Even a few months ago, few would have predicted that Paul Kagamé would be treated as VIP of the France-Africa summit in Nice.

Long know for his denunciations of France's role in the 1994 genocide, the strongman of Kigali appeared with great pomp among his African peers and beside Nicolas Sarkozy.

Kagamé repaid the French president's politeness by being present at the France-Africa summit on 31 May. A first. Until this year, anti-French rhetoric was a cornerstone of Paul Kagamé's nationalist ideology. Four years ago, in 2006, he noisily broke off relations with the old colonial power, and denounced the "meddling" of French judge  Jean-Louis Bruguière on the subject of Kagamé's alleged involvement in the assassination of his predecessor, Juvénal Habyarimana, on 6 April 1994. What happened so suddenly, to turn yesterday's unwelcome military man into today's honoured guest on a red carpet, a darling of the French press? In 2009, Kagamé joined the British Commonwealth and imposed English as the official language in his country.

A year later, he is back in the big Franco-African family. Could it be that his "pragmatic authoritarianism" is unpopular in the English-speaking world? It could also be a diplomatic manoeuvre to counter the Hutu opposition, for which Paris is a base, or at least a place for strategic retreat. Recent grenade explosions in Kigali have confirmed that there is a latent political crisis in the land of a thousand hills. The resounding success of Kagamé's economic policies was highlighted by the World Bank's latest Doing Business report, and is expected to be validated politically during the presidential elections scheduled for 9 August. Tensions mounted with the arrest of Victoire Ingabire, a Hutu opposition figure accused of genocide denial, until she was released in a PR operation meant to assuage criticism. The US warned about the dangers of stifling free speech, to which Kagamé gave his usual response to critics with characteristic calm: "we want partners, not masters."

F.C & A.W