{{Short description|Rwandan author, stage director, actor and dancer (born 1969)}}{{Infobox person | name = Dorcy Rugamba | birth_name = Rugamba | birth_date = September 1969 | birth_place = Kigali | citizenship = Rwanda | education = National University of Rwanda | alma_mater = Catholic University of Louvain | occupation = Actor | known_for = artistic director | children = 3 }}
{{use dmy dates|date=February 2025}} {{use British English|date=February 2025}} '''Dorcy Rugamba''' (born 1969) is a Rwandan author, actor, dancer, and stage director. Being a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which his parents and most of his family were murdered, much of his work is focused on this and other genocides. He has also acted in films. He founded the Rwanda Arts Initiative and the Kigali Triennial. His 2024 memoir dedicated to his absent family, ''Hewa Rwanda, une lettre aux absents'' is being presented in English translation as a performance accompanied by music, called ''Hewa Rwanda, Letter to the Absent'', premiering in February 2025 at the Adelaide Festival in Australia.
==Early life and education== Dorcy Rugamba was born in Rwanda in 1969,<ref name=africities>{{cite web | title=Dorcy Rugamba Archives | website=Africities The most important democratic gathering in Africa | url=https://africities.org/speakers/dorcy-rugamba/ | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref> the son of Cyprien and Daphrose Rugamba. Cyprien Rugamba (a Hutu man) was a writer, choreographer, composer, and museum curator, and Daphrose was a Tutsi woman.<ref name=automne>{{cite web | title=Dorcy Rugamba | website=Festival d'Automne | url=https://www.festival-automne.com/en/artists/dorcy-rugamba | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref> The couple introduced the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and the Emmanuel Community to Rwanda in 1990.<ref name=lacroix2015>{{cite web | last=Lesegretain | first=Claire | title=L'Église se penche sur la sainteté d'un couple rwandais | website=La Croix | date=16 September 2015 | url=https://www.la-croix.com/Religion/Actualite/L-Eglise-se-penche-sur-la-saintete-d-un-couple-rwandais-2015-09-16-1357038 | language=fr | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref>
Dorcy was introduced to the performing arts by his father.<ref name=automne/> He trained in the Rwandan traditional dance, Intore.<ref name=africities/>
He first studied pharmacy at the National University of Rwanda.<ref name=africities/>{{efn|Source says that he also studied at the Catholic University of Louvain; however, this institution ceased to exist in 1969, so it may have been Université libre de Bruxelles?<ref name=africities/>}} While Rugamba, aged around 25 at that time, was visiting an aunt in southern Rwanda, at 10am on 7 April 1994 his family home in Kigali was stormed by Hutu militia. This was a day after the assassination of the president, which marked the start of the Rwandan genocide.<ref name=lacroix2015/> Soldiers rounded up everyone in the home at the time: the six children of Cyprien and Daphrose, including two girls aged nine and seven, and their six-year-old cousin, along with a family employee and his parent. They were all killed by machine guns, apart from one of Rugamba's teenage brothers, who had been covered up by the others' bleeding bodies. After the soldiers had left, the boy made his way to the phone and called Rugamba. After being told what had happened, he fled the country, first to Burundi and eventually to Paris, and then later to Belgium. Over 100 days, up to a million people were massacred.<ref name=sat2025/>
Dropping out of his pharmacy degree (which he was not enjoying anyway), Rugamba turned to the performing arts to help him heal and understand what had happened.<ref name=sat2025/> He studied at the Conservatoire royal de Liège in Belgium, where he won the first prize in dramatic art.<ref name=automne/><ref name=africities/>
==Career== In 1992, Rugamba founded his first theatre and dance company, Isango, in Butare, in the southern province of Rwanda.<ref name=africities/>
He co-authored the collective work ''Rwanda 94'', which was produced in 1998 a collective of artists from different disciplines and different nationalities based in Belgium called Groupov. Rugamba was one of the scriptwriters and also acted in the six-hour performance.<ref name=umurunzi2019/> ''Rwanda 94'' premiered in 1999 at the Festival d'Avignon in France, toured extensively internationally,<ref name=sat2025/> and won several awards in Belgium and France. In 2004, to mark 10 years after the Rwandan genocide, the work was presented in Butare, Kigali, and Bisesero, in Rwanda.<ref name=africities/>
