Kagame made the reamrks in New York as he delivered opening remarks at the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit in honour of the centenary of the birth of Mandela ahead of the 73rd session of the United Nations Assembly.<\/p>\n
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela died on December 5, 2013 at the age of 95. He is remembered as hero who fought against the system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s known as \u201cappartheid\u201d imposed on South African blacks by the white minority while he strove for unity and equality. <\/p>\n
His fight against Appartheid saw him serve 27 years in prison and after being released, Mandela avoided the revenge actions but rather pushed for unity and reconciliation of the South Africans.<\/p>\n
In 1994, Mandela was voted President of the South African Republic for a five years term which ended in 1999. <\/p>\n
Speaking about Mandela, President Kagame said, \u201cNelson Mandela\u2019s centenary presents an ideal moment to reflect on the meaning that the legacy of this great African freedom fighter and statesman holds for us today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNelson Mandela understood that the politics of confrontation and division impedes a nation\u2019s social cohesion and progress,\u201d Kagame said, adding that \u201cEven though the wounds were still fresh, he endeavoured to show that the suffering endured by him and countless other South Africans could be re-directed toward building a more positive future for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kagame noted that Mandela did not consider the unpopularity of his [Mandela] message but he did what was right.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was not an easy message, but President Mandela was a true leader and an inspiring communicator. He did what was right, even when it was not popular,\u201d Kagame emphasized.<\/p>\n
{{Rwanda learnt inclusivity through its tragic history
\n}}<\/p>\n
Kagame said that the tragic history [of the 1994 genocide against Tutsi] was a lesson for the counrty on the inclusivity, equality and to avoid non-sectarian politics.
\nPresident Kagame said: \u201c In Rwanda, our tragic history has also taught us the importance of unity and inclusivity for reconciliation and nation-building.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work to ensure that all citizens have equal rights and opportunities and are able to participate actively in shaping our country\u2019s direction in meaningful ways. This approach has allowed us to restore trust in public institutions, and also in each other,\u201d Rwanda\u2019s President explained.<\/p>\n
Kagame revealed that \u201cInclusive and non-sectarian politics is not only advantageous in Africa or in post-conflict situations. As the world has been seeing, national unity is a good thing, wherever it takes place.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are fortunate to have Nelson Mandela\u2019s example to keep bringing us back to this fundamental truth,\u201d noted Kagame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Kagame has said Mandela Nelson Mandela knew that the politics of confrontation and division was a threat to a nation\u2019s social cohesion and progress and urged the world to take Mandela as an example. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[69],"byline":[180],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-38214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homehighlights","byline-samson-iradukunda"],"bylines":[{"id":180,"name":"Samson Iradukunda","slug":"samson-iradukunda","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":24}],"contributors":[{"id":180,"name":"Samson Iradukunda","slug":"samson-iradukunda","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":24}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38214"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=38214"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=38214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}