During an African Union (AU) summit in early February, it was decided that Foreign Ministers would prepare a roadmap for the continent’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC). The reason for this move, according to a growing group of African leaders, is that the ICC is “anti-African”, “humiliating” and a threat to sovereignty. This argument refers to the fact that most of those indicted or being investigated by the Court are African, though given that the victims of the abuses focussed on by the ICC are also mostly African, from a people’s perspective, the ICC could be seen as distinctly “pro-African”. Nevertheless, plans were put in place for the AU to abandon the ICC – even though only individual states can withdraw, not the Union as an organisation – and to set up an alternative African court, one that is expected to offer immunity to the continent’s Big Men. In these decisions, one of the most prominent voices was President Paul Kagame, even though Rwanda is not party to the Rome Statute in the first place. Kagame has criticised the ICC for being “selective” and discriminating against the continent. However, recent events suggest that the president is not just worried about the international court, but African courts as well. Or rather, it seems that the thing Kagame is really concerned about is not international justice or African justice, but independent justice.]]>