Thesis
Reference
Christianity, Islam and Rwandan Traditional Religion: Perspectives on Memory and Reconciliation
NDAYIZEYE, Munyansanga Olivier
Abstract
This thesis seeks to clarify the root causes of anti-Islam attitudes in predominantly Christian Rwanda. First it focuses on the thinking of the first missionaries (White fathers) in their enterprise of sheer rejection of both Islam and Rwandan Traditional Religion. Surprisingly, the influence of Rwandan Traditional Religion on the two other faiths remains significant. Second, it reviews the role played by Western missionaries in reinforcing anti-Islam attitudes in connection with their struggles against Arab slave trade in East Africa in the second half of 19th century. It is necessary to revisit the violent, often hidden history of Christianity, Islam and their relations in Rwanda; after mass atrocities, it is also necessary to undertake a reconciliation of memories. The commemoration of tragedy and suffering informed by reconciliation of memories may be a significant contribution to the healing of the nation and may at the same time contribute for preventing religion-based violence.
NDAYIZEYE, Munyansanga Olivier. Christianity, Islam and Rwandan Traditional Religion:
Perspectives on Memory and Reconciliation. Thèse de doctorat : Univ. Genève, 2017, no.
Théol. 620
DOI : 10.13097/archive-ouverte/unige:144124 URN : urn:nbn:ch:unige-1441244
Available at:
http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:144124
Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version.
1 / 1
Autonomous Faculty of Protestant Theology Ecumenical Institute of Bossey
Part of the World Council of Churches and attached to the University of Geneva
Christianity, Islam and Rwandan Traditional
Religion: Perspectives on Memory and Reconciliation By NDAYIZEYE MUNYANSANGA Olivier
Thesis presented as part of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in theology (Ecumenism)
Supervised by: Dr. Jean Claude Basset (UniGE)
Dr. Odair Pedroso Mateus (Bossey)
August 2017
I am a human being:
and any injustice towards others makes me angry.
I am a human being:
any oppression offends who I am.
Cardinal Charles M.A. Lavigerie (1825-1892)
Table of Content
Table of Content ... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... vii
ABBREVIATIONS ... ix
ABSTRACT ... x
GENERAL INTRODUCTION ... 1
1. GENERAL BACKGROUND ... 1
2. RESEARCH AIMS ... 3
SECTION I: RWANDA AND THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN TRADITIONAL RELIGION, CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM ... 7
Chapter I. RWANDAN HISTORY AND POPULATION ... 7
Introduction ... 7
1.1. Origin of the Rwandan Kingdom ... 9
1.1.1. Pre-colonial time ... 10
1.1.2. The tragedy coup d‟état of Rucunshu in 1896 ... 11
1.1.3. The social organization called “clan” ... 12
1.2. Colonialism ... 15
1.2.1. German colonization ... 16
1.2.2. Belgian colonization ... 17
1.3. Hamitic theory ... 18
1.3.1. Educational discrimination ... 22
1.3.2. Introduction of ethnic identity card... 24
1.3.3. Divide for rule ... 25
1.4. Rwandan social revolution of 1959 ... 26
Conclusion ... 29
Chapter II. Historical Perspectives on the Encounter between Traditional Religion, Christianity, and Islam in Rwanda ... 31
Introduction ... 31
2.1. Arab-Muslim trade of slaves ... 33
2.1.1. Definition of slavery ... 33
2.1.2. Slavery in Africa ... 35
2.2. Slavery and Islamic faith ... 39
2.2.1. Slavery in Muslim African countries ... 41
2.2.2. The theory of the curse of Ham ... 43
2.2.3. Negative stereotypes ... 44
2.2.4. Castration of young African boys ... 45
2.2.5. Details of the operation ... 46
2.3. Slavery in East Africa and in Rwanda ... 48
2.3.1. White Fathers and the mission of fighting slavery ... 48
2.3.2. The main routes of Arab trade of slaves between 1860-1890 in the Great Lakes Region ... 50
2.3.3. Bagamoyo the terminus of slaves ... 51
2.3.4. The indescribable pain of slaves ... 53
2.4. Slave trade in Rwanda ... 56
2.4.1. The Institution of Ubuhake ... 56
2.4.2. Slavery in Rwanda ... 59
2.5. Origin of Christian and Muslim mistrust in Rwanda ... 60
