History

Early Inhabitants

The earliest confirmed inhabitants of the region now known as Rwanda were the pygmy Twa, a group now accounting for only about one percent (1%) of Rwanda's population and playing only a marginal role in Rwandan life. The Twa were supplanted by the immigration of the forbearers of today's Hutus.

A third possible migration may have involved the Tutsis. Traditionally the Tutsis have been portrayed as a separate "Hamitic" people coming from east Africa (possibly the horn region of the modern Oromo group), although current research is inconclusive about this migration. Recent studies have shown many cultural and genetic similarities between Hutus and Tutsis, and it is thought that the differences between the two groups may be occupational rather than ethnic. Although in general, the Tutsi are seen to be the elite of the country, people have been known to switch groups, reinforcing the idea that the Hutu and Tutsi labels are labels of class or caste rather than tribe or ethnicity.

Rule under the Mwami

Modern Rwanda is believed to have begun as a small state on the shores of Lake Muhazi around the town of Buganza. Early Rwandan history is still vague, a combination of limited archaeology and oral history. The principality is said to have expanded under the rule of Cyirima who conquered the neighbouring areas of Bumbogo, Buriza, and Rukoma. Evidence shows the growing power of the rulers of Buganza during this period. However the state was soon broken up by an invasion by the Bunyoro.

Oral history states that the nation revived, centred further west on the Nduga highlands. This new state remained small and subservient to its neighbours until the late 16th century when under the rule of Ruganzu Ndori it expanded in all directions and retook Buganza. The following four rulers of Rwanda continued this rapid expansion.

In the mid-18th century, the Rwandan state became far more centralised, and the history far more precise. Expansion continued, reaching the shores of Lake Kivu. This expansion was less about military conquest and more about a migrating population spreading Rwandan agricultural techniques, social organisation and the extension of a Mwami's (king's) political control. Once this was established camps of warriors were established along the vulnerable borders to prevent incursions. Only against other well developed states such as Gisaka, Bugesera, and Burundi was expansion carried out primarily by force of arms.

Under the monarchy the economic imbalance between the Hutus and the Tutsis crystallised, a complex political imbalance emerged as the Tutsis formed into a hierarchy dominated by a Mwami or 'king'. The King was treated as a semi-divine being, responsible for making the country prosper. The symbol of the King was the Kalinga, the sacred drum hung with the genitals of conquered enemies or rebels against the King.

The Mwami main power base was control of over a hundred large estates spread through the kingdom. They would include fields of banana trees and many heads of cattle and formed the base of the rulers' wealth. The most ornate of these estates would each be home to one of the king's wives, monarchs having up to twenty. It was between these estates that the Mwami and his retinue would travel.

All the people of Rwanda were expected to do tribute to the Mwami, and this tribute was collected, in turn, by a Tutsi administrative hierarchy. Beneath the Mwami was also a Tutsi ministerial council of great chiefs, the batware b'intebe, while below them was a group of lesser Tutsi chiefs who for the large part governed the country in districts, each district having a cattle chief and a land chief. The cattle chief collected tribute in livestock, and the land chief collected tribute in produce. Beneath these chiefs were hill-chiefs and neighbourhood chiefs. Again, over 95% of hill and neighbourhood chiefs were of Tutsi descent.

Also important were military chiefs who had control over the frontier regions. They played both defensive and offensive roles, protecting the frontier and making cattle raids against neighbouring tribes. Often, the Rwandan great chief was also the army chief. Lastly, the biru or "council of guardians" was also an important part of the administration. The biru advised the Mwami on his duties where supernatural king-powers were involved. These honoured people also advised on matters of court ritual.

Taken together, all these posts from great chiefs to military chiefs and to biru member existed to serve the powers of the Mwami, and to reinforce the control of the Tutsi race in Rwanda.

The military, located in the border camps, were a mix of Hutu and Tutsi drawn from across the kingdom. This intermixing helped produce a uniformity of ritual and language in the region, and united the populace behind the Mwami. Most evidence suggests that relations between the Hutu and Tutsi were mostly peaceful at this time. Some words and expressions suggest there may have been friction, but other than that all evidence supports peaceful interaction.

German Colonial Influence

Unlike much of Africa, the fate of Rwanda and the Great Lakes region was not decided by the 1884 Berlin Conference, but was instead divided in an 1890 conference in Brussels. This gave Rwanda and Burundi to the German Empire as colonial spheres of interest in exchange, renouncing all claims on Uganda in exchange for being given the island of Heligoland. The poor maps referenced in these agreements left Belgium with a claim on the western half of the country, and after several border skirmishes the final borders of the colony were not established until 1900. These borders contained the kingdom of Rwanda as well as a group of smaller kingdoms on the shore of Lake Victoria.

