When in Kigali

My friend, a Dutch national, who was on a humanitarian mission in Rwanda asked me over the phone. “Which languages do people in Kigali use?” Kinyarwanda of course, I answered! Though I took his question to be a little funny, when I gave it more thought, I realized that Kigali is a mult-lingual city. If you go to the Western or Southern provinces, people many there speak Kinyarwanda and French. After some time, I called my Dutch buddy and told him, Kigali is a mult-lingual city! Here in the capital, people speak different languages. It’s one of the reasons why many foreigners find Kigali captivating. It doesn’t matter where you are from, in Kigali you will find people who speak your language, making the tour stay comfortable. The Kigali suburbs have another colorful story. Almost every quartier (neighborhood) has a dominating language. Take nyamirambo, for instance; everyone there uses Swahili, second to Kinyarwanda and French. Lingala and Swahili is what one hears in Gikondo, Camp-Zaire, another city suburb. In this area, every thing, ranging from bars to peoples names, are of Congolese origin;‘maman kabongo’s salon de coiffure’ to ‘Chez Lukalu wa lukalu bar’. A few kilometers from there, along Kanombe Airport road, you come to Remera, Giporoso. The localities there are of Rwandese who came from Uganda. Restaurants, hair salons, musics studios and other businesses deal in goods similar to those in Uganda. Here you can eat the Umunyige and ubunyobwa, the ‘gandas’ favorite dish. Ugandan music can be heard playing from loud speakers and cars with Ugandan plate numbers can be seen cruising. Greet anyone in the Luganda language and you won’t be disappointed. Kigali is one of the few cities in the region where you can ask: Parlez-vous Francais? Do you speak English? Oyogera oluganda? Unajua Swahili? Uvuga ikinyarwanda? martin.bishop18@yahoo.com