2.5.1. Interreligious war in Uganda ... 61
2.5.2. Inter-Christian war in Uganda ... 63
2.6. The Arrival of the White Fathers in Rwanda ... 64
2.7. King Musinga and religion ... 65
2.8. Influence of Rwandan Traditional Religion on new religions ... 68
2.8.1. What is IMANA? ... 69
2.8.2. The role of spirits in Traditional Religion ... 70
2.8.3. Spiritual beings called “jinn” in Islam ... 71
2.8.4. The cult of kubandwa... 74
2.8.5. Rwandan Traditional Religion and music... 80
2.8.6. Christianity and music ... 83
2.8.7. Islam and music ... 83
2.8.8. Rwandan Traditional Religion and medicine ... 85
2.8.9. Polygamy ... 88
2.8.10. Concept of Umma and Rwandan tradition ... 93
2.8.11. Friendships between Muslims and Rwanda‟s Kings ... 95
Conclusion ... 96
Section II: Violence, Healing and the Reconciliation of Memories ... 98
Chapter III. Religion and Violence ... 98
Introduction ... 98
3.1. Definition of violence ... 99
3.2. Religious origin of violence ... 101
3.2.1. Role of religious identity in violence ... 103
3.2.2. Theocratic states... 107
3.2.3. Holy war and violence ... 110
3.3. Crusades and religious violence... 114
3.3.1. Definition ... 114
3.3.2. Islamic interpretation of crusade ... 115
3.3.3. Causes of crusades ... 117
3.4. Crusades and Colonialism... 123
3.5. Jihad ... 124
3.5.1. Minor or lesser jihad (al-jihad al-asghar)... 126
3.5.2. Major or Greater jihad (al-jihad al-akbar) ... 127
3.6. Jihad and Colonialism ... 131
3.7. Jihadist movements in East Africa ... 132
3.7.1. Al Qaida ... 133
3.7.2. Al- Shabab ... 135
3.8. Jihadist movement in Rwanda ... 137
3.9. Islam and violence ... 138
3.9.1. Some Qur‟anic references justifying violence ... 140
3.9.2. Some Hadith references justifying violence ... 141
3.9.3. Bible quotations justifying Violence ... 144
3.10. Islamic conquest... 146
3.11. Christian and Muslim positions on violence in Rwanda ... 149
3.11.1. Role of Christian Church in Violence ... 149
3.11.2. Christian churches participation in politics... 152
3.11.3 Inertia of the Church to prevent violence ... 156
3.12. Strategies of fighting against Islam ... 157
3.12.1. The Roman Catholic Church against Muslims ... 158
3.12.2. Protestant missionaries against Islam ... 161
3.12.3 Marginalization of Muslims ... 162
3.12.4. Violence against Muslims ... 163
3.12.5 Denigration of Muslims ... 164
3.12.6. Muslim attitudes during genocide ... 167
Conclusion ... 170
Chapter IV. Healing and reconciliation of memories ... 172
Introduction ... 172
4.1. Remembering in Christianity and Islam ... 173
4.1.1. Philosophy of remembering ... 173
4.1.2. Remembering victims ... 175
4.1.3. Remembrance in Christianity ... 180
4.1.4. Remembering in Islam ... 181
4.2 Transgenerational transmission of trauma ... 182
4.2.1. Models of trauma transmission ... 184
4.3. Rescuing Christians and Muslims from historical memory ... 185
4.3.1. Commemoration of slavery day in Africa ... 187
4.3.2. The Role of apology in the healing memories ... 190
4.4. Christian-Muslim reconciliation ... 200
4.4.1. The Rwandan model ... 200
4.5. Apologizing in the name of an Institution ... 204
4.5.1. Apology of political leaders ... 204
4.5.2. Apology of Church leaders ... 206
4.6. Healing and violence prevention ... 209
4.7. PROCMURA and Healing of memories... 212
4.8. The role of Gacaca courts in healing memories... 213
4.9. The power of memorials in the healing of memories ... 215
4.9.1. Memorial and reconciliation in Rwanda ... 217
4.9.2 Churches in Rwanda and memorials... 217
4.9.3. Memorial Genocide Day ... 219
Conclusion ... 220
General conclusion ... 221
Bibliography ... 226
Reference‟s books ... 226
Publication on Rwandan History ... 228
Publications on religion ... 230
Thesis ... 233
Publication on East Africa Arab Slave Trade ... 230
Articles ... 235
Internet resources ... 237
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis is a tribute to the memory of my father, Epaphrodite Munyansanga, who was killed during the 1994 Genocide of Tutsi in Rwanda. He struggled for my education and inspired me to serve the healing of memories and reconciliation.
