Emmanuel Tutu: Football Star, Visual Artist and Philanthropist
For Emmanuel Tutu, using art as a medium to benefit the wider society is a divine calling. As Joseph Ondiek writes, Tutu is using a percentage of his art sales proceeds to help Rwandan children to get education and to also buy health insurance poor women.
“I believe that everybody should use his or her talent, a God-given gift, to right what’s wrong in society. I identified the education of children, particularly girl-child education, as my priority area and now I have many of them I have put through education,” Tutu told Chwezi Traveller in an interview in Kacyiru, a Kigali suburb.
Tutu says it’s the travails of his parents that set him on the path of philanthropy. His parents escaped to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1959 during the volatile period of that time. There were sporadic ethnic conflicts pitting the two dominant communities in Rwanda that later culminated in the atrocious 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
A top-flight footballer
Born in Uganda, Tutu’s early passion was football where he played in Uganda’s top division. But despite that, he always wanted to come back to his motherland after peace was restored. His mother came back to Rwanda 1997.
Tutu’s father died in 1990 and a widowed mother raised the family. His family was composed of seven siblings, five boys and two girls. The mother went back to Uganda but came back in 2005 with some of her children.
As a self-made painter, Tutu says when he came back to Rwanda in 2006, at first he didn’t know what he was going to do for a living. He came back with the family to play football, but after suffering an injury, “we went back to Uganda.”
When he finally relocated to Rwanda in 2006, he managed a music production studio owned by his young brother. The company also was running Narrow Ministry, an orphanage based in Kigali.
Later, he met Innocent Nkurunziza who at the time was a budding painter at Rwanda’s pioneer contemporary art center called Ivuka Art Center in Kacyiru, Kigali, established by renown Ugandan painter, Collin Sekajugo.
Nkurunziza and his brother Emmanuel Nkuranga established Inema Art Center in 2012 where he joined them to become one of the resident artists.
And things have looked up for him since then.
“I have done group exhibitions at the US Embassy in Kigali, the United Nations in Kigali, the Rwanda Museum, Jumelage Rhineland in Kigali and different hotels and restaurants in Rwanda. In 2016, I did an exhibition at Biennale de Dakar Xll in Senegal. I have also been sending my artwork to the United States, Scotland and Speyer in Germany,” Tutu says.
He says that in the recent years, his work has received a lot of recognition. “My deep passion for art, which I started when I was a young boy, has also made me to do philanthropic work such as helping disadvantaged children with school fees to go to school, and buying the coveted health insurance, Mutuelle de Sante, for vulnerable women,” Tutu adds.
A heart for the disadvantaged
He says that he has a big heart for humanitarian projects, adding that he puts aside 20 per cent of the money he gets from selling his art pieces to support schoolchildren and women.
“Part of my sold paintings have contributed to far-flung projects in Home for Love in Haiti, Narrow Ministry Rwanda and my own initiative called Tutu Foundation Ministry, which helps disadvantage families,” he says.
Tutu says while his passion is painting African stories, he draws most of his inspiration from the everyday struggles of women. In fact, most of Tutu’s paintings depict the normal struggles and positive images of how an African woman not only gives life but also nurtures it.
The titles of his work include a 70×40 acrylic on canvas called Proud Woman, depicting an African woman carrying a child on her back. There is also a 100×75 untitled piece showing three women carrying big baskets on their heads, going to the marketplace to sell their produce.
Tutu does abstract, semi-realism art where his pieces also depict
conservation efforts. He says that the image of the African woman is not just giving life. She nurtures life, Tutu argues, and many images of the woman carrying a child on her back, even as she carries on with her domestic duties, have been documented by the artist.
“My work focuses on women to empower them and promote positive things they do to help uplift the institution of the family. I believe that without women, the society is dead,” he says.
Tutu adds that he believes that visual art has a greater role to play in the social, economic and political development of any society. It helps to serve various purposes and, as a form of expressionist art, it has been used as a means of educating and empowering society.
Read MoreBest Places to Go Bird Watching in Rwanda
Rwanda is blessed to have the shelter of the highest population of birds in the world; it’s also ranked among the best 5 destinations in the entire world for tourists searching for the best birding tour in Rwanda. Rwanda is geographically a small land locked nation perched in the Albertine Rift valley with its dense forested and mountainous nature that avail great and long lasting memorable wildlife experiences anyone wouldn’t want to miss in life.
