Resources: Rwandan History
Pre-Colonial
Rwanda’s population comprises of three main social groupings: the Hutus, the Tutsis and the small minority Twa. Pre-colonial, Rwanda was a highly centralised Kingdom presided over by Tutsi kings who hailed from one ruling clan. The king ruled through three categories of chiefs: cattle chiefs, land chiefs and military chiefs. The chiefs were predominantly, but not exclusively, Batutsi, especially the cattle and military chiefs. While the relationship between the king and the rest of the population was unequal, the relationship between the ordinary Bahutu, Batutse and Batwa was one of mutual benefit mainly through the exchange of their labour. The relationship was symbiotic. A clientele system called “ubuhake” permeated the whole society.
The population shared the same language (Kinyarwanda ), same culture and traditions, but people were differentiated according to their ability to acquire wealth and move from the less powerful Hutu to the ruling Tutsi class. The prevailing patron-client relationships bound most people together in a close-knit social hierarchy. It was customary for the patron to give the client a cow in return for services performed, and so over a long period of time individuals from both the Hutu and Tutsi groups acquired cattle. In the absence of currency, cattle became the medium of trade, and the more cows a person had, the higher their social status.
Typically, it was the Tutsis, traditionally cattle-keepers by trade, who found themselves among the wealthy, while most Hutus, who were famers, lacked the wealth associated with owning cows.
Colonial
We did not choose to be colonised. In 1899 Rwanda became a German colony. After the defeat of the Germans during the First World War, subsequently in 1919 Rwanda became a mandate territory of the League of Nations under the administration of Belgium. The Germans and the Belgians administered Rwanda through a system of indirect rule. During this colonial era, a cash crop economy was introduced in Rwanda, and this was administered through harsh methods that further alienated the King and his chiefs from the rest of the population.
In 1935 the Belgian colonial introduced identity cards, classifying Rwandan according to their physical appearance, wealth and social status into Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. Banyarwanda who possessed ten or more cows were registered as Batutsi whereas those with less were registered as Bahutu.
At first, the Belgian authorities, for political and practical reasons, favoured the King and his chiefs, who were mostly a Batutsi ruling elite. When the demand for independence began, mainly by a political party – Rwandese National Union (UNAR) – formed by people from the aforementioned ruling elite, the Belgian authorities hastily nurtured another party called PARMEHUTU that was founded on a sectarian ethnic ideology. Under the Belgian supervision, the first massacres of Parmehutu abolished the monarchy amidst widespread violence. With Belgian connivance, 1962 Belgium granted formal political independence to Rwanda.
Post-Independence
From 1959 onwards, the population of Batutsi was targeted, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths, and a population of almost two million Rwandese people in the Diaspora that was to last almost four decades.
The first Republic under President Gregoire Kayibanda, institutionalised discrimination against Batutsi and periodically use massacres against this targeted population as a means of maintaining the status quo.
In July 1973, Kayibanda was overthrown by his National Defence Minister Juvenal Habyarimana in a coup. Subsequently Kayibanda and many prominent politicians were killed. More Batutsi were killed.
Habyarimana’s Second Republic claimed to be sympathetic to Batutsis, but this was not borne out by the party’s actions. In the years that followed under the leadership of one-party system, the National Revolutionary Movement (MRND), Tutsis continued to experience violence, arrests, intimidation and abuse.
Both the First and Second Republics repeatedly stated that Rwanda was a small, overpopulated country that could not accommodate Rwandese refugees if they were to return. Increasingly, the population across the ethnic lines was marginalised and impoverished while Habyarimana’s regime became more violently intolerant. The regime used ethnicity as a political strategy in order to hold o to power at any cost. Regional divisions increased, with northerners (the president’s henchmen), taking over virtually all economic and political power. Meanwhile, Rwandan living in exile were pressing to return to their country of origin, but met no response from the government. Finally, in 1990 the Rwandan patriotic Front (RPF) launched an invasion from Uganda.
A series of agreements backed by the international community was signed between the RPF and the government of Rwanda to ensure a peaceful settlement of the Rwandan crisis. On 6 April 1994 President Habyarimana signed a peace agreement, but on his way back from Dar-Es-Salam to Kigali his plane was shot down and he was killed.
There are different views as to who was responsible, those in his government, the RPF or French mercenaries who feared that Rwanda was about to be given to the RPF. Whatever the reason, the trigger was devastating. Within hours of his death lists of names of opposition members, moderate Hutus and prominent Tutsis were produced. The massacres began, in a period of three months over one million people were killed.
