South African comedian Trevor Noah once joked that Donald Trump was America’s Idi Amin Dada because of their shared megalomania, delusions of grandeur, combative personality, colossal ego, and obsession with power. Trump confirmed Noah’s joke when he saluted in a military style North Korean supreme ruler Kim Jong Un and his generals in 2018. Fast forward to September 24, 2021, when General Paul Kagame in full military uniform saluted Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi. Kagame was playing the role of a triumphant Military General as he celebrated his troops who recently captured Mozambican Pemba peninsula that contains the US$20 billion French investments.
The purpose of Kagame’s military salute to a foreign leader on foreign soil was broader than publicity for the sake of boast and pride in power, however. His military salute was to stir up fear and dread in those he considers his enemies and Mozambique’s neighbouring nations, including South Africa that Kagame has humiliated by rendering impotent in their own region.
Kagame is on top of the world, as the conqueror of the Southern African country of Mozambique. General Idi Amin Dada who once boasted that he would invade South Africa to smash the Apartheid Regime and free fellow Africans would be envious of General Paul’s accomplishments. Stay tuned.
