Rwanda: History of Rwanda Final

Rwanda was one of the last of Africa to be reached by Europeans during the colonial expansion in the late 1800’s. Before this, the Tutsi, cattle raising people, came down from the Nile and immigrated into the area and won the territory over the Hutu, agriculturists. Rwabugiri gains the throne in 1860 and controls a region that is almost as large as present day Rwanda. This reign is focused on feuds between the aristocrats of the Tutsis and the Hutus as their bondsmen. [1]

Tutsi-Hutu is divided by work and stature. The Tutsi are upper class and are cattlemen. The Hutu are lower class and usually farmers. A German man, Count von Gotzen, comes to visit the President in 1894, the first European to enter Rwanda. The president of Rwanda dies the next year, so the Germans move in and claim the area for the Kaiser. The Germans only are in power until World War 1 breaks out in 1914. They lose their control and Belgium takes over. The League of Nations, in 1924, grants the Belgians to oversee the colony. The Belgians allow the race distinction and have the Tutsis in charge of the Hutus that are being forced into working for the colonies. This division of the two groups, one receiving favor and the other working hard for next to nothing, is the beginning of the end. [2]

Hutu leaders in 1957 print a book called Hutu Manifesto, this is to prepare for future conflicts within politics dealing with ethnic lines. Violence is flared when in 1959, a group of Tutsi activists, beat up a Hutu rival, this incident results in all out violence of Hutus against Tutsis; known as “the wind of destruction”. [3]

During the political elections in 1960, Gregoire Kayibanda, co-author of the Hutu Manifesto, leads the provisional government to a period of independence. Rwanda became independent in July 1962. Gregoire Kayibanda won the first presidential election in newly independent Rwanda. His party, (party for Hutu Emancipation), centralizes their governmental policy around this topic. [4]

1963, December, several hundred Tutsi soldiers enter Rwanda from Burundi; they get close to the capital, but are eliminated by the Rwandan army. The government calls a state of emergency, which they need to destroy any subversive actions. During just a few days 14,000 Tutsis are murdered to show other Tutsis not to try to rise up against the government.[5]

Kayibanda loses power in 1973, by a group of army officers, which replace him with Juvenal Habyarimana. He runs a self-serving military dictatorship for the next twenty one years. 1986, Habyarimana declares that he is making a new policy and refugees will not be allowed to return to Rwanda. [6]

The Rwandan Patriotic Front committed to fight against Habyarimana. The main people in the RPF were Tutsi officers. They organized an attack, October 1990, where they eventually put an end to Habyarimana’s rule. Habyarimana is able to prevent the RPF’s beginning attacks in October 1990, but this starts a new war on the Tutsi people. 1991, a new name comes about Hutu Power, in which they want to wipe out the Tutsi people. Habyarimana starts to recruit Hutu youth into militia. By 1992, Habyarimana is disappointing the public by his inability to stop RPF guerillas. He begins negotiations in August to cease fire, which then starts a new attack on the Tutsi people. Throughout the next year the president tries to negotiate peace, which further alienates his followers. August 1993, Habyarimana signs a peace treaty with the RPF, which then brings the war to an end. [7]

Arusha Accords, are what the peace treaty are called, bring about changes to Rwanda. The refugees are granted access again to the country, and merging of the RPF into the Rwandan armies. A provisional government is setup including the RPF, which outrages the old regime. April 6, 1994 a rocket is launched at a plane taking it down, most likely by Hutu extremists, killing two presidents; Habyarimana and the president of Burundi. This starts war, people are encouraged to go out and do their duty to the country by ridding the world of Tutsi’s and their supporters. The state radio declares May 5^th, 1994 the official cleanup day, in which the capital, Kigali, needs to be rid of Tutsi’s. [8]

During this time the UN sent in forces to help with the terror happening but it seemed they were powerless to intervene with the situation. April to July 1994, approximately 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered. The tool that caused most of this genocide was the everyday machete. The terror that happened is followed by massive fleeing of refugees to Zaire, Burundi, and Tanzania, the figure around two million people. By July 1994, a provisional government is formed and by the end of August most of the country is under control. The RPF wants racial equality and is what they were committed to from the start. One of the major problems is the refugee camps in Zaire, as the majority of the Rwandans there are Hutus, which some are extensions of the Hutu Power, which fled to avoid the advancement of the RPF. [9]

The refugees begin to come back to Rwanda in 1996, but it not an easy adjustment. When the refugees were beginning to return to Rwanda, the government started the long anticipated genocide trials. Approximately 130,000 suspects were held in Rwandan prisons after the genocide, and the judicial system was not in a great position to deal with all of these trials. Only 3,343 cases were dealt with during 1996-2000. Of these cases only 20% received the death penalty, 20 % were acquitted, and 32% received life in prison. Not including the people still at large, it was figured that it would take over 200 years to do the trials for the suspects in prison. [10]

Rwanda has had struggles since the genocide to rebuild and develop economically. The majority of exporting markets are China, Germany and Belgium. Belgians have come into the country to help rebuild the agriculture. There are many nations helping Rwanda come back from these horrifying events. [11]

Missions in Rwanda

Missionaries began coming into Rwanda later than other African countries, they started in the early 1900s during the German colonial period. Catholic missionaries started their first mission in 1900. After that German Lutherans in 1908 had missions all over but left during WW1.[12]

Belgium took over after WW1 and continued with missionary work that the Germans had started. This was protestant missionaries at this point. [13]

1930 a revival began in Gahini (the first Anglican mission), became one of the most important movements of missionary work throughout eastern Africa Protestantism. [14]

1950’s was a large Catholic movement that brought about changes within the government and the abolishment of the monarchy.

