It was only around 6:00 PM on a Monday evening and the colorful car free zone in Nyarugenge district’s Biryogo suburb was already ‘on fire’. As I stroll between vases that separate the main road from the beautiful zone painted in green, blue, white and grey, the environment was already vibrant.
In open air, people were seated at communal tables in front of tea bars and restaurants in the middle of the road, laughing out loud, while others were walking through like they had a busy day.
Most of them looked young, but the old also seemed to be enjoying their evening.
The aroma of coffee was all over and music was playing from a speaker placed in a junction. Not too loud, but enough for people to know they were hanging out. Some were having refills of green tea, milk, and coffee in their mugs, as others were devouring platefuls of assorted fruits. Chapattis and brochettes also seemed to be the real deal.
With as little as Rwf100, you can buy a cup of coffee in this Muslim-dominated suburb. Despite the fact that it’s mostly preferred for people of limited means compared to other parts of the city, it is where city dwellers –including the affluent – run to for good food; especially pilau, ugali, and fish, among others.
A panolamic night view of the newly revamped Biryogo car-free zone on February 14, 2022. Dan Nsengiyumva
Even green tea tastes better in this place, many will tell you.
Pacifique Rutabingwa, 32, who is a tailor has been coming to this place for 12 years at least three times a week, just for green tea. He told The New Times he would hang out in other places, but Biryogo has most of his friends who have become like family, and that the new face of Biryogo is just beautiful.
"I wouldn’t say it changed my feelings about coming here, because I was even coming when the roads were still dusty. But now I feel happy to see more people coming to a more beautiful place,” Rutabingwa said as he sipped at his cup of green tea.
He shares the feeling with Djuma Bunani, 40, who has patronized the place for four years now- "not skipping a single day”, for coffee and chapatti.
"People here are welcoming. I love that everyone minds their business. I am sure people will not have where to seat very soon,” Bunani said. He even made a joke that it is only in Biryogo that you would order raw cassava and peanut soup and get it!
Interestingly, no beer or any alcohol beverage is in sight. "I don’t know where they sell it,” is the response I got from the waiters every time I asked where one would buy a bottle of beer.
The specialty of this place has never been alcohol anyway, mostly because it is Muslim dominated. It’s instead green tea and pilau, among other delicacies, which has been the case for decades.
Home of diversity
This formerly Muslim-only community may have some of the city's oldest houses, but at the same time, it is the beginning of a bigger part, Nyamirambo, that harbors the most interesting people and things.
A wide picture of the beautiful Biryogo
It's where famous artists and athletes live. It is also where the controversial LGBTQ+ church is located and it hosts the Anglican Cathedral. It is the country's perfect picture of diversity, not only because of different beliefs and lifestyles but also the income gap.
However, this has not always been the case given the history of Islam in Rwanda. Muslims were marginalized since colonialism until the current government got in power.
Available records show that the history of Islam in the country started slightly before 1901, when Arab merchants first entered the country. Rwandans then built their first mosque currently known as Masjidul Madiinah in 1913, the same year that the Catholics built the St. Famille church in Kiyovu.
The city centre where Masjidul Madiinah is located was then surrounded by residentials of Indian and Arab merchants, together with Rwandan Muslims who were also regarded as foreign, given that the majority of Rwandans were living in rural areas.
Many have attributed the marginalization of Muslims in Rwanda to the close links the Belgian colonialists had with the Catholic Church which viewed itself as a rival of Islam.
The implication was the exclusion them from education and important jobs to discourage people to join Islam.
Emergence of Biryogo
Around 1936, the Belgian government decided to relocate the growing Muslim community from the urban centre to Nyamirambo, and they settled the first batch in Biryogo, where most people know as ‘Onatracom’.
When the first Muslims settled there, it was in the wilderness and was teeming with wild animals including hyenas.
Seasoned politician, Sheikh Abdul Kareem Harelimana was born in this place almost two decades later, in 1955.
Ladies cheering on one another as they drink green tea at Biryogo
By then, the community had stretched to what is now called "Mirongo ine,” Kinyarwanda for "40”, but was then called "Majengo mapya,” Swahili word for "new buildings” because it was then just built.
In a calm tone, he narrated the ordeal that his community went through just because they were Muslim, from being moved against their will to being denied their rights as citizens.
"Even getting out of the neighbourhood, one needed to ask for permission from authorities,” the former cabinet minister said,
"This happened during colonialism and under the First Republic. We had to find ways to not be drowned by sadness, so we created our own ways to be happy,” Harelimana said.
Of course, life was hard given that the best job one could get was becoming a driver and could only engage in petty trade. Women learned how to cook, knit and dress hair, among other things. Men learned how to drive, fix cars and carpentry, and so forth.
Children couldn’t go to school because the education system was in the hands of the Catholic Church – which had conversion as a precondition to attend, or the Protestant church.
Even the private school they had built for themselves, formerly Ecole Quaranique de Kigali that was later named Ecole Rwandaise Intwali Kigali by King Mutara III Rudahigwa in 1957 when he visited the school was snatched from them by Kayibanda’s government.
They only got it back after the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. According to Harelimana, they have only been treated like other citizens since the current ruling party, RPF got in power.
Sense of solidarity
But how could a place like Biryogo, where people that were held in low regard turn out to be the most welcoming community in Kigali? Harelimana believes it is because its residents are top notch hospitable!
"Marginalisation did not make the Muslims bitter. Yes, it was inhumane, but it created the sense of solidarity. Usually, this is commanded by the religion. They learned to love their neighbours, and taught each other what they knew in vocations,” Harelimana said. This is how Biryogo became a place for everyone.
Friends share brochette and green tea at Biryogo car-free zone
Harelimana is among the excited, that a place that holds such history could be made more beautiful.
"It started with paving roads, then the car free zone, and now colors that even align with our convictions,” he said, referring to green, which is not only used by Islam but also Kiyovu Sports, a football club that most people in Biryogo support.
The City of Kigali’s move to beautify the place came after the car free zone was implemented in the area to practice social distancing. "By applying tactical urbanism, we are going to use art to transform Biryogo car free zone into a dynamic public space. This initiative illustrates how ‘the art of asphalt’ makes a city safer and more alive,” the city announced on Twitter late January this year.
Pacifique Rutabingwa, a resident in Biryogo took his sip of green tea . Dan Nsengiyumva
Honorine Irizabimbuto is a 23-year-old managing Issa Coffee Shop in the zone. She said they now have more customers who order more than just the RWF100 cup of coffee because of this move!
"When it was still messy, some people couldn’t consider this place because it was loud and disorganized. But now, people from different parts of Kigali come to a beautiful looking coffee shop and this is giving us more revenue,” she said.
Biryogo is no doubt the place where anyone can get anything with any amount of money. And it’s not just food. Everything!