History of Rwanda

Prehistoric Rwanda

The first people to inhabit Rwanda were the pygmoid, hunter-gatherer ancestors of the Twa, who today form about 0,25 percent of Rwanda's population. Around 700BCE they were joined by the Bantu-speaking Hutu people who were seeking good land to farm.

This was bad news for the Twa but a mere foreshadowing of things to come. The Hutus became a majority, and as they began to clear forests for farmland, the Twa retreated further into the forests.

The country's kings were its supreme authorities and the well-being of the two was closely interlinked.

The Rwandan people evolved a four-tier administrative power structure that worked for them. In order of increasing area, these tiers were the immediate neighbourhood, the hill, the district and the province.

Beneath the Mwami, control was exercised by chiefs with portfolios: land chiefs, cattle chiefs and military chiefs.

A feudal system existed, known as ubuhake, under which an inferior party (generally a Hutu) provided services to a superior party (usually a Tutsi) in exchange for protection.

Tutsis held almost all of the high administrative positions, while Hutus might govern at lower levels.

Hidden away in the hills and lakes of the heart of the continent, for thousands of years Rwanda remained almost entirely unaffected by events unfolding in the rest of Africa.

Arab trading never penetrated to Rwanda and the country never sold its people, or any other, into slavery. No written language arrived either, so all history and knowledge was passed down in oral tradition.

German Influence

Although no European had set foot in Rwanda by 1885, the 'Ruanda-Urundi' region was assigned to German control at the Berlin Conference of that year.

Rwanda was one of the few African countries whose borders remained unchanged by the Europeans; they remained where they had been for centuries.

When Count Gustav Adolf van Goetzen met the Rwandan Mwami in 1892, King Rwabugiri was blithely unaware that his country had been under German control for seven years.

Van Goetzen became governor of German East Africa in 1898 but left the existing Rwandan power structures intact, deciding to rule through them.

Missionary stations and schools, farms and medical centres were set up in the country. The Germans were fascinated by the three races in Rwanda and set about measuring and categorising them enthusiastically.

They also allied with the Tutsi monarchy to invade and subjugate some independent Hutu regions in the north, bringing them under control of the Mwami.

Belgian Takeover

German influence didn't last long. Belgium invaded Ruanda-Urundi in 1916 and remained until the end of World War I. Subsequently, Belgium was entrusted with the administration of Rwanda by the League of Nations.

Belgium was answerable by annual report to the League of Nations for its management of Rwanda.

Materially, it performed superbly: economic production increased; schools, roads and hospitals were built and administrative infrastructures were developed. Farming methods (to assuage Rwanda's recurrent famines) were also developed and improved.

However, although accepting them ostensibly, the Belgians subverted existing Rwandan power structures. They forced the Rwandan Mwami Musinga to resign in favour of his son, Mwami Mutara Rudahingwa, who was more amenable to colonists.

In fact, all three of the Rwandan ethnic groups were more or less aggrieved by colonisation.

Like their predecessors, the Belgians were interested in Rwanda's racial makeup. In the 1930s they set about measuring and classifying each individual as Twa, Hutu or Tutsi, conducting a census to determine the proportions of these in the population. Identity cards were issued, listing the individual's ethnic groups.

Independence

As the systematically subjugated Hutus became educated they began to find a political voice. Leaders began to demand political recognition for their majority of the population.

The ubuhake feudal system was officially abolished in 1954, though for a few more years it remained a reality for most.

In 1956, Mwami Rudahigwa called for total Rwandan independence from Belgium, and in 1956 a Hutu Manifesto was presented to Belgian Vice-Governor-General Jean-Paul Harroy. This had little effect.

Political parties were formed. APROSOMA (Assocation pour la Promotion Social des Masses) was a radical Hutu-aligned party, while RADER (Rassemblement Démocratique Rwandais) was moderate in outlook.

Tutsis, by contrast, called for independence without any change to the indigenous power system, which they dominated.

Belgium switched allegiance from the Tutsis, whom they had supported since colonisation, to the Hutus.

The pretexts for this change were the principles of fairness and democracy. Belgian administrators began removing Tutsi administrators and replacing them with Hutus.

Barely concealed attacks were orchestrated against Tutsis by Hutus and the Belgians - the first organised violence between the two groups in the history of Rwanda.

