President Kagame declared Rwanda’s intentions to host F1 at a time F1 winning cars and their drivers were in the country.
Whether it succeeds or not, Rwanda’s bid as a host country for the return of Formula1 racing to Africa, is already a triumph, not just for Rwanda, but for the human spirit.
Thirty years ago, with characteristically trenchant observation of the world around him, the Nigerian Nobel laureate for literature, Wole Soyinka, declared that, “as a nation, Rwanda is clinically dead.”
Rwandans however, would not yield to the forces of darkness. And this weekend, the then steely, youthful figure in combat fatigues, who led the nation’s liberation forces, now with grey in his beard, and salt and pepper hair, stood elegantly in black tie, to welcome the world’s most glamorous people in the world of motor sport, to the nation he leads.
What a transformation, what resilience, determination. A nation, a people, blooded and bowed, at the bottom of a dark abyss, nevertheless coming together, and with unshakable will, to declare, we choose life, and steadily, lifting their heads high, climbing up and up and up, into the sunlight. And once there, they made a choice not to sit in the sun and rest on the deserved laurels, but instead, to embark on the healing of a people, wounded of body, mind and heart, and together remake their nation, to become a burnished symbol of “life’s longing for itself,” to borrow from the poet Khalil Gibran.
Thirty years in the life of a nation, is a blink of an eye. It is only yesterday, that to any decent mind, the very idea of Rwanda as a destination for the world’s most prestigious sporting event, would have sounded like cruel mockery.
But Rwanda believed. Nevertheless, with a tragic history so recent in every mind, there was a dreamlike quality to seeing the world of motorsport, all in their finery, gathered in Kigali, to celebrate the sport’s highest achievements. “Max, welcome to Rwanda,” enthused Formula1 presenter Naomi Schiff,” interviewing this year’s Formula1 champion, Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen. How unlikely those words would have seemed not even thirty, but twenty, fifteen years ago.
President Kagame speaks to Formula1 presenter Naomi Schiff.
The FIA (International Automobile Federation) president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, described how the federation’s membership balked at the very notion of holding their most important event in Rwanda, a country about which if any of them thought at all, it would have been in association with the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi.
“It was not easy to convince the members to come here” Ben Sulayem said, in an interview in Rwanda, “because you know, some people just read something and they say, ‘Ok, don’t go outside Europe, Africa or Asia is not safe’ it took a year of negotiation, and the people [members] when they came here, they sent a message to everyone to say, ‘come here and just enjoy Rwanda.”
As the animation film attested, it has taken extraordinary commitment to nation building to get to a point, at which Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, can be mentioned in the same glamourous perspective, as Monaco, Paris, the normal homes for the FIA’s awards ceremony. The raised eyebrows when Ben Sulayem made the suggestion, quickly returned to normal, once the federation’s members visited the country. Upwards of 120 countries were represented among the audience at the BK arena, in their own way, all will now be ambassadors for Rwanda.
And Ben Sulayem’s attention to consider Rwanda in the first place, was attracted by the country’s success in organising important international events. He will have considered Rwanda’s hard won reputation as one of the safest countries, not just on the African continent, but in the world. Anyone familiar with the Great Lakes region, in which Rwanda, is situated at the heart of Africa, will know that the region is plagued with conflict, yet Rwanda stands out as an oasis of peace and stability, where government and people march together, towards a shared vision.
FIA’s Ben Sulayem.
The main governing party, the RPF, often points to three guiding principles, in its vision for the nation. “We decided to be together as a people, to be accountable to ourselves and to think big.” “What” asked Naomi Schiff of President Kagame, at the BK arena, “would you say to people who say that Rwanda is too small a country to bid to host Formula1?”
“We are not too small for anything” he replied, patiently, almost indulgently, “that’s our belief, we believe in what we can do, especially with friends and partners, building on what we already have, that is the will and some good capacity to pull off some of these big projects.” Paul Kagame rarely, if ever, utters throwaway remarks. Did the response also point to Rwanda’s intention to seek partnership for its bid to become a permanent home for Formula1 in Africa? Time will tell.
