Rwandan singer and cultural entrepreneur Andersonne Uwineza describes herself as a fruit of the country that raised her, and it is not a poetic line for effect. It is the foundation of her work. Everything she builds, from performance platforms to cultural nights and a consultancy, is rooted in a childhood shaped by local music, school stages and a desire to belong in any space that celebrated art. ALSO READ: Rocky.Try: The multihyphenate style icon bridging fashion, performance in Kigali Uwineza grew up watching Cécile Kayirebwa on Rwanda Television, Destiny’s Child on rotation and heartfelt soprano lines in the Saint-André chapel choir. She went where performance lived. Football fields with school dance crews. Church pews with eager young singers. Theatre rooms with people who rehearsed until a piece settled in the body. Those early encounters shaped the artist and businesswoman she is now. Her current life moves between stages, rehearsal studios and the cultural programmes she curates. Ask her what she enjoys and she lights up. Rehearsals are a thrill. Working with live bands is her playground. She loves arranging sound, directing musicians and seeing artists transform once they understand the power of preparation. ALSO READ: Rwanda’s new sports city sets pace for urban growth and creative economies in Africa She talks about it with the kind of joy usually reserved for people who have found their calling. “My fire comes on when I am shaping sound with a band,” she told The New Times. “Once artists rehearse even for three or four days, they refuse to go on stage without it. You bond. You communicate. The music breathes.” Uwineza’s other love is helping people, which earned her the nickname “the fixer.” After years of building relationships across media, venues and creative circles, artists began coming to her with all kinds of questions: reaching radio stations, finding a videographer, launching a podcast, navigating taxes. She connects the dots effortlessly and has now turned that instinct into a consultancy service she offers selectively. Much of her mission, she said, comes from the gaps she sees in the system. Rwanda’s creative industry is young, energetic and full of possibility, but it is also fragile. The upside is the freedom to build from scratch. Artists can try new formats and create their own lanes. Institutions notice talent fast and are open to collaboration. The downside is the lack of structure. There are few managers, few seasoned A and R professionals, new institutions and limited understanding of what creatives need to grow. “We do not have a cultural center in Rwanda, yet we say we want young people to be mentally well,” Uwineza said. “Where do they go without alcohol involved? Where do they express themselves? People do not understand why you need money to build these spaces.” The financial strain, she says, is a reality every creative in a developing country faces. There are no dedicated funds for artists, and art is rarely treated as a commodity worth investing in when communities still grapple with basic needs. Music videos demand budgets that performance fees cannot match. Even the legends who shaped the industry struggle to monetise their work. Many artists build careers on unstable ground while trying to keep creating. For Uwineza, touring and cultural export offer a way forward. She believes artists need to earn both at home and beyond Rwanda’s borders in order to reinvest in the creative spaces the country still lacks. Her work is an attempt to model that. Through The Andersonne Experience, she has created platforms that help artists prepare for touring. She calls the performance branch Volume, and it is where she develops artists through rehearsed, intentional, full-band shows. Her early collaborations show how powerful that model is. E.T., Sema Sole, Ariel Wayz and others stepped into new territory under her direction and delivered performances that earned them attention from global cultural institutes and local venues. Another creation is Rota, her cultural night at The Circle Kigali. It began as a digital idea to help children reconnect with Kinyarwanda stories and grew into an intergenerational space that draws both locals and foreigners searching for identity, language and heritage. What she imagined for five to 12-year-olds is now a Monday gathering of dancers, elders, young professionals, diaspora kids and curious visitors who want to rediscover what was once passed down naturally. Her vision for Rota includes separate tracks for children, teenagers and adults, and she is careful to document the stories she finds. Rwanda only has a recorded list of about 30 tales, a number she called shocking. She sees Rota as a place where communities decide what to keep, what to evolve, and how to build a cultural memory that holds everyone. Across every project is a recurring idea. Rwanda’s creative industry needs systems, spaces and capital, but it also needs people willing to build them while the country is still defining what its cultural future looks like. Uwineza hopes to meet that need through her ventures by helping artists grow their craft, understand the business behind it, and reach audiences that can lift their work beyond Kigali. “I know I am doing the right thing,” she said. “If twenty of us push like this, I cannot wait to see where we will be in our fifties.” For the full conversation and deeper insight into her journey, creative philosophy and ideas for Rwanda’s cultural future, check out the complete video interview.
