By Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa
Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons
My world outlook has been shaped by a lifetime of exile, war, survival, faith, and an unyielding hope in the power of truth, justice, and human dignity. I am a wounded healer—scarred by the history of my people, yet called to mend, to teach, to lead, and to dream.
I was born into a world already ruptured by violence and betrayal. My father was killed during the first wave of massacres in post-independence Rwanda. My mother, a woman of remarkable strength who never attended a classroom, taught herself to read and write and raised her children in refugee camps scattered across East Africa. I learned under a tree in Uganda. From the ashes of that early trauma, a vision slowly took shape—not only of personal survival, but of national and global renewal.
At the heart of my worldview is a profound belief in the inherent dignity of every human being. Nothing—no ideology, no regime, no power—can justify the violation of that dignity. This belief animates my lifelong insistence on truth-telling. Reconciliation is not built on amnesia. Healing cannot emerge from lies. My work with the Rwanda Truth Commission is rooted in this conviction: that nations, like individuals, must confront their darkest chapters, not to dwell in them, but to be set free by them.
I am historically conscious, aware that we are not the first to stumble in the wilderness of betrayal or tyranny. But I also believe that history is not fate. We can learn. We can change. We must remember. That memory must be both personal and collectively held, not as a grudge, but as wisdom passed from one generation to the next.
I have come to see education not merely as the accumulation of facts, but as liberation—a sacred journey of awakening. That is why I founded the Eastern Africa Meta-University (EAMU). For too long, education in Africa has been a privilege for the few, shaped by colonial designs or the demands of authoritarian states. EAMU is my answer to that broken model. It is an invitation to displaced persons, the marginalized, the poor, and the forgotten to become citizens of thought and action. At EAMU, everyone is both teacher and learner. It is a place where enlightenment and engagement meet—where knowledge serves the flourishing of communities, not the enrichment of elites.
Though deeply rooted in Rwanda and Africa, my vision stretches beyond borders. I am a Pan-Africanist—not of slogans, but of substance. I have seen how African leaders invoke unity while fostering division, how they denounce colonialism even as they reproduce its logic through tyranny, corruption, and war. I believe in a renewed Pan-Africanism that centers people, not power; that speaks truth, not platitudes. And yet, my vision is not bound by Africa. I speak as a global citizen, shaped by exile in the United States and by encounters with diverse peoples. I believe that our common humanity must triumph over the artificial walls of tribe, race, and nation.
My worldview is revolutionary—but not in the service of violence. I reject vengeance. I do not yearn for upheaval for its own sake. Instead, I seek transformation of minds, of structures, of systems that have failed the poor, the refugee, the prisoner, the silenced. I believe in peace born not of fear, but of justice. A peace that is honest, inclusive, and forward-looking.
This is not a naïve hope. I know what evil looks like. I have seen it in genocide, in dictatorship, in the cynical calculations of global powers. But even in darkness, I have clung to a deeper faith—that life can rise from death, that deserts can bloom, that exiles can return home, and that nations can be reborn.
That is why I remain hopeful, even radically so. Hope is not a strategy, but it is a posture—a refusal to surrender to despair. I dream of a Rwanda where no child grows up stateless, where no mother flees with her babies on her back into the unknown, where no dissenter is silenced. I dream of an Africa that no longer exports its best minds through planes of desperation or buries them in the seas between continents. I dream of a world that finally learns that war is obsolete, that peace is possible, and that the human family can live together on this small blue planet without destroying itself.
I am, in the end, a shepherd of memory and a midwife of new nations. My outlook is grounded in history, shaped by faith, refined in suffering, and offered in service of healing a wounded world. From the refugee camp to the university, from the battlefield to the pulpit, from the corridors of diplomacy to the silence of prayer—I have walked many paths, but they all lead to the same truth:
That love is stronger than fear.
That truth is more enduring than lies.
That the human spirit, even when crushed, can rise again.
This is my world outlook. And I offer it to all who still believe that something beautiful, just, and holy can be born from the ruins.
To Support our independent investigative journalism contributions are welcome via Cashapp to: $BlackStarNews
Also support Black Star News by buying merch from our brand new Black Star Store!
