Africa’s cynical master of power politics

For the moment there is not much to see in Bugesera, a district replete with verdant bush 45km south of Kigali, Rwanda’s capital. But it is the site of what Paul Kagame, the president of the central African country of 14m people, views as a legacy project. If all goes to plan there will soon be an airport complex, financed largely by Qatar, that he hopes will aid the transformation of Rwanda from, in 1994, the blood-drenched scene of a genocide to an African emirate—a hub for commerce and a draw for tourists keen to snap the gorillas that lurk in the country’s mountains. Mr Kagame, a fan of Formula One, wants to host what would be Africa’s only circuit.