Paremiology is the study of proverbs. This repository brings together a suite of digital projects dedicated to preserving and sharing Rwandan oral tradition — from centuries-old proverbs (imigani) to the strategic depth of Igisoro, Rwanda's traditional board game.
Each project serves as both a cultural archive and a living tool, making indigenous knowledge accessible to a global audience while keeping it rooted in its original context.
website/ — Rwandan Proverbs Collection
Live at rwandanproverbs.com
A curated, searchable collection of traditional Rwandan sayings. Each proverb is presented with context and cultural significance, bridging the gap between oral tradition and the digital age.
- Built with the Doks documentation theme
- Deployed via GitHub Pages
- Categories: African Paremiology, Proverb of the Day, Cultural Purpose
bacumugani/ — Proverb Bot
An automated bot that shares Rwandan proverbs on social media, drawing from a curated dataset of traditional sayings in Kinyarwanda.
- Dataset:
rwandan_proverbs.json— structured proverb collection - Platform: Twitter/X integration
- Stack: Python
mancala/ — Igisoro
A Python implementation of Igisoro, the Rwandan variant of the Mancala family of board games. Igisoro is a traditional strategy game played on a board with 32 pits and 128 seeds, deeply embedded in Rwandan social life.
- Full game logic with capture rules faithful to traditional Igisoro
- Computer opponent with strategic AI
- Terminal-based interface
"Umugani umwe ntubuza undi." — One proverb does not prevent another.
Rwanda's oral tradition carries centuries of accumulated wisdom. Proverbs (imigani) served as law, education, and social commentary. As these traditions face the pressures of modernization, digital preservation becomes essential — not as a museum piece, but as a living, evolving practice.
This project is part of Nsubiza Ltd's mission to build purpose-driven technology for Africa's digital future.
This project is under active development. Contributions are welcome — whether you have proverbs to add, translations to improve, or code to contribute.
This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.