Kakira Imigongo Cooperative

About

The Kakira Imigongo Cooperative is one of the best-known workshop sites where you can witness striking geometric patterns in the Imigongo style being painted onto wooden panels, plates and wall hangings. Cattle have been an important status symbol in Rwanda for generations, where owning a cow in agrarian society was a sign of wealth. Legend has it that in the 18th century, Prince Kakira invented the art style by mixing ash and clay for color and using cow dung to decorate the interior walls of his house. The practice has since been taken up by women, particularly those made widows by the 1994 Rwandan genocide when the art form almost died out. Journey to Kakira Imigongo Cooperative and become entranced watching the women at work, then step inside a hut decorated in traditional Imigongo style and walk past the adorned planters along the roads of the workshops.