Poetry. Dance. Kitenge. Jewelry. Naming customs. Cafe Lattes?!?
All of our preparatory reading, internet searches and chats with individuals who had lived in-country did not prepare us for the rich culture we have experienced since our arrival in Rwanda. There are some aspects...and perhaps many...of this alluring culture that will appeal to everyone. Here we comment on just a few of the cultural artifacts that we have experienced during our few months here. Future posts will explore more.
Poetry at Spoken Word Rwanda (SWR)
Spoken Word Rwanda (SWR) brings people in Kigali together last Wednesdays of the month to celebrate self expression and the performing arts. At its core, it is a performance of words often in the form of original recited poetry, storytelling, or monologues. The group was founded by Diana Mpyisi in 2011 and has been attracting local and expatriate talent from all over the city to share and perform their work. The mission of the organization is not only to entertain but to educate an inspire others to share their stories and poetic works. The evenings are themed. Some examples include "Untold Stories," "I am Kigali," or "Lessons Learned."
We stumbled upon SWR's October event as we were having dinner on the terrace of the restaurant at our place. The inside of the restaurant was lined with rows of chairs. The tech crew was setting up sound and lighting equipment and people were beginning to filter in and take their seats. The manager of the restaurant informed us that a free poetry evening was about to begin, and she invited us to stick around. And that we did! Around 8:00 p.m., the performances began. Some of the performers on the program were returning ones; others were first timers. Most performed in English but there were a couple who recited their poems in French. The one poet who stood out for us was Natasha Muhoza who performed a piece on identity. This 23-year-old poet, writer, and law student was interviewed on her experience and thoughts on poetry. Another identity poetry piece was performed in June of 2016 by Georgie Ndirangu (Kenyan and soon to be naturalized Rwandan) on the theme, "I am Kigali."
The six-minute clip below is of Natasha and Georgie reciting/performing their works.
Observations on the Spoken Word Rwanda poetry evening:
Spoken Word Rwanda events are conducted very much like the Moth storytelling events in America where the evening is themed and performers come forward and recite their works in a coffeehouse-like setting.
Audience members at this event were very supportive of these young poets and applauded and cheered enthusiastically.
Some of the more professional performers memorized poems while others read from their smartphones.
The audience was a mixture of local Kigali and expatriate residents.
The events are announced on their website, FaceBook pages and tweets.
International Contemporary Dance Festival
Another treat was in store for us about a month later and within walking distance of our apartment. We had noticed a banner outside the Zenith Hotel announcing a four-day international contemporary dance festival called East African Nights of Tolerance (EANT). EANT was founded in 2012 by the director of Rwanda's Amizero Dance Kompagnie, Wesley Ruzibiza. Amizero Dance Kompagnie hosted this cultural event. The company stages dance performances and plays throughout the year, and tours nationally and internationally. The aim of the festival is to promote contemporary dance and peace and tolerance in Rwanda and East Africa. In addition to providing performances by dance professionals, the festival offers intensive workshops for young dancers and also has a program which introduces dance to disadvantaged youth in schools in Rwanda
We had missed the first three nights and were determined that come rain or shine, we would check out this event. Admission was 2000 RWF (or about $2.50). A total of 10 performances by dancers from Rwanda, France, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Cameroon, Uganda, Belgium, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Tanzania were spread over the evenings. Each individual performance was about 30 minutes long. The closing night's pieces were "L'Autre et Moi" performed by a Rwandan dancer and a French dancer, "Masu Kaino" from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and "To Belong," a Ugandan dancer.
We began the evening outside on the grass. A group of dancers who had participated in a workshop weaved through the crowd and performed an interpretive dance on the theme of wild animals. The music was primal sounding. The dancers acrobatic moves were synchronized and ended with a choral chant as they weaved back through the crowds and moved upstairs for the start of the main acts.
Here's a short 5-minute video of clips of the performances.
Observations on our evening at the dance festival:
If we had not walked down the street in which the Zenith Hotel is located , we would have missed this amazing event. We are still trying to figure out the best way to find out about events happening around town.
Although it is best to arrive on time for an event to get a good seat, one can expect most events to start at least 30 minutes later than scheduled.
Cultural events in Kigali are very affordable.
Aspiring artists, musicians, dancers, or poets can find courses or workshops to hone their talent. In our neighborhood alone, there is an organization called City Arts, which offers classes in ballet, hip hop, karate, creative movement, acrobatics, and modern dance for children and adults alike.
African International Club (AIC) Holiday Bazaar
Every December, the African International Club (AIC) holds a fundraising event that supports small-scale local projects in and around Kigali. Examples of these grassroots development projects include people working with orphans, street kids, refugees, children and adults with disabilities, victims of abuse and chronic illnesses, literacy education, and other education programs. Other projects that AIC provides small grants to are development and self sufficiency programs, environmental awareness programs, and water projects. The four-hour event attracts over 1000 participants from the community in which there are 70 vendors from all over Rwanda displaying their unique items.
