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00:00 The Secret of Rwandan Successes
00:06 I'm going to tell you what I think
00:08 the secret of Rwandan success is.
00:13 Culture has three levels.
00:17 The first level is the explicit
00:21 articulation of culture.
00:24 It's the food we eat,
00:27 the language we hear and speak.
00:31 It's the fashion of beautiful women of Rwanda.
00:35 If you say to a Rwandan woman...
00:38 [applause]
00:41 How many times have I said to a Rwandan woman,
00:44 "You look so beautiful this evening,"
00:47 and they say, "Of course, I am Rwandan."
00:50 [laughter]
00:51 Right?
00:53 [applause]
00:55 Can I stand up, minister?
00:58 It's okay if I stand up.
01:01 So there's the explicit articulation of culture in Rwanda.
01:05 The music, the plays, the language, the dancing.
01:10 You know those long, yellow wigs that the dancers have?
01:16 I have one of those at home.
01:19 [applause]
01:23 It's my great treasure from Rwanda.
01:28 But that's the culture you see.
01:33 But then there's another type of culture,
01:36 which are the norms of behavior.
01:39 What is good, what is bad.
01:42 Right?
01:43 Sighaho.
01:44 Sighaho.
01:46 Am I right?
01:48 This is not acceptable.
01:51 Rwandans know what it means to be Rwandan.
01:55 You don't eat food on the street or the sidewalk
01:58 because another Rwandan may go hungry.
02:02 [applause]
02:05 Rwandans are punctual people.
02:07 We show up on time.
02:09 [laughter]
02:13 Are there any Nigerians here?
02:16 No, they're late.
02:18 The Nigerians are late.
02:21 But Rwandans show up on time.
02:24 We study culture of Africa, you know, Madam Professor.
02:28 It's not just Nigerians.
02:30 Not just Nigerians.
02:32 But Rwandans show up on time.
02:37 And the secret to economic growth is punctuality.
02:41 Not because showing up on time is important,
02:44 but because punctuality is a proxy for self-respect,
02:50 respect for other people, respect for time and the future.
02:54 But there's another type of culture.
02:57 There's the culture you experience.
02:59 There are the norms of behavior.
03:01 And then there's your mindset.
03:05 And I know what it takes for Rwanda to succeed.
03:09 You have to believe in competition.
03:12 You have to have a high amount of trust for your fellow citizens.
03:19 Mistrust is the greatest tax on a nation.
03:24 And there is no mistrust in Rwanda.
03:27 We trust our fellow citizens.
03:31 We socialize with Rwandans just because they're Rwandans.
03:36 We're optimistic about the future.
03:39 We're tolerant of new ideas.
03:42 That's the mindset part of culture that supports innovation.
03:49 The President says,
03:52 and I think this is the secret of Rwandan success,
03:57 "Umuganda, Jirinka, Umuhigo,
04:08 we have found a way to build modern institutions on our traditional values
04:15 and our language is the portal into our history and our heritage."
04:27 The secret of Rwandan success is not to listen to people from Harvard,
04:33 not to listen to people from the World Bank,
04:36 especially not the World Bank.
04:40 We can listen to the African Development Bank when the leader is named Kabaruka.
04:49 But the secret is to listen to our past.
04:53 That when we have a problem,
04:56 we say, "This must have been solved before."
05:00 And we go back into our past
05:03 and the answer to our justice problem is in a single blade of grass called Gacaca.
05:18 And then we take those ancient, time-tested institutions
05:24 and we make them modern.
05:27 And the Rwandan people own these institutions
05:30 and they understand these institutions
05:33 and the institutions are cheap to administer and they work.
05:39 And that's the secret of Rwandan success.
05:42 And if we could teach the rest of the world,
05:45 it would be to listen to their Nigerian soul,
05:50 their Kenyan soul, their Botswanan soul,
05:54 and to realize and to have confidence
05:56 that they have solved the problems they face now at another time in the past.
06:02 And if they could understand how they did it then
06:05 and have the ability to modernize those institutions,
06:10 they can solve anything together, pamoja.
06:15 And that's the secret of the Rwandan success story.
06:20 (music)
06:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]