A constitutional lawyer by training, Filip Reyntjens first set foot in Rwanda in July 1976 to help run a project at the Law School at the National University in Butare. Over the last 50 years, he has provided observers of the Great Lakes Region of Africa with thought-provoking observations and analysis of the region and especially of Rwanda itself, one of its most significant countries. The author of a number of well-regarded books, including Rwanda: trois jours qui ont fait basculer l’histoire, The Great African War: Congo and Regional Geopolitics, Political Governance in Post-Genocide Rwanda.and Le génocide des Tutsi au Rwanda, he is an Emeritus Professor of Law and Politics at the University of Antwerp. We spoke about the 1973 to 1994 rule of Juvénal Habyarimana, Rwanda as it has existed for three decades under the rule of Paul Kagame and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and Rwanda's involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo.