Beauty of Rwanda

Category: Facts

  • What is Rwandan Food Like?

    Rwanda has a diverse cuisine, with many delicious local specialities.

    Rwandan cuisine consists of many agricultural staples that grow on the nation’s fertile hillsides. Plantain, potato, sweet potato, banana and cassava feature in many dishes.

    Some of the nation’s favourite dishes include brochette (meat on skewers, often seen as Rwanda’s ‘national dish’), Agatogo (a plantain stew) and Urwagwa (banana beer).

    Agatogo is commonly referred to by Peace Core volunteers as “hangover stew”. While there are many variations, the dish always includes plantains, some form of tomato (commonly tomato paste), and either meat, fish, or vegetables.

    Banana beer is a core part of Rwandan Culture. It’s often served when people gather for social meetings and reunions to facilitate communication. Many Rwandans also opt to serve it at religious and royal ceremonies including at traditional weddings and baptisms. However, as the country continues to develop, Urwagwa is becoming less and less common and now tends to be more common for personal consumption during social gatherings or in rural Rwandan communities.

  • Does Rwanda Care about the Environment?

    Rwanda is one of the leading African countries in environmental sustainability and its impressive conservation work has made global headlines.

    “For more than a decade, Rwanda has taken a proactive approach and put environment and climate change at the heart of all the country’s policies, programmes and plans” World Economic Forum

    The country is renowned for its mountain gorilla population. Thanks to Rwanda’s leading role in the international gorilla conservation programme, the numbers of gorillas have grown in recent years. Today, one third of the worldwide mountain gorilla population live in Rwanda.

    As a large proportion of tourists coming to Rwanda go on primate tracking tours, the government is particularly committed to supporting responsible and sustainable practices that safeguard the environment. The setting up of multiple wildlife associations, such as the Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association, help to support this nature conservation work.

    To raise awareness for the ongoing protection of the country’s mountain gorillas and their natural habitat, Rwanda holds an annual gorilla naming ceremony. The ceremony, Kwita Izina  (Kinyarwanda for “to give a name”), is a popular event and hosts keynote speakers such as President Paul Kagame and international celebrities.

    Rwanda also follows an ambitious reforestation agenda and has already exceeded its 30% forest cover target by 2020. Led by the Ministry of environment, the country restored forests such as Nyungwe and Giswati in National Parks. In parallel, the promotion of the National Parks have contributed to the growth of the tourist industry in Rwanda.

  • Is Rwanda a Clean Country?

    Rwanda is one of the cleanest countries on the planet.

    In 2018, United Nations Environment Programme head Eric Solheim described Kigali as the “cleanest city on the planet”. According to the United Nations, the banning of single-use plastic bags in 2008 significantly improved the cleanliness of the capital. Rwanda was a world leader in imposing such a ban. In comparison, the European Union proposed a ban on single use plastics only ten years later, in 2018.

    Umuganda, Rwanda’s traditional community work, also helps keeping the country clean.

    To eliminate pollution, Rwanda is committed to decreasing its carbon footprint through new investment funds to promote renewable energy, such as solar power. In 2018 the country ranked as fifth best globally for creating opportunities for clean energy investment.