A flute here, a line of poetry there. Such is the daily treatment of Rwanda ’s royal cows that have become living symbols of the nation’s cultural heritage.
With their long and crescent-shaped horns, the Inyambo cows graze at the King’s Palace Museum in Nyanza and at the homes of some of Rwanda’s richest people, including President Paul Kagame.
The breed is descended from the distinctive Ankole cattle of East Africa and is also found in neighboring Uganda and Burundi. The Inyambo have long been associated with nobility, raised in royal courts where they symbolized wealth, prestige and power.
“They’re not for milk, they’re not for meat. They were just used as decorations around the palaces,” said museum curator Bigira Junior.
Even though the monarchy no longer exists in Rwanda, so revered are the cows that the traditional gifting and exchanging them among kingdoms has been embraced by Kagame. A
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