Culture And Heritage In Rwanda : The cultural tourism system within Rwanda is strong and has been fully facilitated by the local people of Rwanda who offer the experience. Rwanda is one of the safari destinations that have a rich culture to sell. The cultural and heritage sector is basically divided into 3 categories that is style and fashion category, the museums and the art galleries then festivals and events. All the categories have an element of Rwanda’s culture and heritage. Rwandans over the years have adapted the western culture and amalgamated their sense of fashion and style. Designers within Rwanda have got accustomed to making clothes that are both western and Rwandan style. This has been showcased by the fashion designers of Rwanda who are busy with the trends on a daily basis. The designs are known clearly to depict the rich sense of style with beadwork and patterns of the Rwandan heritage. Rwanda as a country shares the designs and styles with the world on fashion shows of the Kigali fashion week and the Rwanda cultural fashion week held annually for a whole week show casing different Rwanda designers on many international platform.
Rwanda has teamed up with arsenal a renowned football team with a slogan of `visit Rwanda’ printed on their shirts and a few of the team players to create a few designs using the accessories from the leading fashion designers of Rwanda. When on your Rwanda safari, you can as well make your own customized outfit at any of the designer’s showrooms. A few of the names in the fashion industry that you can lookout for are; House of Tayo, Haute Baso, K’tsobe, Uzi collections, Inzuki designs, Rwanda clothing, Moshions among others.
Many festivals and events have been held to promote the culture of Rwanda such as Kwita Izina bay gorilla naming ceremony which is held in volcanoes national park with an aim of observing and promoting conservation within the region. People who attend the function engage in a weeklong series of activities in line with the mountain gorillas, meeting rangers and various stake holders of the tourism within the region. There is the Kigali up festival where music from all over the world is brought to the Kigali stage since it first started in 2011 and has become the biggest music festival within Rwanda as well as the Rwanda film festival where movies from all over the world with Africa inclusive are showcased every July annually for 10 years now. The festival is held in Kigali but a mobile cinema to move to other towns and villages is set up.
Rwanda’s culture and heritage is dominated by the cultural villages in many spots of the country such as the Kigali cultural village which is set up space to show the local producers products both artifacts and food stuffs and also trade them to people visiting the cultural village. The cultural village holds a number of workshops, events and festivals besides the daily showcase.
The museums and the art galleries are as well part of the culture and heritage establishments within Rwanda. Rwanda has 6 museums that make up the institute of national museums of Rwanda. The different museums have different history. The museums of Rwanda are home to some of the oldest and most treasured artifacts from the years earlier.
The most visited museums are the Kigali genocide memorial where 250,000 victims of the 1994 Rwanda genocide were buried and the Butare museum that is found within Butare town enroute from Kigali and Nyungwe forest national park. The other museums include; the ethnographic museum which was earlier called the National museum, the kings palace, Rwanda art museum that show cases the Rwandan and modern art pieces, the Kand’t House Museum which shows Rwanda under colonial rule and the new Rwanda and then the museum of the environment that is based next to lake Kivu and its major focus is to conserve and protect the environment and natural resources.
The Rwanda people hold a function on the last Saturday of every month all over the country called the Umuganda where all Rwandans come together and work towards bettering their country, sweep the streets among others. All shops are closed, public transport is halted, personal errands are put on hold for the ceremony and this has been proved by all the people of Rwanda. Therefore while on a Rwanda safari make sure you integrate some Rwanda cultural center visits for a greater insight.