Rwanda Culture

Rwanda Culture and Mass Media

Newspapers in Rwanda

According to NEOVIDEOGAMES.COM, Rwanda is a country located in Africa. In Rwanda there is no daily newspaper, but relatively many publications with small editions that are published every fourteen days or even more rarely. Despite formal freedom of the press, there is a not insignificant advance censorship.

The etheric media are state-controlled. The state-owned company Radio Rwanda (founded in 1961) broadcasts radio in Rwanda, Swahili, French and English. The TV broadcasts from Télévision Rwandaise (TVR) reach about 60% of the country. During the Civil War, both parties had their own radio broadcasts. After 1994, the UN and aid organizations established radio broadcasts on Rwanda, not least aimed at refugees outside Rwanda. There are 76 radio receivers per 1,000 residents (2000).

Culture

According to ALLUNITCONVERTERS, Rwanda has a rich literary tradition, orally preserved and developed over the centuries. Modern literature is written mainly in French. Hardly any fiction has been published in the language of kinyarwanda.

During the reign until 1959 (see Older History), a court dictation dominated that glorified the royal power and consolidated the Tutsi claims to power. This Tutorial poem, despite its poetic qualities, contributed to deepening the mistrust between Tutsis and Hutus, which in the second half of the 20th century triggered several massacres and culminated in the 1994 genocide.

The foremost recorder of Rwandan literature was the historian, ethnologist and philosopher Alexis Kagame (1912-1981), who in the 1940s and 1950s published several books on the history and culture of Tutsis. Although he defended the Tuscan feudal empire, he was allowed to continue his academic activities after the Hutu’s takeover of power in the 1960s.

After Rwanda’s independence in 1962, the Hutu people’s literary and musical tradition has gained a more prominent position. Much of the poetry and songs describe the work in agriculture. Even among Hutus, there is a rich flora of proverbs and work songs.

Author Benjamin Sehene has depicted the genocide in the book Le Piège Ethnique (The Ethnic Trap), in which he specifically highlights the circumstances that led to the disaster. In the novel Le Feu sous la Soutane (The Fire Under the Clergyman), he recounts the true story of how a Hutu priest betrayed the Tutsis he promised protection.

2014

December

Conflict over the French language

Opposition Democratic Green Party sues the government before the Supreme Court for intentionally neglecting the French language, even though the Constitution states that French is an official language and equivalent to Kinyarwanda and English. The use of French colonial language has gradually been phased out following the 1994 genocide, when the French state, according to Rwanda’s current government, supported those responsible for the mass murders.

November

Presidential critics are condemned

Seven women and one man are each sentenced to five years in prison for soliciting rebellion against President Kagame. All are members of a Christian sect and were arrested in July 2013 outside the president’s residence where they should have made a prayer that the country’s leaders should be replaced.

October

Ingabire appeals in prison

Opposition politician Victoire Ingabire appeals her prison sentence of 15 years (see December 2013) to the African Court of Human Rights, a body within the AU.

Former officers are sentenced

Former President of the Guard, Joel Mutabazi, is sentenced to life imprisonment for lying behind a series of armed attacks. He fled to Uganda in 2011 but was extradited from it in 2013. He is charged with cooperating with banned hutu groups. Another former officer at the Presidential Guard is sentenced to 25 years in prison and a further number are jailed for anything between 25 years and a few months.

September

High military forces are arrested

A number of high-ranking military, including several with close ties to the inner circle of state leadership, are arrested. Among other things, a retired general and the former head of the president’s guard force for “rioting to rebellion” are prosecuted by spreading rumors. Assessors believe the arrests are an expression of concern among those in power for increased activity within the voluntary opposition movement RNC (Rwanda National Congress). Several of the RNC’s management have previously been top names in the ruling party FPR. The government’s critics accuse President Kagame of ruling the country with such rigid bridges that the democracy that formally prevails in practice has been abolished.

July

Murekezi new prime minister

President Kagame appoints Labor Minister Anastase Murekezi as new Prime Minister. Murekezi belongs to the Social Democratic Party (PSD) which is part of the ruling coalition led by the president’s party FPR. Some minor changes are being made in the government, but all the heavier ministers are keeping their missions.

June

Border battles against Congo-Kinshasa

Battles are fought between Congolese and Rwandan soldiers in the border area between Rwanda and Congo-Kinshasa, on par with the Congolese province of Northern Kivu.

April

Rwanda marks the 20th anniversary of the genocide

With ceremonial ceremonies, the Rwandans commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1994 genocide outbreak. A government delegation is suspending its visit after President Kagame again accused France of supporting the then Hutu regime and helped many of the instigators of the genocide escape. The ambassador of France should then be banned from the commemoration of the Rwandan government. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon says the shame is still hanging over the World Organization for not doing enough to prevent the mass murder.

March

Former army captain is sentenced in France

Former Army Captain Pascal Simbikangwa is sentenced to 25 years in prison in a Paris trial. He is convicted of rioting, organizing and contributing to massacres of Tutsis in the capital Kigali and the Gisenyi region during the 1994 genocide. The fact that Simbikangwa was brought to trial in France has attracted attention, since the French state has been accused of standing at the then the Hutur regime and protected those responsible for the genocide. The trial of Simbikangwa is the first in France against a perpetrator of the Rwandan genocide.

January

Former intelligence chief found dead

Former intelligence chief Patrick Karegeya is found dead in a hotel room in South Africa, where police suspect murder. Karegeya was close to President Kagame but joined with him and was dismissed and degraded in 2004. After sitting in prison in his home country, he has lived in exile in South Africa since 2007. Together with former Army Chief Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, who also moved to South Africa, formed he 2010 opposition party Rwanda’s National Congress. Nyamwasa has twice been subjected to attempted murder in the country’s escape.

Rwanda Culture

About the author