Rwanda has a rich history and culture. It was long time regarded as a mysterious kingdom with a legendary military force which was carefully bypassed by Arab traders and the great Nile Explorers. Rwanda together with Burundi and Tanzania was part of the German East African colony. After the First World War, it became a Belgian protectorate. It's at the National Museum of Butare, on your way to Nyungwe NP that you can find fascinating displays on the history and culture of one of the great pre-colonial kingdoms of East-Africa.

Much of Rwanda's traditional cultural heritage revolved around dances, praise songs, and dynastic poems designed to enhance the legitimacy of the Tutsi kingship. Since independence in 1962 another set of traditions has emerged, emphasizing a different cultural stream, identified with a Hutu heritage. Regional dances, including the celebrated hoe dance of the north, are given pride of place in the country's cultural repertoire. Traditional crafts such as basketry, ceramics, and ironworks provide another element of continuity with the past.

Rwanda's National Ballet and the Impala Orchestra add considerable lustre to the country's cultural life, the former through a choreography leaning heavily on traditional folk dances and the latter through a distinctly modern musical repertoire. The Association des Écrivains du Rwanda (AER) keeps alive the best of Rwanda's literary traditions, while the bimonthly review Dialogue provides a forum for a vigorous intellectual exchange on a wide range of social and cultural issues.

Nationality : noun: Rwandan(s)
adjective: Rwandan

Ethnic groups: Hutu 84%, Tutsi 15%, Twa (Pygmoid) 1%

Religions: Roman Catholic 56.5%, Protestant 26%, Adventist 11.1%, Muslim 4.6%, indigenous beliefs 0.1%, none 1.7% (2001)

Languages: Kinyarwanda (official) universal Bantu vernacular, French (official), English (official), Kiswahili (Swahili) used in commercial centers

Population: 8,440,820
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2005 est.)

Age structure: 0-14 years: 41.9% (male 1,777,178/female 1,762,252)
15-64 years: 55.5% (male 2,328,686/female 2,356,572)
65 years and over: 2.6% (male 87,155/female 128,977) (2005 est.)

Median age: total: 18.48 years
male: 18.26 years
female: 18.7 years (2005 est.)

Ethnic Relations: The three ethnic groups in Rwanda emerged through a complex process of immigration and social and economic differentiation that took place over several centuries. Tradition holds that Twa were the original inhabitants; Hutu came second in a wave of migration from the west, and Tutsi came much later from the northeast. Archeological and anthropological research, however, indicates that in fact patterns of migration were much more complex, as populations moved into Rwanda over many centuries.

Each new group of migrants adopted the local language and most local customs, although they also added some of their own beliefs and practices to the local culture. Modern ethnic identities emerged fairly recently and therefore could not derive primarily from migration. In fact, the differentiation throughout the region into three fully distinct ethnic groups occurred only during the colonial period and grew much more from European ideas about race and identity than from historic cultural patterns.

Music
Rwanda is an African country having a long history of folk music. Because of socio-military unrest and violent conduct, many people of Rwanda have migrated to countries overseas in the current years, carrying with them the Rwandan music to cities such as Brussels. The most exalted musical tradition in Rwanda is perhaps the Ikinimba. This is a dance, which tells the stories of heroes and kings of Rwanda, accompanied by instruments such as ingoma, ikembe, iningiri, umuduri and inanga. The inanga, which is a lyre-like string instrument, has produced several Rwanda’s finest known performers internationally, involving Sentore, Maitre de Rujindiri, Kirusu, Sebatunzi, Sophie and Victor Kabarira.

The Rwandan-Belgian Cecile Kayirebwa is the most popular Rwandan musician. Prior to the 1990’s which had mush chaos, Rwanda produced famous local bands such as Imena, Nyampinga, les 8 Anges, Les Fellows, Impala,, Abamarungi, Los Compagnons de la Chanson, Bisa, Ingenzi and Isibo y’Ishakwe. They captured influences from all over Africa, mainly the Congo and Caribbean Zouk and reggae. After the civil war, music slowly came back to the nation, and new stars came up, the most conspicuous of which is perhaps Aime Murefu, a guitarist that draws upon American rock and blues guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix, BB King and Carlos Santana. Currently, singer Jean-Paul Samputu, together with Ingeli his group, won two Kora awards (African Grammy), for being the most Inspiring Artist ands also the Best Traditional Artists in the year 2003, for their performance of neo-traditional Rwandan music. The group goes around the world proclaiming the Christian message of peace and reconciliation, and helps collect money for the number of orphans in Rwanda.