Densely populated, extraordinarily youthful, and predominantly rural are all descriptions which
come to mind when thinking about the population of Rwanda. It is the most densely populated
country on the African mainland with 459 people per square kilometer of land area. Rwanda’s
thousand hills are home to a population of more than 11 million growing at 2.35% annually
(World Bank 2014). Rural-dwelling Rwandans are a demographic majority at over 70% of the
population, but constitute a political periphery. While scarcity of land, a lack of incomegenerating
activities, and countless legal regulations plague all of Rwanda, the rural areas are
especially precarious and vulnerable. Residents of Kigali, the urban capital of Rwanda, are
closer to the center of power which controls and shapes social life. The contradictions of urban
and rural life are refracted in contemporary media, offering a site at which we can access central
concerns of public culture.