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Professor Jean Claude Basset. This thesis would not have been possible without his guidance, help, and advices. My gratitude goes also to Professor Odair Pedroso Mateus for motivating and supporting me throughout my ecumenical studies.
I‟m extremely grateful to Professor Elisée Musemakweli, Vice Chancellor of the Protestant Institute of Arts and Social Sciences, in Huye, Rwanda, for supporting me morally, spiritually and financially during my studies. I‟m grateful to Fondation pour l‟Aide au Protestantisme réformé (FAP) and to the Vereinte Evangelische Mission (VEM), from Wuppertal, Germany, and in particular to Rev. Berend Veddeler for financially supporting my research especially during my stays in Geneva, Mombasa and Zanzibar.
I thank Dr André Karamaga for his empathy and support to my research, and Professor Amélé Ekué who was and remains my best model for an academic mentor and teacher.
I‟m grateful to all staff of the Autonomous Faculty of Protestant Theology of Geneva and the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey for providing me a rich and inspiring environment to study and to explore new ideas. I would like to thank Rev. Arnold Steiner, for welcoming me as a friend and helping me to develop many of ideas in this thesis. Thanks to Rev. Dr Kakule Molo for closely and patiently following my work, and for encouraging me to go forward.
I recognize the invaluable help and support from: Father Innocent Maganya, Professor of Missiology at Tangaza School, Nairobi Kenya; Professor Joseph Galgalo, Vice/Chancelor, and Professor Esther Mombo, Vice/Chancellor for Academic affairs and all staff of St Paul‟s University in Limuru, Kenya, for allowing me to do research in their institution; Rev. Dr Johnson Mbillah, General Adviser of the Program for Christian and Muslim Relations (PROCMURA) for
his helpful remarks; Professor Abdul Sherrif of the Department of History at State University of Zanzibar, and Professor Emile Mworoha of the Department of History at National University of Burundi for taking time to discuss with me the topic of my research; Dr Tharcisse Gatwa, Professor of Missiology at Protestant Institute of Arts and Social Sciences in Rwanda, for his orientations; Rev. Catherine Day for proofreading my thesis and contributing to its English expression. Many thanks go to my friend Father Serge Moussa Traoré from Burkina Faso, and Catherine Rogers from South Carolina, for their support during my studies.
And finally, my deep gratitude to my wider family: to my mother-in-law Immaculée Milenge, to my daughter Joy, and my sons, Elvis, and Molo, it is hard to express in words how thankful I am for their understanding, faith, advice, support throughout the years in which I have worked on this thesis.
ABBREVIATIONS
AU African Union
CCEM Comité Contre l‟Esclavage Moderne
CCIA Commission of the Churches on International Affairs CNLG Commission Nationale de Lutte contre le Génocide EPR Eglise Presbytérienne au Rwanda
IFAPA Interfaith Action for peace in Africa
IRDP Institut de Recherche et Dialogue pour la Paix IRRD Interreligious Relations and Dialogue
ICTR International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda NURC National Unity and Reconciliation Commission LWF Lutheran World Federation
PROCMURA Program of Christians and Muslims Relations in Africa WARC World Alliance of Reformed Churches
WCRC World Communion of Reformed Churches WCC World Council of Churches
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
ABSTRACT
This thesis seeks to clarify the root causes of anti-Islam attitudes in predominantly Christian Rwanda. First it focuses on the thinking of the first missionaries (White fathers) whose missionary enterprise was also a sheer rejection of both Islam and the Rwandan Traditional Religion. Surprisingly, the influence of Rwandan Traditional Religion on the two other faiths remains significant. Second, it reviews the role played by Western missionaries in reinforcing anti-Islam attitudes in connection with their struggles against Arab slave trade in East Africa in the second half of 19th century.