In the early years, the Germans had a very tenuous control in the region and were completely dependent on the indigenous government. The Germans did encourage modernisation and centralisation of the regime.

During this period, many Europeans had become obsessed with the study of race, and this had an impact on life in Rwanda. To the Germans, the Tutsi ruling class was a superior racial type who, because of their apparent "Hamitic" origins on the Horn of Africa, were more "European" than the Hutus they oppressed. Because of their seemingly taller stature, more "honourable and eloquent" personalities, and their willingness to convert to Roman Catholicism, the Tutsis were favoured by colonists and powerful Roman Catholic officials, and were put in charge of the farming Hutus (almost in a feudalistic manner), the newly formed principalities, and were given basic ruling positions. Eventually, these positions would turn into the overall governing body of Rwanda. Thus the Tutsi oppression of the Hutus seemed somehow normal and expected. As with later Belgian colonisers, the Germans romanticised Tutsi origins.

Before the colonial period, about 15-16% of the population was Tutsi; many of these were poor peasants, but the majority of the ruling elite were Tutsi. A significant minority of the political elite were Hutu, however. Europeans simplified this arrangement and decided that the Hamitic Tutsi were racially superior and should thus make up the entire ruling class, while the inferior Bantu Hutu should become a permanent underclass.

World War I

While the agreements dividing the region had called for the region to remain neutral in the event of any European war, this was disregarded after the outbreak of World War I. Small forces of Europeans, backed by large numbers of locals fought for control of the region. The main offensive was by the Belgians (aided by a British offensive from Uganda) who quickly forced the German forces out of the region. The Belgian army was mostly made up of Congolese forces who proceeded to loot and pillage the region. A great number of Rwandans, who were fighting alongside the Germans, were killed in the long German retreat.

Belgian Colonial Influence

At the end of the war, the League of Nations mandated Rwanda and its southern neighbour, Burundi, to Belgium as the territory of Ruanda-Urundi. The portion of the German territory, never a part of the Kingdom of Rwanda, was stripped from the colony and attached to Tanganyika, which had been mandated to the British.

The Belgian government continued to rely on the Tutsi power structure for administering the country. It also consistently favoured the Tutsis where education was concerned, leading to a situation where many Tutsis were literate, while the majority of Hutus were not. Belgians educated the Tutsis in Catholic schools, which widened the ethnic rift between Hutu and Tutsi.

Belgian rule in the region was far more direct and harsh than the German. The Belgians insisted that the colony turn a profit, and this meant forcing the population to grow large quantities of coffee. Each peasant was required to devote a certain percentage of their fields to coffee and this was enforced by the Belgians and their local, mainly Tutsi, allies. An onerous corvée was also introduced, labour that was enforced by the whip - eight strokes before work each morning. This forced labour approach to colonisation was condemned by many internationally, and was extremely unpopular in Rwanda. Hundreds of thousands of Rwandans immigrated to the British protectorate of Uganda, which was much wealthier and did not have the same draconian policies.

Some scholars argue that the Belgians did much to create the enmity between Hutu and Tutsi through their policies of indirect rule. Before the colonial period, Hutus and Tutsis lived together as neighbours. Due to the eugenics movement in Europe and the United States, the colonial government became concerned with the differences between Hutu and Tutsi. Scientists arrived to measure skull (and thus, they believed, brain) size. Tutsi's skulls were bigger, they were taller and their skin was lighter. As a result of this, Europeans came to believe that Tutsis had Caucasian ancestry, and were thus "superior" to Hutus. Each citizen was issued a racial identification card, which defined one as legally Hutu or Tutsi. The Belgians gave the majority of political control to the Tutsis. Tutsis began to believe the myth of their superior racial status, and exploited their power over the Hutu majority.

Catholic Influence

The Belgian Roman Catholic Church favoured the Tutsis, admiring their leadership qualities. The church evangelised also, beginning with the Tutsis, leading more Tutsis to share in the benefits that came with associating with the colonisers' Roman Catholic culture.

King Yuhi Musinga was exiled by the Belgians after he refused to be baptised. He was succeeded by his son Mutara Rudahigwa who had received a seminary education. He was baptised and renamed Charles, and he sought to bring about political changes by allowing Hutus greater access to positions of authority. He chose Catholics for his appointments.

