GODSON OSARENREN'S KIGALI CHRONICLES: FROM THE GENOCIDE MEMORIAL TO THE POETRY MASTER CLASS

(How a Nigerian poet journeyed from Lagos to Kigali, confronted the ghosts of genocide, celebrated African creativity and found poetry in a nation’s remarkable transformation.)

Godson Osarenren arrived in Kigali carrying poems, questions and memories, along with years of reflection on ethnicity and the devastating sentiments that can grow around it.

Rwanda had long been more than a country on the African map to the Nigerian poet. It represented a painful case study of what can happen when identity becomes a weapon and humanity is pushed aside by hatred.

So, when the invitation came to participate in the Umurage International Book and Art Festival in Kigali, Osarenren knew the journey would be more than another literary trip. It would be an encounter with history, memory, art and transformation.

Earlier in February 2026, one of his senior friends and father figures, Kede Aihie, had reached out to him to contribute a poem to a forthcoming book, From Ashes to Ambition: Paul Kagame – An Inspirational Leadership, a work examining Rwanda’s transformation.

Months later, Osarenren found himself travelling to the very country whose story he had so often discussed in classrooms.

On September 29, 2026, a delegation of Nigerian literary and creative figures departed Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, for Kigali, connecting through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The delegation included Amarachukwu Chimeka, CEO of Purple Shelves; Dr Ebidenyefa Tarila-Nikade; Servio Gbadamosi; Ndidi Chiazor Enenmor; and Osarenren, founder and convener of Naija Poetry Fest.

Their mission was clear: represent Nigeria, share their voices and, as Nigerians often say, deliver the goods.

They landed in Kigali at about 7 p.m. and were warmly received by festival organiser Mutesi Gasana, who took the delegation to the Hilltop Hotel and Country Club.

Then came their first cultural exchange.

They were served jollof rice, but there was one small problem.

There was no pepper.

The Nigerian delegation quickly became a culinary intervention team, teaching the chef how to make jollof rice the Naija way. It was perhaps their earliest lesson in cultural diplomacy.

The following morning began on a much heavier note.

Their first major stop was the Kigali Genocide Memorial.

Nothing quite prepares a visitor for a place where history is not merely displayed but buried beneath their feet.

The memorial is the final resting place of more than 250,000 victims, while genocide memorial sites across Rwanda commemorate more than a million people killed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Walking through the memorial was confronting.

Room after room told stories of friends who became enemies, neighbours who turned against neighbours, and religious and community leaders who were consumed by an ideology of hatred.

For Osarenren, the experience was a powerful reminder of the dangers of allowing ethnicity, prejudice and political manipulation to overpower common humanity.

He did not leave the memorial with easy answers. Instead, he left with a deeper responsibility to keep asking difficult questions.

Later that day, the delegation attended “Women in the Publishing and Creative Space” at Norsken, a workspace and event hub in Kigali.

For Osarenren, there was a striking contrast between the painful history encountered earlier and the creative energy emerging around them. From the ashes of one of Africa’s darkest chapters, Rwanda was demonstrating a determination to rebuild, create and imagine again.

October 1 marked the beginning of the Umurage International Book and Art Festival, themed “Intelligent Tools, Human Voices.”

Osarenren opened his participation with a masterclass in poetry. Among those present was the German Ambassador to Rwanda and her entourage, who followed the session with keen interest and later mentioned Osarenren in her speech.

At the heart of his masterclass was a deliberately provocative description of the poet.

According to Osarenren, a poet is a moving antenna.

The poet walks through society capturing signals, emotions, contradictions, injustices, beauty and forgotten stories, before transforming them into language.

He also offered his own creative interpretation of the word POET:

P — Prophet

O — Orphan of Thoughts

E — Engineer of Words

T — Teacher to the World

Then came the real test.

Osarenren gave participants two words and asked them to write.

More than 60 poems emerged on the spot.

For the Nigerian poet, it was one of the festival’s most beautiful moments: watching ideas become language almost instantly.

He also joined a panel discussion on the festival’s central theme, “Intelligent Tools, Human Voices.”

His description of Artificial Intelligence was deliberately provocative:

“AI is a beautiful monster.”

Beautiful because of its extraordinary possibilities. A monster because, if people surrender their thinking to it, it can gradually weaken the very human capacities that make creativity meaningful.

For Osarenren, the question is not whether AI is useful. It is.

The bigger question is whether humanity will continue to think for itself.

Human imagination, critical thinking, experience, memory and emotion cannot simply be outsourced. Technology, he argued, should amplify the human voice rather than silence it.

Osarenren also had a session dedicated to his book, Bush Radio, a poetic compendium divided into five segments and containing 100 poems.

He read “Fela”, his poem dedicated to the legendary Afrobeat pioneer, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

Before reading the poem, however, Osarenren introduced Fela to the audience through one of his unforgettable expressions:

“Me and you no dey for the same category.”

For a moment, Kigali became Lagos.

Poetry crossed borders. Fela’s voice travelled. African memory found another audience.

Beyond the official festival programme, Kigali offered the Nigerian delegation moments of laughter, friendship and discovery.

Much of this was made possible by Gromyko Amedu, who became, in Osarenren’s words, “oil to the wheel” of their Kigali adventure.

The delegation visited Mount Kigali and enjoyed the hospitality of AfriNaija Pot and Restaurants, where Osarenren jokingly observed that “we were fed and we became fed up.”

They also explored the Green Carpet, a 2.4-kilometre dedicated green synthetic rubber-padded running lane around the scenic golf-course area in Nyarutarama.

The delegation passed through the guarded Presidential Villa and saw mountains dotted with houses, a striking landscape that seemed to blend nature, order and urban life.

But perhaps one of the most striking things about Kigali was something much simpler.

The city is exceptionally clean.

There is a visible sense of discipline and order in the environment, and it is difficult not to notice.

For Osarenren, the festival ultimately became an encounter with the possibilities of creativity, dialogue and imagination.

Kigali presented a country still carrying the scars of its past while simultaneously building boldly beyond them.

Perhaps that is the real meaning of From Ashes to Ambition.

A nation can remember its wounds without becoming its wounds.

A people can inherit history without becoming prisoners of it.

And perhaps, like poetry, a country too can transform pain into meaning.

For Osarenren, Kigali did not merely host him. It taught him.

He arrived carrying poems, questions and memories. He left with more questions, but also with a renewed conviction that poetry is not simply about putting words on a page. It is about paying attention: to history, to people, to wounds, to possibility and to the signals that surround us.

The Kigali experience reinforced his belief that the poet’s responsibility is to keep listening, keep questioning and keep giving language to what the world must not forget.

© GODSON OSARENREN 

-Nigeria