Edwin Ashimwe

Each generation has its own challenges We often teach the next generation what we learned from the world we knew, forgetting that they are preparing for a world we never experienced. The values of discipline, sacrifice and resilience remain important, but the circumstances in which young people must apply them have changed profoundly. Every generation has its own challenges, and therefore every generation needs its own tools. A concert may seem like an unlikely place to think about generational change, but watching more than 12,000 young people gather on Saturday for the Diamond Platnumz and Bruce Melodie concert made one thing clear to me: young people are not growing up in the world we grew up in, and we should stop expecting them to navigate it as though they are. Most of the crowd was young, and as i watched them sing, dance and enjoy themselves in an atmosphere that was vibrant, energetic and largely disciplined, i found myself thinking about just how much the world around them has changed. In our time, entertainment usually meant going to a disco, and those who attended could quickly be labelled “bad boys” or “sluts.” Leisure was often viewed through the lens of morality. Today, young people can attend professionally organised concerts, experience artists and cultures from across the region, and participate in a creative economy that barely existed in its current form when we were their age. Our generation was, in many respects, a generation of survival. The constraints we grew up with shaped how we understood discipline, ambition, sacrifice and success, and those experiences built resilience that remains valuable. But we should not turn the circumstances that shaped us into a universal blueprint for how the next generation should live. The post-genocide generation is not growing up in an easier world; it is growing up in a more complicated one, marked by unemployment and competition, digital pressure, rapidly changing technology and social expectations increasingly influenced by a world without borders. A young person in Rwanda can discover what is happening in Nevada, Shanghai or Glasgow within seconds, follow global conversations, encounter careers we never knew existed and build an audience without leaving their bedroom. We cannot expect the worldview of a generation that communicated with pen pals through letters sent by post to be replicated by a generation that experiences the world in real time. Our generation learned how to survive; this generation must also learn how to navigate. That distinction should shape how we think about youth policy. Young people do not simply need to be managed; they need environments that allow them to connect, create, experiment, learn and build livelihoods. That is why a concert should not be dismissed as merely entertainment. What happens on a stage can create work behind it: musicians, sound engineers, event organisers, photographers, designers, vendors, transport providers, fashion entrepreneurs and digital creators all participate in an economic ecosystem that deserves to be taken seriously. What if events of this scale were organised every two months, and similar creative spaces deliberately developed beyond Kigali and into secondary cities? We would not simply be giving young people something to do; we would be creating markets in which young talent can become enterprise. Rwanda has demonstrated strong political will to empower young people. The harder question is whether that ambition is reaching them where they live. How are districts and sectors translating national commitments into practical opportunities, and how effectively are available resources being used to support initiatives that create jobs, livelihoods and innovation? The same question must be asked of our education system. Are we preparing young people merely to pass examinations and compete for scarce employment, or are we developing their ability to think critically, create, adapt, collaborate and navigate uncertainty? In a rapidly changing world, education cannot simply prepare young people for the jobs that exist today; it must prepare them to recognise and create the opportunities that will exist tomorrow. Young people do not simply need to be controlled or constantly reminded that previous generations had it harder. They need spaces to connect, create, learn, experiment and thrive. We can pass on our wisdom without requiring them to inherit all of our circumstances. We can teach discipline without teaching fear and preserve our values without preventing the next generation from creating new ones. #Mindset