Whatever the arrangements under consideration, the first hurdle had been cleared, comfortably. Having seen what Rwanda is with their own eyes, for the first time in its one hundred and twenty year history, the FIA members were won over, and chose the country as the first ever African destination for the annual awards ceremony.
From yesteryear to this year’s champions, from junior carting to the pinnacle of motor racing, Formula1 champions were welcomed to Rwanda, and into the glittering ceremony in Kigali’s BK arena.
The National Ballet Urukerereza performs at FIA Awards 2024.
An animation film gently took the audience through the country’s transformation over the last thirty years. In the film, a figure in military fatigues, rifle slung over the shoulder, bends forward, stretching out an arm to rescue a survivor of the genocide, from what seemed like a swamp, where many did indeed try to hide, in an effort to escape the mass murderers. The film rushes through the decades, to the Gacaca courts, Rwanda’s ancient justice system, which was revived to clear the backlog of the hundreds of thousands of genocide cases.
From there, to the beginning of constructing a hitherto non existent infrastructure, water and electricity supply, sanitation, the universal healthcare system, which along with universal primary and secondary school education, stand as two of Rwanda’s proudest achievements, on the story goes, arriving at the bright lights, not only of Kigali, as well as every city and town in the country, which now welcomed the FIA. It was a well conceived guide to the audience, that told of triumph from tragedy to the evening’s celebration, without ever changing the celebratory mood in the arena.
As though in celebration of the nation’s deliverance, just outlined in the film, Urukerereza, which seems to have won the honour of being dubbed Rwanda’s National Ballet, glided onto the stage. Rwanda’s national dance, which has recently been recognised by UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation), was clearly a new experience for many in the audience.
Winners of the night with their trophies.
At first, they looked on, transfixed, curious. Then slowly, the drumbeats, the music, the dance, seemed to flow into them, smiles from deep within lighted faces, they were hooked. They were woken from their reverie, to continue the FIA packed programme.
Formula1 may be the sport’s undisputed premiere race, but the FIA is more than just Formula1. It is carting, Formula 3-2, it is World Rallycross, the Dakar rally, to name only a few. The FIA, which began as a small auto club in Hamburg, German, over a Century ago, now oversees a billion dollar motorsport behemoth.
In Kigali, the founding members club, with FIA president of the senate, Carmelo Sanz de Barros, and the splendidly extravagantly named, Ludwig Furst zu Lowenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, from the founding members club, called on the stage to accept the trophies.
But as constantly repeated, it was a night of champions. From junior carting, Kenzo Craigie, accepted his trophy, and was shyly not forthcoming when asked whether he had his eye on Lando Norris’s seat. The McLaren driver narrowly missed the driver’s championship this year, but managed to take his team to the first constructor’s championship in twenty-six years. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, generously congratulated his McLaren rivals on the constructor’s trophy, and rued Ferrari’s missed opportunity.
It starts with a dream, before it becomes a reality.
Toyota all but swept the board, outside Formula1, including the award for action of the year, voted for by the viewing public, a new feature, announced in Kigali.
President Kagame, rose twice from his seat to present two trophies. One was to this year’s championship winner, Max Verstappen, naturally, and the other, another new feature, the inaugural life achievement award, to the legendary rallycross driver, Michele Mouton. An inspiration for almost everyone woman in the sport today, Mouton went on to become a campaigner for safety, within the FIA. She announced her retirement in Kigali, expressing confidence that the “younger ones” will carry on what she began.
In Rwanda too, the younger ones are called upon to continue what was begun, luckily for them however, the older ones are still youthful enough to provide a guiding hand. Will Formula1 come to Rwanda? Perhaps or perhaps not. It would be a foolish person who bets against the country, but either way, as Rwandans, humanity wins, certainly Africa wins.
