Development of Ethnic Identity in Rwanda
The indigenous people of Rwanda are the diminutive Twa, forest based hunter-gatherers, one of a group of African peoples collectively known under the term (now considered inappropriate) pygmy. Towards the end of the first millennium CE the first of many waves of Bantu-speaking people arrived from mid-west Africa (roughly the northern Congo Basin and modern day Cameroon). The Twa were forced to retreat deeper into the forests as the Hutu developed small-scale, clan-based agricultural communities.
By the 14th century a new set of migrants entered the region, the Tutsi. Believed to have moved from the north-east (there is some controversy about the geographical source of the Tutsi, but they are believed to have originally been nilotic-speakers).
Both the Hutu (Bantu) migration, and that of the Tutsi, were long term, gradual infiltrations rather than a rapid process of conquest.
Although the Tutsi were herders (pastoral), settling on the grasslands above the Hutu farmers (who were agrarian), there was significant cultural exchange between the two groups. The Tutsi (and the Twa) adopted the Bantu language of the Hutu, whilst the Hutu adopted the feudal political structure of the Tutsi. By the 16th century a distinct kingdom had developed, with a clan system and paths of kinship which emphasized the feudal relationship between cattle herders (the feudal elite) and farmers. The boundaries between Hutu and Tusi became blurred (through marriage between the two groups), ultimately depending more upon social standing than ethnic origin.
Europeans Look for a Definitive Answer
It was with the arrival of Europeans that ethnicity became paramount. Looking to control the region, first the Germans (following the Berlin Conference) and then the Belgians (who took control as a League of Nations mandate) imposed control through surrogates from the African community. Identifying the Tutsi as the effective elite of the region, administrative positions were allocated accordingly. The significance of whether you considered yourself Tutsi or Hutu became much more important.
A whole mythos developed, partially based on oral tradition, and partially on political expediency. The Tutsi were considered to be a noble people, brought to the region by their founder Gihanga, and who quickly dominated the Hutu farmers. Status was aligned with the ownership of cattle: to work the land was of lesser status. The hunter-gatherer Twa continued to be marginalized.
The supposed origins of the Tutsi, traveling to the region from the north-east (specifically the horn of Africa) fitted with the Christian/European concept of Hamitic races being superior to the sub-Saharan Negroid population. Thus, to early colonial-era Europeans, they were pre-destined to be the ruling class.
By the time Rwanda achieved independence, the distinction between Tutsi, as ruling elite, and Hutu, as agrarian workers, was deeply ingrained in the population, and was a cause of great unrest amongst the Hutu majority.
Independent Rwanda
As Rwanda rolled ever closer to achieving independence the antagonism between Tutsi and Hutu erupted. Between 1959 and 1961, in what is considered the first Rwandan Genocide, around 100,000 Tutsis were massacred. The Hutu Revolution resulted in the Tutsi king fleeing the country for Burundi, followed by another 200,000 Tutsi -- almost the entire Tutsi population fled or was killed.
A republic was declared on January 1961, and not surprisingly, when elections were held in the September, the Hutu-dominated Parmehutu Party won the majority of parliamentary seats. Independence was granted on 1 July 1962. The Parmehutu, now renamed the Mouvement Démocratique Républicain (MDR, Democratic Republican Movement), under its leader Grégoire Kayibanda, retained power until 1973.
When Tutsis started to return to the country in 1963, they were regarded by the Hutu government as a rebel army and firmly suppressed. Ethnic violence flared regularly in the decade that followed.
On 5 July 1973, defense minister General Juvénal Habyarimana took power in a bloodless coup. Habyarimana, a Hutu from northern Rwanda, claimed Kayibanda had favored southern Hutus. A new party, the Mouvement Républicain National pour la Démocratie (MRND, National Republican Movement for Development) was installed under President Habyarimana.
In 1990 troops from Belgium and several neighboring African countries were sent into Rwanda to help put down an uprising by Tutsi exiles. The rebel group, Front Patriotique Rwandais (FPR, Rwandan Patriotic Front) was based in Uganda. Around 2,000 Tutsi civilians were killed by the army before a ceasefire was negotiated.
In 1991 a new constitution introduced multi-party democracy to Rwanda, and a peace accord was held with the FPR in August 1993. Multi-party elections were scheduled for 1995, but delays in arranging a UN observer force halted the transitional process which should have started in September 1973.
