00:02Music and poetry. It's a good life for Rwanda's royal cows that have become living symbols of the nation's cultural
00:09heritage.
00:13With their long crescent-shaped horns, this herd of the renowned Inyambo breed graze at the King's Palace Museum in
00:21Nyanza.
00:22They can also be found at the homes of some of Rwanda's richest people, including President Paul Kagame.
00:30The royal cows, the Inyambo cows. Those are more or less the precious things that the King definitely had around
00:37his possessions.
00:39So those are more or less sacred symbols around the palaces.
00:43So they are big, but they are distinctive in a way. How? They have the long horns.
00:50The monarchy no longer exists in Rwanda, but as the country seeks more tourists,
00:55it's investing heavily in places like the King's Palace Museum, where the much pampered cows are the main attraction.
01:02So we talked about the ponds being addressed to the cows.
01:06So they basically addressed them to the cows to be more calm and docile.
01:11So while singing, I think they would really, really make them calm.
01:15You see the brushing, the way they brushed their coats.
01:17That was more or less taming them, more or less to be a little bit calmer,
01:22so that they could be relatable to people.
01:24Remember, they would be loved and cherished.
01:30And you can't love something from afar. You have to get close to it.
01:34Not for milk or meat, the cows would just be used as decor around the palaces.
01:40Their beauty also shapes the traditional dances of women in Rwanda.
01:45So traditionally, when women are dancing, in a way, you'll notice that they tend to rise their arms a little
01:51bit wide.
01:52So those would basically, they are more or less mimicking the different shapes of the royal cows.
01:57So that dance is more or less in a way to portray the beauty of the royal cows.
02:02Not their beauty per se, but the beauty of the royal cows basically.
02:06That is why they do a lot of that movement of the hands in the way.
02:10So revered are the cows that a local newspaper once described
02:14President Kagami's practice of giving them to heads of state as inyamba diplomacy.
02:18To be continued...
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