Kingdom of Rwanda
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The Kingdom of Banyarwanda (also known as the Kingdom of Rwanda) was founded in the 15th century by a pastoral tribe, the Tutsi, occupying approximately the territory controlled by the modern state of Rwanda, before being gradually subdued by European colonial interests starting in 1890.
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[edit] Pre-colonization
In the fifteenth century, one chiefdom managed to incorporate several of its neighbors establishing the Kingdom of Rwanda, which ruled over most of what is now considered Rwanda. Although some Hutus were among the nobility and significant intermingling took place, the Hutu majority made up 82–85% of the population and were mostly poor peasants. In general, the kings, known as Mwamis, were Tutsi.
Before the nineteenth century, it was believed that the Tutsis held military power while the Hutus possessed supernatural power. In this capacity, the Mwami's council of advisors (abiiru) was exclusively Hutu and held significant sway. By the mid-18th century, however, the abiiru was increasingly marginalized.[citations needed]
As the kings centralized their power and authority, they distributed land among individuals rather than allowing it to be passed down through lineage groups, of which many hereditary chiefs had been Hutu. Most of the chiefs appointed by the Mwamis were Tutsi. The redistribution of land, enacted between 1860 and 1895 by Mwami Rwabugiri, resulted in an imposed patronage system, under which appointed Tutsi chiefs demanded manual labor in return for the right of Hutus to occupy their land. This system left Hutus in a serf-like status with Tutsi chiefs as their feudal masters.[citations needed]
citation could be pg. 12, 13, 14 of Re-Imagining Rwanda: Conflict, Survival and Disinformation in the Late Twentieth Century, by Johan Pottier. published by Cambridge University in 2002
Under Mwami Rwabugiri, Rwanda became an expansionist state. Rwabugiri did not bother to assess the ethnic identities of conquered peoples and simply labeled all of them “Hutu”. The title “Hutu”, therefore, came to be a trans-ethnic identity associated with subjugation. While further disenfranchising Hutus socially and politically, this helped to solidify the idea that “Hutu” and “Tutsi” were socioeconomic, not ethnic, distinctions. In fact, one could kwihutura, or “shed Hutuness”, by accumulating wealth and rising through the social hierarchy.[citations needed]
[edit] Colonization
From a European perspective, the Banyarwanda dynasty ceased to be a legal entity with the signing of the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty (also known as the Anglo-German Agreement of 1890), which formalized the German Empire's claims to the territories that would comprise its German East Africa colony, or Deutsch-Ostafrika. European agents first started arriving in 1894, and by 1897 a nominal administration was imposed; however it was stil not fully integrated into the apparatus the German East Africa colony by the time these territories were seized by Belgian forces in 1916.
The Treaty of Versailles saw a formal renunciation of German claims to its African possessions, and the transfer of its East African territories into Belgian and British hands. By 1924 the Belgians would obtain international recognition for their control over the former Banyarwanda and Burundi kingdoms in the form of a Class B League of Nations Mandate known as Ruanda-Urundi. As was common elsewhere in Africa during the era of European domination, the Belgians relied heavily on the existing monarchic structures as proxies through which some degree of control could be exercised, but over time they would be gradually coopted, with the kings losing real power and becoming ceremonial figureheads.
The Ruanda-Urundi Mandate became a United Nations Trust Territory by the same name after WWII, which existed until Rwanda and Burundi were created as separate independent states in 1962.
[edit] The Monarchy after Rwandan Independence
In 1961, following a referendum in which the majority (the Hutu), voted to abolish the monarchy, a republic came into being. That year, the last mwami (king) Kigeli V Ndahindurwa was deposed and went into exile.
The 1994 genocide left the country deeply traumatised, and has given rise to renewed calls for a restoration of a constitutional monarchy, as a unifying symbol for both Hutus and Tutsis. Former mwami Kigeli V resides in Washington, D.C. and has voiced his wish to return to his ancestral homeland. In 1999 President Paul Kagame stated that the King may return as a private citizen.[citation needed] Kigeli stated in 2007 that he would return only if the Rwandan people accepted him as their constitutional monarch. Kagame said that he would take it under consultation.[1]
[edit] See also
- for further history of Rwanda see History of Rwanda.
- for the Royal Lineage of the Banyarwanda dynasty (Mwami/s of Rwanda) see List of Kings of Rwanda.
[edit] References
- ^ "Rwanda's former king eyes return" by David Bamford, BBC News, 17 August 2007
