Seen as one of Africa's most visionary and enlightened autocrats, Paul Kagame's presidency is often contrasted with the violence and ethnocentrism of his discredited predecessors. Drawing on rarely analysed primary sources, this article disputes this simplified narrative by revealing striking continuities in the ruling elite's rhetorical repertoire in the late colonial period (1956–1959) and present-day Rwanda. Both then and now, rhetorical calls to remove ethnic labels from public discourse in the name of national unity are key resilience strategies designed to shape regime relations with domestic and international audiences in ways that reinforce power concentration by a small (largely Tutsi) elite. Changes in the distribution of power and the scale of anti-Tutsi violence (most notably in 1994) help explain why a similar rhetorical strategy failed to prevent the dismantling of the Tutsi oligarchy in 1961 while strengthening its contemporary counterpart.

中文翻译：

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再循环的言论：研究政治言论的连续性作为卢旺达独立前和种族灭绝后的复原力战略

作为非洲最有远见和开明的独裁者之一，保罗卡加梅的总统任期经常与他声名狼藉的前任的暴力和种族中心主义形成鲜明对比。本文利用很少分析的主要资料，通过揭示统治精英在殖民后期（1956-1959）和今天的卢旺达的修辞手段的惊人连续性来反驳这种简化的叙述。无论是当时还是现在，以民族团结的名义从公共话语中去除种族标签的修辞呼吁都是关键的弹性策略，旨在塑造政权与国内和国际受众的关系，以加强少数（主要是图西族）精英的权力集中。