Unit 6: Umuryango (The family)

In Rwanda like in any other African countries people use furniture, plates, dishes, cooking pans, saucepans that are western style to a great extent. The house, kitchen and toilet design, beddings, objects designed for decoration and more house items used in the cities are inherited from the colonial history.  A little of the Rwandan traditional way of living, house object can still be found in rural areas.

In this lesson we will deal with the names of items of a Rwandan home as we see it today across the country. Most of them are imported from foreign countries such as: Italy, France, Germany, U.K, Canada, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Arab Emirates, etc. Some items are still locally made, but in a very small scale.  We have a lot of household items, some in large quantities, others in small quantities.

In Rwanda "umulyango" which is translated in English with the word "family", has a wider meaning than in English. Primarily it means nuclear family whereby you have the immediate relationship ties of the father, mother and children. Generally, consideration is also given to the parents of the husband to a great extent than the parents of the wife. In this lesson we will solely deal with the primary relationships.

Secondary, family includes parents of both the husband and wife, their sisters and brothers, their parents and their uncles and unties. Thirdly, family would include their cousins, nephews and nieces. In the same category, equal consideration is extended to brothers and sisters in-law and their children too.  Fourthly, family can be stretched to include any other person who is native of your home village. There is a shared social responsibility in Rwandan culture on the basis of the moral obligation.