Turbo King

Saturday’s Umuganda (monthly community work) consisted of weeding a steep walking path, using hoes.  As I was weeding with a borrowed hoe, I noticed so many young people wearing Turbo King T-shirts.  A young woman handed me a Turbo King T-shirt & insisted I put it on.   After we finished work, a young man who had been working beside me invited me to the Turbo King Cup at the local stadium to watch football (soccer) matches for our town.  He explained that Turbo King was sponsoring a football tournament to promote their beer.

Turbo King is a Rwandan beer that I’d seen on the shelves of many stores, but I’d never actually seen anyone drinking it.  It is a dark ale, 6.5% alcohol, which is higher than the usual 5% beer here.  It is bottled in Rwanda by Bralirwa (short for its French name of Brasseries et Limonaderies du Rwanda) Brewery, a subsidiary of Heineken.  Bralirwa is the largest brewery and soft drink company in Rwanda and has been around since 1957.  It also sells Heineken, Amstel, Primus & Mutzig beers, all ubiquitous in Rwanda, as well as a dark stout called Legend that I have never seen sold. Turbo King is a relative newcomer, having been introduced into the Rwandan market in 2009. Its logo is a lion, the King of the jungle, apparently representing the beer’s strength.  Its slogan is “Open up to the lion in yourself, enjoy a Turbo King.”

So, after Umuganda, I followed the people who, like me, were wearing Turbo King T-shirts, to the stadium to watch the soccer playoffs.  Turbo King is traveling around the country, holding these playoffs.  I was told that there will eventually be a winner in each of the five provinces and more playoffs until a single team comes out on top as the winner of the Turbo King Cup.

Like the rest of the world, Rwandans have been following the Igikombe cy’isi (Kinyarwanda for the World Cup of soccer) and cheering for the African teams.  Now, that all the African teams have been eliminated, there now is the Turbo King Cup to satisfy our soccer interest.

I watched two games in the Turbo King Cup, staying for the second only because my Umuganda partner was officiating.  He turned out to be an excellent referee – cool, calm and amazingly able to keep up with the fast play.   Local children practiced playing the drums that had been set out.

That evening, to acknowledge my Turbo King-charged day, I decided to “open up to the lion in myself and enjoy a Turbo King” in my favorite local little restaurant.  Clarisse, the owner, was shocked when I ordered a Turbo King.  She thought I was joking.  Not only is it considered a man’s beer (it’s touted for its masculinity), but I had never ordered alcohol before.  When she realized I was serious, she asked if I wanted a large or a small bottle and whether warm or cold. 

I played it safe with a small bottle & chose a cold one.  The taste was bitter and not to my liking.  I asked Clarisse to cut a lime for me to squeeze into the beer, thinking it might cut the bitterness.  However, even with the lime, it was still not to my taste, so I reluctantly gave up trying to find the lion in me and paid 500 Rwandan francs (approximately 60 cents) for the experience.  So ended my Turbo King day.