Rwanda with its small size has a staggering 700 bird species that quench the thirst of anyone looking for great birding safaris and experiences in Africa.
Rwanda has 7 favorite important bird watching areas, which include 3 national parks, – Volcanoes national park, Akagera national park,
Nyungwe national park, Rugezi swamp, Akagera swamps, Nyabarongo and Cyamudongo forest. These birds include Grey crowned crane, papyrus Gonoleck, Kungwe apalis, Bennettis wood pecker, stripe breasted tit, yellow-eyed black flycatcher, Cinnynis, white-tailed blue fly catcher, shoebill stork, tropical Boubou, regular sunrise bird, bronzy sun bird, among others.
Birding At Lake Ihema, Akagera National Park
Akagera national park is a small piece of paradise perched on the Rwanda-Tanzania that provides wildlife safaris in Rwanda that travellers long for. The Park stands as Rwanda’s most spectacular site for birders as it habours several endemic as well as migratory bird species and other unique wildlife species. It is home to over 520 species of birds that dominate this place, including forest, savannah, wetlands, and montane species.
Lake Ihema is home to the rare shoe bill stork; therefore this place gives a clear view of these beautiful birds since it habours a mixture of different acacia and papyrus species, including the olive back.
Other species common in Akagera national park include; the gorgeous black headed Gonolek, the grey hornbill, lilac-breasted roller, the crested barbet, Heuglin’s robin-chat and Ross’s Turaco, among others.
Birding In Nyungwe Forest National Park
This is Rwanda’s most fabulous bird watching site, and it is home to approximately 310 bird species that have been recorded, reflecting a wide habitat diversity and altitudinal range due to its dense forested nature. It’s very famous for its vegetation cover as well as being a home to many different bird species as compared to other national parks.
This wonderful birding area lies west of Butare, with the Butare to Cyangugu road passing straight through the middle, providing excellent roadside birding adventure.
Nyungwe habours a variety of Albertine Rift endemics, including seven of the 12 species of Soricidae, one species of bat – Rousettus lanosus, 5 of 12 species of Muridae and the chameleon Chamaeleo johnstoni, two species of squirrels,- Funisciurus carruthersi and Heliosciurus ruwenzori. And an amphibian that is endemic to Nyungwe – the caecilian Boulengerula fischeri. Two species of butterfly are endemic to Nyungwe – Bebearia dowsetti and Acraea turlini while Papilio leucotaenia restricted to a small area of the Albertine Rift occurs commonly in Nyungwe.
Birding In Nyabarongo River
It’s a protected area in Rwanda, covering 142.62km2, located in the south east of the country, south of Kigali, and includes swamps and marshes in parts of flood plain of river Nyabarongo, the longest river in Rwanda. It provides a safe haven for some of the globally threatened bird species namely; the Madagascar Squacco heron, papyrus Gonolek, Carruthers, Sisticola, white- winged scrub-warbler.
Other places where these birds can be found are; Cyamudongo forest, Rugezi among others, for anyone who wants to get an unforgettable biding experience in Rwanda.
Read MoreDark Tourism – Visit Rwanda’s Genocide Memorials
Most Rwanda safaris start and end in Kigali a home to one of the most visited Rwanda genocide site –Kigali genocide memorial and tourists make it a point to stopover in memory of the Rwanda brothers and sisters who perished in just a period of 100 days either at the beginning of their Rwanda tours or at the end. It’s a great experience when one gets to the Rwanda early and is looking at starting a scheduled adventure the next morning, besides it’s a no time activity for both morning and afternoon without exceeding 4.00pm the closing time. Hundreds visit different Rwanda genocide sites but few visit Murambi because the remains of the victims still look fresh and scare a lot. The 1994 human slaughter incident claimed lives of thousands into more than the eight Rwanda genocide memorials found in different locations of the country.
