind their health. We mind that this education gives them skills, knowledge, and actually allows the talent of our people, at individual level, collectively, to show up, to be there and have an effect on the future progress. So education has been the key, but it’s education to improve this person, the Rwandan, the people, so that they’re able to move. It’s a sure way.</p> <p>Twenty years from now, Rwanda should be an upper-middle-income country. I’m talking in terms of prosperity. Should be we are strongly united as a nation, should be free and independent in their own terms, meaning Rwandans must live their lives in a free way they have chosen, not chosen by others. And independent means also, with this prosperity they should really be able to live on what they are able to earn or create. So this is, for me, the Rwanda — in 20 years I think we should be there, with me or without me! That’s my hope.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Times;">Well, thank you, President Kagame.</span></strong></p> <p>Paul Kagame: Thank <em><span style="font-family: Times;">you</span></em>. I appreciate it.</p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Paul Kagame Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>19 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.8" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp2-LondonSummit_0702.png" data-image-caption="2017: Awards Council member Lord Jacob Rothschild presents the Golden Plate Award to President Kagame at a ceremony during the Academy of Achievement's International Achievement Summit at Claridge's Hotel in London. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp2-LondonSummit_0702" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp2-LondonSummit_0702-380x304.png [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp2-LondonSummit_0702-760x608.png"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.68684210526316" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April2016-Commemoration.jpg" data-image-caption="April 7, 2016: President Kagame and President Magufuli of Tanzania light the flame of remembrance at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Gisozi. The flame will light for a hundred days, signifying the dark period the genocide lasted. Across the country, Rwandans are gathered at memorial sites and rivers where bodies of Tutsi were dumped during the genocide. Some have braced the rain and chilly weather to honor the victims. (Photo credit: Paul Kagame Flickr)" data-image-copyright="wp-April2016-Commemoration" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April2016-Commemoration-380x261.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April2016-Commemoration-760x522.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-March-2014-Umugunda.jpg" data-image-caption="2014: President Paul Kagame participates in Global Umuganda in the Kiberinka village of Nyamirambo, Kigali. “Umuganda is about development and rebuilding what was destroyed by our tragic history. We are not working to become other people. We know who we are and we are working to build a Rwanda we are proud of. Any external help must only come as an addition to our own efforts to better ourselves,” he said. (Photo: Paul Kagame Flickr)" data-image-copyright="wp-March 2014-Umugunda" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-March-2014-Umugunda-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-March-2014-Umugunda-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66315789473684" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-GettyImages-461377391.jpg" data-image-caption="July 1994: Rwandan Vice President Paul Kagame, the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front commander, in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Kagame was born in 1957 to a Tutsi family in Rwanda’s Southern Province. In 1959, his family fled to Uganda when Hutu violence toward the Tutsi flared during the buildup to Rwandan independence from Belgium. Kagame and his family lived in Uganda for the next thirty years as refugees. In the 1980s, Kagame joined Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Army, helping Museveni to the Ugandan presidency, and serving as a senior military officer under the new government. In 1990, Paul Kagame and three expatriate Rwandan military leaders formed the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriot Front and plotted an invasion of their homeland. (Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty)" data-image-copyright="RWANDA-FRANCE-GENOCIDE-KAGAME-FILES" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-GettyImages-461377391-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-GettyImages-461377391-760x504.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.83289473684211" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-March-2009GettyImages-85529529_master.jpg" data-image-caption="March 20, 2009, Johannesburg, South Africa: President Paul Kagame meets former South African President Nelson Mandela at the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Kagame stated that African nations should no longer rely on foreign aid and should instead create sustainable wealth from the continent’s own resources. (Denis Farrell/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Nelson Mandela Meets Rwandan President In Johannesburg" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-March-2009GettyImages-85529529_master-380x317.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-March-2009GettyImages-85529529_master-760x633.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-mar-2017-GettyImages-655524182_master.jpg" data-image-caption="March 20, 2017 — Rome, Italy: Pope Francis meets President of Rwanda Paul Kagame at the Vatican on March 20, 2017 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Alessandra Benedetti - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Pope Francis Meets President of Rwanda Paul Kagame at The Vatican" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-mar-2017-GettyImages-655524182_master-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-mar-2017-GettyImages-655524182_master-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.74342105263158" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-July-2000-GettyImages-51396658_master.jpg" data-image-caption="July 2000, KigaIi, Rwanda: On the sixth anniversary of the liberation of Kigali, President Paul Kagame addressed the population and the guests at Amahoro National Stadium. President Kagame asked for peace in the region and cooperation between different partners to implement a peace agreement. He also asked the refugees to come back to Rwanda and the Interahamwe to depose the arms and to stop fighting against Rwanda and the Tutsi people. On April 22, 2000, Kagame took the oath of office as President of the Republic of Rwanda, after being elected by the Transitional National Assembly. In August 2003, Kagame won a landslide victory — with 95% of the vote — in the first multi-party presidential elections in the country’s history. (Photo credit: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="On the sixth anniversary of the Liberation of Kiga" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-July-2000-GettyImages-51396658_master-380x282.