Traditional Culture
Senior 4 · English (Languages)
Traditional Culture
Lesson 2 of 5
35 min
Let's begin
In the past, a man who visited a Rwandan home pushed his spear into the ground outside the entrance before he went in. When the visit was over, the host offered one last drink called agashingura cumu, "that which pulls out the spear", to give the guest strength to pull it out and set off home. A single custom like this carries a whole world: weapons, hospitality, the way a visit ends. A traditional wedding in Rwanda holds dozens of such customs, spread over several ceremonies. In this lesson you listen to a grandmother describe her own wedding, then learn to narrate a ceremony so that a listener can follow every stage.
The stages, as described by Rwandan writers and elders (see the credits). Practice varies from family to family and region to region.
Definition
Words you will hear
Important
Listening script: for a teacher or classmate to read aloud
Only the reader opens the script. Read it at a calm radio pace, about four minutes in all. The presenter, Ishimwe, and the guest, Grandmother Mukamana, are imagined; the customs come from the sources listed at the end of the lesson.
Ishimwe: Good evening, and welcome to Voices of the Hills. Tonight my guest is Grandmother Mukamana, who is seventy-nine and lives in Huye District. Grandmother, you were married more than sixty years ago. How did it begin?
Mukamana: It began before I knew anything about it! A man from my future husband's family, the umuranga, had been asking questions about us for months. He wanted to know whether my family was honest, whether we worked hard, whether we paid our debts. Only when he was satisfied did my husband's father come to our house to take the gate, gufata irembo. My father listened, and he agreed that the families should meet.
Ishimwe: And that meeting was the gusaba?
Mukamana: Yes. On the day itself I did not sit in the courtyard. I was inside the house with my aunt, and I listened through the wall. The guests arrived in the morning carrying pots of banana beer. Our spokesman had been preparing his questions for weeks, and he did not make things easy! He asked riddles, he made the guests repeat tongue twisters, he pretended that he had never heard of any girl in our house. Everyone was laughing. While the two spokesmen were fencing with words, I was sitting on a mat, shaking, because I could not see a thing.
Ishimwe: When did the cow arrive?
Mukamana: At the end. Once our side had finally said yes, the young men of my husband's family led a cow into the yard. That was the inkwano. People today sometimes say the groom "buys" the bride. That is wrong. The cow said, "Thank you for raising her." After that the two families shared a drink, and before the guests left we gave them beer for the road.
Ishimwe: What happened between that day and the wedding?
Mukamana: The families met again to fix the date. Then I spent some weeks with my aunt. She rubbed my skin with butter and herbs every day, and she talked to me for hours about how to run a home and how to live with a husband's family. I had heard that advice before, of course, but now I listened.
Ishimwe: And the wedding day?
Mukamana: Four strong men carried me in an ingobyi, with the poles on their shoulders, all the way to my husband's home. I had been sitting still in that chair for nearly two hours when we arrived, and my legs had gone to sleep! There was dancing and singing until late at night.
Ishimwe: Was that the end?
Mukamana: Not yet. Until gutwikurura, a new wife did not go out and did no work. Then my own family came to visit our new home with gifts, and I cooked a meal for them and for my husband's family for the first time. I was so nervous that I put too much salt in the beans. Nobody said a word. At the end my mother-in-law offered my father agashingura cumu, and my family went home. That was when my married life truly began.
Ishimwe: Grandmother, weddings today look very different. Does that sadden you?
Mukamana: They are shorter, yes; sometimes everything happens in one day. But when I hear the spokesmen laughing and arguing at a gusaba, I hear my own wedding. The clothes change. The meaning stays.
Ishimwe: Grandmother Mukamana, thank you.
Which title fits the interview best? Give one reason.
Copy and complete the table with what happened at each stage of Mukamana's wedding.
| Stage | What happened in Mukamana's case |
|---|---|
| Before gufata irembo | … |
| Gufata irembo | … |
| Gusaba | … |
| Gukwa | … |
| Before the wedding | … |
| Wedding day | … |
| Gutwikurura | … |
First listening: (b). She describes her own wedding in the order it happened. (a) is wrong because she says "the meaning stays"; (c) is wrong because she defends the inkwano.