Despite the past Rwanda is the safest country in Africa with variety to explore and enjoy in the world of travel. Millions come from all over the globe to discover the countries attractions including mountain gorillas, chimpanzees, golden monkeys, forests, lakes, mountains, landscape etc. While in Rwanda tourists enjoy connecting to neighboring countries for other tour holidays. Tracking low land gorillas, the unique chimpanzees and also climbing the live volcanoes, Nyinamulagira and Nyiragongo are the most desired in Congo while gorilla tracking, wildlife viewing, viewing might falls, white water rafting , bungee jumping are the reasons as to why Uganda some explore Uganda as well. It’s not a wasting time to do same tour activity in two different countries because the experience can never be the same. If not contented try asking tourists who enjoy tracking mountain gorillas in Rwanda & Uganda or Rwanda and Congo or Uganda and Congo.
Travellers to Rwanda end or start and end with a visit to at least one of the genocide site as a way of respecting the culture of the country visited. it’s sad but the experience is worthy because looking at the traditionally preserved remains of victims shoe you the situation in which they were killed in for example the woman whose one arm is in the face and others off a true sign of defense and some have cracks on skulls a thing which portrays brutal murder with no mercy. Remains where collected in different rooms and as the survivors open for you different preserved remain sections for a glance. No camera or video is allowed inside any memorial and entrance is free.
Many hold grapes as they visit different sections of the memorials because the silence and remain displays break travellers and others end up seeing tear drops rolling out of their eyes due to mercy and sympathy of the victims. With the tight schedules and the many attractions you intend to visit while in Rwanda spare a minute for our brothers and sisters who perished for no reason. However who visits the one of the Rwanda genocide memorial learns to live in peace and also respect the life of fellow humans. Though no fee is required but a giving heart receives even more.
Read MoreNtagara’s Passion for Nature gives Birth to Kigali’s Newest Art Centre
The question most people often ask: what’s the connection between art and environmental conservation?
For Djamal Ntagara, the answer is quite crystal clear: there are numerous ways to conserve our nature, but art is among key methods which help people feel the significance of helping protect the planet.
Through the power of true pieces of art, he says, the viewer’s eyes open and appreciate beauty and, through this, the wonderful uniqueness and preciousness of our fauna and flora.
He adds that art not only provides the visual beauty but also a therapeutic sense of serenity; connecting emotions through interpretation of what you see in any particular piece of art.
The love for conserving the environment and culture is the inspiration behind the founding of another art center by Ntagara, known as Kaanyaburanga Art Center. This new addition to Kigali’s ever burgeoning art scene is located in Sonatube, right behind the Classic Hotel in Kicukiro.
Ntagara, 27, says the new art center is going to be officially opened late in march with initial three members. The others are Mike Katihabwa, a Burundian artist who escaped from the conflict-ridden country in 2015 during the elections-related violence and is now living in Kigali. The other one is Neza Shemsa, a youthful female artist known for her “touristic” paintings depicting wildlife and culture.
When you set your foot right into the new art center, what Ntagara says about his love for nature immediately confronts your eyes. At the verandah of this former residential place he has now been transformed into an art center, you find different types of flowers planted on discarded objects that he says he “raised from the dead and breathed life into them.”
For instance, we know that a junk computer belongs to the scrapyard. However, Ntagara is now growing blooming pieces of flowers from an improvised flower “pot” on a junk computer monitor he says he retrieved from his father’s house.
“The computers were dead, and my father wanted me to throw them away. But instead, I removed their insides, filled up soil in the shell of the monitors, and painted them in attractive colours from where I planted the flowers,” he says.
He used other parts of the computers like the motherboard to make installation art that hangs attractively on the walls of the gallery.
The other pieces of discarded materials he used as flower pots include used jerrycans and other used objects.
An installation art depicting a fish is made from discarded toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes that he says he collected from his father’s garden when he wanted landscape the garden with flowers. The pieces are embedded on a 170 x 40cm wooden piece. He uses saw dusts to make some features of the fish like the head and tails, but gives it a bluish and attractive background.
Another exquisite of installation art is found on the walls of the main gallery where he collected different coins from different countries, several discarded keys and seashells and glued them on a square piece of wood to make a wall clock.
“This piece of art is priceless and I can’t sell it for a farthing or a fortune. Instead, I’ll one day donate it to a museum because it represents some part of our history from the materials used,” says the artist.
