INYAMIBWA
Centered on the Congo-Nile ridge, Rwanda is a small landlocked state in East Africa, bounded to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the north by Uganda, to the east by Tanzania and to the south by Burundi. Its population is one of the densest in Africa. The country is a group of unsymmetrically organized highlands with often high altitudes.
The traditional Rwandan culture is linked to that of the populations of Africa’s Great Lakes.
The structure of ancestral royalty impressed early settlers with its sophisticated organization. The traditional belief in one God, Imana, sensitive to their condition, oral narratives, the language (Kinyarwanda) and proverbs, songs, drums and dance hold a great place in this culture strongly impregnated with the battles of the warriors and agricultural activities such as breeding, agriculture, hunting and gathering. The cow and milk, the lance with irons of various geometries, the hoe, the bow, banana wine, sorghum beer and woven baskets are symbols of Rwandan tradition.
The population of Rwanda is divided into about twenty family clans on the one hand, and on the other hand into socio-professional subdivisions (Hutu, Tutsi, Twa), which have given rise to an overvaluation of their importance during colonization, as well as political instrumentalization. whose reversals were at the origin of the 1994 genocide.
Weddings are obviously an opportunity to maintain traditions. The dowry, paid by the bridegroom to the bride’s parents (a cow, a hoe, depending on the socio-professional environment and wealth), was the result of a long and sometimes epic negotiation between the families. It remains a kind of role-playing game, very ritualized, in several steps, sometimes with an irresistible humor, where each family transmits something of their knowledge of life to their children and very concretely what makes the young household live.
The National Folk Ballet "Inyamibwa", founded on 14 July 1998 by a group of students, aims to promote Rwandan culture, peace between different ethnic groups and harmony through arts and popular traditions. This ambition, which is perfectly understandable in the years following the genocide of 1994, is still alive because peace is a permanent struggle in this country.
All religions and ethnic groups are represented in the ballet. The group is now that of the country’s leading university and has received the label from the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Rwanda is said to be the country of a thousand hills. A geography that explains the organization of the territory and ethnic groups. A proverb says that "God spends his days elsewhere but comes back to sleep in Rwanda".
'Inyamibwa' tells you how rich this land is but also tormented. You will better understand why historians explain that we are here at the cradle of humanity.
