PapaOutai – Remembering Rwanda
By: Deji Yesufu
Social media has a way of kicking up new songs that become quite popular and trendy. I suspect that there may not have been a more popular song than the “Papa Outai” song. I confess that the first time I listened to it, I liked it immediately. A brief online search reveals that the song was first published in 2013 by Stromae, a Belgian singer, rapper, and songwriter. But the latest version of the song, which was by artificial intelligence, mixed with “Afro Soul” tenor, was created by Mikeeysmind & Chill77, and published on Tiktok in December 2025. The latest version has since gone viral and has become the background song for TikTok videos, protest marches, and short comedies, and it has also inspired this article. The frequent call of “Papa Outai” in the song is quite gripping, and when you discover that the phrase means “Father, where are you?” you begin to think what might have inspired the song in the first place.
Stromae, whose full name is Paul Van Haver, was born on 12th March 1985, in Brussels, Belgium, to Pierre Rutare, his father, and Miranda Van Haver, his mother. His mother is Flemish, while his father was Rwandan. His father was an architect living in Belgium. He happened to have been visiting his family in Kigali, Rwanda in 1994, when he was caught up in the Rwandan genocide, and being Tutsi, was callously murdered along with the close to one million Tutsis that were killed by their Hutu neighbors in that horrible genocide. Stromae and his siblings were raised by his mother, but the absence of a father in his life would eventually inspire “Papa Outai” – a song that was originally made in French. This very short background to the singer’s life is the inspiration for this article.
A video surfaced online recently where a woman was suggesting that men should no longer take DNA tests to ascertain the paternity of their children. If not for the freedom that the social media affords for all kind of views to reach the public domain, one would have advised that woman not to have bothered embarking on such a project. Even if a law is enacted against paternity tests for DNA, many men would still do it. Incidentally, I agree with the meat of that woman’s suggestion. I also think that DNA testing does a lot more harm than good, and that if it can be avoided, it should. However, it is not my business what people use their money for. If men wish to do DNA testing on their children, they should be given the freedom to. I make my suggestion mainly because the role of a man or a father in a child’s life is so vital. I think that the mere fact that a man is given the title “Daddy”, he should bear that role and consider it a calling from God. It does not matter who donated the sperm; the real father is the individual who offered a child protection, provision, and purpose. Stromae’s lament in his song is that he did not know this as he grew up. The song should also be a reminder to those who have fathers to appreciate them while they live.
Another perspective that Stromae’s song offers us is the vital role of a functional society. Recently Reno Omokri suggested that people in science disciplines do better financially than those in the arts and social sciences. Such thinking reveals the very small-mindedness of Nigerian politicians. Everything is about money. If, for a moment, we consider that this theory is true, how will a doctor, engineer, pharmacist, or computer programmer function in a society that is at war? The social sciences and arts, although they may not earn as much as the sciences, are probably more important than the sciences. Nigeria is what she is today because we simply have not found people who will order our societies aright. Our laws are there, but there are no enforcement agencies. Our courts are replete with judges with questionable characters. Our electoral systems are not working. Today it is “transfer” we are debating; tomorrow, we are debating “transmission”. Our political parties have no ideologies. Money is the central motivating factor for many Nigerians. No society thrives in this kind of environment, and Stromae’s song reminds us that we can wake up one day in Nigeria with a genocide in our hands. It is bad enough that this country has battled Islamic insurgency since 2009 and our military has been unable to defeat them. Some have suggested that the military themselves are compromised with some of them retaining sympathies for Boko Haram, while others see the continual violence as a means of enriching themselves from contracts while purchasing ammunition. When the social fabric of a country is defective, we leave ourselves to the dangers of wars. Rwanda had to suffer that genocide for Paul Kagame to rise up and offer that country leadership, however despotic some might regard it. At least, there is peace, progress and prosperity in that country today. Nigeria cannot afford another civil war. The earlier the better we fix our social problem. Hopefully, our fathers’ lives would be preserved, and they will be present in the lives of their children to raise them up.
Of the many videos that the AI enhanced Papaoutai song I have seen, it is those that are used for the Iranian protests that inspire me the most. In the middle of January 2026, young Iranian men and women flooded the streets of their major cities in Iran, demanding an end to the government of the Ayatollah Khamenei. The young people were met with force, and an estimated 30,000 people were mowed down. Some of them were shot dead in the hospitals where they had gone to recover from bullet wounds. Others were stuffed in body bags. The Islamic regime ruling that country has gone on a killing spree, and the worst part of it all is that major news outlets all around the world have remained silent the killings. This was what happened in 1994, when the Rwandan genocide occurred. The world’s superpowers were called upon for help, but they looked the other way as innocent men and women were killed. it was not until Paul Kagame’s rebel group entered Kigali that the killings stopped. This was the tragedy that took Stromae’s father’s life, and it is what inspired the song we are talking about today. The saddest part of the killings in Iran is that it is not the fathers who are being killed now, but the children. It is only after the murderous Ayatollah regime has left that we will know the extent of the damage done. Our common humanity demands that you and I should cry out when others are being killed. I understand the political dimension of it; the fact that many right-wing persons like us also kept quiet when the Gaza killings were going on. The difference between the killings in Gaza and Iran is simple: Gaza is full scale war with a foreign power, a war elicited by terrorist groups that came from Gaza itself. The Iranian killings are the rulers of that country murdering their people. There is a lot of difference there!
The good news about Stromae’s song is that the absence of a father is not the end of the world for a child. There are many men who grew up strong and stable under the oversight of a mother who acts both as a father and mother to the children. There are other fatherless children who enjoy the blessing of other fathers coming along with them and guiding them through life. There are other young men and women who, in spite of the absence of a father, learn the lessons of life all by themselves and make a life for themselves. This is where I get the theory that God is the Father of all creation, and many times in the absence of a father, God steps into the life of a child. The greatest Father influence anyone can have is knowing God through his Son, Jesus Christ. In that case, we do not need to call out “Papa Outai” anymore. We know where our Father is. Our Father is in heaven. Amen.
Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at [email protected]
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