Like all sectors of the economy, the arts and entertainment industry started from scratch after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, and it is fair to say that over the past three decades the arts and showbiz industry has developed tremendously.

But for some, including industry players, it is a mixed bag with many wins to celebrate but also challenges that have led to the local arts scene appear like it is not showing signs of sustainability.

For others, a number of annual events that have been chalked off the calendar or are struggling, is a sign that a lot more needs to be done at the policy level and also at the private sector level – in terms of investment, if Rwanda is to cash in on the multibillion industry that entertainment and showbiz is.

Events that many remember like KigaliUp, which had become a household name on the entertainment calendar, the Pan African Dance Festival (FESPAD), which used to fill up Amahoro National Stadium, and most recently Kigali Jazz Junction, which used to bring in different artistes to perform, are all no more.

There are other events such as Isaano Arts Festival and different awards such as Salax Awards, and competitions such as Primus Guma Guma Superstar, which had become a common feature on the entertainment calendar but have since ceased or been replaced by other alternatives.

Some can argue that Iwacu Muzika, which came in as a replacement of Primus Guma Guma Super Star, did not become as popular. The cinema or movie culture is yet to grow to sustainable levels with existing cinemas and film festivals continuing to struggle.

While 2023 saw a number of massive entertainment events hosted at BK Arena, featuring international artistes such as Kendrick Lamar, who headlined Move Afrika Concert, as well as Trace Awards and Festival, which brought in multitude of superstars, local event organisers reeled from a difficult year.

It is an intricate topic even for event organisers, who also acknowledge the growth but for now it feels like they are stuck with great ideas – their biggest challenge being lack of sponsorships, and investment in what they do.

Hope Azeda, founder of Mashirika Performing Arts Company and curator of Ubumuntu Arts Festival, an annual event, told The New Times that there is no one to blame in particular for this slow growth but several things can be done to rejuvenate the arts scene.

Azeda, who has been in the thick of things for the past 24 years, prefers an abstract approach to address the issue, likening the situation to a tree seedling that is planted but requires regular watering for it to grow into a giant tree.

"The origin of a giant tree can be traced back to a small seed, as per an African proverb. I guess every creative idea is like a seed that, when planted, calls for watering and nurturing by the community,” Azeda says.

This also means that a tree planted and not given water dries and eventually dies out.

"In order to become a champion in a highly competitive world, it is necessary to maintain consistency and perseverance in creating and supporting artistic platforms, regardless of the challenges faced, otherwise they will fade and wither like plants,” she adds.

She alludes to lack of investment in the sector and it is a challenge she is familiar with, having to run from door-to-door looking for sponsorship for her annual events, albeit in vain most times.

With lack of support, the events either lose momentum or don’t happen at the scale they should, due to limited resources. It is an industry where you only reap what you invest literally and it can be exhausting for organisers.

It is a puzzle Azeda says can only be solved if all parties work together, right from the top, at the policy and decision-making level, right to bottom of the pyramid, where the creatives are found.

Her sentiments are shared by Jacques Murigande, commonly known as Mighty Popo, who was the organiser of KigaliUp, an idea he conceived in 2009, while he was still living in Canada, returned to Rwanda in 2010 and brought it to life in 2011.

"Rwanda didn’t have live performers at the time. We only had a few Rwandans playing in ‘Igisope’ bands, but most people or bands which were doing live music were either from Uganda, Burundi or DR Congo,” says Murigande, giving a background of how KigaliUp came about.

When he set out, his vision was to create a festival which would give people a true musical experience by offering Rwandan artistes a platform to showcase their talent. It was also a festival that would contribute greatly to tourism.

Murigande, who also doubles as the director of Rwanda School of Creative Art and Music, says that his vision, also as a musician and guitarist, was to bring music closer to the community and give back to the community in some ways.

"Within three years, we had already achieved the greatest result of that. We were the first people to bring people like Sauti Sol to Rwanda,” he says, adding that they were the first people to organise what you can call a professional music festival in Rwanda.