On a rainy Saturday afternoon, we ventured over to the Umubano Hotel, paid our 3000 RWF entrance fee (less than $4.00) and made our way through the hundreds of people who were looking at and purchasing locally made items from pottery to woodwork to jewelry to kitenge cloth items. Kitenge is a traditional waxed cotton fabric that comes in a wide range of vibrant colors and designs. It is often sold in sets of three pieces so that one can make a sarong, a shirt, skirt, head wrap, a sling for a baby and more. Because many of the patterns have meanings, one will not often see the same pattern twice. In addition to traditional tribal patterns, there are also prints that have religious or political designs. Kitenge is found in East Africa, West Africa, and Central Africa.
In the past, the printing on the cloth was done using a traditional batik technique where the design was as bright and detailed on the opposite side of the fabric. However, these days the wax prints are commercially made and are almost completely printed on rollers.
Kitenge has found its way into modern fashion in the form of potholders, change purses, hot plate warmers, cosmetic bags, sport scarves, dresses, trim on collars or cuffs, and vests. Check out some of the items at the bazaar.
Naming Customs in Rwanda
Rwandan names have deep meanings and offer a unique lens into culture and family in Rwanda. There are three types of names that an individual can have: a Kinyarwanda name (surname), a name from the father’s side, and a Christian or Muslim name, depending on the religion. Some Rwandans keep all three names, but it is more common for people to choose only two as their official name.
Most surnames have God in them, for example, Hakizimana (meaning God cures), Nshimirimana (I thank God), or Habyarimana (God gives birth). Because parents choose unique surnames for each child, immediate family members' surnames are often different. Tracing one's family heritage is, therefore, difficult. Surnames are placed before given names in Rwanda and are frequently written in capital letters (e.g., HAZIZIMANA Jacques).
To complicate matters, some Rwandans keep all three names, but it is more common for people to choose only two as their official name, and in some cases, parents let the child decide which combination of names s/he wants to be called.
Another interesting fact about the tradition of naming a child is that about a month after the baby is born, a special naming ceremony, called kwita izina, is held in which friends and family gather to celebrate the birth and everyone offers suggestions for names of the child.
Many of our male students have 'Jean' as a part of their first names. Here are a few: Jean Baptiste, Jean d'Amour, Jean Damascene, Jean Pierre, and Jean Bosco. Some other first names are Ildephonse, Ephrem, Jonas, Donatien, Samson, and Modeste. Our female students have names such as Redempta, Jacqueline, Leoncie, Zawadi, Theogene, Alodie and Rose Mary. French and Christianity have made cultural in-roads, obviously, although with the country's move to English as a second language, more and more anglo first names are now appearing.
Click on this link to view the 100 most popular Rwandan girls' and boys' first names and on this link to view popular Rwandan Kinyarwandan (and their translations) first, sometimes second, and unisex names.
Cafe Lattes!!!
Culture and cafe lattes, you ask?!? Why not, we respond. We've enjoyed the art work we've seen in...actually on...the top of some of our cafe lattes. Here's a sampling of our favorites.
Suggested Read
This is one of the earlier post-genocide non-fictions providing a short but comprehensive historical overview leading up to the catastrophe and a fair post-event analysis. Here are a few excerpts we appreciated:
"The pygmy in Gikongoro said that humanity is part of nature and that we must go against nature to get along and have peace. But mass violence, too, must be organized; it does not occur aimlessly. Even mobs and riots have a design, and great and sustained destruction requires great ambition. It must be conceived as the means toward achieving a new order, and although the idea behind that new order may be criminal and objectively very stupid, it must also be compellingly simple and at the same time absolute."
"In this regard, at least, the genocide had been entirely successful: to those who were targeted, it was not death but life that seemed an accident of fate."
"And strange as it may sound, the ideology - or what Rwandans call 'the logic' - of genocide was promoted as a way not to create suffering but to alleviate it. The specter of an absolute menace that requires absolute eradication binds leader and people in a hermetic utopian embrace, and the individual - always an annoyance to totality - ceases to exist."
"Rwanda is spectacular to behold. Throughout its center, a winding succession of steep, tightly terraced slopes radiates out from small roadside settlements and solitary compounds. Gashes of red clay and black loam mark fresh hoe work; eucalyptus trees flash silver against brilliant green tea plantations; banana trees are everywhere. On the theme of hills, Rwanda produces countless variations: jagged rain forests, round-shouldered buttes, undulating moors, broad swells of savanna, volcanic peaks sharp as filed teeth. During the rainy season, the clouds are huge and low and fast, mists cling in highland hollows, lightning flickers through the nights, and by day the land is lustrous. After the rains, the skies lift, the terrain takes on a ragged look beneath the flat unvarying haze of the dry season, and in the savannas of the Akagera Park wildfire blackens the hills."
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