Destabilisation

Following World War II, Ruanda-Urundi became a UN trust territory with Belgium as the administrative authority. Reforms instituted by the Belgians in the 1950s encouraged the growth of democratic political institutions but were resisted by the Tutsi traditionalists who saw in them a threat to Tutsi rule.

From the late 1940s, King Rudahigwa, a Tutsi with democratic vision abolished the "ubuhake" system and redistributed cattle and land. Even though the majority of pasture lands remained under the control of the Tutsi, the Hutus began to feel yet a deeper sense of liberation from Tutsi rule established by the Belgian "divide and rule" policy. Through the reforms, the Tutsis were no longer perceived to be in total control of cattle, the long-standing measure of a person's wealth and social position. Thus, these reforms marked the beginning of a long period of ethnic tension in Rwandan history.

Ethnic tension was increased when the Catholic Church began to oppose Tutsi mistreatment of Hutus, and began promoting Hutu equality. In addition, Belgium's system of electoral representation and secret ballots meant that Hutus made enormous political gains within the country, and the Tutsis began to lose their almost total control.

Independence and Ethnic Strife

King Rudahigwa (Charles) made many changes - in 1954 he shared out the land between the Hutu and the Tutsi. The Tutsi were unhappy with this, which led to Charles' assassination in 1959. Political instability and tribal conflict grew despite the efforts of his son, King Kigeri V. An increasingly restive Hutu population, encouraged by the Belgian military, sparked a revolt in November 1959, resulting in the overthrow of King Kigeri V, the last Tutsi monarch, who fled to Uganda. The Tutsis, enraged by their gradual loss of power, made an attempt on the life of Grégoire Kayibanda leader of Mouvement Democratique Republicain (MDR), the largest Hutu political party. Genocide ensued, with an estimated 20,000 to 100,000 Tutsis being killed by Hutus.

On 25 September 1960, through United Nations intervention, a referendum was held to establish whether Rwanda should become a republic or remain a kingdom. The result indicated an overwhelming support for a republic. After elections, the first Rwandese Republic was declared, with Grégoire Kayibanda as prime minister.

The revolution of 1959 marked a major change in political life in Rwanda. Some 150,000 Tutsis were exiled to neighbouring countries. Those Tutsis that remained in Rwanda were excluded from having any political power in a state becoming more and more centralised under Hutu power. The Belgians declared the country independent in 1962, and political power became completely in the hands of the Hutu. Following independence, the Hutu began to blame anything that went wrong in the country on the Tutsi, making them the national scapegoats.

Grégoire Kayibanda, leader of the PARMEHUTU Party, became Rwanda's first elected president, leading a government chosen from the membership of the directly elected unicameral National Assembly. Peaceful negotiation of international problems, social and economic elevation of the masses, and integrated development of Rwanda were the ideals of the Kayibanda regime. Relations with forty three countries, including the United States, were established in the first ten years. Despite the progress made, inefficiency and corruption began festering in government ministries in the mid-1960s.

Under President Kayibanda, a system of quotas was established. The Tutsis were allowed only 10% of school and university seats, and were allotted10% civil service posts. Competition for the available seats exacerbated ethnic tensions.

The Kayibanda government also continued the government policy of labelling people with ethnic identity cards, a practice first begun by the Belgian colonial government, and using this practice to attack mixed marriages.

Another bout of violence followed in 1964, and for years a system of inequality was instituted. A Hutu could freely murder a Tutsi and would never be prosecuted. The other political parties UNAR and RADER were banned and their Tutsi members executed. Tutsi were described as inyenzi or cockroaches. Hundreds of thousands fled as refugees into neighbouring countries.

The Rwandan government was friendly to the west and the base of CIA operations in the successful effort to oust the left leaning Patrice Lumumba of the Congo. The Catholic Church was closely intertwined with PARMEHUTU. They shared local resources and on the ground networks, and through the church the government maintained links and support with those in Belgium and Germany. The country's two newspapers, both strongly in favour of the government, were both staunchly Catholic publications.

Military Rule

On July 5, 1973, while serving as defence minister, Maj. Gen. Juvénal Habyarimana, a native of the northwestern province of Gisenyi overthrew Grégoire Kayibanda, a native of central province of Gitarama. He dissolved the National Assembly and the PARMEHUTU Party and abolished all political activity. Still, the issue of ethnicity remained powerful. Each ethnic group held onto the memories of massacres in the past, and for the predominantly Hutu establishment, Tutsis remained scapegoats of convenience. For instance, Kayibanda was born in a southern region of the country, while Habyarimana came from the north. Southerners, however, blamed Habyarimana's perhaps favouritism for the north on Tutsi plots and machinations.

