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The Sacred Cows of Rwanda

Historically seen as a symbol of wealth, today cows are lifting people out of poverty

By Photo Stories

December 4^th, 2015

A Cow-centric society

As a portable store of milk, meat, and wealth, the gentle cow naturally carved out a special place for herself in cultures and communities around the world. In Rwanda, the cow’s place in society was traditionally as outsized as the enormous horns which made the Ankole Watusi steers the coveted cows of kings. Visit the former Royal Palace in Nyanza, and you will still find these beautiful, imposing cows bred for dancing and parading being lovingly serenaded by cattle herders.

The Rwandan monarchy has long since been deposed, but cows remain a cornerstone of Rwandan culture. They are still the measure of bridewealth, even if most families today express their cows in the form of hard currency. Besides banana beer, fermented milk remains, as ever, one of the most popular and culturally significant beverages.

Perhaps most telling is the permeation of bovine terminology in everyday Rwandan speech. As Professor Alexander Kimenyi explains:

Cow vocabulary is used metaphorically in everyday language, especially in greeting expressions, exclamations, swear words and terms of endearment. Cow metaphors are also found in all components of the Rwandan culture - namely concepts, values, customs, symbols, rituals, art, dance, music, sports and social organization. This is the case not only because it is the highest ranked cultural icon but also because a symbiotic relationship exists between the cow and Rwandan society.

The Ankole Longhorn is Rwanda's 'Royal Cow'. Equal parts sacred and status symbol, the breed has all but disappeared with the monarchy.

Some traditional Rwandan dances are inspired by its famous cattle.

Being so central to Rwandan society, cows have also unavoidably played a big and uncomfortable part in Rwandan social history. Differences between cattle-owning Tutsi and farming Hutu were exaggerated, racialized and politically exploited by successive European colonizers. Unable to comprehend the fluid nature of the social categories ‘Hutu’ and ‘Tutsi’, the Belgian administration infamously categorized those who owned ten or more cows as Tutsi, while identifying those with fewer cows as Hutu.

After decades of fostering ethnic divisions through state-sponsored discrimination based on Biblically inspired theories of racial hierarchy, the Belgians eventually sponsored a Hutu uprising. A social revolution, colonial independence, two Hutu supremacist dictatorships marked by sporadic pogroms and waves of Tutsi refugees all eventually led to a civil war and genocide in the early 1990ies.

Along with up to 800,000 Tutsi civilians, the genocidaires also slaughtered most of the domestic cattle stock of the country in 1994, feasting on the meat as they celebrated their murderous activities.

Since then, the road towards recovery, reconciliation, and stability has been long and steep. One symbolic sign of the incredible distance the country has come is reflected in the country’s cows. Although the Rwandan Ankole are no longer as widespread, today there are more cows than ever. Where cow ownership was once used as a means to foster division and hatred, today the government has proclaimed an end to ethnic differences. In order to foster prosperity and reconciliation, a program of cattle ownership has been launched, aiming to provide every struggling family with a cow of their own.

Return of the Cows: even on a rocky, desolate, bat-inhabited island in the middle of Lake Kivu, cows are grazing the land again.

Under the Girinka program, derived from the traditional greeting meaning “may you have a cow”, over 200,000 families have received a heifer, with 150,000 additional families scheduled to receive a cow by 2017. Recognizing the low productivity of the native cow breeds, the country started importing Frisian and other breeds for distribution. These cows, when mature, can produce up to 12 liters of milk per day.

With support from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other international NGO’s, the government cow distribution program has done more than simply sending cows to poor families. Owning a cow means a source of nutrition, employment, manure for crop production, and a steady source of income in the form of milk revenue.

Because Rwanda is a very densely populated country, networks of commercial milk production have been able to crop up all over the country. Families owning just one or a few cows are able to transport their milk by bicycle, motorcycle, or on foot to the nearest cooperative.

Milk collection centres are centrally located, and allow milk sellers benefits of scale they could not achieve by directly selling the milk on a local market.

At the milk collection centres, milk gets tested, filtered, pasteurized, and combined for further production or commercial retail. Cooperatives are an easy way to raise money, insure against unexpected events, and gain collective bargaining power.

Processed milk and milk products are sold and promoted at local ‘milk bars’, which are becoming more and more popular across the country. Rwandan companies have started creating and branding flavoured milk products for domestic production and as export products.

By tapping into a deeply important aspect of local culture when applying pragmatic development policy, Rwanda has demonstrated an effective model for development that should be emulated and embraced by policymakers looking to reduce poverty around the world.

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