Second listening: Before gufata irembo: the umuranga asked questions about her family for months. Gufata irembo: her future father-in-law came to her house; her father agreed that the families should meet. Gusaba: the guests brought banana beer; her spokesman asked riddles and tongue twisters; she listened from inside the house. Gukwa: a cow was led into the yard; the families shared a drink; the guests were given beer for the road. Before the wedding: the families fixed the date; she spent weeks with her aunt, who rubbed her skin with butter and herbs and gave her advice. Wedding day: four men carried her in an ingobyi to her husband's home; dancing and singing until late. Gutwikurura: her family visited with gifts; she cooked her first meal for both families; her father was offered agashingura cumu.
Third listening: 1. Whether they were honest, whether they worked hard and whether they paid their debts. 2. Any two of: he asked riddles; he made them repeat tongue twisters; he pretended he had never heard of a girl in the house. 3. She was nervous and could not see what was happening. 4. "Thank you for raising her." 5. She put too much salt in the beans; nobody said a word, which shows kindness and good manners towards a nervous new wife. 6. She accepts the change calmly: "The clothes change. The meaning stays."
A good narration lets a listener who was not there see the ceremony in the right order. Organise it in four moves and use the signposts in the table.
| Move | What it does | Useful language |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Orientation | Who, where, when, what kind of ceremony | Last August I attended…; It took place at…; The ceremony is called…, which means… |
| 2 Sequence | The stages in order | First of all…; Once the guests had arrived…; After that…; Meanwhile…; By the time… |
| 3 Highlight | One vivid moment, told in detail | The moment I remember best was when…; Suddenly…; Everyone burst out laughing when… |
| 4 Reflection | What the ceremony means, and how you felt | What struck me most was…; For the families, this means…; I realised that… |
Worked example
A one-minute narration, with its moves labelled
[Orientation] Last December I went to my cousin's gutwikurura in Nyagatare. The word means "to unveil", and it is the visit a bride's family pays to her new home after the wedding. [Sequence] First of all, my aunt's family gathered at our grandmother's house, where the gifts had been packed the night before. Once everyone had arrived, we set off together, and when we reached the couple's house, the groom's family were already waiting at the gate. After the greetings, the elders sat down and the speeches began. [Highlight] The moment I remember best was when my cousin came out carrying the first dish she had cooked in her new home. Her hands were shaking, and her husband's grandmother stood up and took the dish from her herself. [Reflection] What struck me most was how gently both families treated her. For them the visit was a promise: she had a new family now, but she had not lost the old one.
Notice: past simple for the main events (went, set off, began); past perfect for what happened earlier (had been packed, had arrived); past continuous for a background scene (were waiting, was shaking). You will study these forms in the next lesson.
Warning
"She married him" or "she got married to him", never "she married with him". Marry takes a direct object: Mukamana married a farmer from Huye. With no object, say get married: They got married in 1965. With an object after get married, use to: She got married to a farmer. And remember: a bride is the woman getting married; a bridge crosses a river.
Tip
Speak from a card, not a script. Write five key words, one for each stage, on a small card. Look at a word, look up, and speak. A narration read from a page sounds flat; one spoken from key words sounds like a story.
Choose a ceremony you have attended or know well: a gusaba, a naming ceremony, a graduation, a harvest celebration, a religious ceremony or a family remembrance. Plan the four moves on a card, then narrate it to a group. Listeners score you with the checklist.
| Checklist | Yes / Not yet |
|---|---|
| The orientation said who, where, when and what kind of ceremony. | |
| The stages came in a clear order, with signposts. | |
| One moment was told in vivid detail. | |
| The ending said what the ceremony means. | |
| The speaker looked up from the card most of the time. |
Practice
Key points
Sources and credits
Quick check
Put the stages of Mukamana's wedding in the order she describes them.
Tap the cards in the right order.
