This paper explores some of the ways in which contemporary Rwandan recording artistes adopt and ‘appropriate’ aspects of ‘national culture’ (umuco nyarwanda), while also seeking to appeal to regional, continental and ‘global’ music markets. This is occurring within the context of the intense social and political changes associated with building the New Rwanda (Rwanda Rushya), alongside accelerating globalisation. Due to Rwanda’s civil war and genocide (1990-1994), which completely decimated the country’s economy and infrastructure, the beginnings of Rwanda’s contemporary pop music industry only began to emerge in the mid-2000s. This was in contrast to other African countries, such as in neighbouring Uganda where it began in the early 1990s. For this reason, Rwanda’s young cultural entrepreneurs described their music industry to me as a “baby” by comparison. While a small number of all-African ‘superstars’ (mainly from Nigeria and South Africa) were collaborating in their efforts to “take African music to the world” (MTV Base Africa 2015), the Rwandan artistes in my research were, and understood themselves to be, on the margins of what I call the ‘all-African commercial music industry’. Indeed, at the time of my research, only a handful of artistes had managed to perform beyond the east-central region, or even internationally. For the vast majority, life was defined by the ‘hustle’ for money and recognition, both within and beyond national borders.
Despite this, most of Rwanda’s popular artistes aspire to be included in music markets beyond their national borders. Through an examination of the trajectory of one popular singer, Mani Martin, I exemplify how Rwandan artistes aspire to follow a particular development path that centres on promotion from the national, to the regional, and, finally, continental level. In order to do this, singers such as Mani Martin ‘appropriate’ aspects of numerous music genres, ‘traditions’ and languages, thus appealing to multiple audiences and increasing their chances of success. While most of the artistes in my research do remain resolutely ‘Rwandan’, they also adopt various African and ‘global’ personas and aesthetics, revealing that what it means to be Rwandan is neither singular not fixed, but is rather multi-layered, fluid, ambiguous, and sometimes invented. As Jean-Franc̜ois Bayart so brilliantly put it, “the formation of a culture necessarily involves dialogue, and occurs in interaction with its regional and international environment” (Bayart 2005: 459). This paper forms part of my PhD project on ‘musical traffic’ and the everyday lives of Kigali’s young cultural entrepreneurs.