Rutare didn’t stop the hard work and spent sleepless nights drawing blueprints and estimates for his building projects. The structure that Pierre Rutare built in the heart of the capital, Kigali. (Courtesy) When returning home, he hired a container and shipped the furniture to Rwanda, as his company’s initial assets. Seeing an opportunity, Rutare requested for the furniture and tools. The owner, however, was planning to close the firm and needed to get rid of the furniture and tools he used. Just before leaving Belgium, he had interned at a firm owned by a Belgian architect. The building is still there but is now overshadowed by new buildings that have since come up.Īs a rookie architect, Rutare should have struggled to establish the business, but luck was on his side. It was located at the top floor of the then popular building, Kwa Bayingana, which also housed the Kenyan Embassy. When Rutare came back to Rwanda in 1988, the political situation was still tense. He opened up a private company in Kigali called “Bureau de Deux Génies” (B2G). “Stromae’s grandfather thought about his estate he didn’t necessarily want to pass on the responsibility and was still able to run it himself but at that age, he had to look at life differently,” says the cousin. Gasamagera, who was in his sixties, needed somebody by his side. Rutare was his most educated child a perfect candidate to carry on his legacy. After Stromae’s birth, Rutare didn’t stay long.Īfter his graduation, he was informed that his father wanted him to return home. She met his dad in Brussels but nobody knows where exactly or the circumstances that led to their relationship. In March 1985, Stromae was born to Miranda Marie Van Haver. Rutare holds aloft trophies in jubilation after a basketball tournament. He had the money, but he also had an extended family to look after. Gasamagera tried to support his son but could only do so much. He didn’t sleep much as he needed to be awake most of the time at least that is what he told me.” Once, he worked as a night time fuel pump attendant. He studied during the day and worked at night. His cousin says, “It is not easy at all to cope as a foreign student in Belgium without a sponsor or scholarship. Without a scholarship it was a very difficult situation-he had to think of ways to support himself. Once in Belgium, Rutare completed his high school and proceeded to university where he studied civil engineering and architecture (génie civil et architecture), at a private university and graduated around 1986. Taken completely unaware by the 19-year-old’s decision, Gasamagera couldn’t say no. He presented the documents to his father and asked for financial help to facilitate his trip. André, he ingeniously managed to acquire a passport-which wasn't easy because Tutsis were barred from obtaining travel documents-and later, a Belgian visa. Paul’s death at a tender age took a toll on Rutare, and he later decided to leave the country.ĭuring his last year in high school at St. His younger brother, Paul, died of burn wounds he suffered under circumstances that remain mysterious to date. He later moved to Kigali and enrolled at Collège St. Rutare attended Collège de Rulindo for his secondary education. Stromae’s father, Pierre Rutare (right) and his cousin Jean-Marie Vianney Rubayiza. It was hard adjusting from town life to the harsh village setting, a location that was once home to elephants.
However, Stromae’s 46-year-old cousin, who asked for anonymity, gave us selected insight into Stromae’s Rwandan roots.īorn in 1958 into a family of seven, in Nyarugenge, Kigali, the young Rutare and his family initially lived in Nyamirambo but due to the strain of living in town coupled with the political tension at the time, Gabriel Gasamagera (Stromae’s paternal grandfather), an established farmer, then moved the family to Shyorongi. Stromae’s family, however, isn’t keen on talking about Rutare or the family for that matter out of respect for other members, some of whom are also departed. His mother raised him and his four siblings in Brussels, before moving to a suburb outside the Belgian capital. He was killed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. It is said that Stromae’s father, Pierre Rutare, an architect, was absent for most of his childhood. Who is Stromae’s father? Where is his family? What’s their story?
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