In 2001, he founded the "Urwintore" Workshops in Kigali, for performing arts education, creation, and research.<ref name=africities/>
In 2005, he co-directed and performed in ''L'Instruction'', a play by Peter Weiss based on the trial of the Auschwitz perpetrators.<ref name=automne/><ref>{{cite web | title=Bouffes du Nord | website=THEATREonline | url=https://www.theatreonline.com/Spectacle/L-instruction/17500 | language=fr | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref> This work was performed in Rwanda, France, Belgium, England, Japan, and the United States.<ref name=africities/>
Rugamba worked with Peter Brook's company,<ref name=ispa/> and with Rosa Gasquet and Swiss director Milo Rau, between 2004 and 2008.<ref name=africities/> He has also worked with the Belgian National Theatre.<ref name=umurunzi2019/>
In 2007 he wrote and produced ''Investigation'', based on The Holocaust, describing how a country deals with trauma. Featuring only Rwandan actors, the play was staged internationally, including Brussels, Paris, New York, Chicago, and Yokohama.<ref name=umurunzi2019/>
Rugamba wrote the play ''Bloody Niggers!'', which was performed in 2007 at the Théâtre national Wallonie-Bruxelles<ref>{{cite web | title=4 Jacques Delcuvellerie, | publisher=theatre-contemporain.net | date=10 March 2007 | url=https://www.theatre-contemporain.net/spectacles/Bloody-Niggers/ | language=fr | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref><ref name=africities/> and reprised in 2016 in Hamburg, Germany.<ref>{{cite web | last=McEwen | first=Isabelle | title=Bloody Niggers! | website=Isabelle McEwen | date=23 September 2019 | url=https://mcewen.eu/en/portfolio/bloody-niggers/ | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref> He also wrote ''Retour de Kigali''.<ref name=umurunzi2019/>
In 2010, he staged ''Return to Paradise'' at a farm in Yvelines, France. A briefer version, called ''Market Place'', was presented in the same year. He directed a new work, ''Gamblers: or the Last War of the Hungry Soldier'', which premiered in April 2011 at the Zuiderspershuis in Antwerp, Belgium.<ref name=africities/><ref>{{cite book | last=Plastow | first=Jane | title=A History of East African Theatre, Volume 2 | chapter=Francophone Theatre: Burundi, Djibouti and Rwanda | publisher=Springer International Publishing | publication-place=Cham | date=2021 | isbn=978-3-030-87730-9 | doi=10.1007/978-3-030-87731-6_1 | page=1–76}} See [https://ouci.dntb.gov.ua/en/works/ldN1YbD7/ refs]</ref>
The Rwanda Arts Initiative, founded by Rugamba in 2012, has developed several of his projects.<ref name=ispa/>
In 2018, he developed, along with Hamburg artists Yolander Gutiérrez and Jens Dietrich, an interdisciplinary show called ''Planet Kigali'', described as "a fusion of Rwandan tradition and contemporary dance". The show premiered on 12 December 2018 at Kampnagel in Hamburg, Germany.<ref>{{cite web | title=Planet Kigali | website=M.Bassy | date=12 December 2018 | url=https://m-bassy.org/en/programm/planet-kigali | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref>
In 2019 he created the opera ''Umurinzi'' ("the guardian"), to commemorate 25 years of the Tutsi genocide, and inspired by Rwandan tradition called "Guterekera". ''Umurunzi'' was performed at the Kigali Convention Centre. The script is based on testimonies of Genocide survivors. The play was produced in four languages: Kinyarwanda (the official language of Rwanda), English, French, and Kiswahili, an East African language. The opera was also shown on Rwanda Television, and part of it is available on YouTube.<ref name=umurunzi2019>{{cite interview|first= Dorcy| last= Rugamba | interviewer-last=Nsabimana | interviewer-first=Eddie | title=Rugamba on creating memories among Genocide survivors through performing arts | website=The New Times | date=13 April 2019 | url=https://www.newtimes.co.rw/article/165738/Lifestyle/rugamba-on-creating-memories-among-genocide-survivors-through-performing-arts | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref><ref>{{youtube|jAQ5QVyBqvE|Umurinzi}}</ref>
By 2019 he had produced seven plays about genocide.<ref name=umurunzi2019/> In March 2020, he created ''Les restes suprêmes'', focused on the African heritage of European museums, which he produced and performed at the Dakar Biennale in 2022.<ref name=automne/><ref name=ispa/>
