On Monday June 16, Kigali Institute of Education (KIE) commenced its cultural week, an event which takes place every two years at the university grounds.

This year’s cultural week was inaugurated by the Minister of Sports and Culture, Joseph Habineza, who emphasised the importance of culture for the development of any society.

The minister remarked that such events provide an opportunity to gather many people from various societies to interact and share ideas on culture development.

"Such events bring a unique opportunity of reminding ourselves of the priceless values such as integrity, ethics, responsibility, hard work, and competition, which if considered promote good interpersonal relationships, which yield to social progress,” added in a telephone interview yesterday.

The previous cultural weeks, as organised by KIE have always attracted participants from as outside Uganda and Burundi, and such participants together with the local institutions, have always packaged KIE cultural week with exquisite cultural exhibitions and performances.

This time around, the KIE cultural week attracted participants from local universities such as KIST, UNLR, SFB, ULK, a university from Burundi called ISAE Bisogo and other participants from other countries like Nigeria.

The main objective of this cultural week is to enhance appreciation of the different cultures to foster unity and development, according to Dr. James Vuningoma, the cultural week president.

According to Vuningoma, the event is among other things intended to create a platform for youth interactions and openness through entertainment, dances poetry and plays.

The cultural week has also incorporated discussions on culture vis-à-vis development, emphasising the integration of Rwandan culture into developmental projects.

"Many academicians from domestic institutions as well as else where invited to give their presentations on topics centered on how the different cultures and contexts can be harnessed to realize unity and development,’ explained Vuningoma.

Vuningoma, who is also the dean faculty of arts and languages in Kigali Institute of Education, said the transformation of societies hinge on respect of one culture.

Dr. Okenyi Silvester from Nigeria, on Tuesday presented a paper on how culture serves as cement for cohesion in Nigeria’s ethnic diversity.

Other items featured in the cultural week, included fashion shows, performances from various dance and music groups, such as ISAE dance, inganji dance from KIE students, Swahili drama and many other traditional dances.

In addition to this many unique musical instruments were played. The Burundi music instruments thrilled the first day of the festival.

There are also other groups that brought art crafts of the Kinyarwanda decent and others, who exhibited them in tents around the cultural week grounds. It was clear that the weeks events were creating an awareness and fondness for different people’s cultures.

The components of culture, such as language, values, practices, were nurtured through interactions, sharing and learning from other peoples elsewhere.

Contact: gahimore@yahoo.com