Paul Kagame describes his early days as a member of the NRA thus: I used to walk long distances. Sometimes I was sent up to two hundred kilometers away, either in search of contacts or places the guerrilla group could move to in the bush.

I would study the territory, see if there was enough water, if there was terrain to hide, if it was likely that people would support us. I would go and spend days, weeks and months alone, or sometimes with a couple of other people…sometimes you’d take someone by force, capture him and say, “You must guide me.” You have to release such a person carefully so he won’t give you away. Because of my appearance alone, people would say, “This is a stranger.” So most of the time I had to move at night…

One time we had to go through some villages and we were caught there when the morning broke, before we reached our hiding place. We met some people and they started shouting. They knew we were not from there. We had to arrest these people and threaten them that if they continued making noise we would kill them…when we got to a place where there was good cover, we told them they could go back.

The book details how, after the Ugandan guerrilla war, Rwigyema and Kagame moved ahead with the work of organizing for an eventual return to Rwanda, by military force if necessary; the clandestine work the two – as leaders of the Rwandese Patriotic Force – did shaping the movement into a cohesive politico-military organization, how they used their position and influence within the NRA to quietly encourage more young sons of Rwandan exiles to enlist, and guiding the careers of these soldiers, steering as many as possible to training courses and field commands.

Kinzer comments, they built their rebel army in a way no revolutionary group ever had: within the national army of another country.

By any standards Paul Kagame qualifies to be one of the most successful revolutionaries of the modern age, the author adds.