The social organization called “clan”

It has been observed that, the earliest form of social organization in the Great Lakes Region was the clan ubwoko. Around twenty clans existed in the area, and they still exist in Rwanda. The clans were not limited to genealogical lineages or geographical area, and most included Hutus, Tutsis, and Twas.⁴⁵

Alexandre Kimenyi, Professor of Linguistics, Ethics studies and African languages says that, Rwanda has twenty clans, “namely Abanyiginya, Abagesera, Abega, Ababanda, Abacyaba, Abasinga, Abashambo, Abahinda, Abazigaba, Abungura, Abashingwe, Abenengwe, Abasita, Abatsobe, Abakono, Abanyakarama, Abarihira, Abahondogo, Abashambo, and Abongera.”⁴⁶ He continues in confirming that:

Social groups consciously and voluntarily separate from each other to create a new collective identity like the Christian Church or the Muslims who split into distinct groups but kept the same symbols and rituals. In Rwanda there is no physical

45 History of Musanze, <http://www.musanze.com/history-of-musanze/>, 24th April 2013.

46 Alexandre Kimenyi, Clans, Totems, and Taboos in Rwanda, <http://kimenyi.com/clans.php>, 01st May 2014.

symbol to designate the clan member. People know their clan membership and totem through oral tradition.⁴⁷

The evidence which Rwandans didn‟t take into account during their past violent killings and genocide is that: “although Rwanda has three distinct separate ethnic groups, namely Hutu, Tutsi and Twa, the three groups share the same clans and totems.” ⁴⁸ For all clans which have totems, they had the obligation to protect them.

It was a taboo, umiziro in Kinyarwanda, for a clan to kill its animal totem. A clan member couldn‟t cut down a tree if the tree was its clan‟s totem. Some cultural anthropologists have suggested that it was a way to protect the environment in adopting either certain animals or certain plants to prevent them from extinction. It is true that traditional societies in which clans and totems are still found, have great respect for the environment and is the only place where it is still possible to find a large biodiversity.⁴⁹

Besides the deep respect for totems and other traditional rules, “the majority of the literature claims that clans consider totems as the incarnation of ancestors. These totems are thus not only the clans‟progenitors but also their guardians and helpers.”⁵⁰The totemic thinking, the belief in the mythic and magic power of names, symbols and rituals, is still alive in modern societies, as evidenced by the choice of emblems and logos by different organizations such as sports teams, schools, civil society, governments, and businesses. ⁵¹

Until the eighteenth century, for example, ethnicity was less important than class and clan-based identities, which themselves coexisted alongside several layers of regional and social identities.

Thus, each of the twenty major clans in Rwanda includes both Hutu and Tutsi, and among each ethnic group one can find poor, landless peasants as well as wealthier princes.⁵² “Clan was the

47 Ibid.

48 Ibid.

49 Ibid.

50 Ibid.

51 Ibid.

52 From clan and class to ethnicity in Rwanda, <http://faroutliers.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/from-clan-and-class-to-ethnicity-in-rwanda/>, 17th April 2014.

most meaningful social organization in Rwanda and in the Great Lakes Region.”⁵³This is justified, for instance when one asked a peasant whether from Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania,

“what are you?” In 1930s or in 1960s the immediate response was the mention of the clan.⁵⁴ There has been unanimity among the ethno-historians that the clan was by far the most important social organization in pre-colonial society. Equally, scholars agree that the Bahutu, Batutsi and Batwa constituted socio-classes.⁵⁵

Gatwa observes that, the meanings attached to the concepts of Bahutu, Batutsi and Batwa have been central to the studies of the formation of Rwandan ethnic identity. Neither the sources of oral tradition nor the various official and private writings on which most of the ethnological studies relied, nor other sources have been able to clarify the process that led to the present-day mixture of the population or the formation of the ethnic group. What has been demonstrated, however, is that on the eve of colonization, the terms Bahutu, Batutsi and Batwa meant social classes; that neither ethnic group, race, caste, nor the Hamite concept, were known by the Banyarwanda people.⁵⁶ “A poor Mututsi who had not enough cows to pay the dowry would marry a girl of the common people and gradually fall into the peasant class. The reverse is also true. A Muhutu who has wealthy in cattle and other resources would marry a girl of a rich Batutsi family and become one of them.”⁵⁷

The examination of ethnic ideology in Rwanda is inevitably linked to the confrontation between two realities: pre-colonial Rwandan society and colonialism together with Christianity.⁵⁸

53Tharcisse Gatwa, Ibid, p.11.

54 The teaching of History of Rwanda, <http://www.law.berkeley.edu/HRCweb/pdfs/Rwanda-Curriculum-English1.pdf>,

quoted, J.P. Chrétien, 2000:72.

55 Tharcisse Gatwa, Ibid., p.10, quoted M. D‟Hertefelt, Les clans du Rwanda ancient, Eléments d’ethnohistoire et d’ethnosociologie (Tervuren:MRAC, 1971; De Lacger, Ruanda.

56 Tharcisse Gatwa, Ibid., p.71.

57 Ibid., p.72, quoted D‟Hertefelt, Les clans, p.58.

58 Ibid., p.34.