Learning about Rwandan culture through traditional music
Author:
Jean Marie Ngabonziza ’26Co-Authors:
Faculty Mentor(s):
Professor Tyler Yamin, Music DepartmentFunding Source:
Program for Undergraduate ResearchAbstract
Rwandan culture, rooted in oral traditions of storytelling, poetry, and music, faces threats from colonization, the loss of knowledgeable people to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, and the adoption of Western Cultures. In the summer of 2024, I spent ten weeks conducting research on the measures that need to be taken to preserve the Rwandan culture from this fate. I conducted interviews with five traditional music artists and attended various cultural festivals in order to understand how they helped to preserve and pass down traditions to next young generations. Through my interviews, I learned something opposite to my prior understanding of culture. Instead, I found that there is not one single way to retain traditional culture. In this presentation, I will share these artists’ views on what we can do to protect the culture. Some artists advocate for preserving old traditions, while others embrace new combinations of traditional music and modern values. Although these ways are different in their implementation, the ultimate goal is the same: preserving the heritage of our ancestors in this contemporary society. What I initially thought would be a journey to discover how to bring back the old ways ended up having a detour to how we can protect the heritage of our ancestors from getting diluted and lost.