Imigongo () is an

art form The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...

popular in

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

traditionally made by women using

cow dung Cow dung, also known as cow pats, cow pies or cow manure, is the waste product (faeces) of bovine animal species. These species include domestic cattle ("cows"), bison ("buffalo"), yak, and water buffalo. Cow dung is the undigested residue ...

. Often in the colors black, white and red, popular themes include spiral and geometric designs that are painted on walls, pottery, and canvas. The images are produced using cow dung which is put onto wooden boards in spiral and geometric designs. The dung is mixed with ash, which kills bacteria and odor and is left to harden and is then decorated using colours made from organic material. The traditional colours are black, white, red, grey and beige-yellow but increasingly other colours are used. The imigongo images were originally found in

Kibungo Kibungo is a town in the Republic of Rwanda. It is the political, administrative and commercial capital of Ngoma District. In 1998, Kibungo became the site of at least four of Rwanda's last 22 executions. All of the convicts were executed for crim ...

inside the walls of huts as "magical" decorations during the 18th century. There is also a legend that imigongo was invented as an interior decoration by Prince Kakira of Gisaka Kingdom in Nyarubuye in the 1800s. During the 1994

Genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

(The

Rwandan Genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu ...

& The

Nyarubuye massacre The Nyarubuye massacre is the name which is given to the killing of an estimated 20,000 civilians on April 15, 1994 at the Nyarubuye Roman Catholic Church in Kibungo Province, east of the Rwandan capital Kigali. The victims were Tutsis. Men, wo ...

), the skills involved almost disappeared. However, a women's cooperative on the road to Rusumo in the Eastern Province near

Kirehe Kirehe is a district (''akarere'') in Eastern Province, Rwanda. Its capital is Kirehe town (which is usually known as Rusumo, being the major settlement of the former Rusumo district). Geography The district comprises areas in the far south-e ...

has rescued and revived this uniquely Rwandan art form. Traditionally geometric designs are produced but as the women artists have grown in confidence they have begun to experiment with more modern, innovative images that convey the spirit of the Rwandan landscape, its flora and fauna and its people.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Imigongo
More about Imigongo
, ''John Pugh in Rwanda''.
From the Ashes: Rwanda’s Traditional Imigongo Art Is on the Rise
Rwandan culture African art Feces Cattle products