• “I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.”

    -Baruch Spinoza

    Bouton

  • "Nothing is self-evident. Nothing is given. Everything is built."

    -Gaston Bachelard

    Bouton

  • "If you think like me, you are my brother. If you don't think like me, you are my brother twice over because you open me up to a new world."

    -Amadou Hampâté Bâ

    Bouton

  • "The essential is always threatened by the insignificant."

    -René Char

    Bouton

  • "We must always try to understand our fellow man. If we exist, we must admit that he too, exists."

    -Amadou Hampâté Bâ

    Bouton

  • "The real sometimes quenches hope’s thirst. That is why, against all odds, hope survives."

    -René Char

    Bouton

  • "The problem with experts is that they do not know what they do not know."

    -Nassim Nicholas Taleb

    Bouton

  • "Listen carefully, we used to say in old Africa, everything speaks, everything is word, everything tries to communicate knowledge to us."

    -Amadou Hampâté Bâ

    Bouton

  • "The simplifying modes of knowledge mutilate more than they express the realities or the phenomena they give an account of."

    -Edgar Morin

    Bouton

  • "Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity."

    -Charles Mingus

    Bouton

  • "When you do something, know that you will have against you those who would like to do the same thing, those who would like to do the opposite, and the vast majority of those who would not do anything."

    -Confucius

    Bouton

  • "There is no simple, there is simplification. The simple is always simplified."

    -Gaston Bachelard

    Bouton

  • "The disease is not cured by saying the name of the medicine, but by taking the medicine."

    -Thomas Sankara

    Bouton

  • "Be ever vigilant, hold government accountable, struggle for peace and justice."

    -Nelson Mandela

    Bouton
Approach

APPROACH

WHY "INANGA"?


The inanga is a zither from the Rwandan tradition, also found in Burundi and Congo. Generally, the performer plays the inanga solo while singing their own texts about historical events, personal experiences or incidents of daily life. The inanga is also used during certain ceremonies. Inspired by this instrument and its musician, INANGA experts seek to contribute to the deep understanding of the social processes they encounter in the course of their work. And why not with a little poetry...

POURQUOI "INANGA"?


L’inanga est une cythare issue des traditions du Rwanda et rencontrée au Burundi et au Congo. Généralement, l’interprète joue de l’inanga en solo tout en chantant ses propres textes parlant d’événements historiques, d’expériences personnelles ou d’incidents de la vie quotidienne. L’inanga est aussi utilisé lors de certaines cérémonies. A l'image de ce musicien et de son instrument, les experts d'Inanga souhaitent contribuer à la compréhension profonde des processus sociaux qu'ils rencontrent au cours de leur travail. Et pourquoi pas avec un peu de poésie...

KWA NINI "INANGA"?


Inanga ni gitari kuva mumigenzo yu Rwanda kandi iboneka mu Burundi na Kongo. Mubisanzwe, umuhanzi akora inanga wenyine mugihe aririmba inyandiko ze zerekeye amateka, ibyabaye ku giti cye cyangwa ibyabaye mubuzima bwa buri munsi. Kimwe nuyu mucuranzi nigikoresho cye, experti ba Inanga barashaka gutanga umusanzu mugusobanura gushya kwimibereho ikorerwa. Kandi kuki utari hamwe nubusizi runaka...

Expertise

At INANGA, we view expertise as a decision-making tool instead of an instrument for depoliticizing public policies. Expertise enhances a global vision: it allows our experts to integrate the human and social dimensions of their work instead of dictating a specific technical approach.

INANGA leans heavily on a philosophy of mutual learning; this means we seek to learn as much as we share and we would rather admit it to not knowing something rather than make up an overly complicated technical excuse. We pride ourselves on emphasizing human processes; while we recognize the importance of maintaining an open mind toward development concepts, they cannot replace the advantages of cultural contexts and individual and collective stories, etc.

Mutual Learning

Human Approach & Common Sense

INANGA does not understand complexity to mean using complicated tools or approaches. Instead, complexity is understood as a tool to take into account the different levels and elements of a social process and understanding the perspectives of the different actors involved. As a result, we often ask questions guided by common sense and propose equally sensible solutions and approaches. We are motivated by a desire to understand the different social, economic and political contexts and dynamics that each project entails. In our quest for knowledge, we respect stakeholder’s points of view and practices, even if they are outside of the scope of commonly accepted technical approaches.

INANGA's work aims to accept the complexity of social, political, and economic processes rather than simplify or avoid them. Complexity must not "take the place of simplicity" nor "search for completeness" which often analyses the different elements in isolation, cutting them off from the entire  system. Complex thought is a matter of both distinguishing (but not isolating) the elements and understanding everything that links them together while taking note of the interactions that make up the whole. This is one of the major challenges of our world that is further revealed in the context of crises and global upheavals where we cannot expect to find ready-made or simplistic solutions.

Accepting & Understanding Complexity

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