Gihanga

Gihanga ("Creator", "Founder") is a Rwandan cultural hero described in oral histories as an ancient Tutsi king popularly credited with establishing the ancient Kingdom of Rwanda. Oral legends relate that Gihanga introduced foundational elements of the African Great Lakes civilization, including fire, cattle, metalworking, hunting, woodworking and pottery.[1] He is described as possessing talents in leadership, technology and religion.[2] It is said he ruled Rwanda from his palace in the forest of Buhanga, an area that retained its forbidden and sacred status until the government opened it to the public in 2004.[3] No concrete evidence exists to indicate that Gihanga lived,[2] although many Rwandans believe that he was a living king.[4]

Legend tells that Gihanga was the product of the marriage of two lineages. His paternal great-great-grandfather was Kigwa ("Descended from Heavens"), said to have come down to Rwanda from the heavens to form the royal line, while his mother's side descended from an ancestor named Kabeja. His father, Kazi, was a blacksmith from whom Gihanga learned the art. Over the course of his childhood, he is said to have lived in several locations, including the eastern village of Mubari and his maternal uncles' village of Bugoyi in the northwest.

Predominant colonial influenced oral accounts set the reign of Gihanga and the establishment of the Kingdom of Rwanda in the 11th century.[5] According to Rwanda's oral history, several smaller clans may have existed during Gihanga's reign, including those of the Singa, Gesera, Zigaba and Rubanda clans.[6] According to legend, Gihanga was succeeded by a son named Kanyarwanda Gahima (a word signifying Rwanda itself),[7] who is said to have unified Gatwa, Gahutu and Gatutsi, the ancestors of the Twa, Hutu and Tutsi castes respectively.[8]

A religious practice arose in honor of Gihanga in the northwestern and northern parts of central Rwanda, and was many centuries later re-introduced to the royal court by Ruganzu Ndori, a remarkable historic king who further strengthened the Nyiginya Kingdom of Rwanda in the 16th century. Elements of the religion included the fire of Gihanga which was kept continually burning nonstop for centuries at the royal court at a site known as "the place where the cattle are milked", and was said to have been continually burning since Gihanga's reign.[4] Gihanga's fire was extinguished at the end of the reign of Yuhi V Musinga in 1932 on the orders of the Belgian governors; The sending of tributes from the royal court to a site at Muganza in Rukoma said to be Gihanga's tomb; and royal court's keeping of a herd of cattle, said to be descended from Gihanga's own herd. These cattle were managed by the Heka family of the Zigaba clan, who lived near the tomb and provided the court with some of its most respected and powerful ritualists. Another family of ritualists, the Tega of the Singa clan, similarly drew their prestige from the fact that one of their ancestors, Nyabutege, had reportedly revealed the principle of the dynastic drum (Kalinga) to Gihanga.[4][6]