[Cowherd playing a flute]
[Inyambo cows as cowherds sing poems and pet herd]
[Cow and its long horns]
[King’s Palace Museum curator Bigira Junior looking on as the cows graze and continue to be petted]
[Junior inside a traditional royal court during media interview]
Bigira Junior (interview): “The royal cows, the Inyambo cows, so those are more or less the precious things that the king definitely had around his possessions. So those are more or less like sacred symbols around the palaces too. So, they are big but they are distinctive in a way. How? They have the long horns. The huge long horns on their heads basically. So that would make them distinct from different kind of cows. So those are more or less like sacred around the palaces.”
[Cow grazing]
[Cows grazing as a cowherd looks on]
Bigira Junior (interview): “They’re not for milk. They’re not for meat. They would just be used as decor around the palaces. They would parade them around, use them in ceremonies, basically around the King’s Court. The kings would basically present them to the other kings that have visited the palaces, for people to admire, see, and say ‘yeah, they are looking good.'”
[Tourist petting a cow]
[Tourist watching as cowherds sing poems to the cows]
Bigira Junior (interview): “So, we talked about the poems being addressed to the cow. So they basically address them to the cows to be more calm and docile. So, while singing I think they would really, really make them calm. You see the brushing, the way they brush the coats, that was more or less taming them to be a little bit calmer, so that they could be relatable to people. Remember, they would be loved and cherished and you can’t love something from afar. You have to get close to it.”
[Cows being herded away]
Bigira Junior (interview): “Cows are more or less symbols of unity in a way. If, let’s say, we had had a quarrel and I gave you a cow in general, specifically, circling back to the kings too, they could also do that to like finish enmity, kingdoms to kingdoms.”
[Performers dancing traditional Rwandese dances mimicking the horns of the Inyambo cows]
Bigira Junior (interview): “So, traditionally when women are dancing in a way, you will notice that they tend to raise their arms a little bit wide. So those are basically, they are more or less mimicking the different shapes of the royal cows (horns). So, their dance is more or less in a way to portray the beauty of the royal cows, not their (own) beauty per se. But the beauty of the royal cows basically. That is why they do a lot of that movement of the hands, in a way.”
[Cowherd playing a tune on a flute for Inyambo cows]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.