Africa

=Africa Rwanda=

**Populations**
== Population (2011 est.): 10.7 million. Annual population growth rate (2009 est.): 3%. Religions (2010 est.): Christian 96.9%, Muslim 1.3%, traditional African 0.1%, other 0.9%, 0.7% claim no religious beliefs. 85% Hutu, 14% Tutsi, and 1% Twa

**Resorts**
== Lake Muhazi Boulevard is an exclusive 52 unit lakeside residential domicile with the exclusive 18 hole "Members Only" Lake Muhazi Golf & Country Resort (with signature golf course) planned in phase II. This facility will offer a unique first experience of a lakeside residency in Rwanda and indeed in Central Africa as a whole. We believe it is important to offer our residents a ‘resiance’ that anticipates their needs, surpasses their expectations and satisfies to perfection. The Lake Muhazi Golf & Country Resort is Rwanda’s, and indeed Central Africa’s, first 18-hole, 72-par championship Golf & Country Resort. Set in a 160-acre tropical paradise, this six star facility will be located only 15 minutes from Kigali International Airport. This world-class resort is ideally located by the sparkling turquoise waters of Lake Muhazi. The Resort is located adjacent to the Lake Muhazi Boulevard on the scenic Gati Peninsula and will have a view of the neighbouring hills, lake and woodlands. The Resort is a unique, one of a kind facility never before seen in Central Africa. It will have a host of amenities. Lake Muhazi Golf and Country Resort will strive to fulfil member’s expectations. Higher standards will always be our key tool to provide members with the finest golf and country club in Rwanda.

**Religion**
== The Rwandan government reported on November 1, 2006, that 56.5% of the Rwanda's population is Roman Catholic, 26% is Protestant, 11.1% is Seventh-day Adventist, 4.6% is Muslim, 1.7% claims no religious affiliation, and 0.1% practices traditional indigenous beliefs.This study indicates a 6.9 percent increase in the number of Catholics and a 15.8 percent decline in the number of Protestants (which can in large part be explained by breaking out the growing Seventh-day Adventist church separately) from the 2001 survey figures. The figures for Protestants include the growing number of members of Jehovah's Witnesses (20,509 in 2011) and evangelical Protestant groups.There is also a small population of Baha'is. There has been a proliferation of small, usually Christian-linked schismatic religious groups since the 1994 genocide, as well as substantial conversion to Islam.

**Food**
== Rwandan staples include bananas, plantains, pulses, sweet potatoes, beans, and cassava (manioc). Historically this is particularly true of the Twa and the Hutus who hunted and farmed. Their diet was high in vegetables and lacking in animal protein due to the small amount of animal products consumed. The Tutsis were traditionally pastoralists and consumed a higher amount of milk and dairy products. Many Rwandans do not eat meat more than a few times a month. For those that live near lakes and have access to fish, tilapia is popular. The potato, thought to have been introduced to Rwanda by German and Belgian colonists, is now very popular and is cultivated in the towns of Gitarama and Butare.

** Beverages **
== Milk is a common drink among Tutsi pastoralists.Other popular drinks in Rwanda include fruit juice, wine and beer. Commercial beers drunk in Rwanda include Primus, Mützig and Amstel.In rural areas, urwagwa is a beer made from the fermented juice of bananas that has been mixed with roasted sorghum flour.Beers feature in traditional rituals and ceremonies and are generally consumed only by men.Ikigage is an alcoholic beverage made from dry sorghum that is thought to have medicinal powers.Ubuki is made from fermented honey and has an alcohol content of about 12 per cent.

**Languages**
== Kinyarwanda (official), universal Bantu vernacular, French (official), English (official), Kiswahili (Swahili) used in commercial centers

**Music**
== The music of Rwanda largely consists of African folk music sung by its people. Traditional music and dance are taught in "amatorero" dance groups, which are to be found across the entire country. The most famous of those is Ballet National Urukerereza, which was created in the early 1970s to represent Rwanda in international events. Also famous were the Amasimbi n'amakombe and Irindiro cool dance groups. The ikinimba is probably the most revered musical tradition in Rwanda. It is a dance that tells the stories of Rwandan heroes and kings, accompanied by instruments like ingoma, ikembe, iningiri, umuduri and inanga. The inanga, a lyre-like string instrument, has produced many of Rwanda's best-known performers, including Rujindiri, Sebatunzi, Rwishyura, Simparingoma, Sentoré, Kirusu, Sophie and Victor Kabarira, Simon Bikindi.

**Sports**
== Soccer (called football) is Rwanda's most popular sport. Basketball and volleyball are also becoming increasingly popular.

**Arts**


Rwandans enjoy storytelling, weaving and basketry. Skill and expressiveness displayed in basket weaving indicate a family's social status. The pygmy Twa are traditional potters.

**Geography**
== Rwanda, in east-central Africa, is surrounded by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, and Burundi. It is slightly smaller than Maryland. Steep mountains and deep valleys cover most of the country. Lake Kivu in the northwest, at an altitude of 4,829 ft (1,472 m), is the highest lake in Africa. Extending north of it are the Virunga Mountains, which include the volcano Karisimbi (14,187 ft; 4,324 m), Rwanda's highest point.

