UMWAMI KIMIRANTARE BATINYA started writing at an early age and is now a rising poet. Dusenge Jean de la Croix, poetically known as Umwami Kimirantare Batinya, is a 22-year-old Rwandan boy who is currently doing his second year in software engineering at the Adventist University of Central Africa and is a poet as well. In an interview with The New Times, Dusenge explained that the name Umwami Kimirantare Batinya was inspired by one of his poems, which reflected Rwandan culture in the past. When a young boy was learning to be a gentleman, then he was required to write a poem describing his character and personality. According to Dusenge, the name signifies the feared king who is invincible. Dusenge said he started writing poems at a young age when he was still in high school and felt the spark to continue writing poetry. When asked what he enjoys about poetry, Dusenge said that he likes the fact that some of the poems he creates speak for people who are unable to express the sort of life they live. “I also love it when Im writing anything to warn or wake people up with dimmed writing,” Dusenge continued. The first poem he ever wrote was called “Fear.” He wrote in it in 2017 in his senior five of high school. “It is the poem that introduced me to the whole concept of writing poems and other written messages.” “It is life, just life. As a diverse thing, life inspires me in everything,” said Dusenge. Being a poet, Dusenge writes two styles of poetry, namely, free verse poetry which is a poetry style that doesnt use a strict meter or rhyme scheme, and Narrative poetry, which is a poetry style that tells a story, often making the voices of a narrator and characters too. “The message I try to convey in most of my poems is to draw attention to some of lifes challenges. People have a variety of problems, the majority of which are emotional in nature. Some people, for example, are unable to voice how difficult it is for them to cope with their love lives, their historical backgrounds, or some of the events they have encountered,” said Dusenge. “I strive to tackle such matters so that individuals who are unable to speak for themselves can at least listen to or read my writings and know that someone is aware of their hardships,” he continued. As an achievement, Dusenge said he wrote over 60 poems since he started writing poetry, with some of them in audio and video clips. With that in place, Dusenge has gained a large audience and many people admire his work. “I was the writer of the week of WSA (Writers pace Africa) Rwanda, another achievement,” added Dusenge. My favorite work is the first video lyrics of my poem called “Ibaruwa nandikiye imfura yanjye” (The letter to my firstborn) that was uploaded on my YouTube channel,” said Dusenge “I am most grateful for WSA because they taught me a lot of things since I joined them. There’s a big difference from what I wrote before and after I joined WSA,” said Dusenge. He added that he is also grateful for his production team because they play a significant role in helping get his work well-produced and polished. More of his work includes; something about you, pain, and many more. “Poetry in Rwanda is still a bit low, but according to my own experience, poetry plays a big role in healing hearts, educating and entertaining people, especially the youth,” said Dusenge. He added that poetry also has a place in people’s hearts since it talks about life but in a heartwarming way. The poet believes that poetry needs to be improved in Rwandan society to cherish more the culture that it holds. “Poetry is an excellent platform to help educate history and culture, especially to the youth,” said Dusenge. Poetry needs more support like festivals and other events for poetry to make it grow wider in Rwanda.” Asked about what challenges he meets, Dusenge said that his most pressing challenge is getting his work to be known or finding people to help his work get in the spotlight. “When you have talent, you have to develop it, but when you don’t have ways to get it known it can pose as a challenge,” said Dusenge The poet who is still in school aspires to release a book with his first poem collection next year “I will release my first collection of poems and go on in other contexts afterwards,” said Dusenge Dusenge advised other people who feel like writing to let their minds and hearts work together to let them express what they feel in writing. “Do you want to be a poet? Take a pen and a paper and let your mind write but write aiming to make a certain impact and bring some healing,” said Dusenge. He added that a good writer is also a good reader with inspiration from different things. One must also read to learn some skills and tricks to make one’s writing better. “With all that in place a good poet seeks advice and yearns to get feedback to improve their work,” he added.
