Cow dung fun

“Imigongo is an art form popular in Rwanda that is produced using cow dung. It is a traditional Rwandan art form made by the women. During the 1994 Genocide the skills involved almost disappeared. However, a women’s cooperative on the road to Rusumo in the Eastern Province near Kirehe, has rescued and revived this uniquely Rwandan art form. Traditionally geometric designs are produced but as the women artists have grown in confidence they have begun to experiment with more modern innovative images that convey the spirit of the Rwandan landscape, its flora and fauna and its people. The images are produced using cow dung which is put onto wooden boards in spiral and geometric designs. The dung is left to harden and is then decorated using colours made from organic material. The traditional colours are black, white, red, grey and beige-yellow but increasingly other colours are used. The imigongo images were originally found in Kibungo inside the walls of huts as "magical" decorations during the 18th century.” Description provided courtesy of Wikipedia

Having heard lots about it and seen many of the designs, I was keen to have a go at making my own bit of imigongo.  So we planned a 2 day workshop at the imigongo cooperative in Kakira, about 45mins away from Kibungo on the way to Tanzania.  On arrival, we were given a tour of the cooperative buildings which is run by a group of genocide widows.  The money made helps to keep the cooperative going but also provides money to support the local community.  We saw lots of pieces of work at different stages of the process.  The work was often intricate and the designs beautiful – both the simple and more complex ones.  Once we had been shown the process of making imigongo, we were given a demonstration of how to apply the cow dung to the board.  Basically you draw your design onto a wooden board in pencil, and then you take small bits of cow dung (mixed with sand and ash and “stuff”) and you mould it with your fingers into little lines along your design.  But they are almost like prisms, so that the base of it melts into the board and it rises to a fine peak.  It is more difficult than you may think to get it so uniform and neat and a reasonable amount of water was used to smooth and re-work the dung.

When finished, I showed my work to the lady who runs the cooperative – Basilice and she did a bit of fine-tuning and tidying up!  The work requires considerable skill and small fingers certainly help – especially if you want to do an intricate design.  Whilst our work was drying, we went for lunch and then reconvened.  Our work was a long way from dry, so we had a go at making another design.  I think many of our second attempts were much better, technically!

Over-night we left the pictures to dry and went to celebrate our hard days work with a superb meal cooked by John’s Pakistani friend, Naseem.  The ladies from the co-op joined us and it turned into a bit of an impromptu party with singing and dancing and, this being Rwanda...speeches.  We had a fine time and eventually it was time to retire to the guest house for a good nights rest.

Next morning, we discovered our designs were still not dry so we sat about chatting and just passing the time in relaxed mode.  We then used our fingers to rub the designs to smooth out the cow dung.  You have to be very gentle in order not to break bits of the design off (see my design with only half a star!).  The next stage was to lightly rub a piece of sand paper over the dung to further smooth it out.

Mine are: third from left on back row
and end of front row

After this we were able to paint our designs.  We began with two base coats, allowing each one to dry before reapplying.  Then we got let loose on the colours and were able to add the finishing touches.  The last part is to apply a fine black line along the fine ridge created in the early stages of the process to make an outline of the design.  Doing this is really tricky and the light was fading, so close-up mine looks a little bit of a mess, but for a first attempt I was pretty pleased.  I only completed one of my designs and that could do with a little bit of a tidy up. I shall have to get hold of some paints to finish the other but I am very much looking forward to admiring them on my walls wherever I end up in the years to come.  They will serve as a reminder of yet another lovely weekend in Rwanda.