Rwanda doesn’t have diverse culture compared to other East African countries and some of its neighbors but tourists should be assured that a safari to Rwanda would be deficient without cultural tours about traditional dances, songs, folk tales, brewing, cattle rearing, traditional cooking and all these can be explored on a visit to some of these cultural sites.
Ibyiwacu cultural village
While this is destined close to the prestigious Volcanoes, it was established to redeem the lives of ex- mountain gorilla poachers and therefore there is a lot more tourists can enjoy from socializing with these individuals like cultural dances, community walks and visiting the Batwa communities found within Virunga conservation area.
The King's palace in Nyanza
The love indigenous people have for their kings is never underrated and this can be witnessed from the outstanding palaces that they construct for them, the King’s palace in Nyanza is a site that shouldn’t miss on anyone’s bucket list because of its fascinating dome styled nature and traditional royal regalia including spears, drums and other royal ornaments like crowns that were used by the past fallen Kings of Rwanda.
Rwanda Genocide Memorial Site
The civil war of 1994 affected most of the Tusi ethnic individuals and in a way to commemorate their lives, various sites like Murambi, Kigali, Ntarami, Gisenyi memorial sites were constructed to remember the lion hearts of these individuals. Tourists get to have a feel of what transpired during 1994 genocide when they visit one of those sites.
Umuganda cultural experience
Rwanda is not the cleanest country in Africa by mistake because the citizens always spare the last Saturday of every month to clean up litter on the streets, plant trees, construct houses for the disabled and a lot more charity that every individual can engage in. While indigenous people halt their businesses and other profitable engagements for this “coming together in common purpose session”, visitors can also freely participate as they get to find out more about Rwanda's culture because they warmly welcome anyone who wants to participate in a common good for their beautiful country.
Art and Craft experiences
Cow dung is a common additive with most agricultural materials in Africa but Rwandans chose to paint with it that are in Nyakarambi. Also traditional weaving and basketry are a common practice in the area, therefore tourists can not only sight these artistic cultural designs.
Language
Rwanda has basically four languages where one is Kinyarwanda spoken within the borders of Rwanda and some parts of Eastern D.R. Congo, Kirundi spoken in southern Rwanda, near the borders of Burundi, French that was introduced by the Belgian colonialists and English.
Food
Rwandans graze cattle but since they consider it as a status symbol, they barely slaughter them for meat especially in the Tutsi rural areas. But a traditional meal is basically sweet potatoes and porridge. Because dinner is the heaviest meal in the country, a lot more effort is used while preparing it where individuals tend to blend different types of foods like cassava and corns termed as Umutsima among others like mizuzu, etc.
Entertainment
While the world is embracing changes that have been brought about by technology, Rwanda has not been spared the transformation but indigenous natives usually find joy from cattle herders’ poetry, children’s riddles, story telling, socializing with friends and family as cultural sources of entertainment but soccer is the national game for majority of the people in the country.
Rwanda is a country whose individuals cannot halt pondering about the longtime civil war that broke through their country and made majority of them homeless and refugees, but the fact that they are referred to as Rwandans all as one, is a proof enough to the tourists that individuals in this country are welcoming hence tourists shouldn’t have any second thoughts about undertaking a safari in Rwanda.
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