Unit 3: Kuvuga ibihe mu Kinyarwanda (Telling time in Kinyarwanda)

In day-to-day conversation, people in Rwanda do not use the traditional name of the months. They use ordinal numbers with the noun ‘ukwezi’ (month) from the first to the 12th month. For example: Ukwezi kwa mbere ‘the first month’, ukwezi kwa kane ‘the fourth month’, ukwezi kwa cumi n’abiri ‘the twelves month’ etc. However. The traditional name of the months are used in administrative documents, government services, and in the media writings.

Generaly, many people (if not all), across the country, use ordinal numbers (ngerekero) following the particle “ukwa” (the  month of) to refer to the month involved. For instance  for the Month of January, they practically say “ukwa mbere” instead of “Mutarama”.

The names of the week have a controversial application across the country due to different naming systems based on religious teachings. The outstanding conflicting naming system is between the Roman Catholic and other Christian churches whose day of worship is “Sunday” (ku cyumweru) versus the Seventh-Day Adventist Church worshiping on “Saturday-Sabbath” (kuwa gatandatu). However, the government approved the naming of the days of the week based on the majority so as to have a common ground on this confusing issue.

 Like in some other African cultures, Rwandan people, before the colonial era, used to tell time by looking at the direction of the sun and listen carefully to the crows of the cock, following the activities of moving cattle from home to pasture and back.  The notion of time observed by looking at the clock and watch was introduced by Europeans who colonized the local people about two centuries ago.

For example: 7: 10: 20. We say: “ Saa moya n’amadakika cumi n’amasegonda makumyabiri”. Or “Saa moya n’iminota cumi n’amasegonda makumyabiri”.

In the case of Rwanda, the telling of time was primarily in Swahili, then the mixture of Swahili, French and Kinyarwanda. Hence there is no exclusive way of telling time in Kinyarwanda.

In Kinyarwanda, a day is a period in time which is between the daybreak and the sunset. A night is a period between the sunset and daybreak. Actually the Kinyarwanda day begins with the daylight, rather than at midnight.  Hence we start with seven o’clock (saa moya ya mugitondo) as hour one immediately after daybreak to six o’clock (saa cumi n’ebyiri ya nimugoroba) at sunset which marks the end of the day and at the same time, the beginning of the night. Then we start with seven o’clock (saa moya ya nimugoroba) as hour one immediately after the sunset to six o’clock (saa cumi n’ebyiri ya mugitondo) at daybreak which marks the end of the night and the beginning of a new day. Thereafter it goes on and on in a cyclical manner.