RWANDA : ITS CULTURAL HERITAGE, PAST AND PRESENT

Preface

This book aims to increase our awareness of the profound importance of our heritage. Indeed, our natural and cultural heritage helps to reconstruct our history, our creativity and our identity. These three closely related elements have experienced serious shocks from colonization, divisionism, and from the 1994 genocide of the Batutsi. They have also been exposed to the risk of suppression or asphyxiation by the inescapable phenomenon of globalization. That is why it is imperative to take appropriate corrective strategies in order to safeguard our culture, our identity and our ‘rwandanness’. This should never be perceived as chauvinism or excessive nationalism; the survival of our society depends on it.
 
One of the strategies for the harmonious development of Rwandan society is to build our own cultural resources and harness our individual and collective capabilities to integrate technologies and foreign systems into the already existing Rwandan practices and skills. But this integration must hinge on two complementary qualities: our ability to be in perfect control of our know-how and creativity and our capacity to selectively exploit the contributions that may come from elsewhere in our search for solutions to the problems of Rwandan society. It will be clear, then, that the best way of preserving culture lies in continual creativity that draws inspiration from tradition as well as from modernity. Fruitful and permanent dialogue between generations preserves the bond between past and present and imbeds culture in any sustainable development. This way culture plays its role and remains the basis for harmonious development.
 
What is at stake is that, while we allow for profound and essential changes of culture, we should at the same time ensure that these changes do not generate monsters as a result of the badly matched marriages of Rwandan culture and foreign cultures. Culture must at all times jealously preserve its identity that is nurtured on the specific, original and continuous creations of any society.
One of the manifestations of this permanent creativity is undoubtedly artistic expression and handicrafts. Arts and handicrafts are an authentic living heritage, which is renewed continuously. Oral literature discloses an astonishing poetic expression and a great philosophical depth that are transmitted from generation to generation. This field, formerly privileged at the royal court, lost its influence due to colonization and evangelization. But it is especially handicrafts which underwent huge changes due to the introduction of foreign goods regarded as more important, and of European currency. In addition, the colonialists as well as missionaries brought new ideas and a new way of life. Traditional practices that were unable to adapt to this new environment disappeared.
 
The objective of this book, which is a reflection of the permanent exhibition at Huye National Museum, consists in disseminating rich information on Rwandan history and culture and in arousing consciousness on the need for safeguarding Rwanda’s natural as well as cultural heritage. The artifacts and the photographs reveal the craft- making techniques, organizational systems, in short, the modes of life and thought that are transmitted from generation to generation. This is the reason why the authors dwelt on the craft-making industry, and in particular to basket making, an occupation that involves men as well as women. They highlight wickerwork, which is part and parcel of traditional hut building and of the making of decoration implements.
 
This reference book allows the reader to revisit the history of Rwanda and to discover its rich heritage from the end of the 19th century to today, through the artifacts originating from all over the country and representing the different periods. This natural, cultural and linguistic heritage that all Rwandans share should remain the basis for building national unity and the source of inspiration for all those working toward the reconciliation of Rwandans.
 
Our appreciation and encouragement go to all those who contributed, in one way or another, to the organization of the exhibition and to the drafting of this book.

PAUL KAGAME
President of the Republic of Rwanda-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- < Back to TITLES >