Analysis of the structure of ibyivugo by’ intore today

Abstract

The study did an analysis of the structure of ibyivugo by’ intore today. The time prior to the arrival of the colonialist, Rwandan literature was oral and found in four categories which were: king and his leadership, soldiers or worriers, cows and folk. During colonialism, many of these categories were hardly found and some were even removed. This is what happened to the war poetry which was abolished since it was built on the narrative at the battle field. Although during colonialism, war, which was the literature corner of war poetry, was removed, the art of making poems continued in different times of Rwandan history. Nowadays there is poetry of heroism which was made in 2007 during national assembly reopening. The study analyzed these poems at structure level and it was found that they are accurately matching the features of true poetry of Rwandan literature. These poems match one category of Iningwa which naturally used me. These poems were famously used in the late of 19th century on the reign of king Yuhi V Musinga and the beginning reign of king Mutara III Rudahigwa and its key feature was the use of first singular person point of view. They also used grammar, rhythm, alliteration, rhyme scheme and other literary devices that feature them to be related to the traditional Rwandan poetry. Keywords: Heroes poetry, structural analysis, National assembly (Itorero), arts of praising (poems), heroism.