Rwanda’s history includes times of terrible violence. But President Paul Kagame wants to turn the country’s reputation around. He plans to make the African nation a sports superpower.
History doesn’t make the task easy. In 1994, a group of Rwandans known as Hutus turned on the Tutsis, a minority population. In just 100 days, over 800,000 Tutsis were murdered. Roughly two million more fled the country.
Now more than 30 years later, Kagame hopes to implement a rebrand. He wants Rwanda to be known as welcoming, friendly, financially honest—and a center for sports. One step in the plan is to bring a Formula 1 Grand Prix race to the country.
Rwandan government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo says hosting an F1 race would allow the country to move “from being a consumer of sport to a participant in the business of sports.”
Since 2018, Kagame’s government has secured sponsorship deals with some of Europe’s biggest soccer clubs. Rwanda also has developed a partnership with the NBA. It’s spent millions developing sports facilities. Next year, Rwanda will stage the world championships for bicycle road racing.
Adding Grand Prix to the mix seems like a logical step toward getting Kagame’s goals in gear.
Seven-time world champion race car driver Lewis Hamilton has pushed for an African F1 race. And Rwanda is quickly becoming known as one of Africa’s more stable countries. That could put it in the running to host.
If Rwanda can pull it off, becoming a sports superpower could pay off. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar have all set examples to follow. They used sport to boost their global images.
But is Rwanda “sports washing”? That’s what happens when countries use sports to appear more friendly than they are. (See also Shake-ups on the Green.)
China has been accused of sports washing. It hosted the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, despite a record of human rights abuses. Nazi Germany wanted other countries to think well of it as it hosted the 1936 Olympic Games. The friendly façade didn’t last: That was right before World War II.
Regardless of the country’s intentions, money troubles might stand in the way of Rwanda securing a Grand Prix. Rwanda’s gross domestic product is about $14.1 billion annually. A single Grand Prix race could cost billions. Hosting might not be worth the hefty price tag.
“Sporting events are incredibly expensive to stage, and the net impact is very often negative rather than positive,” says Simon Chadwick, a professor at Skema Business School in Paris, France. “For Rwanda, given its relative economic weakness, this will be a concern.”
Why? Bringing international sports to Rwanda might be a good business strategy for the country. But that can’t come at the cost of forgetting a tragic history.