Apart from the main gallery located in the former sitting room of the residential building, another room is going to be a place they are going to display masks, banana lampshades, bracelets and jewellery made from the center and others brought in by other artists for display and sales.
For his love of culture, Ntagaara explains that he plans to hold monthly cultural events at Kaanyaburanga that will bring the old and the young together to share their different perspectives and experiences.
“Our culture is dying because the youth today miss the opportunity to learn from the old. However, we need to come together and share our history to preserve our pristine culture. We are going to create that opportunity here at the center,” he adds.
Ntagara says he’s happy to collaborate with artists who share his passion for the love of nature and culture like Katihabwa and Neza. “The creation of the art center has provided me with the opportunity to express what’s within me and to fulfill my dreams of being a conservation artist. I am working with these youthful artists who share my passion to fulfill this dream,” he says.
Ntagara formerly worked at the now defunct Uburanga Art Center in Kimihurura before founding the new art center.
Read MoreInganzo Art Gallery: Paradise for Youthful Artists
The post-genocide Rwanda saw many refugees coming back from the neighboring countries they had sought refuge in to reconstruct their country, battered for many years by ethnic conflict.
Among them was a new generation of visual artists who had spent their years outside the country. These youthful artists came back with artistic creativity they had learned outside the country, leading to creation of a booming art industry in the country.
Although in his mid 60s now, Epa Binamungu’s name is synonymous with the vibrant contemporary art scene thriving now in Kigali.
Birth of Inganzo Art Gallery
He established his Inganzo Art Gallery in the former Kigali Business Center (KBC) in Kacyiru 16 years ago, a neighborhood which began to draw in more affluent residents who were attracted by its great location and soon established a reputation as an artist community.
Epa Binamungu. The legendary artist says unlike some artists, he produces art “for the lovers of art” and not just for tourists. Having accomplished secondary school and later attended the Institute of Pedagogical Science University in 1975 in DR Congo where he majored in Biology and Chemistry, Binamungu decided to embark on his long desired art career, a choice that he says he has never regretted to this day.
Bringing visual art back to Rwanda
Binamungu says times following his return to Rwanda, at the end of the Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi in 1995 weren’t easy, as people were still in shock, yet they didn’t recognize art at all.
“The few who seemed to develop interest used to ask me what I was drawing and this hurt me so much since it clearly showed a gap,” he explains. But he gathered more courage of always explaining to them concepts of his art, which worked out in turn.
Four years ago, Binamungu moved Inganzo away from the hustle and bustle of Kigali city to a serene rural environment at Masaka sector, Kicukiro district where he says is a center for youthful artists to come and explore their artistic talents and rapport with fellow artists.
Once inside Inganzo Art Center, the feeling one gets is that of being on an upcountry ranch without livestock. It’s all lush green – dense tree canopies all over, blooming flower gardens lining the neatly maintained lawns, and an abundance of fruit trees.
The art center has three parts. The “Inganzo In” is a modern gallery divided into various rooms where artists can showcase their finished products on the walls. The “Inganzo Off” is a big, white tented pavilion where artists can come, work and display their work while the “Inganzo Workshop” is where the artists produce their actual work.
“I have long nurtured a dream to have a place where artists can come together and just enjoy creating art in a serene environment. Inganzo Art Center welcomes the East African art community by providing a place for creative and innovative programming, spaces to create and display, and a schedule of art-related opportunities,” says Binamungu.
Since its inception, the new art center has hosted a variety of workshops and exhibitions for not only Rwandan artists but also from the East Africa region.
Inganzo Art Gallery rules 2017
In 2017, Inganzo hosted a group of 14 artists from Tanzania who were joined by 10 artists from Rwanda in what Binamungu says was to evaluate the artistic performance for the year and to artists from both countries to share their artistic ideas. Binamungu hopes to make this an end of the year annual event at Inganzo where artists from the region and beyond are going to come together and evaluate their performance for the year, while giving them a chance to bond and learn from each other.
Inganzo Art Center is also going to be an art research center and a residence for international artists who can come and develop creative ideas. “It was established for the seasoned artist and new talent to thrive,” according to Binamungu.
