For anyone looking to learn about Rwandan traditional culture and history, the National Museum of Rwanda is a must-visit. Located in Butare, 130 kilometers south of Kigali City, the National Museum of Rwanda covers 20 hectares of land, including buildings, gardens with indigenous plants, and a traditional craft training center.
Opened in 1988 as a gift from Belgium’s King Baudouin I, the museum is an excellent source of information about Rwanda’s cultural history and the region. It helps visitors understand the people, their customs, habits, and cultures, as well as their interactions and differences, especially during the time when East African kingdoms met Europeans during colonial times.
The National Museum of Rwanda is a modern facility that preserves Rwandan traditions and showcases African life and culture. It is well-documented and organized to give visitors a clear understanding of Rwanda’s history and culture.
Key Features of the Museum
- Maps, photos, and historical materials.
- Displays of art and ethnographic objects, including agriculture, hunting, fishing, basketry, pottery, textiles, wood carving, and metallurgy.
- Gardens with indigenous vegetation.
- A traditional craft training center.
- An archive of testimonies on Rwanda’s history from community elders, photographs, and historical audio and video recordings.
The museum has seven spacious rooms illustrating the history of Rwanda’s people from ancient times to the present.
Visitors are welcomed at the reception desk, which has pamphlets and books for sale in English and Kinyarwanda.
A guided tour through the rooms offers detailed insights.
Room Descriptions
- Room I: The entrance hall features space for temporary displays, a ticket counter, and shelves with handcraft items and booklets for sale.
- Room II: Contains materials on Rwanda’s geography, geology, and terrain. It includes maps, photos, and graphics that provide a comprehensive view of Rwanda’s development and its people.
- Room III: Displays tools and items used by Rwanda’s early inhabitants in hunting, farming, and gathering. It compares old tools with more modern ones and highlights the social importance of cattle farming.
- Room IV: Features a variety of handicrafts and traditional household items, such as pottery, mats, baskets, leatherwork, and wooden shields. It also shows tools used in farming, beekeeping, hunting, and other activities.
- Room V: Exhibits traditional Rwandan architecture, ancient ways of living, and social organization.
- Room VI: Displays traditional clothing used for sporting events and social activities like dancing.
- Room VII: Contains information on traditional culture, customs, history, kings’ chronologies, oral history, and poetry. This room provides an understanding of the origins of Rwandan culture and social behaviors.
The museum also offers refreshment areas with excellent service. The king’s palace and the smaller milk and beer huts are highly recommended and not to be missed for an authentic cultural experience.