In 1974, a public outcry developed over Tutsi overrepresentation in fields such as medicine and education. Thousands of Tutsi were forced to resign from such positions, and many were forced into exile. In associated violence several hundred Tutsi were killed.

In 1975, President Habyarimana formed the Mouvement Républicain National pour la Démocratie et le Développement (MRND) whose goals were to promote peace, unity, and national development. The movement was organised from the "hillside" to the national level and included elected and appointed officials.

Under MRND aegis, Rwandans went to the polls in December 1978, overwhelmingly endorsed a new constitution and confirmed Habyarimana as president. President Habyarimana was re-elected in 1983 and again in 1988, when he was the sole candidate. Responding to public pressure for political reform, President Habyarimana announced in July 1990 his intention to transform Rwanda's one-party state into a multi-party democracy.

Increased Ethnic Tensions

A new wave of ethnic tensions was unleashed in 1990. Causes included a slumping economy and food shortages, political pressure for democratic reform from France and demands by exiled Tutsis to be recognised as Rwandans with the right to return. However, the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) proved unwilling to wait for the Rwandan government to come through on its promises. On October 1, 1990, the RPF invaded Rwanda from their base in neighbouring Uganda. The rebel force, composed primarily of ethnic Tutsis, blamed the government for failing to democratise and resolve the problems of some 500,000 Tutsi refugees living in diaspora around the world.

The Tutsi diaspora miscalculated the reaction of its invasion of Rwanda. Though the Tutsi objective seemed to be to pressure the Rwandan government into making concessions, the invasion was seen as an attempt to bring the Tutsi ethnic group back into power. The effect was to increase ethnic tensions to a level higher than they had ever been. Habyarimana immediately instituted genocidal programs, which would be directed against all Tutsis and against any Hutus seen as in league with Tutsi interests. Habyarimana justified these acts by proclaiming it was the intent of the Tutsis to restore a Tutsi feudal system and to thus enslave the Hutu race.

During this period the rhetoric of Hutu nationalism escalated. Radio stations, particularly Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), owned by top government leaders, and newspapers, began a campaign of hate and fear. They broadcast and published material referring to the Tutsi as subhuman and making veiled calls for violence. Radical Hutu groups, organised and funded by members of the government, started to amass weapons and conduct training programs. Government leaders met in secret with youth group leaders, forming and arming militias called Interahamwe (meaning "Those who stand (or fight) together") and Impuzamugambi (meaning "Those who have the same (or a single) goal").

The Rwandan Genocide

On April 6, 1994, the airplane carrying President Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the President of Burundi, was shot down as it prepared to land at Kigali. Both presidents were killed when the plane crashed. Military and militia groups began rounding up and killing all Tutsis they could capture, as well as political moderates irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds. The killing swiftly spread from Kigali to all corners of the country. Between April 6 and the beginning of July, a genocide of unprecedented swiftness left 937,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead at the hands of organised bands of militia (Interahamwe). Even ordinary citizens were called on by local officials to kill their neighbours. The president's MRND Party was implicated in organising many aspects of the genocide.

The RPF battalion stationed in Kigali under the Arusha accords came under attack immediately after the shooting down of the president's plane. The battalion fought its way out of Kigali and joined up with RPF units in the north. The RPF renewed its civil war against the Rwanda Hutu government when it received word that the genocidal massacres had begun. Its leader Paul Kagame directed RPF forces in neighbouring countries such as Uganda and Tanzania to invade the country, battling the Hutu forces and Interahamwe militias who were committing the massacres. The resulting civil war raged concurrently with the genocide for two months.

Aftermath of the Genocide

The Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu regime and ended the genocide in July 1994, but approximately two million Hutu refugees - some who participated in the genocide and fearing Tutsi retribution - fled to neighbouring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zaire.

Following an uprising by the ethnic Tutsi Banyamulenge people in eastern Zaire in October 1997, a huge movement of refugees began which brought more than 600,000 back to Rwanda in the last two weeks of November. This massive repatriation was followed at the end of December 1996 by the return of another 500,000 from Tanzania, again in a huge, spontaneous wave. Less than 100,000 Rwandans are estimated to remain outside of Rwanda, and they are thought to be the remnants of the defeated army of the former genocidal government, its allies in the civilian militias known as Interahamwe, and soldiers recruited in the refugee camps before 1996.

In northwest Rwanda, Hutu militia members killed three Spanish aid workers, three soldiers and seriously wounded one other on January 18, 1997. Since then most of the refugees have returned and the country is secure for tourists.