At the entrance of the Inganzo workshop is displayed a collection of carvings, statues, masks and figurines that Binamungu says he has been collecting all over the world during his over 40 years in the art industry.
Binamungu says unlike some artists, he produces art “for the lovers of art” and not just for tourists.
“Many artists display their artwork at strategic tourist attraction sites like national parks and even at the streets where they can easily be seen and bought by tourists. But having established myself in the industry, the choice of Masaka to build this center, away from Kigali, is an indication that clients will always come looking for you once you have established your name in the business,” says the veteran artist.
Read MoreMama Rwanda Giving Hope to Vulnerable Mothers in Gasabo
The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi left the family fabric in tatters. Women were rendered widows and forced to take care of their surviving young children. Children, with their parents killed during the genocide, had nowhere to go but to survive on the streets as hopeless orphans. Families were torn apart, and the effect of that period is still being felt today, 24 years later.
However, despite the gloom, the resilience of Rwandans is captured in one progressive youth who has given hope to vulnerable mothers and their children in Gasabo district. Bertrand Ishimwe, 23, founded the Mama Rwanda project in 2016 to help underprivileged women engage in sustainable activities to help cater for the basic needs of their families.
The first batch of 25 mothers who had been learning tailoring skills at Irembo Organisation in Kacyiru since the inception of Mama Rwanda graduated in April 2017 with certificates. Two of them, Dianne Umwari and Hillary Mukeshimana, have already secured employment with UTEXRWA, a leading garment factory in Kigali, while one of the mothers has gone ahead to open up her own tailoring business.
Mama Rwanda is a project running under Irembo Organisation, which Ishimwe said he founded in 2015 to help a group of vulnerable children attend school without financial and material hitches. The idea to help the children was hatched while he was still in Senior Six at Lycee de Kigali.
The first batch of 45 children under the care of Irembo was mostly being supported by foreigners. “But I thought about what would happen if these foreigners decided to withhold their support or pulled out. What would I do with them? That’s how the idea Mama Rwanda was born,” says Ishimwe.
He says the Mama Rwanda project was founded to provide these single mothers with training to develop valuable skills to help support their families.
An accomplished visual artist who also cofounded Niyo Art Center with his older brother, Pacifique Niyonsenga, Ishimwe says the most of the funds (65%) to run the project comes from sales of his artwork, while a small portion comes from well wishers. Rwanda Youth Team of Irembo is a group of youth Ishimwe schooled with and the group also helps in soliciting funds.
Last year, Ishimwe says, he did 10 exhibitions abroad and almost all the money raised was ploughed back to running the project. In July, he had an exhibition at Knox Gallery, St. Lois City in Missouri while in August he had two exhibitions at St. Peters Art Cultural Center and Lily Nyan art galleries also in Missouri.
He adds the success story so far is that the mothers who have managed to graduate can now hope to take care of their families. “Even though Irembo has been taking care of the education needs of their children, the mothers now have the opportunity to help support these children through providing them with other basic needs. Our mission is to uplift the living standards of as many families as we can manage,” says Ishimwe.
Ishimwe notes that even though they started with only a group of 45 children, the number has since risen and now stands at 126 whom they help to pay school fees and purchase other materials like books and school uniform. He says 10 of them are this year proceeding to O’Level while one girl has completed her Senior 6 studies at Gisenyi Adventist Secondary School and successfully graduated.
Elyse Maria Dusabe, a 35-year-old widow and mother of four says, “I’ve lived a miserable life since my husband died 13 years ago. My mind was always preoccupied, thinking of how I’m going to deal with the future. My four children haven’t had an education to insure their future. It’s this sewing project that has thrown me a lifeline because I’ve acquired the skill to make me work for my family.”
Irembo Organisation also runs another project for the women called Agaseke Women Project – where unemployed women learn the necessary techniques to make traditional Rwandan baskets, mats and derivatives in order to produce good quality products which are sold.
Over 17 women are currently involved in this project and their products are exhibited at Irembo Shop in Kacyiru.
Ishimwe says they intend to recruit more mothers who are going to receive tailoring training this year, and they also hope to open a shop where the mothers can display and sell their products.