This thesis argues that it is necessary to revisit the violent, often hidden history of Christianity, Islam and their relations in Rwanda; after mass atrocities, it is necessary to undertake a reconciliation of memories. The commemoration of tragedy and suffering informed by reconciliation of memories may be a significant contribution to the healing of the nation and may at the same time contribute to preventing religion-based violence.
Résumé en Français
Cette thèse vise à clarifier les causes profondes des attitudes anti-islamiques dans le Rwanda à prédominance chrétienne. D'abord, elle se concentre sur la pensée des premiers missionnaires (les Pères blancs) dont l'entreprise missionnaire fut aussi un simple rejet de l'Islam et de la Religion Traditionnelle Rwandaise. Étonnamment, l'influence de la Religion Traditionnelle Rwandaise sur les deux autres religions reste importante. Deuxièmement, elle examine le rôle joué par les missionnaires occidentaux dans le renforcement des attitudes anti-islamiques dans le cadre de leurs luttes contre la traite des esclaves arabes en Afrique de l'Est dans la seconde moitié du 19ème siècle.
Cette thèse affirme qu'il est nécessaire de revoir l'histoire violente, souvent non dite du Christianisme, de l'Islam et de leurs relations au Rwanda; Après la violence et les atrocités de masse, il faut entreprendre une réconciliation des mémoires. La commémoration de la tragédie et de la souffrance, éclairée par la réconciliation des mémoires, peut contribuer de manière significative à la guérison de la nation et peut contribuer en même temps à prévenir la violence fondée sur la religion.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1. GENERAL BACKGROUND
Rwanda is a vastly Christian country with more than ninety-three percent of its population claiming to be followers of Christian churches, both Roman Catholics and Protestants. However the country has a very dynamic and vibrant Muslim community whose history goes back to the beginning of evangelization of Rwanda, even though it accounts for about five percent of the population. During and after the colonial era, the Protestant missions and Islam claimed that the Roman Catholic Church had become a King‟s maker religion, interfering in the State affairs, and mostly discriminating against the other religions. This created resentment within the minorities even in the post genocide context of Rwanda. Thus, different attempts have been made to bring all societal forces to engage in peace building and cohabitation.
Today Islam, a minority community, is taking advantage of the new political context of unit and reconciliation in Rwanda to increase its visibility. Since the post genocide period, Islam is considered on an equal basis as other religions. Some Muslims are official representatives of the government. In 2003, the Rwandan Constitution fixed “Aïd el fitr” which celebrates the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, as a public holiday. For the first time in 2012, in the Cabinet meeting chaired by President Paul Kagame on March 16th, the Rwandan government “appointed the Muslim Cheikh Habimana Saleh as Rwandan Government Board‟s head of NGOs, faith–
based organizations and political parties.”1 It came as a surprise for Christian organizations including churches that they had a muslim as their government counterpart. But on the other hand, this can be seen as one of the results of interreligious dialogue and the other initiatives for reconciliation in Rwanda.
Interreligious dialogue is a new development in Rwanda. It has been pioneered from 1997, by the Presbyterian Church in Rwanda. Christians in the country have had different understandings of interreligious dialogue. One group is composed of people who think that the main target of dialogue is to convert people of other faiths, for which they feel strongly motivated. A second
1 See Cabinet meeting chaired by President Paul Kagame on 16th March 2012.
group thinks that there is no need for interreligious dialogue because “Christians are majority in Rwanda with more than 93%”2 of the population. A third group believes that with interreligious dialogue, may help Rwandans to build a peaceful and prosperous society for the common good of all in satisfying basic human needs and working towards overcoming violence and poverty.
They recognize themselves in the words of a Lutheran World Federation document on religious pluralism in Africa:“With humankind menaced by all sorts of dangers, religious leaders can no longer think in terms of their faiths but of brothers and sisters who must help one another to preserve human dignity and to restore to individuals their rightful place in a society ever more marked by kinship.”3
The misunderstanding on the role of interfaith dialogue, in association with other factors such as poverty, religious and ethnic exclusion, and inequality in resource distribution… has been the causes of most violent actions in Africa and in Rwanda in particular. Surprisingly among the main actors, religious people are found as part of the group in a way or another.