“ In the 1950s the Catholic church began actively to support the demands for the end of the unequal relations between Tutsi and Hutu. This contributed significantly to the 1959 revolution, the abolition of the monarchy and of the Tutsi monopoly of power, at the same time as the end of Belgian colonial rule. Anglican revivalists refused to participate in the attacks on the old Tutsi chiefs, and sympathised with a more moderate transfer of power. Many revivalists, both Tutsi and Hutu, were consequently stigmatised as counter-revolutionaries and became refugees. Successive Hutu governments cultivated cordial relations with all the churches, which became identified with the successive ruling regimes of post-independent Rwanda. This alliance tended to blunt the witness of all churches during the genocide of 1994, and render them vulnerable to charges of inciting and participating in the genocide. “[15]

“In the early 1980s, a very rural and poor village of Rwanda, Kibeho, experienced the apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Today, two shrines are built there and Rwandan Catholics go there today to regret what was to follow in the early 1990s.”[16]

Rwandan culture has become centralized around Christianity. 60% of the population is Catholic, 30% are Protestants (Pentecostals, Seventh day Adventists, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Free Methodists and Baptists.) [17]

Many Rwandans believe that the Catholic Church helped the Hutus rise and gain power. Many Rwandan Christians continue to participate in the traditional religious practices as well as Christianity. Indigenous healers are also common. [18]

First Contacts-Europe

Rwanda was for centuries ruled by a centralized monarchy of Tutsi kings that ruled by having chiefs of different types: cattle, land and military. The king was highest in charge but the rest of the peoples lived in harmony. In 1899, Rwanda was made a German colony and during world war 1, 1919, Belgium took over control. [19]

When the Germans colonized Rwanda, the did not expressively change the social structure of the country, but supported the king and existing hierarchy and passed on power to the local chiefs. [20]

Belgium simplified the power structure and they introduced education, health, public works and agricultural supervision, also adding new crops and improving farming techniques to help reduce famine. [21]

Both the Belgians and Germans endorsed Tutsi authority. Belgium, 1935 introduced identity cards labeling each person as either Tutsi, Hutu, Twa or Naturalized. [22]

From 1959, the Tutsi were a target, which Hutu’s killed thousands of Tutsi peoples and sending almost two million into exile. The first republic, under president Gregorie Kayibanda and the second, under president Juvenal Habyarimana, institutionalized discrimination against the Tutsi and subjected them to massacres over many different periods. [23]

Pro-Hutu Belgians held a vote in 1961, which Rwanda voted to eliminate the monarchy. Rwanda was thus separated from Burundi and gained independence in the year 1962. Juvenal Habyarimana took power in a military coup.[24]

In the previous months prior to the coup, President Kayibanda had increased persecution of the Tutsi’s by allowing vigilante Hutu groups to enforce ethnic quotas. When Habyarimana took power, it was largely supported by urban population and indifference with rural communities. Habyarimana was a General in the Rwandan army before he became president.[25]

Pro-Hutu discrimination continued, but there was a higher economic gain and condensed amount of violence against the Tutsi. In 1990, a rebel group made up of mostly Tutsi refugees, called the Rwandan Patriotic Front, (RPF), invaded north Rwanda and started the Rwandan Civil War. 1992, the war weakened Habyarimana’s power, mass demonstrations of people forced him into a coalition and signing of the Arusha Accords. [26]

The Rwandan government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front met on August 4, 1993 to sign a set of accords called the Arusha Accords, which would end the three year Civil war. The accords established what the people thought would be considered necessary for lasting peace: rule of law, repatriation of refugees, and the merging of government and rebel armies.[27]

April 6, 1994 on this day the presidential airplane was shot down as it was flying towards the Kigali airport. The plane held President Habyarimana and the Burundian President Ntaryamira. This assassination was the catalyst for the Rwandan Genocide. Both Hutu extremists and the RPF were under suspicion for this airplane attack. [28]

Over the course of 100 days , the Rwandan Genocide, known as the genocide against the Tutsi, 500,000-1,000,000 Rwandans were killed. “from April 7 to mid-July 1994,^[1] constituting as many as 70% of the Tutsi and 20% of Rwanda's total population.”[29]

Music and Arts

Dancing and Music is a very important part of Rwandan life. It is integral to the culture and how they express themselves in social gatherings, storytelling and many other important ceremonies. There are three highly choreographed dances that include theintore, a dance performed by men, the umushagiriro, performed by women, and theingoma, drumming performed by men. The traditions of this country are that the music is done orally with varies styles within the different social groups. [30]

The people of Rwanda make beautiful baskets. The work is intricate and the patterns are amazing. They used these baskets for daily use but they are beautiful. Most of their crafts are for everyday use and they are creative with the designs and ways to make these baskets as well as other great daily tools. [31]

They also use what is around them to create art. One famous art style is the use of cow manure called imigongo. The cow manure is mixed into soil of different natural colors, and then painted into geometric shapes. This art work is traditionally done by women.[32]

Rwanda does not have a long history of written literature, but there is a strong oral tradition ranging from poetry to folk stories. Many of the country's moral values and details of history have been passed down through the generations.^[244] The most famous Rwandan literary figure was Alexis Kagame (1912–1981), who carried out and published research into oral traditions as well as writing his own poetry.”[33]

Alexis Kagame was a great ethnophilosopher. He studied the indigenous philosophical systems of the cultures in Rwanda. As theology professor, he studied the traditions, oral history, and literature of Rwanda. He is credited as being one of the most important historians of Rwanda. [34]