The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0047/00478.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 33KB | 569 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00478}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Rwanda
Chapter 2A.   Historical Setting}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{The Director Foreign Area Studies}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{tutsi
german
rwanda-burundi
hutu
mwami
rwanda
administration
political
belgian
system
see
pictures
see
figures
see
tables
}
$Date{1990}
$Log{See Table 1.*0047801.tab
}
Title:       Rwanda
Book:        Area Handbook for Rwanda
Author:      The Director Foreign Area Studies
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1990

Chapter 2A.   Historical Setting

     The Republic of Rwanda became an independent member of the world
community of nations as recently as 1962, but its existence as a social
and political entity can be traced back through several centuries with two
distinct periods, precolonial and colonial. In the precolonial period, dating
from the 14th or 15th century to the close of the 19th century, most of the
present area of the country was gradually brought under the centralized
control of the Tutsi monarchy and was developed into a cohesive social and
political system. During a colonial period that covered slightly more than a
half-century, the area was administered successively by Germany and Belgium.
The Belgian Administration was instituted officially in 1919 under a mandate
of the League of Nations and, after 1946, was continued under a Trusteeship
Agreement of the United Nations (UN).

     Rwanda shared its colonial history with Burundi because the two
kingdoms were administratively joined by Germany into a single territory.
Historically, they had been separate, and the two administrations were unable
to develop them into a political union.

     The single most important fact in the preindependence history was the
domination of the Hutu majority by the Tutsi minority. Two periods of
colonial rule did not basically alter the traditional structure; in fact, for
reasons of expediency, the colonial administrations served to reinforce Tutsi
control.

     The colonial era did, however, foster a gradual political, social, and
economic evolution of the Hutu. Restrictions placed on the arbitrary powers
of the monarch, the introduction of a money economy, and the access of a
growing number of Hutu to some degree of education were among the factors that
contributed to the eventual dissolution of Tutsi dominance. An awakening Hutu
political consciousness during the 1950s created a momentum that resulted in
the collapse of the Tutsi monarchy in 1959 and led to political independence
as a republic on July 1, 1962.

Before Colonialism

The Period Covered by Tradition

     Little is known of the origins of the present-day inhabitants. Since
there were no written histories before the arrival of the Europeans,
information on the pre-European period is derived from investigations of
popular traditions and the oral records of the chroniclers of the royal court.

     The population is made up of three distinct ethnic groups: Twa, Hutu,
and Tutsi (see Ethnic Groups and Languages, ch. 4). The Hutu and Tutsi came
into the mountainous regions of central Africa in widely separated phases. The
Twa, the first inhabitants, are a pygmoid people believed to be related to the
pygmies of the Congo forest. Most of them live in the northern regions where
they have existed mainly as hunters and food gatherers. In 1969 they
constituted less than 1 percent of the total population.

     Hutu origins are obscure, though it is clear that they were the
principal occupants of the region at the time of the Tutsi arrival. Hutu
life centered about small-scale agriculture, and social organization was
based on the clan, with petty kings ruling over limited domains. These kings
were called Bahinza "those who cause things to grow," and their strength was
based on the popular belief that they controlled fertility. The Bahinza were
believed to be endowed with magical powers by which they could cause rain to
fall and seeds to germinate and could protect crops from insects and cattle
from disease.

     The Tutsi are believed to have first penetrated the area in the 14th or
15th century, entering from the northeast. Nomadic pastoralists, they came
not in a sudden invasion but, rather, through the process of a slow and
largely peaceful infiltration. Although far fewer in number, the Tutsi used
their possession of cattle and their more advanced knowledge of warfare as
sources of power and prestige and, in time, achieved economic, social, and
political dominance over the Hutu. Their striking physical size and
aristocratic bearing lent credibility to their claims of being divinely
ordained to rule. Over a period of time the ownership of the land was taken
from the Hutu, becoming the property of the Tutsi king, the Mwami (see Ethnic
Groups and Languages, ch. 4).

     The relationship between the Tutsi and Hutu came to be expressed in the
form of a patron-client contract called ubuhake, an agreement by which the
Hutu obtained the use of Tutsi cattle and, in return, rendered personal and
military service to the owners of the cattle.

     This agreement probably began as a simple, small-scale exchange of a cow
for land and labor, but eventually it crystallized into a feudal-type class
system in which land, cattle, and power were in the hands of the Tutsi. Hutu
peasants bound themselves to individual Tutsi lords, giving agricultural
goods and personal services in exchange for the lord's protection and use of
his cattle. The ubuhake between the ruling Tutsi minority and the subject
Hutu majority became the dominant factor in the political and social
organization.

     The Mwami, who stood at the apex of the pyramid-like political
structure, was considered to be of divine origin and was said to be "the eye
through which God looks upon Rwanda." The royal symbol of the power of the
Mwami was the kalinga, or sacred drum, on which the genitals of vanquished
enemies were hung.

     The myth of divine origin was elaborated and preserved by the royal
chroniclers of the Mwami's court. According to this myth, three
children-Kigwa, his brother Mututsi, and their sister Nyampundu-were
born in the heavens but, by accident, fell to the earth, bringing with them
fire, iron, the forge, and cattle. Kigwa married his sister and founded the
dominant Tutsi clan of the Abanyiginya. The line of descent is traced
through a series of legendary ancestors, who are called ibimanuka, "those
fallen from the heavens," to Gihanga, whose name means "founder."

     According to Tutsi tradition, Gihanga led the migration of his people
into the area of present-day Rwanda and established them in the region
between Lake Muhazi and Lake Mugesera. The area was first divided into a
number of hereditary chieftaincies, and the Mwami was only first among equals.
Gihanga is said to have designated his son Kanyaruanda as his heir and
commanded that all other descendants submit to his rule. The fact that the
other descendants were not submissive to the chosen heir is cited in the royal
mythology as the justification for the expansion, by force, of what was at
first only a small chieftaincy, centering in the region of Lake Muhazi.

     Tradition relates that, after Gihanga, there were several other Bami
(plural of Mwami), but the expansionist period was most fully initiated
by Mwami Ruganzu I Bwimba who, according to oral historians, began his reign
in the last decade of the 15th century.

     The history from the 15th through the late 19th centuries is one of
conflict and expansion. Mwami Mibambwe I Mutabazi of the mid-16th century
is credited with centralizing the monarchy and reducing neighboring chiefs to
vassalage. During this 400-year period there were frequent conflicts between
Rwanda and Burundi, creating a historical enmity which later caused the
leaders of Rwanda and Burundi to resist all attempts by the UN to unite them
politically.

     By the late 19th century Mwami Kigeri IV had established the borders
much as they existed when the Germans arrived in 189