Read MoreNiyo Art Centre Gives Hope to Children with Horrible Past
It’s five O’clock in the evening. The first sounds of drums penetrate the quiet Kacyiru neighborhood, Kigali, where Niyo Art Centre is located.
Inside, a group of adults are standing behind five waist-high drums they beat furiously but happily, as some dozen children or so respond to the sounds of the African drumbeats with scintillating dance. There is also a group of singers that belt out songs to accompany the drums.
After about nine minutes, the sounds of the drums slowly fade, and the dancing children wipe their brows of sweat and their feet of dust, as they prepare for another performance. A group of five tourists huddled together in front of performance clap their hands in unison.
However, despite the glow in their faces after being lost in the frenzy of their performance, what is indiscernible is that these children have a past. A horrible past.
Some of them have hitherto spent their lives on the streets, and slept on empty stomachs. They have only known pain, hunger and suffering throughout their brief existence in the world.
Some of them come from indigent backgrounds, their parents too poor to afford their meals, not forgetting education. Some of them are orphans who have never experienced parental love.
But now, their faces are beaming with hope for the future, thanks to Niyo Arts Gallery. Founded by Pacifique Niyonsenga in 2015, the art gallery has become a cradle of hope for these children who now go to school and also have a roof over their heads, as opposed to their former life where the world was too full of void and hopelessness.
Niyonsenga, himself a former street boy until a benevolent hand, a Canadian named Bruno Soucy, became his close friend, plucked him off the streets and helped him get education, says the art gallery was established to help them use their talents in arts to assist these vulnerable children.
He had established a charity organisation in 2012 to help street children get education as a tribute to his Canadian benefactor.
Niyonsenga, a prodigious visual artist and a drummer, says the charity organisation started with only 28 children in 2012 but now has 120.
“We have made tremendous development since its inception. We have managed to take the children to different schools, buy them scholastic materials and rent them houses in Gasabo district, Kigali,” Niyonsenga said in an interview with Chwezi Traveller.
He says that Niyo Art Gallery has now established a reputation as a top tourist attraction in Gasabo district, Kigali, on its own merit because of the programmes they have initiated and attractive arts and handicrafts that can be found inside the gallery.
Niyo Arts Gallery now has 11 artists displaying their artwork there. He says he and the other artist at his gallery donate 40% of their artwork sales to educate and house the children. They have also managed to attract a group of donors that support their programmes.
“We have managed to take one of our children up to the university, 23 are in secondary school while 68 are in primary. It’s gratifying that when art lovers purchase our products, the proceeds go for good purpose,” says Niyonsenga.
Apart from operations in the gallery, he adds that they also do exhibitions and sales abroad where they raise up money to plough back to help the children.
He says that in 2017 the centre held 10 different exhibitions: two in the USA, one in Belgium, one in Netherlands and Six in Kigali. “We have also acted as ambassadors of our culture in different capitals around the world when we showcase Rwanda’s arts and crafts abroad.
Most people in the Western world know Rwanda because of the insidious genocide, and they get mesmerized when we go out there and show them the real Rwanda,” says Niyonsenga.
Read MoreArt Centre Ramps Up Conservation Efforts in Rwanda
Since its inception in 2011 in Nyakinama village, seven kilometers west of Musanze town, Red Rocks Rwanda has been the centre where different programmes geared towards ramping up conservation efforts in Rwanda are hatched.
On January 5, 2018, Red Rocks Rwanda will unveil another programme in Kinigi, the heart of Rwanda’s tourism industry, with the main purpose of sustaining the organisation’s conservation efforts around the Volcanoes National Park through art.
According to Greg Bakunzi, the founder of Red Rocks Rwanda, the new Conservation Art Centre, an art gallery that will be operating out of Butorwa 1, is targeting educational institutions teaching art as a component of conservation to harness tourism, conservation and advocacy programmes as part of his organisation’s mission to achieve sustainable development around the Volcanoes National Park, home to the critically endangered mountain gorillas.
Aside from engaging the local community in conservation,
tourism and sustainable development, Bakunzi hopes that his organisation’s latest initiative will ramp up Rwanda’s conservation efforts through art.