Tutsis began to flee the country. The revolution had begun, and it was to be a bloody and protracted one.

Revolution

The extremely pro-Hutu party, PARMEHUTU, won elections in 1960. In 1961 they called a meeting, where they and a crowd of at least 25 000 declared Rwanda an independent republic.

The United Nations could not but accept this result and Rwanda was nominally free of Belgian control.

Violence against Tutsis continued: 150 were killed in Butare in 1961. Thousands of homes were burned and more than 100 000 Tutsis were displaced, fleeing the country for their personal safety.

Aftermath

The new Hutu government sought to consolidate its hold on power. It introduced quotas that restricted Tutsi access to public resources to nine percent of the available space (aligning with their nine percent of the population).

Meanwhile, Tutsis in exile conducted guerrilla raids into Rwanda, leading to severe countermeasures: around 10 000 Tutsis were killed in 1963 and the violence showed no signs of abating.

Head of PARMEHUTU, Grégoire Kayibanda, was re-elected in 1965, and the party was renamed the MDR (Mouvement Démocratique Republicain). It was a thoroughly corrupt government: quotas and ethnic cleansing were enforced so strictly that even Hutus became uneasy.

Following the removal of Tutsis from almost all educational institutions, the MDR government was toppled in a military coup by Major General Juvenal Habyarimana.

A single party, the MRND (Mouvement Révolutionaire et National pour le Développement) was formed under Habyarimana in 1975. Because he was the only candidate, he was re-elected in 1978, 1983 and 1988.

The situation in the country deteriorated steadily and steeply during this period, and in 1989 the price of coffee (Rwanda's main export) crashed.

Violence

In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded with the stated intention of ending the political stalemate that had evolved.

The Rwandan national army suppressed the invasion with French, German and Zairean support, but the incursion led to Rwanda's army being enlarged from 5 000 to 35 000 between 1991 and 1993.

Political solutions were sought but stalled. The RPF continued its raids but the Rwandan army, supported by French troops, maintained its hold on power.

On 6 April 1994, a plane carrying Rwandan President Habyarimana and Burundi's President Ntaryamira, was shot down near Kigali. Both men died and the Rwandan genocide began.

Genocide

The genocide had been planned over a long period and was implemented efficiently. Roadblocks were set up and the army began a campaign of death and destruction, targeting not only Tutsis but also moderate Hutus.

All sorts of weapons were used, from military arms to machetes. There was no other directive than to kill the enemy.

Almost a million people were violently murdered in three months. Suddenly the media became interested in Rwanda.

Isolated tales of heroism arose: people who had flatly refused the order to kill; others who had secreted Tutsis in their homes at the risk of their own lives. But hardly a family was left untouched by the wave of violence that swept the country.

On 8 April 1994 - just two days after the killings began - the RPF launched a large offensive to capture Kigali and end the genocide. The United Nations 'monitoring' force was technically unable to intervene, and watched the slaughter helplessly.

It took all of 24 days for the UN Security Council to convene and discuss the crisis, which they did without once using the word 'genocide'.

France, who had previously supported the Rwandan army, now sent 2 500 peacekeeping troops to the country, creating a 'safe zone' in the south east. This was controversial; it provided safety mostly for foreign nationals.

The RPF captured Kigali on 4 July. Refugees crammed into the 'safe zone' and others fled to Zaire, where the remains of the Hutu government had also fled. The human cost of the genocide was further exacerbated by the cholera outbreak that followed it.

On 18 July, the RPF declared victory: the war had been won and the genocide ended. They established a Government of National Unity.

It was now officially accepted that an attempt at genocide had taken place, far too late for world powers to have to do anything about it.

Reconstruction

Although violence continued in bursts for the next three years, the new government remained in control and the UN departed in 1996. A democratic system elected Major General Paul Kagame as president.

A huge legal and judicial system was set up to bring the perpetrators of the genocide to justice. The traditional Gacaca judicial system was launched to try those who had committed lesser crimes but the serious offenders were tried in the official legal system.

Over the past few years Rwanda's story has been one of hope. A new Constitution was signed in 2003. Economic development has increased, prompting three large grants from the World Bank and the European Union.

The national football team qualified for the finals of the 2004 African Nations Cup.

Considering the country's small size, its few resources and its terrible history, its achievements over the past few years are astonishing. Rwandans today deserve admiration for their positive attitudes.

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