Author: Patrick Shyaka

Farmers face the challenge of increasing food production by 70 percent to sustain a global population projected to reach 9.1 billion by 2050, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This need arises as one-third of the Earth’s soil is already degraded, with a football field’s worth of soil eroded every five seconds. Amid these challenges and the climate crisis’s impact on agricultural supply chains, advances in AI and other technologies are becoming crucial for meeting future demands. Olivier Kamana, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, emphasized at the Science and Partnerships for…

When you ask the question, “What is agriculture for?” The usual answer revolves around the symbolic and determined necessity of feeding the human body. In Rwanda, where the majority of the food is cultivated, farmers generate 90% of the economic activity in rural areas, producing food and fuel to improve livelihoods and are key to national food security. Moreover, farming also has to account for more than simply satisfying people. With each dramatic advancement in the field to maximize production, the key is to ensure the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources, integrate natural biological cycles and…

I want to say it was high summer. I want to say that the tides were smooth and that I was in love. None of these things was true, exactly. It was the middle of July, I strolled through the markets and dirt roads close to my Airbnb heading for the beach. I was in Zanzibar, alone. The sand was mouldy, like fish skin if you’ve touched its insides with consent. The afternoon breeze of customary tourists and eager locals offering boat rides, jet-ski prices, and often cigarettes blended in with the marvellous sunset of the coast of the ocean.…

In ‘SCAR TISSUE ARMOR’, the poet finds truth in the strength of heartbreak, weakness in love, and empowerment in womanhood.

Very early in his music career, Massamba Intore faced a tough stagger. He’d started his career at six years old, performing with the troupe ‘Intore Indashyikirwa’, writing his first song ‘Ndi Uwawe’, and honing his craft early in his twenties, pursuing love and joyful songs. Massamba saw his rise to fame with songs such as ‘Arihehe’ and ‘Nzajya Inama’, exhibiting the Rwandan traditional norms and culture for all to hear. However, in 1989, the fallacious feeling of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda was roaming, and what had been a peaceful existence in Burundi, surrounded by a musician father,…

Is there really anything better than a lazy weekend? Reading the paper in bed, sipping coffee, scrambling an egg or two? If you’ve enjoyed these moments before, they’re about to get even lazier now that it’s summertime. There’s something about the heat that amplifies relaxation. We’re definitely out sideee all summer, but on those days when the living is particularly steamy, we’d rather swap the sweaty mess of the outdoors for a good book or three. Two SENS editors have handpicked eight must-reads for the next few months in our eclectic and not-at-all-comprehensive summer book preview. So, if you’re on…

You lose your virginity, yes. And the first thing people tell you, told me, is that I was about to enjoy the best pleasure in the world. Like it was some exclusive door to the wonderland all along stacked and imprisoned inside my pants. The next thing I knew, the act of it opened up a can of public transparency, ever since the young generation has normalized discussing sex and all that’s in between — the legs, that is. I soon learnt that everyone in Kigali was having coitus, and they were very open about it. In the morning, at…

As excitement for the Rwandan presidential elections roars, trust me, more cheddar is on me as a first-time voter. The youth comprise 42% of final registered voters in the upcoming presidential elections. And since most of them, like me, are first-time voters, this has increased my elation.  I’ve been old enough to know what politics is for a while now. I know some political keywords such as ‘incumbent’, ‘polling’, ‘Tumutore’, and ‘Tuzabavuna’. I’m also very aware of what our President Paul Kagame has done —mostly for my parents. To prove that I’m grown enough, I read all the yellow paper…

“ It’s not just a poetry night,” Uwase Belinda Ines, also known as moonchild_Bee, said repeatedly into the microphone. I settled into my usual spot by the indoor swimming pool at CocoBean, my new Wednesday routine underway. Belinda, the author of “Daring The Sun To Love Me” and the host of Open Mic Weno (OMW), hadn’t taken the stage yet, but the flicker off her phone hinted at the lineup of artists scheduled to perform in the evening’s show. There, luncheons of people slithered in and filled chairs overlooking the bowl of blue and red disco and springing lights directly…

When the Kanyombya-led series, “Haranira Kubaho”, was first released, the comedic tone and ambience was an ecstatic front for all Rwandans involved. It marked a successful leap from radio theatre shows to visual cinema, even though it lacked the cinematic morphing of Western concepts. Later in the years, Rwanda saw various projects creep out of the woodwork, which emitted similar epitomes as the aforementioned show in tune with our Rwandan brand of comedy — fairly consisting of insults and proverbial descriptions. Somehow that’s funny to us. Shows like ‘Bamenya’, ‘Papa Sava’, and more have the same feel as their predecessors.…