“Art has a big role to play in the preservation of Rwanda’s heritage. By bringing together a pool of talented Rwandan artists, we are able to show our commitment to raise the consciousness of the imperative challenges Rwanda faces as one of the top tourist destinations, and also offer solutions for conserving the environment.
Red Rocks Rwanda art and craft programme is among the many ways trough which we are going to win this fight,” says Bakunzi, who is also the managing director of Amahoro Tours, one of the top 10 travel firms in Rwanda, according to the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), the government agency in charge of promoting investment, export and tourism in the country.
In order for his new initiative to be successful, however, Bakunzi says that the new Conservation Art Centre will have to work hand-in-hand with industry players, well-wishers, volunteers and government agencies.
Bakunzi reveals that the artists at the centre will donate proceeds from their work to conservation efforts of their choice.
And Rwandan artists have welcomed Red Rocks Rwanda’s initiative. Augustin Hakizimana from Agasozi Art Centre says that Red Rocks Rwanda’s programme is going to help them market Rwanda’s remarkable attractions through art while at the same time contributing to conservation efforts.
“This is absolutely a great idea, and we are ready to join Red Rocks Rwanda to promote conservation. I have already given them my art pieces about conservation, which are now displayed at the new art gallery in Kinigi,” says Willy Karekezi, a visual artist based in the capital Kigali.
Read MoreRwanda’s Urwagwa Banana Beer Comes of Age, Now on the Tourist Map
You may ask yourself what a refined and polished tourist from New York who has jumped off the plane at the Kigali International Airport and traveled to Musanze has in common with a rustic and weather-beaten Nyakinama village when you see them walking and chatting together along a small strip of road behind the imposing buildings of Musanze Village Polytechnic, seven kilometres west of Musanze town, northern Rwanda. The answer is Red Rocks Cultural Centre.
Both have a common interest that can be summed up into learning from each other’s culture. Since its establishment in 2011, Red Rocks Cultural Centre has established different programmes that help in promoting tourism, conservation and community development, and in this regard it has also helped in promoting activities that help to bring people of different backgrounds around the world to share their unique cultural experiences.
Jeanne Sauer, a tourist from Germany, says when she came to Rwanda her main purpose was not to see the famous mountain gorillas in their natural habitat around the Virunga massif, but to experience what Rwandan people have to offer in terms of their culture.
“I had read about Rwanda and this is the country I had put on by bucket-list to visit one day. A quick Google search introduced me to Red Rocks and the amazing activities they provide there. I said this is a country I have to visit and here I am at Red Rocks, relishing my dreams,” she says.
The dream Sauer must be talking about is the various cultural activities that she found being carried out at Red Rocks. She says when she asked the staff about how she could spend her time enjoying the real cultural heritage of Rwanda, she was told that there are many activities that the local women here are engaged in, including making of authentic traditional Rwandan handicrafts, and of course demonstrating how to make the traditional beer.
“I wanted to have a first-hand experience of making the traditional beer. This is when they called a group of women who came with raw materials, precisely ripe bananas and the millet to help in making the final product,” she says.
Preserved and unchanged by a few die-hard loyalists, the brewing of Urwagwa – a local brew made out of crushed bananas – remains faithful to an ancient formula handed down over generations in Rwanda.
“The women, through their interpreter, led me through the whole process, and what I discovered is that it was not an industrial scale process as we know it but just putting your energy and effort into it,” says Sauer.
Like most traditional skills, the recipe and process for brewing Urwagwa is mostly handed down from father to son.
Jeanne Uwangabiye, a 52-year-old woman from Nyakinama village, says she picked the tips from his grandfather who would not substitute Urwagwa with any other beverages. She finds it appropriate to lead tourists through the process, which begins with obtaining ripe bananas and pressing them with grass to yield slightly clear juice.
The contents of the tank are then stirred and the leaves squeezed to remove residual juice which can effectively be obtained through using a small amount of water.
After that sprouted, lightly roasted or ground millet is poured on top of the juice which thereafter is covered in banana leaves and kept in a warm area for three days and this is why some times the mixture is buried in the ground to allow fermentation.
The process of fermentation happens because there are enzymes present in the sorghum which facilitate the breaking down of banana starch that is eventually acted upon by the yeasts and bacteria. Those who prefer enjoying the drink while it is as clean as possible may have to filter it prior to consumption.
