At seven o’clock, the sun is already scorching
the laterite paths that lead to the village of Nyarufunzo, a 30-minute drive south of Rwanda’s capital, Kigali. Nestled between banana plantations and hills, the village is abruptly awakened by a man with a megaphone. On July 27, as on every last
Saturday of the month, they are called to participate in umuganda (“pillar of
the house” in Kinyarwanda), a morning dedicated to community work.
The program is determined by a supervisory committee and based on local community proposals. It can involve simple
road cleaning, constructing infrastructure such as a bridge, school, or house, or
helping someone in need, always with the general interest in mind.
Community effort
Armed with hoes, shovels, and brooms, villagers
gather on a small road that runs alongside houses. The morning’s challenge: six
heavy stone slabs must be dragged into a trench dug in the middle of the
road. “This path floods and becomes impassable every rainy season. Building
this bridge is essential,” says Alphonse Habimana, a school supervisor in the
village for two years.
“After the genocide, umuganda helped reunite the
community, making the best use of the few resources left in the country,”
explained Emma-Claudine Ntirenganya, who is in charge of communication and education
for Kigali. This collective practice, dating back to pre-colonial times, was
corrupted by the genocidal regime of Juvénal Habyarimana and used during the
1994 genocide against the Tutsis to increase the pace of massacres. Suspended
by the Rwandan Patriotic Front at the end of the genocide, umuganda was reinstated
in 2001 and then enshrined in law in 2007. Every able-bodied Rwandan aged 18 to
65 is now required to perform umuganda from 8 to 11 a.m.
Non-participants can face a fine of up to 5,000
Rwandan francs (about $5), though fines are rare as social disapproval from the
community is a much stronger deterrent. Pointing to farmers in the fields,
Alexis Ingangare, administrator of Nyarugenge district—one of Kigali’s three
districts, where Nyarufunzo is located—says, “They won’t be fined, but in their
hearts, they know they are doing wrong.” According to a 2023 report by the
Rwanda Governance Board, 95.7% of the 13.7 million of its population participates in umuganda.
Building the country together
With bent backs and strained muscles, the villagers
pull the slabs, coordinated by cries of tuyundere hamwe! (let’s go
together!). A worker checks the width of the future bridge, smoothing and
leveling the trench dug by the residents. Divine, one of the two “young
volunteers” in yellow vests present that morning, coordinated the residents’
efforts. “I love working for this community where I was born,” she said.
Arriving to encourage and assist, Kigali’s mayor,
Samuel Dusengiyumva, explained that the city paid for the stone slabs at
a cost of 1.4 million Rwandan francs (about $1,400). “But the essential work is
done by the communities. We encourage them to do more for themselves.”
Amid a cloud of laterite dust, the final slab is positioned on the bridge.
At 10:30 a.m., residents head toward white tents near the community house. They sing a traditional song: “We build our
country and make it a paradise.” For about 30 minutes, they discuss social, economic, or governance issues facing
their community before parting ways, aware that they are working to strengthen
the essential bonds of national unity.
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