She is outspoken, kind, and never gives up—that is the true definition of Aline Gahongayire, the golden voice of the gospel music industry in Rwanda. A lot is said and written about Gahongayire, always in the news for this reason or that. If it is not her personal life, it is about a gesture to support someone, or a new song that has hit the airwaves. She never disappoints. She always has something up her sleeve but above all, she always soars above it all. Gahongayire is a force to reckon with in the music industry and her views are always considered by the media, or sometimes not, like in April 2019 when she found herself in the middle of a storm after a video of her emerged seemingly denigrating Rwandan media. Gahongayire says Covid-19 caught everyone off guard, but it was an opportunity for her to revisit her life, take time to pray and plan the future. Some showbiz journalists vowed to give her a blackout after she said that she could not break the news about her high-profile divorce in 2017, on Rwandan media, leaving them to speculate, until she said it in an interview with Voice of America (VOA), in Washington DC, almost two years later. The “Nzakomeza” star said she could only do it on VOA or BBC and not the likes of local news stations. Journalists called her out on ‘arrogance and misplaced pride’ at the time. The 35-year-old gospel singer moved past the incident and today, she continues to produce songs and also make a difference in society. Starting out Gahongayire started her music career in 2000 at Zion Temple, as a member of the resident choir Asaph, but in 2008, she decided to break free and start a solo career. Since then, she has never looked back. “I was 12 years old when I joined Asaph Choir. In 2008, I started my solo career. My first song was ‘Hari Impamvu’. I can never forget that,” recalls Gahongayire as she sings the melodious song. “It was my first song and I loved it very much,” she says, adding that she wrote the song in 2006 or 2007, after featuring in the movie, Ikigeragezo cy’ubuzima, which was her major breakthrough. After going solo, Gahongayire, who was born in the then Gitarama Prefecture, in December, 1986, never looked back, releasing song after song, but doing music alone was not enough. She started thinking about the difference she could make in society. Finding purpose In September 2014, Gahongayire and her then husband Gabriel Gahima, lost their baby, Ineza, whom she had just given birth to, and this became her turning point. Her baby, Ineza, became an inspiration for her to do good. Ineza in Kinyarwanda means doing good. “After losing my baby girl, Ineza, I said what can I do? Maybe she could have become this or that? That is when I started doing something small with women and kids,” she says. At the end of 2014, Gahongayire got inspired to do even more. She started paying school fees for 100 kids annually, while still supporting vulnerable women. “I said to myself, what can I do to make it big? So, I said, let me change the name to ‘Ndineza Organisation’, still inspired by her daughter, with a focus on supporting women or mothers and vulnerable children. The organisation kept evolving as she added new aspects, but still with a purpose of healing and supporting women and children. In 2019, she started an initiative dubbed, ‘Mvura nkuvure’, a women-to-women project which seeks to help women heal by listening, talking and communicating to each other. That same year she embarked on another project dubbed ‘We for Love’. “We started with a young girl called Shadia. I don’t know if you remember the story but yes, that is how ‘We for Love’ started,” Gahongayire says. Gahongayire met Shadia Ufitikirezi, who at the time was 15, selling bananas on the roadside to take care of her siblings after they were abandoned by their father. Ufitikirezi was selling bananas after school, while attempting to read her books by streetlight. Her plight touched the singer and she decided to help her. Through ‘We for love’, Gahongayire raised funds to support Ufitikirezi and her siblings. The initiative turned their lives around. “We are now helping some people to get wheelchairs and others to get medical insurance. We will continue by God’s grace,” she says. “We do all this to change people’s lives. We are in this world but you know this world is not really perfect, but what we have to do is to try and just do something which can change someone’s life,” Gahongayire says. She says that for her, it is a gift God has given her, to give love and to help the people live the life they would love to live. She works with local government officials to identify vulnerable groups to support. Today she has over 120 students whom she pays school fees for, as well as 20 girls who gave birth at the age of 12 or 13, whom they take care of, under the Mimi Zawadi Ya Africa initiative founded by Ndineza organisation. Gahongayire says the girls have horrifying stories. The ‘Mvura nkuvure’ sessions have so far benefited about 160 women. She says they follow up on the children to see how they progress, and once they are done with school, they find jobs for them. Some of the beneficiaries work with the organisations. Working with Niyo Bosco Niyo Bosco and Aline Gahongayire automatically connected when the visually impaired talented music singer first came into the limelight in 2019. The singer, who was discovered by journalist, Irene Murindahabi, caught Gahongayire’s attention immediately and she wanted to meet him. As soon as they met, the two connected and started collaborating on different projects. “He is a special and amazing guy. He has an open heart and the talent,” Gahongayire says, adding that though he is visually impaired, he is massively intelligent and talented. She says that the moment they met, they agreed to do a song together. However, it took a year to plan and release the song, which is now out. The song is called, Izindi mbaraga. “It’s an amazing song. We took time to know each other before doing the project and now I would like everybody to listen to this song. “It is not just a song. It is more than a song because it has a story behind,” she says, adding that the message encourages people not to give up, to keep pushing and get there. Gahongayire says they both wrote the song when they met one evening. It wasn’t just a collaboration, rather a song inspired by a divine connection between herself and Niyo. She says they have many projects together. Managing the limelight With her life always in focus, Gahongayire says she believes and trusts God to go through everything. “I always put my trust in God. The first thing I do is to say ‘Lord have your way in me’,” she says, adding that whatever she does is guided by God, whether it is music, charity or acting. “There is no pressure because I believe in God, I trust in God, so every day I say Lord, just guide me, show me the way, guide me every single day,” the singer says. She says this year, she is looking to go back into acting, with a movie project in the pipeline. Gahongayire says Covid-19 caught everyone off guard but for her, it was an opportunity to revisit her life, take time to pray and plan the future. As such, she has a number of music projects lined up, including collaborations with regional and continental artistes, alongside the planned movie. “I have a lot of projects, what I ask for is the favour of God,” she says. Gahongayire encourages girls to strive to be the very best of themselves and stop listening to cynics who judge them. She said she personally doesn’t judge girls or refer to them as ‘slay queens’ because that is a phase in life they go through, before discovering their full potential.
