{"id":1402,"date":"2012-07-01T05:25:27","date_gmt":"2012-07-01T05:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulkagame.com\/_test_&#038;web\/?p=1402"},"modified":"2017-07-20T17:33:52","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T17:33:52","slug":"president-kagame-raises-a-toast-to-solidarity-and-freedom-with-wale-soyinka-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/?p=1402","title":{"rendered":"President Kagame raises a toast to solidarity and freedom with Wole Soyinka"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><strong>Kigali, 30 June 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On the eve of Rwanda\u2019s 50th Independence Day, President Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame hosted scholars from all over the world at a banquet that followed two days of the conference entitled \u201cGovernance and Democracy: An African Perspective.\u201d Guest of honor Wole Soyinka opened the banquet by sharing his belief in an African Renaissance. Describing Renaissance as \u201cthe birth of a new social personality unafraid of new ways of thinking,\u201d he reminded the audience of the need for Africa to base its future on its needs rather than externally imposed definitions.<\/p>\n<p>Wole Soyinka warned against the dangers of combining power and exclusivity describing the mixing of the two as the exclusion of citizens from participating in politics of the country in which they belong. He described the source of failure in Africa as the result of \u201cthe collapse of moral essence under the fall of political expediency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;\">He ended his address by pointing at Rwanda as the \u201cphoenix that rose from the ashes agains all odds.\u201d It is the \u201csyntax and very language of renaissance\u201d, he added. Concluding his remarks, Wole Soyinka reminded the audience that it is in the hands of leaders and all Africans to ensure the realization of a continent that is at peace with its people and prioritizes the wellbeing and full self realization of its people.<\/p>\n<p>Thanking the entire guest for joining Rwanda as the country takes stock of its journey, President Kagame reminded those present that \u201cfreedom and dignity are never handed to you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to work hard to attain and secure our freedom and dignity,\u201d President Kagame added. Raising a toast to those present, President Kagame ended his toast by raising his glass to \u201csolidarity and freedom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kigali, 30 June 2012 On the eve of Rwanda\u2019s 50th Independence Day, President Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame hosted scholars from all over the world at a banquet that followed two days of the conference entitled \u201cGovernance and Democracy: An African Perspective.\u201d Guest of honor Wole Soyinka opened the banquet by sharing his belief in an African Renaissance. Describing Renaissance as \u201cthe birth of a new social personality unafraid of new ways of thinking,\u201d he reminded the audience of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","post-has-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1402"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10522,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1402\/revisions\/10522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}