In October 2020, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, he began a collaboration with Mauritanian film director Abderrahmane Sissako to stage the opera ''Le vol du Boli'', with music by English musician Damon Albarn.<ref name=ispa/>
===''Hewa Rwanda''=== In March 2024, his memoir dedicated to his absent family<ref name=automne/> and as a gift to his children,<ref name=sat2025/> ''Hewa Rwanda, une lettre aux absents'', was published by Éditions JC Lattès.<ref name=automne/> It was widely praised, and nominated for the Prix Renaudot.<ref name=ispa/> The book was published in English as ''Hewa Rwanda, Letter to the Absent''.<ref name=tnwb2024>{{cite web | title=Hewa Rwanda Lettre aux absents • Dorcy Rugamba Majnun | website=Théâtre National | date=17 October 2024 | url=https://www.theatrenational.be/en/activities/3823-hewa-rwanda-lettre-aux-absents-o-dorcy-rugamba-majnun | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref><ref name=theaterformen2024>{{cite web | title=Hewa Rwanda | website=Festival Theaterformen | date=23 June 2024 | url=https://www.theaterformen.de/en/programme-2024/hewa-rwanda | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref> In June 2024 he presented a performance of the same name at the Großes Haus theatre in Braunschweig, Germany, as part of the Festival Theaterformen,<ref name=theaterformen2024/> and in October at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord as part of the {{ill|Festival d'automne à Paris|fr}}.<ref name=nord>{{cite web | title=Hewa Rwanda | website=Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord | url=https://www.bouffesdunord.com/en/season-section/hewa-rwanda-en | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref> together with Senegalese multi-instrumentalist Majnun, whose name means "madman" in Arabic.<ref name=tnwb2024/> A work-in-progress reading of the translated text was presented in Portland, Maine, US, on 18 January 2025,<ref>{{cite web | title=Events | website=Vibemap | url=https://vibemap.com/events/details/dac73bb2-79ed-4fb9-ab88-8be34fb6c113?theme=null | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref> ahead of being presented at the Adelaide Festival in Adelaide, Australia, in March 2025.<ref>{{cite web | title=Festival review: Hewa Rwanda – Letter to the absent |first=Farrin| last=Foster| website=InDaily| date=4 March 2025 | url=https://www.indailysa.com.au/inreview/festivals/2025/03/04/festival-review-hewa-rwanda-letter-to-the-absent | access-date=8 March 2025}}</ref> In this work, he uses art as a form of healing.<ref name=abc2025>{{cite web | last=Kelsey-Sugg | first=Anna | last2=Ellen | first2=Rosa | title=Dorcy Rugamba shares a story both devastating and hopeful in Hewa Rwanda: Letter to the Absent | website=ABC News | date=24 February 2025 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-25/hewa-rwanda-letter-to-the-absent-adelaide-festival-dorcy-rugamba/104966770 | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref> He has written about this work: "While ''Hewa Rwanda, Letter to the Absent'' addresses the genocide, questions of mourning, and a family that was nearly annihilated, I primarily wanted it not to be a commemorative text but a hymn to life, so the tone of the text deliberately embraces lightness, humour, poetry, music, and life in all its aspects". The work is a Rwanda Arts Initiative production.<ref>{{cite web | title=Letter to the absent | website=Adelaide Festival | url=https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/events/letter-to-the-absent/ | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref> The performance is also being staged three times as part of WOMADelaide, and outdoor festival of music and dance which is part of the Adelaide Festival.<ref>{{cite web | title=Hewa Rwanda | website=WOMADelaide | url=https://www.womadelaide.com.au/lineup/season-2025/hewa-rwanda | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref> In the presentation, he talks about what he learnt from his parents and what he saw, and how long it took him "to accept the unacceptable". By presenting such works, he remains close to those who are absent, honouring their lives and finding beauty and poetry in the world.<ref name=nord/>
===Film=== Rugamba has also appeared on screen, both as himself and as an actor.<ref>{{imdb name|6313598}}</ref>
