Okutarama >Late tales of epic stories

Okutarama -The Silent Power of Cultures

When I was growing up as a little boy, there was this interesting tradition that used to run in my society -telling epic folk stories, called "Ebigano" and "Ebyevugo". I was around people who knew and told these folk stories, recited ebyevugo (epic poetry). I spent a significant part of my boyhood listening to these stories.

Family members, workers and sometimes neighbours used to gather in her house after dinner to sing folk songs and share riddles – in Runyankore they call it okutarama, or ugutarama in Kinyarwanda. I consider myself lucky that my formative years were spent this way and not in front of a television screen. Later in life, these experiences were to be very influential as far as my artistic sensibilities are concerned.