Just like every year, this 4th July, Rwanda will be celebrating the 24th anniversary of the country’s liberation by the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) from a regime that planned and perpetrated the 1994 genocide against its own children, the Tutsi and some moderate Hutus, hence claiming over 1 million lives.

Many people tend to agree that, should the RPF had not intervened to put end to the genocide, more lives would have been claimed and that there would perhaps be none left to tell the story.

This is particularly true as the genocide was perpetrated under the indifferent gaze of the so called international community.

In fact, despite the presence of UN peacekeeping troops on the ground by then, the international community lamentably failed to invoke and apply force to protect targeted civilians under chapter 7 mandate of the UN Charter.

Instead, they preferred abandoning targeted civilians under their protection responsibility at the mercy of extremist Hutu killers.

Genocide survivors owe life a great deal to Rwandan sons and daughters, mostly Tutsi refugees, who under the leadership of RPF, put their lives at risk and fought selflessly under an armed movement (RPA) to liberate the country from decades of discriminatory governance. 

The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi was the culmination of nearly 4 decades of unprecedented forms of systematic violence that marked all post-colonial regimes right from the time the country gained independence from Belgian colonial rule on 1st July 1962.

When RPF took over Rwanda, it inherited from a totally devastated country with totally destroyed human, social, economic and political fabrics.

To date, the post-genocide Rwanda is increasingly garnering respect across the African continent and beyond for its amazing post-genocide development achievements.

In recognition of this, the country is now being referred to as a developmental state. I believe that such achievements are a result of a holistic approach towards liberation.

But why does celebrating the liberation still matter 24 years down the road? Or better yet, what is the unfinished work awaiting today and tomorrow’s liberators?

Why celebrating the liberation matters today?

The liberation that Rwandans and friends of Rwanda will be celebrating was a result of an armed battle, indeed a last resort to resolve a protracted conflict opposing successive post-independence regimes to its own nationals, and after all peaceful means to return home had been exhausted.

Some of us, though too young by then to understand what was really happening, did directly experience if not distantly experience the liberation momentum.

First, post-genocide Rwanda’s population being predominantly youthful, about 62 per cent aged less than 25 years as of 2012 it is extremely important that we celebrate the national liberation as part of a memorialization and civic effort for them to make sense of the long way history of  Rwanda.

Most importantly, this is key for the youth to make sense of the country’s contemporary challenges as well as challenges laying ahead, which define today and will thus define tomorrow’s shifting nature of the liberation struggle.

Also the liberation struggle was predominantly led by the youth. So, efforts to sustain its gains can hardly last if the youth does not actively involve itself.

To the recognition of many, the field liberation battle has been won over the enemy, at least from a military security perspective.

Security strategists would insist though on the necessity for the country to remain alert than ever before mostly because the Great Lakes region where it is geographically located is one of the most volatile zones of the continent.

Unless today and tomorrow’s changing nature of the liberation struggle is fully owned by the youth in virtue of its landmark demographic dividend, it would fail the liberation sustainability battle...However, youth still need to come out and confidently claim space.

The changing face of the liberation struggle: the unfinished work

Twenty four years after liberation of the country, it is self-evident that some battle areas of the liberation struggle have been won or are in the process of being won as evidenced by landmark development achievements that are, today, celebrated even beyond Rwandan borders. However, other battle areas are yet to be sustainably won. These include:

• The war on poverty;
  
• Youth employment;
  
• Youth empowerment;
  
• Youth leadership;
  
• Youth entrepreneurship;
  
• Participatory governance and citizen-centered public policies.
  

The hard question remains the following though “are the youth ready to take up the opportunities coming with a strong political will to reform and put them at the center of a long-run liberation struggle?

Dr. Joseph Ryarasa Nkurunziza is the Executive Director of Never Again Rwanda.