"By the fourth year, we were the sixth best music festival in Africa, ranked by the African Music Festival Network (AMFN), and we also started to see tourists coming from countries like Israel, Ethiopia, US and Canada, attending the festival,” he says.

During that period, he says they were able to train festival technicians, from sound technicians to event organisers and artistic directors, all of them Rwandans. Some of them are still living off the skills they earned to date.

However, past its fifth birthday, KigaliUp festival started to face financial constraints, with lack of sponsorship being the main challenge. They were few and far between.

"All that time we were struggling to get proper support, either from the private sector, or the government. We were struggling. Then, all of a sudden, even the little that we used to get disappeared,” he says.

Murigande adds that during this period, they tried to prove that the festival had picked up, and creating jobs but it was not enough to save the festival. The last edition happened in 2018.

However, he has not given up. Even last year he tried to resurrect the festival with new innovations and revised models, but still sponsors were not forthcoming. He would still do it as soon as tomorrow if he got the support.

"We are ready to revamp at any minute. Last year, we had actually joined hands with East African Promoters to do it together. This is one of those things that both the private sector and the government have to be present for us to be able to do it properly,” Murigande says, an argument that is reinforced by Raoul Rugamba, who used to organise Isaano Arts Festival – a week-long festival, whose last edition happened in 2019.

"It was the lack of support and finances. It is the simplest way to put it. That was the biggest bottleneck,” says Rugamba, who remains active in the arts scene, albeit trying out new ideas.

But for the festival, he says like many other event organisers, who give up on delivering good events, he could not go past the 7^th edition without proper funding.

"I think, 80 per cent of all of us who used to organise events, which are mainly related to promoting arts and artistes, usually when it comes to financing, we do it ourselves because we love art. We have a passion for it, we believe in it,” he says.

Rugamba says it is difficult to find a hotel with enough space to host between 3,000 to 5,000 people, which is the reasonable number you can expect to recoup the investment, and when you find the infrastructure, it will be too costly to afford.

"Ticket sales here range from Rwf5, 000 to Rwf10, 000. That is very cheap if you want to bring in an artiste that will cost you $80, 000,” he observes.

Rugamba says the solution can be building halls and theatres, specifically to facilitate and give access to local art players to host events, at affordable rates, considering that the industry is still growing. Such incentives can ease the pressure.

With the Ministry of Youth and Art now mandated to oversee the revamping and reshaping of the country’s arts industry, Rugamba hopes the views of those who have been on the ground, first to understand the landscape and bottlenecks, will be considered.

A tough industry

Joseph Mushyoma, CEO East African Promoters, that used organise the East African Party, as well as many other music events, is seen as one of the most successful players in the industry.

However, Mushyoma, locally known by the nickname ‘Boubou’, says he is yet to figure out the formula and similarly laments about lack of funding of what they do either by the public or private sector.

Behind the successful shows are challenges related to financing. Much as he finds a way to host an event, for example at the BK Arena, it remains hard for him to find sponsors who are willing to tag along,

"The venues have become too commercialised. It is understandable because there is an investment that goes into the infrastructure. We need to find a solution for that,” he says.

Boubou says the other solution would be Rwandans loving their own, instead of waiting to fill the arena because there is an international artiste on the lineup.

"You can’t rent an expensive venue and at the same time afford to bring in an expensive international artiste. It definitely won’t work,” he says, adding that Rwandans need to turn up and support their own for the local industry to grow.

On the other hand, he says creatives need to also up the ante on the quality of what they do, so that it attracts people.

"A good example is what we do with Israel Mbonyi. Yes, people love him, they will come and fill up the arena, but he also delivers in terms of quality. He will spend three hours doing a live performance, and rehearses for three months,” Boubou says.

These collaborations on all sides can be the stimulant the sector needs. Everything has to work together because event organisers cannot do it alone.

