Welcome to Caplaki Artisan Village, Azizi Life Experience & Iby’wacu Cultural Village.
A diversity of traditional handicrafts is produced in rural areas of Rwanda ranging from basketry, traditional wood carvings to paintings and ceramics. The Best 3 areas being an artisan cooperative in Kanama, a town just 15 minutes outside Gisenyi on Ruhengeri-Gisenyi road, Cow-dung paintings made in villages of Nyakarimbi near Rusumo Falls and the handicraft shop at the national museum in Nyanza, Huye District.
These handicrafts, paintings and well-designed nesting baskets (called uduseke) can be bought in gifts shops in Kigali, the country’s capital. Price compare before you buy. There are sharp differences in prices between stores! The best-priced shop for handicrafts is underneath the Librarie Caritas near the BCDI bank (the tallest building in town). The Caplaki artisan cooperative in the valley next to Kiyovu can be more expensive.
Rwanda has had a rich cultural heritage for the past few centuries. Rwanda performing arts play an important part in maintaining the cultural tradition of Rwanda. Dance and music have always been an important form of expression of the Rwandan people. Both instrumental and vocal music, as popular Rwandan performing arts, has gained an eminent position for itself in the past decades.