Of Milk Pots and Cattle KeepersStyle and Role Changes of the Inkongoro in Nyagatare District, Rwanda

During the period of violent social upheaval that marked Rwanda's revolution in 1959 and its independence from colonial rule in 1962, and later, during the 1994 genocide, many Banyarwanda fled the country seeking a safe haven.¹ Among those who chose exile were cattle keepers who had tended their herds for generations throughout Rwanda. Some had to leave everything behind. Others—especially those living in the northeastern savanna, then known as Mutara and now as Nyagatare District—did not have to go far; they moved just across the border with their cattle into the nearby Ankole area of southwest Uganda. There, among Banyankole cattle keepers, whose history, culture, and daily practices were similar to theirs, they were able to resume their way of life and receive a degree of comfort from their interaction with other herders.

For the exiles, there was a continuity of landscape: a region of widely spaced, low, rounded hills sloping down to extensive valleys of grasses and scrub brush, lush green in the rainy seasons and golden, straw brown in the dry (Fig. 1). Located directly under the equator, the savanna is easily scorched by the implacable sun of the two dry seasons, revealing red soil under the dessicated vegetation; it is, however, high enough above sea level to experience cool, even chilly nights. The few full-year watercourses are widely dispersed, and minor sources of water disappear in the dry seasons. This is excellent terrain for raising the traditional cattle of the region—as long, at least, as the herds can be moved when necessary to find new pasture and water. For the pastoralists of the region, whether Banyarwanda or Banyankole, home was not a specific place: It was the current location that enabled their herds to flourish, to grow in size and beauty, and to produce a continuous flow of milk—the peoples' main, and often exclusive, source of nourishment.

When the Rwanda-Uganda border was drawn in 1910 by the European Convention in Brussels, redrawn in 1916 by the League of Nations, and demarcated in 1926, little attention was paid to traditional land use in the region. In the 1914–16 period, for instance, the area of Kigezi, along with the town of Gatuna, which had been in Rwandan territory, was arbitrarily incorporated into Uganda, isolating many Banyarwanda from their extended families. The border broke the continuity of the savanna, where the herding rangelands of the Banyarwanda and Banyankole had overlapped. The pastoral peoples responded to the abstract division by ignoring it as much as they could; they continued to move their cattle seasonally as the need for fresh pasture and water dictated. As a result, Banyankole herders were still present in northeastern Rwanda well after the independence of both countries and were acknowledged by the Banyarwanda cattle keepers who knew them as neighbours.² Even today the border remains more porous than one could expect.

The connection between the two pastoral peoples was more than just rubbing shoulders in the same grazing territory. They had a deeper affinity—one based on their unwavering affection for their cattle, the requirements of assuring the welfare and propagation of their herds, and the management of the cattle's daily output of milk.

Both peoples herded the same ancient breed of cattle, a Bos taurus / Bos indicus strain of the Sanga group, known as Ankole longhorns (Fig. 2). The cattle's horns are enormous, curving elegantly in the shape of a lyre for a meter or more before tapering to tips. The horns surmount a relatively small, narrow head; the animals' bodies are trim and lithe, sometimes with a slight shoulder hump and soft folds of a dewlap under the neck. They stand high on narrow legs. A strong breed, Ankole cattle are well adapted to the harsh conditions of the savanna and can survive on sparse, rough forage when necessary. The social status of the herder depends on the number and beauty of the family herd; cattle are judged by the family head and...