When the artist Emmanuel Nkuranga opened his second gallery in the Rwandan capital in 2019 – his first, launched with his brother a decade ago, kick-started the local contemporary art scene – he called it Choose Kigali.
The name proved prophetic. In the last few years, the leafy, high-altitude East African city, known as the cleanest and safest in Africa, has become a sustainably minded creative hot spot, sprouting ethical design studios, coffee shops (Rwandan-grown bourbon beans are among the world’s most prized) and farm-to-fork restaurants harnessing the volcanic soils of the bio-diverse Albertine Rift. A generation after the genocide, which left 70 per cent of its population under 35, Rwanda has become one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies and also one of the greenest. A third of its rolling terrain is being rewilded, plastic bags and single-use plastics are banned and a green-certified airport is under construction. Meanwhile, anti-corruption policies and the removal of red tape have been enticing back the young Rwandan and Bantu diaspora, now reapplying their training abroad to home-grown creativity.
“Rwanda is an avant-garde country and it feels like the African future is here now,” says Congo-born, German-raised Dieuveil Malonga, who travelled to as many as 50 African nations before settling on Kigali for his Afro-fusion food project, Meza Malonga, which featured on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2022. “We’ve had 20 years of miraculous green growth,” says Tanzanian model and Kigali local Winnie Kalisa. She opened Laini ceramics studio in 2019 in the Kimihurura district, near Choose Kigali and the studio of Afro-futurist fashion designer Moses Turahirwa. “Now, it feels like anything is possible.”
Kigali creators to watch
The fashion futurist, Moses Turahirwa
“Rwandans have an innate creative eye,” says the statuesque 32-year-old designer, a trained civil engineer who studied an MA in fashion at Florence’s prestigious Polimoda. “We grow up surrounded by beauty.” His non-gendered couture pieces are structurally based on fluid, unisex Rwandan drapery and cleverly reference Bantu culture. The use of premium sustainable textiles, botanical dyes and recycled cow horn helped him win the Designer of the Year award for Africa at the 2022 Abryanz Style and Fashion Awards. moshions.rw
The revolutionary chef: Dieuveil Malonga
Dieuveil Malonga’s baseball cap and cheeky grin belie his steely commitment to changing the global image of Afro-fusion cuisine. His tasting menu at Meza Malonga – where he also trains chefs – features pan-African botanicals, pre-colonial matriarchal recipes and produce grown in his seven-acre allotments on Lake Ruhondo, near the Volcanoes National Park. On these volcanic soils, he is opening a second food project with rooms, featuring guest appearances from members of his 4,000-strong Chefs in Africa association, cementing the agricultural Musanze district’s status as a farm-to-fork hub. mezamalonga.com
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The self-taught ceramist: Winnie Kalisa
A poster child for Rwandans’ make-it-happen mindset, the 27-year-old model learnt pottery from YouTube and opened Laini ceramics studio in a flame-vine-clad cottage so idyllic it could have been dreamt up. Her glazed creations, some with the silhouettes of female Fulani nomads, breathe contemporary life into local pottery traditions and grace the shelves of eco-lodge Singita Kwitonda by Volcanoes National Park, where she has opened a second workshop. @laini_studio
The craft Queen: Linda Mukangoga
Linda Mukangoga has recently added an outdoor café to her fashion and homeware boutique, Haute Baso, painted in the bold black and white of traditional Rwandan beading. The ethical womenswear designer and Lagos Fashion Week finalist collaborates with female artisans on a line of demure prints in contemporary loose cuts, and curates a selection of Rwandan handicrafts, from sweetgrass baskets to wood carvings from the rural Nyanza district, south of Kigali. hautebaso.com