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-July-2000-GettyImages-51396658_master-760x565.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.70526315789474" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-December-2006-GettyImages-72759391_master.jpg" data-image-caption="December 2006: Queen Elizabeth II receives President of Rwanda Paul Kagame and his wife, Jeannette, at Buckingham Palace in London. During his five-day trip, Kagame met with Prime Minister Tony Blair International Development Secretary Hilary Benn to discuss Britain’s aid budget in Rwanda. (Stefan Rousseau/AFP)" data-image-copyright="Britain's Queen Elizabeth II (R) receive" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-December-2006-GettyImages-72759391_master-380x268.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-December-2006-GettyImages-72759391_master-760x536.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5322580645161" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/WP-Bodies_of_Rwandan_refugees_DF-ST-02-03035.jpg" data-image-caption="1993: Bodies of Rwandan refugees wrapped in straw mats and blankets line the roadside. In the background, more bodies are offloaded from a truck. Because of the lack of fresh water and food, as many as 50,000 people died in crudely established refugee camps during an outbreak of cholera. (Credit: <i>Airman</i> magazine, December 1994 issue)" data-image-copyright="DF-ST-02-03035" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/WP-Bodies_of_Rwandan_refugees_DF-ST-02-03035-248x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/WP-Bodies_of_Rwandan_refugees_DF-ST-02-03035-496x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5079365079365" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-A-Thousand-Hills-Front-Cover.jpg" data-image-caption="2008: <i>A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It</i>, by Stephen Kinzer, is the biography of President Paul Kagame. "Kagame grew up as a wretched refugee. He and a group of comrades, determined to force their way back home after a generation of exile, designed one of the most audacious covert operations in the history of clandestine war. Then, after taking power, they amazed the world by stabilizing and reviving their devastated country. Now, as President Kagame, he's obsessed with a single outlandish dream: to make Rwanda the first middle-income country in Africa, and to do it in the space of a single generation. <i>A Thousand Hills</i> tells Kagame's tumultuous life story, including his early fascination with Che Guevara and James Bond, his years as an intelligence agent, his training in Cuba and the United States, the dazzlingly original way he built his secret rebel army, his bloody rebellion, and his outsized ambitions for Rwanda. It is the adventure-filled tale of a visionary who won a war, stopped a genocide, and then set out to turn his country into the star of Africa." (© Stephen Kinzer)" data-image-copyright="wp-A-Thousand-Hills---Front-Cover" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-A-Thousand-Hills-Front-Cover-252x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-A-Thousand-Hills-Front-Cover-504x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.71447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-August-2014-GettyImages-453231518_master.jpg" data-image-caption="August 5, 2014 — Washington, D.C.: President of Rwanda Paul Kagame and daughter, Ange Ingabire Kagame, arrive at the North Portico of the White House for a state dinner on the occasion of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. African leaders are attending a three-day-long summit in Washington to strengthen ties between the United States and African nations. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="President And Mrs. Obama Host White House Dinner For US-Africa Leaders Summit" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-August-2014-GettyImages-453231518_master-380x272.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-August-2014-GettyImages-453231518_master-760x543.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April-2008-GettyImages-80833635_master.jpg" data-image-caption="April 23, 2008: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Paul Kagame address a press conference following talks at the Chancellery in Berlin during Kagame’s four-day official visit to Germany. (John Macdougall/AFP/Getty)" data-image-copyright="German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) and" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April-2008-GettyImages-80833635_master-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April-2008-GettyImages-80833635_master-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.69342105263158" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April-7-2014-GettyImages-483212087_master.jpg" data-image-caption="April 7, 2014 — Kigali, Rwanda: President of Rwanda Paul Kagame addresses the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of his country's genocide at Amahoro Stadium. Tens of thousands of Rwandans joined with leaders from around the world at the stadium to remember the country's 1994 genocide, when more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsi and moderate Hutus were slaughtered over a 100-day period. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Rwanda Commemorates The Country's 1994 Genocide" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April-7-2014-GettyImages-483212087_master-380x264.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-April-7-2014-GettyImages-483212087_master-760x527.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2017-GettyImages-824862422_master.jpg" data-image-caption="July 31, 2017: Incumbent President of Rwanda Paul Kagame greets a crowd of supporters as he arrives for a rally in Gakenke, ahead of Rwanda’s presidential elections. In August, Kagame wins a landslide victory —with 99% of the vote — securing a third term in office and extending his 17 years in power. The election came after a constitutional amendment, which ended a two-term limit for presidents and theoretically permits Kagame to remain in power until 2034. The amendment was approved by 98% of the voters. (Photo credit: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="TOPSHOT-RWANDA-VOTE-POLITICS" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2017-GettyImages-824862422_master-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2017-GettyImages-824862422_master-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2010-GettyImages-591741248_master.jpg" data-image-caption="August 3, 2010: President Paul Kagame greets supporters while campaigning for his reelection at a Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) political rally in Gahanga, Kicukiro District, Rwanda. Days later, Kagame wins the presidential election with 93% of the votes, securing a second seven-year term. (Photo by Christophe Calais/Corbis via Getty)" data-image-copyright="wanda - Politics - Presidential Election Campaign - Paul Kagame" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2010-GettyImages-591741248_master-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2010-GettyImages-591741248_master-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.92894736842105" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2009-GettyImages-91019856_master.jpg" data-image-caption="September 22, 2009: President Paul Kagame addresses the Summit on Climate Change, ahead of the December Copenhagen Summit, at the United Nations in New York. Kagame argued that Africa will suffer severe impacts of climate change if no action is taken and called for a shared mitigation and adaptation strategy. (Timothy A. Clary)" data-image-copyright="President of Rwanda Paul Kagame addresse" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2009-GettyImages-91019856_master-380x353.