Prelude
Why do I hike? This is one of the questions I keep contemplating when hiking. Could it be a pretentious attempt to try and understand myself? To understand my home? Maybe it's as mediocre as it being "fun"? I don't know, man. It has always been hard for me to verbally express my motives. Which is why I try to write, as if in search of an answer between the lines. Sadly, more often than not, there are no answers to found, either because I haven't learnt to ask the right questions, or simply because, not everything has a question.
Mt. Kabuye
The name is misleading. Kabuye is not a mountain, but rather, a very tall hill, dare I say, large rock. It stands at 2700 m ASL, and it's the third of the 3 major hills in Rwanda colloquially known as small "mountains" but are actually overgrown hills. It's located in Gakenke district, Northern Province, Rwanda. That's about a one and a half-hour drive from Kigali, the capital city.
In retrospect, when I think of Kabuye, I gloss over feelings of sincerity and directness.
The views are extravagant, that is without a doubt;
However, the communities around the area are simple and direct, (unlike Paul riding the sand worm - show-off 😅) and the perspective I received, as an outsider, was that of a complete painting.
Think on it. What would a complete painting entail? For me, it has less to do with the presence of colour and shadow, than it does it with the presence of life - a way for me to recognize myself in it. Mt. Muhabura was barren, a place humans not ought to dwell for long, but Kabuye was completely the opposite. It is the people as much it is the history carved in its stones.
A hospital, a football pitch with kids doing their daily practice, a school, CANAL +, running water... an amalgam of these daily monuments that bind communities together.
I was surprised by the place, for example the presence of tea plantations, but what I was most surprised by was the history of the place. To be specific, its distortion thereof.
An Ode to the Superficial
Look, Rwanda has its fair share of tragedies that justify the discrepancies in the accounts of its pre-colonial history. Most of it is oral, so you can guess what this leads to - a tale for each recipient.
Take this for example: in our party, there were 4 distinct accounts of the history of Kabuye.
Not stories to the origin of the place, but rather to the significance of the place. One group was sharing about how on the top of the hill, there was a cave were kings would go to be anointed. Another group was sharing about how atop the hill, was a sacred pond were kings would be baptized. The third group was saying that that exact pond, was a dam where NYIRARUCYABA, King GIHANGA's daughter fled with a cow and after all the herds of the kingdom had been wiped out by a disease, that one replenished the numbers. The fourth group was discussing how NYIRARUCYABA, this time, King GIHANGA's sister, used to do some things on the hill. (This group was the last straw for me when they called her his sister, and I paid no heed to the rest of the story)
See, I'm not a historian, but I can tell you that all these stories are B.S.
Adhering to Facts
It's no secret that we Rwandans are one of the most prideful people in the world. Correcting us, especially if we are older than you, comes at the risk of offending someone. Which is why I kept to myself. Normally, I prefer minding my own business, however, for some reason, I was irritated by the idea of these stories being passed on as facts. I mean, I get it, there is no one source of truth when it comes to these things. But, I believe its high time we all start adhering to facts with a disciplined mind. And when it comes to facts, there is one historian that we ought to trust, KAGAME Alexis.
KAGAME Alexis (15 May 1912 – 2 December 1981) was a Rwandan philosopher, linguist, historian, poet and Catholic priest. His main contributions were in the fields of ethnohistory and "ethnophilosophy" (the study of indigenous philosophical systems).
As a professor of theology, he carried out wide research into the oral history, traditions and literature of Rwanda, and wrote several books on the subject, both in French and Kinyarwanda. He also wrote poetry, which was also published.
KAGAME was also active in the political field, and was seen by some European scholars as the intellectual leader of Tutsi culture and rights under the colonial system starting in the 1940s.
Kabuye in the Helix of Time
A few years ago, when I started educating myself on our history, I was fortunate to come across KAGAME Alexis' work. Especially his book, "INGANJI KARINGA", which could be considered something akin to the annals of the Rwandan kingdom. T'was in this book that I first heard of the name "NYIRARUCYABA", so I guess I'll cite some facts from his work in regard to the stories shared by my hiking party.
- The Cave: There is no cave on Kabuye. The closest thing to a cave is a small crevice that up until recently, was used by people in prayer. Due to a recent bill passed, the crevice is now prohibited from being used for religious purposes. To the best of my knowledge, and I could be wrong, there is no record of this crevice used for anything ceremonial.
- The Sacred Pond: There is a pond on Kabuye; a beautiful one at that. However, there are two stories that are shared about this pond that are just false.
The first is that it was used for royal baptisms, (or is it anointments of kings? I forget since many stories sprung up) which is false. There is literally no record of coronations happening on Kabuye. Beyond that, that ritual, like so many others, were secret and the Abiru (privy council) were the only people apprised since they were the ones who carried out the coronations. (To be honest, baptism [in water] is a Christian ritual, and the Rwandan kingdom was not Christian until the late 19th century).
The second absurdity has to do with NYIRARUCYABA. For this, I'll definitely cite a source since I'm not asking to be taken at my word. This is the book I'll be using to cite this information: INGANJI KARINGA II by KAGAME Alexis, chapter 4, Umugani wa Gihanga w'imyadukire y'inka. (Pages 16-21)
If you can't read Kinyarwanda, or don't have access to this book, I'll summarize the paragraphs.
NYIRARUCYABA was a princess. (King GIHANGA'S daughter, not sister) The part about her fleeing from the royal court is true. And the reason for that, was that she fought over a hide from an animal called impwi (a variety of antelope) with her pregnant stepmother, and in the process, NYIRARUCYABA struck her stepmother with a pole on her belly. The stepmother died, but miraculously, the baby survived. (It is from this incident that the ABANYIGINYA clan's taboo became the impwi). The part about her fleeing with a cow, or about how her and her future husband, KAZIGABA, were the first to domesticate cows in the kingdom, they're all bollocks.
But the most absurd is that she was the forbearer of the ABACYABA clan.
Listen, times were different back then. They were a patriarchal society, through and through. The idea that for some reason, some families would trace their lineage to a woman just isn't true. Moreover, the ABACYABA clan existed long before the times of King GIHANGA. (She was named after the clan, not the other way around).
Conclusion
I guess the point of this blog post wasn't to recount the literal hiking experience, more so that it was to recount the journey and the lessons from it. For me, the outcome was that I should take things with a grain of salt, especially when it comes to history. Ask yourself the why's, the how's, the when's... and in doing so, discern truth from fiction. For I believe fiction has its place in our lives (a big one, actually), but in the waking world, nothing should usurp the place of truth.
P.S.
I could be wrong about some things. If you have any corrections, (coming with a source would be appreciated), please feel free to reach out to me. I'm always open to learning new things.