Rwandan President Paul Kagame opened this year’s Africa CEO Forum in Kigali with a sharp critique of how the United States and other global powers interact with the continent. Kagame framed the geopolitical landscape as one where Africa is “rich in everything except leverage”, specifically addressing the extractive nature of foreign engagement.
“It is a situation where the powers that be are holding a whip in their hands, using a stick to beat up whoever they want to beat up. They are not even hiding it. It’s out in the open,” Kagame said at the largest private-sector gathering in Africa. “These powers you see that come here lecturing people on democracy and human rights, they are doing it with one arm and with the other, they are just taking away everything that people own.”