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-2009-GettyImages-91019856_master-760x706.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66052631578947" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-1994-GettyImages-740093_master.jpg" data-image-caption="1994: Skeletal remains are strewn on the grounds of the Catholic mission in Rukara, Rwanda. On April 6, 1994, the plane carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down outside of Kigali. Following the crash, an organized campaign of violence against the Tutsi and moderate Hutu civilians spread across the country. Hutu extremists assumed the Tutsis shot it down. Immediately, Hutu extremists set out to destroy the entire Tutsi population. Approximately 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates were slaughtered over 100 days. (Scott Peterson)" data-image-copyright="wp-1994-GettyImages-740093_master" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-1994-GettyImages-740093_master-380x251.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-1994-GettyImages-740093_master-760x502.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66052631578947" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-1994-GettyImages-455154312_master.jpg" data-image-caption="July 19, 1994: After Kagame and the RFP ended the genocide with a military victory, Hutu Pasteur Bizimungu was sworn in as president of the new Government of National Unity and Kagame became vice president, commander-in-chief of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), and minister of defense. (Photo: Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="RWANDA-KAGAME-BIZIMUNGU" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-1994-GettyImages-455154312_master-380x251.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wp-1994-GettyImages-455154312_master-760x502.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0398.jpg" data-image-caption="2017: President Paul Kagame addresses Academy delegates and members at a symposium during the American Academy of Achievement’s 52nd annual International Achievement Summit, held at Claridge’s Hotel in London. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-LondonSummit_0398" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0398-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0398-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Twitter"><i class="icon-icon_twitter-circle"></i></a></li>  <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-email" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever via Email"><i class="icon-icon_email-circle"></i></a></li> </ul> <time class="editorial-article__last-updated sans-6">This page last revised on January 24, 2018</time> <div class="sans-4"><a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/how-to-cite" target="_blank">How to cite this page</a></div> </footer> </div> <div class="container interview-related-achievers"> <hr class="m-t-3 m-b-3"/> <footer class="clearfix small-blocks text-xs-center"> <h3 class="m-b-3 serif-3">If you are inspired by this achiever’s story, you might also enjoy:</h3> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever public-service experienced-war-firsthand resourceful shy-introverted ambitious join-the-military play-music " data-year-inducted="2001" data-achiever-name="Barak"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ehud-barak/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/barak-013a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/barak-013a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Ehud Barak</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Former Prime Minister of Israel</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2001</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever public-service help-mankind experienced-war-firsthand ambitious join-the-military pursue-public-office " data-year-inducted="1995" data-achiever-name="Bush"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-h-w-bush/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/bush-007a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/bush-007a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">George H. 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Powell, USA</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Congressional Gold Medal</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1988</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever public-service experienced-war-firsthand imprisonment-persecution poverty resourceful pursue-public-office help-mankind " data-year-inducted="2008" data-achiever-name="Sirleaf"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ellen-johnson-sirleaf/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/sirleaf-760_ac-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/sirleaf-760_ac-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Ellen Johnson Sirleaf</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Nobel Prize for Peace</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2008</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever public-service racism-discrimination spiritual-religious help-mankind " data-year-inducted="2003" data-achiever-name="Tutu"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/desmond-tutu/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/tutu_760_ac-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/tutu_760_ac-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Archbishop Desmond Tutu</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Nobel Prize for Peace</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2003</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> </footer> </div> </div> </article> <div class="modal image-modal fade" id="imageModal" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="imageModal" aria-hidden="true"> <div class="close-container"> <div class="close icon-icon_x" data-dismiss="modal" aria-label="Close"></div> </div> <div class="modal-dialog" role="document"> <div class="modal-content"> <div class="modal-body"> <figure class="image-modal__container"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <img