Walking in the footsteps of the great Mzee Athanase Sentore

IF you ask a young man between of 15-25 years of age to ‘Guhamiriza’ (a type of traditional dance), they will probably look you in the face and ask, “What in the world is that”? However, it can be argued that this is not entirely their fault. It’s a product of the world we are living in today.According to 90-year-old Pastor Ezra Mpyisi, the world’s changing lifestyles are affecting our cultural heritage. “The loss of culture comes right from the loss of language and traditional norms. Today the Kinyarwanda that most people speak and the one that was spoken by the Rwandans in the 1930s is quite different. Today, more people are drawn towards the western culture and beliefs instead,” Mzee Mpyisi complains.Daphne Mutoni, a 16 year old Kigali student, prefers to look at United States for her cultural direction.“I’ve grown up watching Oprah Winfrey on television and I have seen most of her good deeds. She is my idol. On the contrary, I hardly see any Rwandan stars who I admire as much as Oprah,” Daphne says.Thierry Ndoli, a 28 year old Rwandan who has lived in Uganda since the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, attributes the loss of culture to the fact that many Rwandans have grown up in foreign lands.“During the Genocide I fled to Uganda where I stayed with relatives. So basically, I spoke Luganda and grew up like a Muganda. Right now I hardly even know my cultural norms and beliefs,” Thierry added.But not everyone that grew up in foreign countries forgot their culture. Masamba Intore, a famous local musician, told The New Times that his late father and mentor, Mzee Athanase Sentore, managed to maintain the Rwandan tradition among the many Rwandans who fled to Burundi.Mzee Sentore, who passed away in March this year at the age of 80 at the Fortis Hospital in Mumbai India, was an accomplished traditional singer, composer and dancer. At the age of eight, he was recruited by the late Umwami Rudahigwa’s cultural troupe in Nyanza where he studied and developed his cultural career. In 1958, he was selected as head of the troupe that represented Rwanda at a cultural show in Belgium. Among the 150 countries that participated, Rwanda emerged winners.Masamba also says that, while in Burundi, his father always promised that Rwandans would return home and that all would be well.“In Burundi my dad started a school called Indashikirwa, which was a music and dance school. The dance and music taught there was strictly Rwandan. And, most importantly the school taught the values and norms of the Rwandan culture,” Masamba said. “My dad went from home to home, recruiting children to be a part of this school in order to preserve the Rwandan culture.”Mighty Popo, a Rwanda artiste who joined Mzee Sentore’s school, remembers him fondly. “Sentore was a great and flexible man; he always encouraged us in everything good we did. My mentors were not exactly cultural artists but he told me it was okay to go ahead and sing what I wanted as long as I didn’t forget my roots.”Ruth Ngabire, a mother to three, observed that with the youth of today, the only way a message can be passed on to them is through music, art dance and poetry.“But we are losing a lot of our cultural treasures like Sentore and I am afraid the replacements are simply not there”, she fears.The Minister of Sports and Culture, Protais Mitali said, “I promised Mzee Sentore I would sponsor his album before he left for Mumbai but, unfortunately, he didn’t make it back. Masamba will work with others close to Sentore and make an album in the name of Sentore that the Ministry will fully sponsor,” Minister Mitali promises.When Mzee Sentore returned to Rwanda in the aftermath of the civil war and Genocide, he became a trainer and advisor to the Rwandan National Ballet. The National Ballet has since brought home many international trophies after representing Rwanda in countries like Germany, Spain, Canada among others. Masamba says his father was not only a father to him but to many while a lot of traditional musicians looked up to him for inspiration. “But his spirit is not dead because the Sentore family and friends are doing exactly what he taught us and we are now walking in his footsteps,” Masamba vows.

Insight

Walking in the footsteps of the great Mzee Athanase Sentore