RUYIGI January 11th (ABP) – The people of Ruyigi and young people in particular are called to social cohesion and to love Burundian culture in order to achieve sustainable development in their province.
That appeal is launched by Madame Sabubwa Acquiline, founder of the BENENDANGA cultural club when the members of this club exchanged New Year’s greetings on Sunday January 9, 2022. Honorable Jocky Chantal Nkurunziza, who is also a member of the said club, indicated that Ruyigi could become the cultural capital of Burundi if the natives and inhabitants of this province set to work in order to develop culture in that province.
As indicated by Acquiline Sabubwa, founder and former president of the club who is now retired, the BENENDANGA cultural club was born in 1999 with an initial membership of 24 women, from different professions, ethnic communities, religious denominations, villages and different neighborhoods in order to serve the population of Ruyigi and especially the women of Ruyigi to reconnect with social cohesion.
That club now has nearly 200 women and contributes in areas such as non-violent communication, prevention and peaceful resolution of conflicts, learning and Burundian education among youth. It should also be noted that the founder of the BENENDANGA club deplores the fact that young people flock in large numbers and are very interested in Western and especially African American cultures of the United States in dances such as RNB rap and so on.
She specifies that most young people believe that wearing traditional outfits, performing traditional dances, quoting Burundian poems such as ibicuba, amazina y’inzuki, and other incantations and songs constitutes proof of incivility and mental and civil alienation. This defender of culture rebels against these ideas of thinking which instead cause the loss of identity and lead to a deculturation of future generations.
Mrs. Jocky Chantal Nkurunziza, elected deputy in the province of Ruyigi, said that among the most prominent future prospects, the first objective is to change the head office into a center for teaching and learning Burundian culture in all its variety and to change the province of Ruyigi into a capital of Burundian culture.
However, she underlines that the entire people living in the province, natives who are in other provinces and outside the country as well as all friends must put together their knowledge, and the means both financial and material to achieve this goal. She invites everyone to spare nothing for the development of that province and to make it the cultural capital.