**History**
==

In 1959, three years before independence from Belgium, the majority ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king. Over the next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed, and some 150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries. The children of these exiles later formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and began a civil war in 1990. The war, along with several political and economic upheavals, exacerbated ethnic tensions, culminating in April 1994 in the genocide of roughly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu regime and ended the killing in July 1994, but approximately 2 million Hutu refugees - many fearing Tutsi retribution - fled to neighboring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and the former Zaire. Since then, most of the refugees have returned to Rwanda, but several thousand remained in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (the former Zaire) and formed an extremist insurgency bent on retaking Rwanda, much as the RPF tried in 1990. Despite substantial international assistance and political reforms - including Rwanda's first local elections in March 1999 and its first post-genocide presidential and legislative elections in August and September 2003 - the country continues to struggle to boost investment and agricultural output, and ethnic reconciliation is complicated by the real and perceived Tutsi political dominance. Kigali's increasing centralization and intolerance of dissent, the nagging Hutu extremist insurgency across the border, and Rwandan involvement in two wars in recent years in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to hinder Rwanda's efforts to escape its bloody legacy.

**Economy**
== In the last decade and a half, Rwanda’s economy has progressed by improving factor productivity, achieving a considerably higher level of output per worker. The mid-term outlook now depends on increased investment in core sectors. Public investment to improve power generation capacity, air transport, e-government and other sectors is expected to help sustain current growth. But the country’s continued dependence on a few export commodities represents a serious constraint and the mobilisation of domestic resources to finance investment remains low. Rwanda has undertaken impressive reforms to create a business-friendly environment for the private sector. It has the status of best reformer in the world and is one of the freer countries in economic terms. The hope is that these achievements will translate into increased economic activity in the private sector and attract investment from around the world. There is impressive social as well as economic progress. Rwanda is on track to meet most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Rwanda has the potential to achieve a much higher rate of economic growth. Investment in creating a skilled labour force, removing infrastructure bottlenecks and improving farm productivity could make a huge difference in the years to come. These are some of the priorities of the government’s Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy and Vision 2020.

More Information
==

Rwanda has a history and its very important and the people have been told their is a movie called Hotel Rwanda. Its about the tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples lead to a war in Rwanda, where corruption and bribes between politicians are routine. Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), the manager of the Sabena owned Hôtel des Mille Collines, is Hutu, but his wife Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo), is Tutsi. His marriage is a source of friction with Hutu extremists, most prominently Georges Rutaganda (Hakeem Kae-Kazim), a friendly goods supplier to the hotel who is also the local leader of Interahamwe, a brutal anti-Tutsi militia. The characters Rusesabagina and Colonel Oliver negotiating through a political impasse. As the political situation in the country worsens, Paul and his family observe neighbors being killed in ethnic violence. Paul carries favor with people of influence, bribing them with money and alcohol, seeking to maintain sufficient influence to keep his family safe. When civil war erupts and a Rwandan Army officer threatens Paul and his neighbors, Paul barely negotiates their safety, and brings everyone to the hotel. More refugees come to the hotel from the overburdened United Nations camp, the Red Cross, and orphanages. Paul must divert the Hutu soldiers, care for the refugees, be a source of strength to his family, and maintain the appearance of a functioning high-class hotel, as the situation becomes more violent. The UN Peacekeeping forces, led by Canadian Colonel Oliver (Nick Nolte), are unable to take assertive action against the Interahamwe since they are forbidden to intervene in the genocide. The foreign nationals are evacuated, but the Rwandans are left behind. When the UN forces attempt to evacuate a group of refugees, including Paul's family, they are ambushed and must turn back. In a last-ditch effort to save the refugees, Paul pleads with the Rwandan Army General, Augustin Bizimungu (Fana Mokoena) for assistance. However, when Paul's bribes no longer work, he blackmails the General with threats of being tried as a war criminal. Soon after, the family and the hotel refugees are finally able to leave the besieged hotel in a UN convoy. They travel through retreating masses of refugees and militia to reach safety behind Tutsi rebel lines. The film's epilogue displays a series of graphics stating that Rusesabagina saved 1,268 Rwandan refugees at the Hôtel des Mille Collines, and now lives in Belgium with his family. It also notes that Rutaganda and General Bizimungu were tried and convicted by the UN for war crimes in 2002, as almost a million people died by the time the genocide ended in July 1994

Flag Meaning
The blue stripe represents happiness and peace. The yellow symbolizes the country's mineral wealth and economic development green symbolizes the country's natural resources and prosperity. The sun stands for unity, transparency and enlightenment from ignorance. The Rwandan flag was adopted on October 25, 2001. The Rwandan flag was created to replace the previous one that had been in use since 1961, just before Rwanda gained independence from Belgium on July 1, 1962. The government wanted to disassociate the former flag from the country's genocide of 1994, when ethnic violence ravaged the land. The current national flag was designed by Rwandan artist Alphonse Kirimbenecyo.
 * Rwandan Flag Meaning:**
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