Between the year 1091 and 1124, King Gihanga Ngomijana, known as the founding father of Rwanda went hunting. He killed an animal called "Impwi”- a specie from the antelope family living in high altitude forests – and dried its hide. 

His wives; Nyamususa and Nyirampirangwe fought to have the hide when the former’s daughter, Nyirarucyaba came to rescue her. She took a stick that had been used to dry the hide and hit her pregnant step-mother in the abdomen. She was almost due, so she died but her child survived.

Nyirarucyaba had to flee from home after the incident because she thought her father was going to hurt her in return. She went to a far away forest where she met a man named Kazigaba, a potter whom they lived together.

Kazigaba was also a farmer, and he had a garden of millet right next to his home. One day, an animal they had never seen before came and grazed his crops. The next day, it came and gave birth. When Nyirarucyaba approached to take a better view, she saw white liquids dropping from its udder. She licked on the ground and found it tasty. Her husband had feared to try it out but later gave in and also found the liquid nice.

With time, they noticed the animal was harmless and decided to bring it in their house. But the white liquids were no longer dropping, so Nyirarucyaba tried milking it but in the same way its newborn was sucking the udder. When it worked, they milked it and never stopped. Historians say that animal was a cow, and the liquid milk.

Some days later, Kazigaba decided to visit the king and let him know he was staying with his daughter before he finds it out himself, and he took some milk for him in the calabash, hoping he would appreciate it. Indeed, he sipped on the milk and felt better after days of having abdominal pain.

The king then ordered that his servants confiscate the cow, but they found out that actually, there were hundreds in the area where Kazigaba lived. They then brought them to the Kingdom; thanks to them we have more than 13 million of them today, because of how valuable they quickly became.

In pre-colonial Rwanda, livestock farming was common but the most precious domestic animals were cows.

Maurice Mugabowagahunde, a Historian told The New Times in an interview that although people reared chicken, goats, sheep, and kept bees, cows were given more value because of their importance in different aspects which were political, economical and for people’s wellbeing.

"For instance, dowry was a cow; good friends would gift each other cows. Supporting your friend was to give them a cow so they can also prosper,” Mugabowagahunde said.

Cows would produce meat for food, milk that would be drunk or fermented into ghee, and hides that people would wear. In markets where barter trade was practiced, the most precious items were the ones to be exchanged for cows.

"Cows were exchanged for hoes, crops and beads. Approximately, to buy a cow one had to bring eight to nine hoes. In some areas, it had to be 20 or 60.

Cows were also a form of currency from the 15th century until 1954, when King Mutara III Rudahigwa ended the practice. Servants made agreements with wealthy families to pay them with a cow or many in exchange of the work done. Their duties varied from taking care of cows to carrying their lords or ladies when they had to travel for long distances.

Despite efforts of the first and second republics to end cattle keeping, it remains a decent practice. They had branded it a "culture for the Tutsi,” and it resulted into a massive drop in cattle population. 

"However, after the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, cattle keeping was renewed and people were encouraged to do it in enclosed kraal villages. There aren’t so many but the ones being reared have a good produce,” Mugabowagahunde said.

Cows, in that case, were a measure of wealth and class, and in some parts of the country, they still are. If you want to wish someone well, you say "gira inka”, and when you want to thank them dearly you say "nguhaye inka” for "I give you a cow/cows”.

People still greet each other with "amashyo” for "have thousands of cows. To have someone go beyond wishing you to have cows and actually gift them to you is still regarded as the best gesture of friendship and appreciation.

That is why even today, some families still exchange cows to mark major milestones, like in dowry or as precious gifts.

On Tuesday, President Kagame welcomed Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the Commander for the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) Land Forces at his farm, where he gifted him with 10 Inyambo cows.

Cows in the Rwandan culture are not just any gift and they cannot be given to anyone. Almost a thousand years after what is now Rwanda saw a cow, it is still valuable and precious.

Muhoozi is not the first person to receive such a gift from President Kagame. His father did in 2011 and the late John Pombe Magufuli did in 2016, among other people.

In 2006, the Government of Rwanda introduced a nationwide programme dubbed Girinka, where poor families are given cows as a way to tackle child malnutrition. In 2020, an estimated 400,000 cows had been distributed across the country.

President Kagame received Lt Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba at his farm where he gifted him with Inyambo cows on Tuesday on March 15.

Some Inyambo cows in Kagame's farm.