Time & Perspective Quote by Paul Kagame

A leader trying to speak from the wreckage without sounding trapped in it, Kagame frames history as non-negotiable and the future as a policy choice. The opening clause is a hard stop: no rewinds, no absolution-by-erasure. "We cannot turn the clock back" sounds almost soothing, but it does something sharper: it closes the door on nostalgia, revisionism, and the politics of denial that often follow mass violence. He follows with "nor can we undo the harm caused", which strips away the comforting fantasy that reparations or rhetoric can restore what was lost. That bluntness is strategic; it claims moral seriousness while narrowing the conversation to what power can still do.

Then the pivot: "but we have the power to determine the future". It is democratic in its grammar ("we") and intensely directive in its implication. In Kagame's Rwanda, where the post-genocide state has emphasized national unity, security, and rapid development alongside tight controls on dissent, that "we" can read as both collective agency and a reminder of who gets to define the national script. The final promise - "ensure that what happened never happens again" - invokes the global language of "Never Again" while anchoring it in state capacity: prevention as governance, vigilance, and sometimes, surveillance.

The subtext is a bargain: accept that the past is fixed, accept that the state is the instrument of prevention, and join the project of forward motion. It's not just consolation; it's an argument for legitimacy built on the duty to prevent recurrence.