Rwandan History Part 1- Colonialism

I've been reading the excellent "The Fate of Africa" by Martin Meredith, and it's been very interesting to learn about Africa's transition from colonialism, and how its effects combined with the leaders of the time to bring about the Africa we know today.

Africa was dealt like so many cards among the great Western powers at the Berlin Conference in 1884. Rwanda and Burundi went to Germany for a few years, but after World War I they were transferred to Belgium. It was this relationship that had the biggest impact.

The Hutus and Tutsis in the kingdoms of Rwanda and Burundi had lived together for hundreds of years. The Tutsis were taller and thinner, with features that were considered to be more European (such as a slender nose). They dealt with cattle and livestock, while the Hutus tended to be farmers. As a result, Tutsis were wealthier and acted as a feudal ruling class, discriminating against the poorer Hutus. But these lines were not solid because of generations of intermarriage and migration, and there were some wealthy Hutus, and there were some Tutsis who were servants. Status was more important than ethnicity, when talking about relationships and roles. Tutsis were about 15% of the population, and Hutus about 85%. The king of Rwanda was a Tutsi.

The Germans and Belgians used the existing power structure, relying on the Tutsi ruling class to extend their control over the Hutus. The Belgians took it another step, issuing ID cards to further separate the two groups. Since it was difficult to determine in many cases whether a person was a member of one group or the other, those of unsure heritage with ten cows or more were declared to be Tutsi, and those with less than ten were Hutus. This erased any hope for upward mobility for the Hutus, solidifying their secondary status in Rwandan culture.

This gap grew wider, since only Tutsis had government positions, they had the best education opportunities and became taskmasters over Hutu laborers in the Belgian forced labor system. The Belgians had taken the united Kingom of Rwanda, and erased all sense of national identity, replacing it with a solely ethnic one.

Hutu intellectuals challenged this system in 1957 by writing a political manifesto which decried the political monopoly that the Tutsis held. Church leaders, including Tutsis, also called for reform. The Belgians suggested removing ethnic identification from the ID cards, but this would mean that the Hutus would give up their 80% majority, and they refused. Ethnic identity manifested in political parties, and violence broke out on both sides. In 1959, Hutu gangs attacked Tutsis, destroying homes and property and killing hundreds. The Belgians caught scent of the winds of change, and took the Hutus' side. Over 100,000 Tutsis fled to surrounding countries as violence continued, and elections in 1960 gave Hutus complete control of government. They abolished the monarchy and declared a republic, replacing one racially-based dictatorship with another.

Next: 1960-1994