My Village and My Country
Primary 2 · Social and Religious Studies
My Village and My Country
Lesson 3 of 3
13 min
Let's begin
It is Monday morning. The whole school stands in lines.
The flag goes up the pole: blue, yellow, green. Nobody talks. Nobody plays. Everyone stands straight and sings.
Keza feels something big in her chest. That flag is not only for her school. It belongs to every child in the whole country. Today you will learn about that country: Rwanda.
Let us follow Keza, step by step.
Keza sleeps in a house. Her house stands with many other houses. Together they make her village, called Rugarama.
Rugarama is not the only village. There are many more over the hills. All of them together make her district, called Musanze.
And Musanze is not the only district. There are 30 districts. All of them together make her country: Rwanda.
So the rule is: your house is inside your village. Your village is inside your district. Your district is inside Rwanda. Each one sits inside the next, like small pots inside big pots.
(Districts are also gathered into five big provinces. But you can learn those later!)
Rwanda is a land of hills. From the top of one hill you can see ten more. People call it the land of a thousand hills. In the west lies the great water of Lake Kivu. In the north stand the volcanoes, tall and blue.
Look at the flag in your mind. It has three stripes lying on top of each other.
In the top corner of the blue stripe there is a golden sun, with rays spreading out.
The sun is light. It does not shine on one child and skip the next. It shines on everybody. That sun means we are one, and the light shows us the way.
Our national anthem is called Rwanda Nziza. That means "Beautiful Rwanda".
It is the song of the whole country. When it is sung, you do three things:
This is how we show respect. A country's song is not a game.
Every country has one special city called its capital. Ours is Kigali.
Kigali sits in the middle of Rwanda, spread over many hills. It is our biggest city. It has tall buildings, wide roads, buses and motos.
The President works in Kigali. The people who make our laws work there too. When the country must decide something big, it is decided in Kigali.
Not everybody lives in Kigali, and that is fine. Kigali still belongs to you.
A child in Musanze wakes up under the volcanoes. A child in Rusizi wakes up beside Lake Kivu. They have never met.
But they greet with the same words, in Kinyarwanda. They stand for the same flag. They sing the same anthem. They work side by side at umuganda.
So they are not strangers. They are one people: Abanyarwanda, Rwandans.
In Rwanda there is only one kind of person. A Rwandan. That is you.
Tip
Remember the flag from top to bottom. Look up: the sky is blue, and blue is on top. Under it, the golden light of the sun. Under your feet, the green land.
Sky, sunlight, land. Blue, yellow, green.
Answer out loud first, then tap Show answer to check.
What is the capital city of Rwanda?
Answer: Kigali.
Name the three colours of our flag, from the top down.
Answer: Blue, then yellow, then green. Sky, sunlight, land.
The anthem starts. Mugisha is in the middle of a football game. What should he do?
Answer: Stop. Stand still and straight, keep quiet, and sing.
Which is bigger: your district, or Rwanda?
Answer: Rwanda. Rwanda holds all 30 districts inside it.
Uwase lives in Kigali. Byiringiro lives far away, near Lake Kivu. They have never met. Are they one people?
Answer: Yes. They speak Kinyarwanda, they share one flag and one anthem, and they are both Rwandans.
What you learned today
Quick check
Our flag. Put the colours from top to bottom.
Tap the cards in the right order.
