The untold story of Bugesera’s Mazane Island

Located around Lake Rweru in Bugesera district is a small but somewhat unknown island known as Mazane. With a population of 1,109 people. The island seats on a surface area of 7 square kilometres and borders Burundi to the south and Ngoma District to the east.Mazane Island, comprises of three villages and is one of the cells in Rweru Sector.To get to the island, one has to first get to Nyiragiseke village, Kintambwe cell on the mainland and then board a motorised boat, a journey that takes around 27 minutes.Previously, there were no motorised boats to the island and people had to use precarious canoes to take them to the island, a distance that took an excruciating two hours.By any standards, the island is decrepit. It has neither a secondary school, basic infrastructure nor amenities like clean water. Area residents fetch water from the lake.The only existing primary school was established in 2005 and presently has a population of 256 pupils.“The classrooms in the past were too small,” recalls Joseph Kayinamura, 43, who studied at sole primary school before the establishment of the modern primary school.The first person from the island to ever set foot in a secondary school, Théogène Twahirwa, is in his fourth year at Batima secondary school. The island has a total of eight students in secondary school. Little is documented about the island’s history. But according to an area resident, Joseph Kayinamura, in the 1980s, the island was inhabited by about 90 people grouped in 20 families. He estimates that the island had a population of 400 people before 1994.According to the Executive Secretary of Mazane cell, Alfred Mandela Ndayizeye, the main reason for the island’s underdevelopment lies in the mindset of the locals. “Many people relied on fishing for livelihood. Even children, preferred fishing rather than going to school. They did not really know the importance of education.”The Executive Secretary of Rweru sector, Julius Rukundo, echoes Ndaziye’s assertion. The lifestyle of people at the island has played a negative role in their livelihood. “Many men used to marry more than two wives.Men’s work was only to fish. Yet, the money accruing from fishing could not satisfy the needs of more than two households. This ended up aggravating poverty,” says Rukundo.Asked what measures have been taken to reverse the situation, Ndayizeye says that secondary students from the island enlighten primary students about the importance of education during holidays.Besides, local authorities have offered financial assistance to pupils and students who cannot afford school fees. Rukundo believes that residents are increasingly beginning to value education.. One of the main setbacks arising from the recent population explosion at the island is inadequacy of land for farming.“Land is very small,” says Kayinamura, adding that floods also pose a problem for farmers.A farmer, Thomas Misigaro, 72, blames agricultural related issues on the island as the leading cause of food shortage.‘’ I travel to the neighbouring Jarama sector of Ngoma district to seek jobs and instead get food as my remuneration,” he laments.Asked what is being done to alleviate the food shortage, Rukundo says that administrators in both Burundi and Rwanda which share the lake have initiated a project to increase fish stocks in the water body. He says that ultimately, many people will be engaged in fishing-related activities on top of crop production. The health sector in Mazane is one of the social sectors showing progress after the construction of a health centre that provides basic healthcare like vaccination, antenatal healthcare and delivery services among others. The centre receives an average of eight to ten patients daily. Recently, the Belgian Development Agency (BTC) donated a modern boat to be used for medical emergencies and passenger transport. On a more positive note also, the cell’s executive secretary discloses that an international NGO, Water Aid, is in discussions to sponsor a water project at the island.

National

The untold story of Bugesera’s Mazane Island