Art and Music as Historical Record in Rwanda
Art and music in Rwanda traditionally was produced
along status, gender, and ethnic lines.
The Rwandan genocide changed all that.
Now there is a battle to preserve Rwanda’s cultural history. In addition, the arts are being used by new
voices to heal the country’s wounds and express its new identity which is being
forged out of the ashes of genocide’s destruction.
Music and Dance
Rwandan music and dance is diverse and some is
traditionally dependent upon ethnicity. The
Hutu make music about the harvest; The Tutsi produce epics that highlight
bravery; and the Twa celebrate hunting.[1] Drums have also played a large part in Rwanda’s
history. There is a saying that says “He
is king who has the drums.”[2] The kalinga is a sacred drum and
representative of the king and his authority, but also connected him to the
ancestral rulers. In the past, only
males were Rwandan drummers. Those
traditions are challenged today and females are now practicing the art as well
and challenging the cultural gender separation.[3]
Dance is another art in Rwanda that is gender
specific. Dances performed by females
are ballets that are graceful, while men perform dances such as the Intore –
warrior dance. Since the Rwandan
genocide there are dance troupes that intentionally include members from Rwanda’s
three ethnic groups in order to counteract the past’s emphasis on ethnicity and
conflict. Eric Kabera directed a film
called Intore (The Chosen) in
2014. It is a documentary about how the
genocide weakened the culture and the ways the arts are rejuvenating and
preserving Rwandan culture, blending the old and the new. The trailer to that film is shown below.
Art
Traditional Rwandan art is gender specific; males
produced carvings and sculptures, and women created ceramics, baskets, and art
displayed in the home.[4] One of the traditional Rwandan art forms is
Imigongo, which is artwork made from cow dung.
The colors are paints that are made directly from nature. Yellows and reds can be made out of clay from
Rwanda’s soil, and black can be created from ash from banana peels.[5] The native art form was in danger of being
lost in the 1990s by the Rwandan genocide but cooperatives are keeping it alive
and renewing the art in the country and for tourists.
 |
| Imigongo Traditional Pattern, photo by Ji Elle (own work), accessed at Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Imigongo#/media/File:Imigongo_traditional_patterns_(2).jpg |
The Rwandan genocide has given rise to contemporary
art that relates to the country’s more recent history and is socially
conscious. One of these works is produced
by Epaphrodite Binamungu. It is a 30-foot
statue that stands in the Butare Memorial Center.[6]
 |
| Bisesero Genocide Memorial, picture by Josh Crane, |
[1] Julius Adenkule, Culture and Customs of Rwanda (Westport,
CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007), 134, accessed March 29, 2017, eBook
Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost.
[2] Gloria I. Anyango, “Drumming the Sound
of Success, The New Times, September
25, 2009, accessed March 31, 2017, http://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/article/2009-09-25/11392/.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Julius Adenkule, Culture and Customs of Rwanda, 65.
[5] “Kakiro Imigongo Cooperative,”
Atlas Obscura, accessed March 30, 2017, http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kakira-imigongo-cooperative.
[6] Julius Adenkule, Culture and Customs of Rwanda, 66.
