Mohamed Zulu Ndayambaje does not only paint and sell his pieces to buyers, he also shares some of his skills with tourists and locals alike. In Musanze town, where he operates, he is more of an entertainer than just painter, he told Moses Opobo.

When did you discover the artiste in you?

I was born with art inside me. Since I was a child in the village in Nyabihu District, I used to mould human shapes and make face masks from avocado seeds. I liked to draw nature and aero planes. At school the teachers would give me books to draw in, and they would use my drawings to teach the class. However, I dropped out of school in primary six because of my love for art.

What happened next?

I went to Goma in DRC, and saw that the art there was very advanced. I saw art pieces I’d never seen in Rwanda. I went to a group of artistes and asked to stay with them and they agreed. It was a company that made masks and sculptures and paintings. I worked without pay as I learnt for three years.

I mostly learnt painting, but I’ve failed to make sculptures. I’m more comfortable with painting.

I returned to Rwanda in 1999 and reunited with my family. I was staying with my grandparents, who wanted me to go back to school because I was still young.

I told them I had learnt painting from Goma, and wanted to do it professionally because they already knew me as an artiste.

They said it was expensive and advised me to go back to school. I refused school and went to Kabaya trading center in Ngororero and started a chapatti and mandazi and sambusa business. I made some money from it, but I kept drawing art pieces for my business and for nearby saloons so people knew me as an artiste. They told me that in Gisenyi there was a big market for artistes and many artistes lived and worked there.

I worked harder at my chapatti business, and two years later, I left Kabaya and went to Gisenyi town. I knew a friend who I stayed with. He was working in a restaurant and we pooled resources to start a chapatti business. This made me to put the art on hold.

There were too many artistes in Gisenyi, so I didn’t know where to start and how to approach them. I didn’t do art from there. I spent five months, then returned to Kigali. My brother connected me to a construction site and I started building work. Soon, I realized that in Kigali there were more artistes than in Gisenyi.

Biggest influence:

One day I saw an oil painting at Hotel des Mille Collines, which I later learnt belonged to an artiste called Kabanda Michel of the CAPLAKI Arts Association. I told him I was an artiste and badly wanted to work with him after seeing his painting. When he agreed, I quit the building job and joined him right away.

He would draw while I observed silently at his workshop in Nyabugogo. I learnt mixing colors from him. Before, I knew how to draw figures, but didn’t know how to use colors to compliment the picture.

I spent six months with him, then went back home in the village in Kabaya drawing in saloons, bars, even making signposts for tea factories.

Favorite materials:

I like to use acrylic paint, water colors, oil paint, wood, canvass etc. I also make jewelry like necklaces and ear rings.

On a good day, I can finish a portrait in about four hours.

Source of inspiration:

I feel art within me. Everything I see, I interpret it artistically. Whenever I sit alone in nature, I get inspired.