UMUGANDA

Umuganda is a Kinyarwanda (Rwanda’s local language) word meaning “coming together in common purpose to achieve an outcome.” It is a government-mandated once a month morning of community service. Every household is required to send at least one member to Umuganda. If they fail to participate in Umuganda, they can be fined. Umuganda occurs on the last Saturday of every month. During Umuganda, the streets are empty and the shops are closed, as everyone is expected to participate in Umuganda. It lasts from 8 a.m. till noon, with the last half hour dedicated to a community meeting. The work is planned by a community leader and can be anything that the community needs, e.g., weeding, planting trees or picking up litter, which is perhaps one reason Rwanda is so clean.

Thus, on the last Saturday of February, I donned my hiking boots, blue jeans, a tunic top and work gloves and set out for Umuganda, which was widening a dirt road not far from my house. We used pick axes, shovels, machetes and hoes to do the work. Everyone worked hard, and the number of workers kept increasing until there were well over a hundred workers. I used a hoe that was handed to me, but the handle kept separating from the blade, giving me an excuse to take a break while the kind worker beside me fixed it for me. My work gloves were very popular, as none of the other workers had them. When I saw a hard-working man rubbing his sore hands, I loaned him my gloves, and he was very grateful. I was amazed at how much physical work was accomplished in so short a time. Some of the students and staff from my school also attended and worked hard. Indeed, it was an international event with the following countries represented: Rwanda, South Sudan, Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon, Uganda and me for USA. Afterwards, there was a community meeting. I could catch only a few words of what was said in Kinyarwanda. However, at one point, the community leader began to sing and everyone stood up to sing, clap and dance. Of course, I joined in the clapping and dancing. Umuganda is a wonderful way of bringing the community together and getting needed work done.

Umuganda reminds me of that song about housework by Carol Channing on the Free-to-be-You-and-Me album in the 1980s. Nobody likes housework, she sang, but housework is not so bad when done together. That’s what I thought of Umuganda. No one likes the back-breaking work of widening a road by hand, but when done with over a hundred other people, it’s fun, and the time goes by lickety-split.

Here is the result of our work:

If you would like to read more about Umuganda, you can click on the following link:

http://perilofafrica.com/umuganda-rwandas-day-community-cleaning/