Eastern Province ( in ; ; ) is the largest, the most populous and the least densely populated of
Rwanda
Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...
's five
provinces
A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...
. It was created in early January 2006 as part of a government decentralization program that re-organized the country's local government structures.
It has seven districts:
Bugesera,
Gatsibo,
Kayonza,
Ngoma,
Kirehe,
Nyagatare and
Rwamagana. The capital city of the Eastern Province is
Rwamagana.
The Eastern Province comprises the former provinces of
Kibungo and
Umutara, most of
Kigali Rural, and part of
Byumba.
The
Akagera National Park is situated is this province.
History
It is not known when the territory of present day Rwanda was first inhabited, but it is thought that humans moved into the area following the
last ice age either in the
Neolithic
The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...
period, around ten thousand years ago, or in the
long humid period which followed, up to around 3000 BC.
[Briggs and Booth 2006 p6] Archaeological excavations have revealed evidence of sparse settlement by
hunter gatherers in the late
Stone Age
The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...
, followed by a larger population of early
Iron Age
The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...
settlers, who produced dimpled
pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...
and iron tools.
By the 17th century it is thought that most of Rwanda was inhabited, with a fairly even spread of population across the hills of the country.
Vansina p16
/ref>
List of the Eastern Province Districts by Population (2012)
Notes and references
Cited texts
* Briggs, Philip & Booth, Janice (2006) ''Rwanda - The Bradt Travel Guide''. 3rd ed. London: Bradt Travel Guides.
* Chrétien, Jean-Pierre (2003) ''The Great Lakes of Africa: Two Thousand Years of History'' Hardcover ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
* Dorsey, Learthen (1994) ''Historical Dictionary of Rwanda''. Scarecrow Press.
* Ministry of Local Government, Republic of Rwanda (MINALOC):
Eastern Province
. ''Performance contracts in Year 2009-2010 (July 2009-June 2010)''. Accessed 2010-03-11.
* Munyakazi, Augustine & Ntagaramba, Johnson Funga (2005). ''Atlas of Rwanda'' French ed. Oxford: Macmillan Education.
Area calculation
* Pixel sizes for provinces taken from traced maps: North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography.
Etymology
T ...
= 28,547; East
East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...
= 81,548; South
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...
= 50,844; West
West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...
= 51,798; Kigali
Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali is a relativ ...
= 6,129
* Total Pixel size for Rwanda = 28,547 + 81,548 + 50,844 + 51,798 + 6,129 = 218,866
* => Eastern Province % of total area: 81,548 / 218,866 = 37.26%
* Total area of Rwanda =
**
Rwanda
. ''The World Facebook''. United States Central Intelligence Agency. 4 March 2010. Accessed 11 March 2010.
* => Area of Eastern Province = x 37.26% =
External links
Eastern Province official website
{{Coord, 1, 45, S, 30, 30, E, display=title, region:RW_type:adm1st_source:GNS-enwiki
Provinces of Rwanda
States and territories established in 2006
