“Getting a safari car driver’s license is really very hard. But I was passionate about not driving a regular car, I wanted to drive a safari car … to me it felt like piloting a plane,” Rose Muhumuza says.

Akilah graduate Rose Muhumuza is the country’s first female safari jeep driver, and she’s just getting started.

As the 2003 Landcruiser trundles over the rutted dirt road, leaving a cloud of dust in its wake, a group of young boys turns to stare wide-eyed. It’s strange enough to see a safari jeep venturing off the main road to Akagera National Park, Rwanda’s only Big Five safari park, but the driver makes the sight a real attention-catcher.

Rose Muhumuza (Hospitality Management ’17) flashes a brilliant smile and honks the horn at her impromptu audience; she’s unfazed by the attention. As the first female safari jeep driver in Rwanda — one other woman became certified after her — she’s a singular sight on the roads.

If you’ve ridden in a safari jeep, you’ll know they’re as agile as tanks. Add to that tourists firing questions at you, wild animals to track, and a rough terrain, and you’ve got a tall task. But Rose’s toughest challenge is breaking down the stereotypes that dissuade women from taking the wheel.

“We don’t have pioneer female drivers,” she explains. “People don’t have in their mindset that women can drive safari jeeps. They think it’s only men. But we are also capable of driving and doing even better than men,” she adds with a smile.

“People don’t have in their mindset that women can drive safari jeeps. They think it’s only men. But we are also capable of driving and doing even better than men.”

Blazing a new trail

If anyone can blaze a path for women to follow in the safari guide industry, Rose is the perfect pioneer. A graduate of Akilah’s Hospitality Management Diploma program, Rose has achieved every goal she’s set.

Two years ago, Rose laid out two objectives: she would work at Kigali Marriott Hotel, Rwanda’s newest luxury property, and she would obtain her license to drive a safari jeep. Considering she’d never driven a car, much less a safari jeep, and was working a full-time job in addition to her studies at Akilah, she knew her goals would be tough to reach.

But Rose was determined to realize them. She attended class at Akilah in the mornings and afternoons and then went straight to her full-time job with Eco-Safaris Rwanda, where she worked until 10 p.m. or later, finally returning home to check on her younger brothers; she supports three of them. Weekends were a mix of work, studying for her tourist driver’s license, and catching up on schoolwork.

The driver’s license training took three months and required her to learn theory, perform a series of practical tests, pass a final exam, and complete a complicated registration process. She recalls struggling to master the delicate balance between clutch and accelerator as well as the embarrassment of stalling out at a well-trafficked intersection. “The other male drivers can be very discouraging,” she says. “When I’m parking, they’ll tell me I should stay in the office. They know me as a hotelier, and they say that doesn’t match with driving.” Their comments only made her more determined.

“Getting a safari car driver’s license is really very hard. But I was passionate about not driving a regular car, I wanted to drive a safari car … to me it felt like piloting a plane,” she recalls. She passed her driving exam in January 2016 and has continued to train under Evariste Ntambara, the founder of Eco-Safaris Rwanda, so she can provide tour-guiding services to visitors of Rwanda’s national parks. In her final year at Akilah, she also landed her dream internship with Kigali Marriott Hotel in the Food & Beverage Department. She was on track to complete both her career goals.

“Getting a safari car driver’s license is really very hard. But I was passionate about not driving a regular car, I wanted to drive a safari car … to me it felt like piloting a plane.”

Rose saved up to purchase a house for her father and to pay for her brothers’ school fees.

‘My daughter is an example’

Rose pulls the safari car up to a four-room, mud-brick house shaded by banana and papaya trees. A wizened couple emerges from the house dressed in their Sunday best, their faces creased by smiles as they take turns embracing Rose. She introduces them as her father and stepmother. She’s purchased the house and surrounding land from money she earned before and during her Akilah studies. She’s remodeled it, wired it with electricity, and made plans for a three-room outbuilding with a kitchen and storeroom.

Rose’s dad beams at his only daughter. “I was born raising cows — this stick is my degree,” he says, holding up a staff. “I am very proud of her. Some parents do not think much of their daughters, but I don’t agree with this mindset. I’d use my daughter as an example,” he explains in Kinyarwanda, as Rose translates.

Rose assumed the mantle of responsibility early. Her mom died when she was 12 years old and her youngest brother was three. “When the teacher asked him for his mom’s name, he gave her mine,” she recalls.

Recognizing that her niece had an aptitude for school, her aunt relocated Rose to Rwanda for high school. After graduating, Rose set her sights on Akilah. “I had never even dreamed of joining any other university … I was the girl who got the highest marks at my school, so I had opportunities to go to the district university and maybe other universities, but I wanted to go to Akilah because I loved it. I knew they would equip me with different skills, and I loved hospitality.”

“I was the girl who got the highest marks at my school, so I had opportunities to go to the district university and maybe other universities, but I wanted to go to Akilah because I loved it.”

Rose, left, graduated from Akilah in November.

‘I got in twice’

Rose applied to Akilah and was accepted in 2012, but she faced a dilemma: She wanted to send her brothers to school and needed an income to support them. “So I said, ‘Let me lose my place, I will join later on.’ I kept working, and I managed to push my brothers to join school,” she explains. She reapplied to Akilah in 2014 and was admitted again. “I got in twice. That shows how much I love Akilah,” she says with a laugh.

She continued to support her brothers and financed her education with Akilah’s student loan program, which allows students to defer up to 70% of their tuition until after they graduate. “So that’s how I managed to study at Akilah, while at the same time helping my family out,” she explains.

At Akilah, Rose thrived. She was selected as an Akilah ambassador in 2016 and traveled to New York City; Washington, D.C.; and Boston to meet with Akilah supporters. “Personally I think Akilah has done a lot for me because before, I could work, but I never had a vision. Today I have a vision, and I have goals, and I believe that everything is very possible through the programs and the training I’ve done at Akilah. I’ve realized that life is what you make it … I’m very positive and confident,” she says.

“Today I have a vision, and I have goals, and I believe that everything is very possible through the programs and the training I’ve done at Akilah.”

Rose graduated from Akilah on November 10 and ticked off the last of her goals: She accepted a job offer to join Kigali Marriott Hotel as a Human Resources Generalist. She plans to stay in tourism and hospitality, building her skills with Marriott before eventually launching her own tour company. She’s also committed to setting an example for future generations of Rwandan women — to show them what is possible with grit and goals. One of her Akilah classmates recently started training to obtain her safari jeep driver’s license too, and Rose says she gets questions from men and women about her tour-guiding.

“I remember when I was still doing practicals, I would drive to my neighborhood, and everyone would come running out to see me driving by in the big safari car. They would all be talking about it on the roadside,” she says with a grin. “People can now see that a girl can drive a safari vehicle — sometimes they are laughing, but mostly they are just astonished.”