Players, officials, and fans of table tennis alike, were treated to a full fiesta of Rwandan traditional culture at the opening ceremony of the 2024 ITTF Africa Cup, which kicked off in Kigali on Sunday, May 12.

The Indinze Cultural Troupe treated the audience to rich presentations of the Imihamirizo and Umushayayo cultural dances, both of which are of ancient origins, featuring male and female performers.

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Imihamirizo is a Rwandan traditional dance from the time of the first king of Urwandurundi. It is performed at every important event across the country while ‘Umushayayo’ is the common dance of women. Comparable to ballet, it displays the purity, goodness, grace and the radiant beauty of the Rwandan woman.

The cultural dances were well applauded by the appreciative audience and heralded in two of the biggest table tennis tournaments in Africa - the Africa Cup and the 2024 Paris Olympic Qualifiers.

The cultural performance served to welcome top table tennis officials that convened in Kigali for the two continental table tennis tournaments. Among them include International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Secretary-General, Raul Calin, President, African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Khaled El-Salhy and local Table Tennis governing body (RTTF) president, John Birungi and Ministry of Sports’ Permanent Secretary, Zephanie Niyonkuru among others.

Opening ITTF Africa Cup tournament, ITTF Secretary-General, Raul Calin commended Rwanda for hosting such significant tournaments and reaffirmed the world body's commitment to supporting nations like Rwanda in their quest to grow the sport.

On his part, local Table Tennis governing body (RTTF) president, John Birungi, thanked the government for accepting to host the tournaments and its full support for the sports events.

"It is a dream come true to host this level of tournament, which is the biggest and most prestigious competition in Africa,” Birungi said.

"We are happy that it has become a reality, and we hope that this will inspire us to aim higher and stage bigger events. We cannot achieve this without the backing of our supporters who believed in us to achieve this milestone,” he added.

According to Niyonkuru, sports have become part of the Rwanda Tourism Ecosystem, contributing $95 million (over Rwf123 billion) to the $620 million (Rwf 804,3 billion) generated through tourism in Rwanda.

"We are grateful to the ATTF and the ITTF for considering Rwanda to host these two events. For us in Rwanda, we know the importance of sports, which is part of tourism that contributed over $620 million to the economy. Sporting events alone added $95 million to the chunk,” Niyonkuru said.

"In Rwanda, we want to use sports to build friendships among people, but we also want to generate income from them. I wish all our visitors a good stay in Rwanda and urge you to visit important places here in Kigali with the hope that you will always return,” he added.

Fifteen countries made up of Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Cameroon, Nigeria, Tunisia, Uganda, Madagascar, Congo Brazzaville, Ethiopia, Morocco, Cote d'Ivoire, Mauritius, Ghana and host Rwanda are competing in the three-day tournament taking place for the first time in Kigali.