Boubou says a simple concert requires at least Rwf50m upwards, while it can even be double for a bigger show and it would be in vain to imagine that you can recoup that from ticket sales alone.

He says there is a need to bring together efforts on all sides and create a synergy which will not only boost the economy, but also improve the lives of creatives, most of whom are currently not able to live off their work.

Boubou says this would take the Ministry of Youth and Arts, and Rwanda Development Board (RDB) to convene all parties to find the best ways to leverage the showbiz economy, factoring in the views of those involved.

Remmygious Lubega, Business and Creative Director of RG Consult, which used to organise Kigali Jazz Junction and Kigali Praise Fest, says that the past four years have seen local content promoters and curators struggle to recover from the aftereffects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, even before the pandemic, they had started to feel the pinch, with events drying up, mainly because of limited and unsustainable partnerships with stakeholders, sponsors and authorities too.

Lubega maintains that it goes down to working partnerships, especially drawing in corporate entities which understand the importance of investing in arts.

He says that it is great that there is a huge inflow of foreign artistes coming to perform in Rwanda, but it should be noted that before these events, local curators had demonstrated the same dedication, commitment and have tried to grow these ideas organically amidst the challenges.

"Truthfully, there is a need to look into how those local content and ideas can be supported. Absolutely Rwanda has bred beautiful elaborate world class events and content that if we start a culture of nurturing them and supporting them, we can export them,” he says.

"We can still do this. We don't have to look away from what the locals are putting on the table, instead we need to support and insist on growing concepts that have emerged and have the potential to grow and employ locals, grow skills and capacity for young people and the industry at large,” Lubega says, appealing for efforts to support local initiatives.

What the Ministry of Youth and Arts is doing

The Minister of Youth and Arts, Dr Abdallah Utumatwishima, briefly told The New Times that they are aware of some of these challenges in the creative sector and they are currently working around the clock.

Minister Utumatwishima said that the Ministry in collaboration with the Rwanda Arts Council (RAC), on February 14, convened a meeting to discuss the vision of the country and role of arts, increasing employment and contributing to socioeconomic development.

"We met artistes, and I saw in their eyes the hope for change. The hope for working together with us, and the hope for scientific-based creative economy policies,” he says, reiterating that the future looks brighter.

Last year, in December, the arts portfolio, which had been under the Ministry of National Unity and Civic Engagement (MINUBUMWE), was moved to the Ministry of Youth.

The government said the change announced on December 14, was aimed at enhancing policy and support for arts and culture. Since then, Utumatwishima and the Minister of State, Sandrine Umutoni, have shown keen interest in the sector and deployed a hands-on-approach.

Stakeholders in the sector are optimistic that this decision by the Rwandan government will usher in a new era of growth and development with the two youthful ministers at the helm.

Utumumatwishima encourages creatives to remain positive and focus on leveraging the different incentives the government is putting in place to give the sector a much-needed impetus.

He said events such as Kigali Triennale show that with creativity there is a lot that can be done to rejuvenate the arts sector.

Where are the sponsors?

Efforts to get a comment from BRALIRWA, one of the leading sponsors of leisure and entertainment events were futile, but Alain Numa, Manager of Corporate Communication at MTN says that sponsors too consider a number of things before committing resources.

Among other things, he alluded to the quality of events that event promoters organise, some of which might not meet the standard corporate sponsors expect.

"We need to look at this from another angle. We need to sit down and look back, let's say 10 years ago and ask ourselves what happened?”

"We used to have a lot of good concerts, and we used to have innovations in that line. Very many companies were very happy to sponsor. So, what happened?” Numa says, floating the question to event organisers too.

He argues that it could be a number of factors, including perhaps creative ideas running dry, which is why maybe sponsors pull out, because they don’t see value for money.

He says MTN Rwanda does not hesitate to support ideas which look good in terms of quality and deliver to the public, because for them that is also a good platform to leverage, citing the events organised by EAP as an example.