Youthful artists are today changing lives and perceptions

There is a song ‘Rwanda itajengwa na vijana wenyewe’ that normally gets top government officials and private sector mandarins humming along anytime it’s belted out in public functions. It alludes to the fact that it’s incumbent upon the youth of this country to take the reins of the country’s development agenda. It would appear that the youth have taken this song to hear and are now engaged in various profitable activities geared towards making the country develop. This is much more prominent in the arts industry where 21 years after the insidious Genocide against the Tutsi, several youths are now at the forefront of bringing Rwanda’s rich cultural heritage into the limelight through their artwork. This is along with the training they are giving other upcoming artists on how they can improve and harness their skills. Shadrack Kayiranga, a genocide survivor, ply’s his trade at Ivuka arts center. Even as he reports to work every day at the Kacyiru-based arts center to paint art pieces that he hopes to sell, he knows that it simply isn’t only about painting for him. It is normal to find him surrounded by eager students who, after leaving school in the evening, want to learn from him. “I have worked with different institutions that support orphans like the SOS Children so that I can help them know more about painting at a young age. And I’ve seen that several of them have great skills and passion; they have the potential to be great painters in future,” he says. I found 12-year-old Mercy Uwingabiye working with Kayiranga on the day I went to the center. “I come to learn how to paint on the days I’m free”, she says. Kayiranga says that these days many parents have seen the value of fine art, not like the years before when the profession was viewed as something for those who have no ambition in life. “Parents of today have seen how successful artists can be, and many are encouraging their children to take painting seriously,” he adds. Kayiranga further adds that teaching these future artists resonates well with him owing to the struggles he faced searching in the years past. Having done his early apprenticeship in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where his family had fled to escape the horrors of 1994 (but not before two siblings were killed), he found it difficult to continue his artistic journey when he came back to Rwanda after the country was liberated. “As a survivor I feel it’s my responsibility to help out talented upcoming artists so that they may become useful members of the society. We’re doing this not only to develop arts but also to give these children skills that might help them in future.” At another corner, Bruce Niyonkuru, another youthful painter is busy with a group of five female visual art enthusiasts who cluster around him as he teaches them about painting. Niyonkuru recently established Imizi Girls Art whose principal mission is to provide girls with free artistic education. “For a long time, there’s been the misconception that visual arts are not meant for girls and women. However, this is now changing and many of them are taking it as their métier. I thought it wise to initiate a project which will give these young girls the skills and the confidence to exercise their passion for painting,” says Niyonkuru. He says that his students do not have strong backgrounds in arts; something he hopes is going to change because they have shown their unwavering passion to be taught and learn more about the trade. He added that some people were still ignorant about visual art as a profession, despite the fact that it is profitable for women as well as men. “I also encourage them (the students) to learn more about our rich cultural heritage for they are the future custodians of it.” Niyonnkuru believes that the main challenge the girls face of lack of self belief and confidence is because they don’t have a prominent role models to look up to, an omission he attributes to what society hitherto believed about women in visual arts. But that is changing thankfully. Crossing to Agasozi Arts Center, formerly known as Uburanga Arts Center, I meet Augustin Hakizimana who established his arts center in Musanze District. Hakizimana, 29, says that he established Agasozi with the major aim of helping young women who had dropped out of school to make money using their skills in making jewelry. The money they raise doesn’t only help them fend for themselves but by saving enough they can afford to go back to school. “I had a group of eight young women who had quit school due to various reasons like abject poverty and unwanted pregnancies. At Agasozi, they used to make various ornaments that they sold to tourists and locals alike and this gave them a sustainable income. I’m happy that the majority of them fulfilled their missions,” he says. Hakizimana adds that even though he’s shifted base and Agasozi has now taken over Uburanga, the original mission is still alive. In fact, he’s been helping women as far as Butare and Kigali to make a living out of their skills. “We provide them with space and facilities to ply their trade while at the same time helping them to market their pieces not only locally but also internationally. This offers the vulnerable women with enough income to take care of their daily requirements.” The same scenario is replicated at Inema Center, also in Kacyiru where the sibling team of Innocent Nkurunziza and Emmanuel Nkuranga has managed to establish various ambitious projects to help vulnerable women and young children engage in different profitable activities. Among them is the Inema Dance Troupe where talented children are not only kept busy honing their skills in the evenings after a day in their respective schools but they also earn money performing for the art. A parent to one of the girls in the dance troupe, Epaphrodite Uwase, says that “ my girl has got the chance to be kept quite busy after her school while at the same time she gets some money to buy crucial educational materials she may need.” Down at Yego Arts Center in Nyarutarama, Olivier Kiwitonda, 25, is busy putting final touches on acrylic painting on canvas for an exhibition to be held in May. The main purpose of this exhibition is to raise the seed money that he hopes will help him offer help to those talented street children who might not have the opportunity to develop their inborn talents. “ I was touched when a street kid requested me for some money and when I invited him to try his hands in painting, the amazing skills he exhibited prompted me to establish a project for such like talented but unfortunate children. It’s not their choice that they are languishing on the street. What we should do is provide them with sustainable opportunity so that they may come out of poverty they are facing,” says Kwitonda, who adds that he also didn’t have the chance to enjoy an exciting childhood having come from a dysfunctional family. Even far away from Kigali, in Musanze to be precise, a number of youthful artists like one who told me he’s called ‘Zulu the Artist’, practicing at Red Rocks Rwanda Camping Site are busy creating opportunities where children and women are involved in different arts activities to better their lives. “Women here make baskets and ornaments which we export to other countries, and the tourists who come here also buy them. When we want to develop our society, we should inevitably begin with developing the women and children. We are busy creating positive impact to the local community here,” says Zulu. It should be noted that majority of these arts centers and studios came into existence only after the 1994 since previously there were no arts centers to talk about. Many of veteran artists like Epa Binamungu and Pascal Bushayejya only operated from their homes that also functioned as their art centers and galleries. Today’s youthful artists have raised the bar high, not only succeeding in managing to open now several arts centers and galleries in every nook and cranny of Kigali and beyond, but also teaching their upcoming counterparts the foundation of art.

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Youthful artists are today changing lives and perceptions