He is a narrator in the 2016 feature documentary about his parents, ''J'entrerai au ciel en dansant'' (''I'll Enter Heaven Dancing'').<ref>{{cite web | title=J'entrerai au ciel en dansant ( 2016-12-26 (FR) ) | website=Peliplat | date=26 December 2016 | url=https://www.peliplat.com/en/library/movie/pp14785746/j-entrerai-au-ciel-en-dansant | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Cyprien et Daphrose Rugamba, l'amour jusqu'au bout | website=magazine-zelie | date=19 September 2017 | url=https://www.magazine-zelie.com/single-post/2017/09/19/cyprien-et-daphrose-rugamba-lamour-jusquau-bout | language=fr | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=J'entrerai au ciel en dansant! | website=Communauté de l'Emmanuel | date=21 December 2016 | url=https://emmanuel.info/jentrerai-ciel-dansant/ | language=fr | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref>
He plays the character of Innocent in the 2021 Afrofuturist film ''Neptune Frost'', co-directed by Rwandan playwright and actress Anisia Uzeyman and American musician and multimedia artist Saul Williams (who wrote the screenplay).<ref>{{cite web | title=Neptune Frost Seeks Liberation through Afrofuturist Anticolonialism | website=Paste Magazine | date=19 April 2023 | url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/saul-williams/neptune-frost-review | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref>
==Other activities== In 2012, Rugamba founded the Rwanda Arts Initiative.<ref name=ispa/>
In May 2022, he appeared at the Africities summit in Kisumu, Kenya,<ref name=africities/> a pan-African event held every three years in one of the five African regions.<ref>{{cite web | title=About The Summit | website=Africities| date=21 May 2022 | url=https://africities.org/about-the-summit/ | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref>
In February 2024 he founded and became artistic director of the Kigali Triennial, Kigali's inaugural arts market.<ref name=automne/><ref name=ispa/> ''Marembo'' tells of the last days of his family in Rwanda in poetic form,<ref name=africities/> and was performed at the Kigali Triennial.<ref>{{cite web | title=Kigali Triennial on Instagram: "MAREMBO BY DORCY RUGAMBA: @rugambadorcy delivered a captivating performance of MAREMBO at the #KigaliTriennial2024. A musical reading that touched hearts & souls." | website=Instagram | date=23 February 2024 | url=https://www.instagram.com/kigalitriennial/p/C3s7GH3tCiE/ | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref>
Rugamba spoke at the ISPA (International Society for the Performing Arts) 2025 New York Congress.<ref name=ispa>{{cite web | title=ISPA 2025 New York Congress – Dorcy Rugamba | website=International Society for the Performing Arts | url=https://www.ispa.org/page/congress_ny25_speaker_dorcy | access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref>
==Personal life== {{as of|2024}} Rugamba lives in Brussels and Rwanda.<ref name=automne/> He returns to his family home in Kigali each year.<ref name=nord/>
He speaks French fluently as "like his mother tongue", and writes in French. He is married and has two sons and a daughter, who were born in Belgium and go to a "normal" school there. His surviving siblings and their children still live in Rwanda, where it is "impossible to keep them away from our story", whereas his own children are able to enjoy a childhood of relative innocence.<ref name=sat2025>{{cite interview| first=Dorcy| last=Rugamba | interviewer-last=Nguyen | interviewer-first=Chantal | title=Rwandan author Dorcy Rugamba on finding the words to share about the living | website=The Saturday Paper | date=15 February 2025 | url=https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/theatre/2025/02/15/author-and-performer-dorcy-rugamba#mtr | access-date=26 February 2025|quote=This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on February 15, 2025 as "A hymn to life". }}</ref>
==Footnotes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{imdb name|6313598}} * [https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/affaires-culturelles/dorcy-rugamba-est-l-invite-d-affaires-culturelles-9587322 Dorcy Rugamba : "La langue rwandaise est l'art de la maitrise de soi"] April 2024. (in French; audio, 57 mins).
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Category:Living people Category:1969 births Category:French-language Rwandan writers Category:21st-century Rwandan actors Category:Rwandan diaspora Category:Rwandan genocide Category:Rwandan film actors Category:Rwandan dramatists and playwrights Category:People from Kigali Category:Rwandan emigrants to Belgium Category:Rwandan expatriates in Belgium