One day, we went to a The King’s Palace Museum in Nyanza, Rwanda. There were three parts. One part was the traditional palace, the next was the royal cattle, and finally was the modern palace.

My favorite part was the royal cattle. First we saw the big adult cattle, and then we saw their baby cattle. When we saw the adult cattle, the royal cattle caretaker came and let us in. He brought a pregnant cow. The royal cattle are special because they all have horns on their heads and beads on their heads. They are also very smart and sweet, like pet dogs. The royal calves were like this too. Their ages ranged from five months to one month. When they reached a year old, their horns were fully grown.

Before that, we saw the traditional hut complex. First we saw the king’s large hut. It had a bed for two. Even though the wife was not allowed to climb over the husband to get into the bed, the husband could climb over the wife. Next we saw the milk hut. At the front were many jugs. The biggest was used for shaking milk to make butter. One jug had the purpose of storing milk. A different one was used in collecting milk from the cow. Another was used in drinking for the adults. An alternative jug was used in drinking for the children. The smallest one was used for the little babies to drink from. Every family had a pot to shake milk into butter with. When their daughter got married, she took one with her. This tradition still goes on today. Next we saw the beer hut. The pots there were made to store beer and to test beer.

With Milk Jugs

On the King’s Thrown

Jug from the Beer Hut

The next museum was the modern palace. I mainly looked at the maps of Rwanda’s kingdom. In the 19th century, their kingdom extended into the D.R.C, Uganda, Brundi, and Tanzania, but when Europe divided Africa, their kingdom shrunk.

It was all very nice.