Several people crowd around him. Those far away, draw nearer towards this blind guitarists parched on a stone near Remera Park. To amplify his sound, a microphone positioned closer to his mouth is tied on a guitar and connected to a loudspeaker. As he strums his instrument, Fabien Hagenimana moves his head up and down to the tune of the music he mimes. Hagenimana went to Gitarama School of the blind in Southern province, where he studied music. “I went to school like any other person and I am self employed. I am no different from all those other people who sing. I do not have enough money but as a blind man what I have achieved is enough,” he said in an interview with The New Times. He started loving music from his childhood. “It’s not by accident that I play music. I have loved it from the onset. I used to listen to radio whenever music could play and I could feel it’s the only thing that could let me see.” When he was young, a Congolese music teacher identified his talent and helped him to perfect it (talent). Peter Mukama loves Hagenimana’s music. “When he plays his guitar you feel the song. I listen to most of his music on radio but I have never enjoyed it the way I do when he is playing a guitar,” Mukama said. Hagenimana plays mostly love songs. He has a bone of contention with the Police. “Police always run after my fans whenever they gather to listen to my music. They (police) always advise me to go and perform in a stadium or rent a hall, a thing I am not capable of doing today,” says Hagenimana. Ends