class="image-modal__image" src="/web/20180804021711im_/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame" alt=""/>  <figcaption class="p-t-2 container"> <div class="image-modal__caption sans-2 text-white"></div>  </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </div> </div> </div> </div> </main> </div> </div> <footer class="content-info main-footer bg-black"> <div class="container"> <div class="find-achiever" id="find-achiever-list"> <div class="form-group"> <input id="find-achiever-input" class="search js-focus" placeholder="Search for an achiever"/> <i class="icon-icon_chevron-down"></i> </div> <ul class="find-achiever-list list m-b-0 list-unstyled"> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/hank-aaron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Hank Aaron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kareem-abdul-jabbar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kareem Abdul-Jabbar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/edward-albee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward Albee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tenley-albright-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tenley Albright, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julie-andrews/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Julie Andrews</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-angelou/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Angelou</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-d-ballard-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert D. Ballard, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-roger-bannister-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Roger Bannister</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-banville/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Banville</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ehud-barak/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ehud Barak</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lee-r-berger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lee R. Berger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-timothy-berners-lee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Tim Berners-Lee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/yogi-berra/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Yogi Berra</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeffrey-p-bezos/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeffrey P. Bezos</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benazir-bhutto/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benazir Bhutto</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/simone-biles/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Simone Biles</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/keith-l-black/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Keith L. Black, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elizabeth-blackburn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-boies-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Boies</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-e-borlaug/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman E. Borlaug, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-c-bradlee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benjamin C. Bradlee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sergey-brin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sergey Brin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carter-j-brown/"><span class="achiever-list-name">J. Carter Brown</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linda-buck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linda Buck, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-burnett/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Burnett</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-h-w-bush/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George H. W. Bush</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/susan-butcher/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Susan Butcher</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-cameron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Cameron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-s-carson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benjamin S. Carson, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-carter/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Carter</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-cash/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Cash</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-j-clinton/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William J. Clinton</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-s-collins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/denton-a-cooley/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Denton A. Cooley, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-ford-coppola/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis Ford Coppola</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-dalio/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Dalio</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/olivia-de-havilland/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Olivia de Havilland</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-e-debakey-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-dell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael S. Dell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-dennis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Dennis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joan-didion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joan Didion</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-herbert-donald-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Herbert Donald, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rita Dove</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sylvia-earle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elbaradei/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mohamed ElBaradei</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gertrude-elion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gertrude B. Elion, M.Sc.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry J. Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-norman-foster/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Norman Foster</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Glück</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/demis-hassabis-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kazuo-ishiguro/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-lederman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Lederman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-panetta/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Panetta</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180804021711/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. 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