experience
Kigali The cabin lights were still dim when I saw the first streams of light, like rivers over and around the thousand hills, finally below us. Our approach was slow with anticipation. The closer we got, the more these streams pooled in great yellow bodies, until they revealed the capital. Our way to the hotel was all immaculate, tree-lined streets that wove and swung around in smooth curves. Deep swathes of greenery sprouted between every shop and skyscraper, café and construction site along the way. Kigali is filled with places you want to be, and people seemingly on their way there. Before we knew it, we’d arrived at an early night. We met Azalias, the driver Singita had sent for us, the next morning after breakfast. He took us first to the Kigali Genocide Memorial . It’s a place of harrowing reality, but this discomfort brings perspective. The warmth of Rwanda’s people and its emergence as a tourism and technology hub isn’t only inspiring because of its recent history, but understanding it deepens
your appreciation for everything you experience here. Given the time, every visitor to the city should go. Mugire Peace David had invited us to his studio, where we went next. It’s nestled above the charming Indabo Café — ‘Indabo’ meaning ‘flowers’ in Kinyarwanda — where we sat under an awning sipping local coffee to an amapiano soundtrack, sharing our mutual love for plants and his artistic journey. He gave us a tour of his studio, filled with books of inspiration, his impressionistic landscapes lining every wall. David’s works span mediums, documenting contemporary life in Rwanda, with nature a constant presence. Our last stop was at Question Coffee , where every bean comes from cooperatives of women farmers across Rwanda, Tanzania, and the DRC. A percentage of every purchase goes directly to them, and what remains is reinvested in training and trading programmes. The volcanic soils it’s grown in give Rwandan coffee exceptional flavour. We left with bags to bring home.
Previous spread In old ground, something within us remembers. Left Kigali’s skyscrapers live alongside thickets, between hills, and its history lives on in the youth.
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