Places: A visit to a historical vintage House

At more than 201 years of existence, the first modern house in Rwanda still stands regally on Nyarugenge hill. The building got a facelift sometime back and does not look as old and rickety as I imagined it would. But even without the renovation, it is easy to see that the effort Kandt put into the building would have held it up till today. Its roof has been painted a soft pink; the exterior walls also wear a shade of pink and white giving it an unsullied look. This vintage edifice which was recently turned into a Museum of Natural History looks so sturdy and shows not a sign of aging or fear of earthquake, infact; it can easily be mistaken for one of the newly constructed bungalows. At the hill on which it stands, the air is so cold, clean and pure; the tranquility of the place can almost be felt on your skin as your ears and mind are being caressed by the velvety songs of birds’ chirps away undisturbed in the trees that adds beauty to the already nice and well manicured life-size compound. The origins of Kigali as the Capital city of Rwanda can be traced way back to 1907 when Richard Kandt was appointed the Resident Governor of Rwanda. He chose one of Nyarugenge hills and built this great structure that dubbed as both his residence and headquarters. It’s really hard to write about the oldest standing house in the country without succumbing to the temptation of mentioning the Great Dutch who built it. In 1907, Dr. Richard Kandt (Born Kantorowickz Jakob Richard) was born in Posen in 1867. He was a doctor, a soldier, an explorer, a scholar, a poet as well as an avid naturalist. As the first European resident of Rwanda, he set up an administrative residence in Kigali. From this grew 20 commercial houses on the lace of hills around present day Nyarugenge until 1921 when Kigali became a Belgian colonial administrative centre Kandt is remembered not only for this gargantuan house but other numerous attainments like the discovery of the Nile, and the production of the map of Lake Kivu and its surroundings. Kandt is also credited with numerous agricultural cultivation experiments with wheat, papaya, sorghum and lentils in Rwanda. He was also the first to propose the growing of coffee in the country, today numerous botanical, zoological, and ethnography objects document the scope of his extensive scientific activities. He died in Nuremberg at the end of World War 1. Although Dr. Kandt has long been gone from this world, his name is much alive on this soil. The structure that was once his humble abode today displays and exhibits ethnological, natural-historical and traditional life collections of Rwanda’s cultural heritage. martin.bishop18@yahoo.com