Gakondo

The Royal Rituals

presented by
Rose-Marie Mukarutabana

Ubwiru

The actual meaning of this word is not clear, but it may be related to "ubwire", dusk, which suggest something hidden behind a dusky veil, dark but somewhat see-through. Ubwiru would therefore refer to "Hidden Things", or "Secret and Mysterious Matters". This is certainly how the term is used in today's colloquial Kinyarwanda: the expression "yabigize ubwiru" - he's turning it into ubwiru - is used when a person tries to make a mystery of something without any real need. This is may be a reflection of Rwandans' views about Ubwiru being something mysterious that the kings and priests abiru kept away from public knowledge, except for the parts which were performed in public, in which they played some part.

It should be stressed, however, that a large part of the Ubwiru ceremonials were actually performed by the general population in their own homes, though without necessarily realizing they were formally part of Ubwiru. For instance, each year, Rwandans performed the rites connected with the Gicuraasi period of silence and abstinence, known as "Icyunamo", sometime in March-April followed by the Kamena Festival, Ibirori bya Kamena, held at the full moon of this month (April or May). These were followed by the first-fruit celebration called Umuganura, or Bread Feast, held at the full moon of Nyakanga, in the month of June. These three celebrations, held each year in reference to the full moons of Gicuraasi (Aries), Kamena (Taurus), and Nyakanga (Gemini), are prescribed in the Ubwiru ritual texts under the appropriate "Inzira" - Way, or Path - which is the set of texts describing the processes for each individual ritual. Thus we have:

• The Way of Gicuraasi, including the Gicuraasi as well as the Kamena ritual prescriptions, and
• The Way Umuganura, describing the rites connected with the celebration of the bread (umutsima) of the early sorghum of the year.

Reading these texts, one cannot help wonder whether there should not be three separate texts for each lunar month ceremonials, including a Path of Kamena, instead the two existing ones. This is especially the case with the Gicuraasi prescriptions, which appear to present an intriguing hiatus between the Gicuraasi rites and those pertaining to Kamena, as if the first part of Inzira ya Gicuraasi had somehow got joined to first part of Inzira ya Kamena, and the rest just got lost. Perhaps when Kagame's own original texts are published, some light will be thrown on this gap. This may even resolve the mystery of the missing rite, and the eighteenth inzira may turn out to be Inzira ya Kamena, rather than Inzira y'Amapfizi. This would make a lot of sense, given that the ritual Inzira y'Ishoora, the Way of Watering, as the name indicates, includes elaborate rites involving the watering of the sacred bulls, Amapfizi, such that there does not appear to be any logic in designing an additional bull ritual. Let us hope that the work on the Kagame archives will be completed soon.

A list of the extant ritual texts, inzira, under their original kinyarwanda names, is found in the Kinyarwanda section, "Ubwiru". Below is a translation of those names:

List of the Ubwiru Rituals

1. The Way of Aries (+ Taurus)
2. The Way of the First Fruits
3. The Way of Fire
4. The Way of Royal Consecration
5. The Way of Watering
6. The Way of the Hideout
7. The Way of Drought
8. The Way of Flooding
9. The Way of the Hunt
10. The Way of the Bees
11. The Way of Cattle Epidemics
12. The Way of Prize-Giving
13. The Way of Dressing the Drums
14. The Way of the War Council
15. The Way of the Troubled Frontier
16. The Way of Rebellion
17. The Way of Riot