RWANDA: TOBACCO PRODUCTION AND CIGAR MAKING IS REVIVED IN RWANDA AFTER RECENT ETHNIC GENOCIDE

Record ID: 309453

  • Title: RWANDA: TOBACCO PRODUCTION AND CIGAR MAKING IS REVIVED IN RWANDA AFTER RECENT ETHNIC GENOCIDE
  • Date: 1st December 2001
  • Summary: RUHENGERI PROVINCE AND KIGALI, RWANDA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TOBACCO FIELDS PEOPLE SMOKING CIGARS 103 YEAR-OLD ROSE AKOBAHARAYE SMOKING (SOUNDBITE) (Kinyarwanda) ROSE AKOBAHARAYE "I used to light my father's pipe for him when I was a girl, and I would draw on it every now and then to keep it lighted for him. That's how I started. And then when I married I carried on smoking with my husband. I have now been smoking for more than 90 years." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SMOKING (SOUNDBITE) (French) BONIFACE MUTSINDASHYAKA, Kigali Resident "All I know about cigars is that it was the priests who bought them. They had to smoke them because they had made a vow of celibacy and it helped them not to think of women." CIGAR MAKERS MAKING CIGARS CIGARS (SOUNDBITE) (Kinyarwanda) ANANIAS NYAMILINDA, Cigar maker "Father Jerio taught me how to make cigars in 1942." (SOUNDBITE) (Kinyarwanda) JACQUES NUMVANIHOREYE, Cigar maker "It was good, it gave us work, even if they were exploiting us: they exported our cigars to Europe and it made them very rich." VARIOUS OF FACTORY VARIOUS OF LOCAL WOMEN SELLING TOBACCO IN MARKET CIGAR MAKERS MAKING CIGARS (SOUNDBITE) (Kinyarwanda) PROTAIS TWIZERIMANA, Cigar Manufacturer "I never worked in the priests' cigar factories myself. I just thought about their factory and imagined how rich it made them - and I remembered that our grandfathers worked there." CIGAR FACTORIES CIGARMAKERS MAKING CIGARS/ LEAVES BEING WASHED/ CIGARS BEING MADE AND PRESSED IN SPECIAL FRAME (SOUNDBITE) (Kinyarwanda) PROTAIS TWIZERIMANA "My problem is making contacts with white people and other people who buy cigars because I don't speak their language. I could even export to Burundi, Congo, Uganda and elsewhere - but as I don't have the means, I can't." ROSE AKOBAHARAYE SMOKING CIGARS CIGARS IN SHOP CIGARETTES BEING MANUFACTURED POSTER WARNING OF HEALTH DANGERS FOR SMOKERS (SOUNDBITE) (French) Dr. CLAUDE SEKABARAGA, Organisation against Tobacco "The regions that produce tobacco, in the north -- we have to force them to convert their tobacco cultivation into the cultivation of something else, something that's better for society and for the population." POSTER (SOUNDBITE) (Kinyarwanda) JACQUES NUMVANIHOREYE "The organisations who fight tobacco have their own interests. They just need something to do and so they go and fight tobacco!" VARIOUS OF TOBACCO/ TOBACCO BEING DRIED PEOPLE SMOKING 05 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 16th December 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RUHENGERI PROVINCE AND KIGALI, RWANDA
  • Country: Rwanda
  • Topics: Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVA1AUAFV5LYGXXOP6I7AN87D59S
  • Story Text: Tobacco production is a small but thriving industry in Rwanda.
    During the genocide this centuries-old industry suffered badly, but now it is slowly recuperating. Reuters reports.
    This is Rwanda's volcanic north. This is where the tobacco grows.
    The people in the parish of Rwaza have grown and smoked tobacco for centuries.
    They start young, and live to be old. Rose is 103 - and still a picture of health.
    She says "I used to light my father's pipe for him when I was a girl, and I would draw on it every now and then to keep it lighted for him. That's how I started. And then when I married I carried on smoking with my husband. I have now been smoking for more than 90 years."
    The traditional smoke is the pipe, and it's still going strong.
    But about 100 years ago, missionaries arrived in Rwaza - and with them, a new way of smoking tobacco - cigars. The priests of Rwaza and their cigars are legendary throughout Rwanda.
    Kigali Resident Boniface Mutsindashyaka says "All I know about cigars is that it was the priests who bought them. They had to smoke them because they had made a vow of celibacy and it helped them not to think of women."
    Ananias and Jacques have both lived in Rwaza all their lives. They are living reminders of the golden age of Rwandan cigars - they both worked in the factory that was run by the priests.
    Ananias says "Father Jerio taught me how to make cigars in 1942."
    Jacques says "It was good, it gave us work, even if they were exploiting us: they exported our cigars to Europe and it made them very rich."
    Cigar production stopped during the genocide, the priests left, the factory was closed.
    Today, tobacco is a small but thriving industry again.
    On market days, Rwaza is packed with people who come for the precious green leaves, sold by the old women of the community.
    Protais Twizerimana is among the buyers - like the others, he handles and smells each leaf to ensure that he buys only the best.
    He's a newcomer to the tobacco trade - but everyone knows him.
    It's thanks to him, that people like Ananias and Jacques are making cigars again.
    He says "I never worked in the priests' cigar factories myself. I just thought about their factory and imagined how rich it made them - and I remembered that our grandfathers worked there. So I decided to found my own little cigar factory."
    He brought together five of the original factory workers. Their new factory is the yard at the back of Protais' house.
    The leaves need to be carefully washed and dried first, to remove most of the nicotine. Every cigar is crafted with a lot of skill - and patience.
    Once the cigars have been rolled, they're pressed in a special machine made by local carpenters. Finally, they're packed into hand-made banana leaf boxes, each containing a hundred cigars.
    The five old men who work at the factory make a thousand cigars a day in this way - and it earns them around 80 dollars a month - a huge income in this part of Rwanda.
    According to Protais, they could be making 1000 boxes a day - but they don't have enough customers.
    He says "My problem is making contacts with white people and other people who buy cigars because I don't speak their language. I could even export to Burundi, Congo, Uganda and elsewhere - but as I don't have the means, I can't."
    For the moment, the cigar factory is much appreciated by the local cigar-lovers, who have all become loyal customers. Protais has also managed to seal a contract with a priest in the capital, which means that his cigars can now be found tucked between sanitary pads and tins in this little Kigali supermarket.
    But Protais' cigars don't just have fans. Their tobacco grows in the same region as Rwanda's cigarette tobacco - so they're under fire from the same opponent: the anti-tobacco lobby.
    Dr. Claude Sekabaraga from the Organisation against Tobacco says "The regions that produce tobacco, in the north -- we have to force them to convert their tobacco cultivation into the cultivation of something else, something that's better for society and for the population."
    His appeal, logical though it may be, is casually dismissed by the old cigar makers.
    Jacques says "The organisations who fight tobacco have their own interests.
    They just need something to do and so they go and fight tobacco!"
    For now, life continues as always among the volcanoes of northern Rwanda. The small cigar business is thriving - and whether it's bad for them or not, people here still sit back and give in to the soothing pleasures of the leaf that grows all around them.
    ENDS
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