He is a professor at the Institut des hautes études de défense nationale (IHEDN) and the editor of the journal L'Afrique réelle ("Real Africa").
[1][3] In June 1982, Lugan left Rwanda and became an associate professor of African history at Jean Moulin University Lyon 3.
[6][3] In 1983, Lugan authored another thesis for a state doctorate, Between the servitudes of the hoe and the spells of the cow: the rural world in ancient Rwanda.
[7] In 1988, he received the M. et Mme Louis Marin prize from the Académie Française for his book The French People Who Made South Africa.
He was cited by several Hutu defendants ultimately convicted for their involvement in the genocide, including Théoneste Bagosora, Tharcisse Renzaho and Emmanuel Ndindabahizi.
[27] In this book, he rejects what he calls "the victimization paradigm," which says colonial exploitation and the slave trade brought Africa to its knees, rejects solutions based on Western guilt and claim that a correct interpretation of history is necessary for Africans to "build a future on a more solid foundation" and save an African continent ravaged by famine, economic disaster and civil war.