“What I liked most about this experience is drinking what I had brewed with my own hands. It made me realize how life can be simple,” says Sauer.
Another tourist from the US, Fredric Fitzgerald, says he learned about the skills of making the traditional beer in a home in Nyakinama village when he went for a homestay.
“It was exciting to see how the people around there are able to use simple ingredients to make such stuff. And the taste was not all that bad!” he quips.
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New initiative to Help Hearing-impaired Travellers to Virunga Volcanoes
A new initiative that aims to tackle the myriad of problems faced by deaf and partially deaf travellers to the Virunga Massif, a chain of eight volcanic mountains that straddle Rwanda, Uganda and DR Congo, has been launched in Goma, the chief city of DR Congo’s Eastern Province. The Virunga Massif is best known as the only home to the world’s remaining mountain gorillas, which are estimated to be numbering about 1,000 individuals.
The new programme, under the auspices of the Goma-based Virunga Community Programmes, is a collaboration between the former, Red Rocks Cultural Centre in Rwanda, Amani Safaris in DR Congo, as well as the African Sign Language Interpreters and Translations Agency (AITA) in Uganda.
According to Francis Ndagijimana, the coordinator of Virunga Community Programmes, the key aim of the initiative is to encourage the hearing impaired and hard hearing visitors to be integrated in conservation programmes and supportive efforts in community development programmes in Rwanda, Uganda and DR Congo.
“The deaf face many problems cutting across all sectors of social, economic and cultural development. It’s time for those who care to stand up and care about their plight. Our programme is going to address many problems they face and ensure they enjoy what nature has to offer just like everyone else,” Ndagijimana said.
He adds that they have rolled out a host of initiatives to help facilitate the success of the programme, including training of tour guides in local sign language to help hearing impaired tourists enjoy the bounty of nature around the Virunga Massif just like any other person.
Ndagijimana affirms that people with disabilities like the deaf have similar motivations to travel as the rest of the population, but several tourists with disabilities face barriers to tourism participation, particularly in cultural, social and physical environments.
“The guides we train in local sign language will be specifically responsible to act as translators between the deaf tourists and locals, and we hope that this will eventually create some mutual understanding between the community around the Virunga Massif and visitors. Both parties have a lot to gain from each other,” he says.
Ndagijimana says that the programme recognises that tourism plays a key role in the wider economic, social and cultural development, and it has its own set of sectoral responses to the deaf that must be understood in each country’s cultural context.
The programme, according to Ndagijimana, also aims to encourage hearing impaired visitors to fully participate in community development and social interactions.
“Among our core objectives also includes acquisition of assistive devices for the deaf and partially deaf locals and tourists,” he adds.
According to the DR Congo National Union of the Deaf (DRCNUD), deaf people in the Virunga Massif face a complex web of problems, ranging from social, economic, cultural and developmental difficulties, negative attitudes by society towards deaf people, as well as communication barriers. Poverty further degrades deaf people’s attainment of dignity and unity and access to jobs and education in their communities and this limits their full enjoyment of the fundamental human rights entitled to all human beings.
DRCNUD was established by the deaf after realizing that their needs and concerns were ignored by the wider society.
“We can longer bury our heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich and pretend that deaf people have nothing of significance to contribute to the society. The societal stigma associated with being deaf should be a thing of the past,” Ndagijimana says, adding that his organization also aims to provide assistance to deaf schools of Goma in DRC, Cyanika School of the Deaf in Uganda, and Musanze School of the Deaf in Rwanda through purchase of scholastic materials peculiar to the deaf.
The programme is also going to provide material assistance to hearing impaired children between the ages of 5-16 to go to school and provide health insurance to hearing impaired kids.
Greg Bakunzi, the founder of Red Rocks Cultural Centre in Nyakinama village, Musanze district, northern Rwanda, says the new initiative is going to help deaf tourists not to feel left out of what the tourism industry has to offer around the Virunga Massif.
“I have been in the tourism industry for several years but there are unique problem deaf tourists face. Surely, something must be done,” says Bakunzi, who is also the founder and managing director of Musanze-based Amahoro Tours, one of the biggest tour companies in Rwanda.
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