CRAFTS-RWANDA: Craftsmanship Pays

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Jean Baptiste Kayigamba

KIGALI, Nov 21 1995 (IPS) - Desperate to survive while waiting for their war-shattered economy to find its feet again, many Rwandans are eking out a living through the informal sector.

The genocide that rocked this country and horrified the world last year hit the economy hard due to the flight or death of literally millions of people. As a result in Kigali, prices of staple food, rentals, and transport have sky-rocketed.

This has led many residents of the capital to resort to new income-generating activities, including reviving craftsmanship skills.

Small shops and kiosks have sprung up in front of the main post- office, hotels and restaurants which attract tourists and foreign aid workers.

Ramazani Evolue (26) supports his mother and two younger brothers – the three of his dependents who survived last year’s massacres – selling craftwork through a co-operative.

“There cannot be a possible substitute for the ones you loved, but today, I am delighted to have found an occupation which helps me to earn a living, and keeps my mind busy,” says Evolue.

“I have lost some of my family members, and seven friends from the co-operative,” Ramazani explains calmly, “but now I have understood that life has to go on.”

A colleague shares his views: “What happened last year is not of course far from our minds, but carving and selling art object has helped us to rise out the ashes.”

Evolue began this trade 1989 when he and other young men formed a co-operative.

He now works at the ‘Cooperative des Artisans des Milles Collines’ (Co-operative of the Craftsmen of the One Thousand Hills (CAMICO), near what was then a French military barracks in Kacyiru Suburb, south-east of the capital.

The range of artifacts on sale is impressive — from intricately carved animals through to pastoral tableaux, effigies of Jesus and the former Belgian colonial administrators in shorts and kepe.

“We carve some of the objects we sell ourselves, others we get from Kenya, Tanzania, and Zaire,” Evolue told IPS.

Typically Rwandese are representations of ‘Nyirazange’ — a folktale woman known for her arrogance — and the celebration of rural life, with scenes of cattle being milked, the harvest and traditional utensils and furniture. (MORE)

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CRAFTS-RWANDA: Craftsmanship Pays

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Jean Baptiste Kayigamba

KIGALI, Nov 21 1995 (IPS) - Desperate to survive while waiting for their war-shattered economy to find its feet again, many Rwandans are eking out a living through the informal sector.
(more…)