The history of Rwanda, which has been marked by violence of all sorts, culminated in the 1994 genocide. Newspaper reports which portray violence in Africa, and particularly in Rwanda, are filled with images of weapons, diseases, famine, people fleeing their homes and thousand dying.
Some of these conflicts which are throughout the continent are tribal and religious. One is led to raise some questions, how long time this slaughter will be ended and why is it still continuing?
- Why is Rwanda in a permanent cycle of violence from: “1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965”4, 1973, 1990 and, particularly the paroxysm of violence, the 1994 genocide against Tutsi, which was “a modern example of a society collapsing tragically and dramatically?”5
- What are the underlying root causes of violence?
- Why this happened to a faith based country like Rwanda where believers constitute more than 93% of the total population?
2 3rd Census of population and Housing in Rwanda on August 15th 2002, published by Ministry of Finance and Economic planning, February 2005, p:39.
3 LWF, Religious pluralism in Africa: Challenge and Response, LWF, 1996, p:76.
4 See the whole of International Red Cross Museum in Geneva, 2009.
5 Boudreaux Karol, Land conflict and genocide in Rwanda, <http://www.ejsd.org/public/journal_article/14>, 6th August 2009.
- Which actions can be taken by Christians and Muslims to prevent such violence in the future?
- What can be their contribution to prevent violence and to maintain peace in Rwanda?
- Which message can be articulated to address the causes of violence? Which attitude can be taken to face violence?
2. RESEARCH AIMS
The research that undergirded this thesis pursued three main objectives: (a) to map the root causes a century of tensions between Christianity and Islam in Rwanda; (b) to explore Christian and Islamic principles for peaceful coexistence; (c) to offer perspectives of dialogue, healing and reconciliation of memories.
Chapter one offers a concise overview of the history of Rwanda and its population as well as the background of interreligious relations in Rwanda as it is marked by the taboo issue or what has been recently called “the untold story”6 of Arab slave trade. We contend that this trade is one of the root causes of tensions and conflict between Christians and Muslims in Sub-Saharan Africa.
It is also a cause of mistrust between black Africans and Arabs.
The second chapter of this thesis is entitled “Historical Perspectives on the encounter between Traditional Religion, Christianity, and Islam in Rwanda”, seeks to clarify the influence of Traditional Religion on the history of Christianity in relation to Arab slave trade; it also establishes a link between Arab traders, the expansion of Islam and the establishment of White Fathers in the areas where slave trade was intense and where were implanted important Muslim communities as a result of it. This was the case of Eastern African cities and villages such as Mombasa, Zanzibar, Bagamoyo, Tabora, Ujiji, Nyanza-lac, Rumonge. The Scottish missionary David Livingston 1813-1873 testified to the horror of slavery in East Africa in these words:
The spectacle that I had under my eyes, common incidents of this human traffic, it is a horror that I constantly endeavor to hunt from my memory, but in vain. The most painful
6 The Arab Muslim slave trade of Africans, the untold story, <www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwtTSa1BvLI>, 05th November 2013.
memories blot out itself with me; but the atrocious stages that I saw come back, and in night they make me bound, horrified by the vivacity of the picture.7
Finally, the second chapter clarifies the circumstances in which the White Fathers missionaries fought and marginalized Islam in Rwanda: they arrived in Rwanda coming from Uganda, where they had experienced religious conflicts between Muslims and Christians, and between Catholics and Protestants; they had gained a long experience of resistance to Arab trade of slaves in Algeria and in the East African Region; they were working and moving with the Middle Age crusade memory.
In the words of Gerard Van‟t Spijker, “the first missionaries who arrived in Africa had a heritage of the Middle Age conflicts in Europe and their first motive of evangelization was effectively the fight against Islam.”8 Professor Gerrie ter Haar admitted also that “Crusades and Arab slave trade are part of the historical memory which influences relations between Muslims and Christians up to this day.”9
This explains why one of the missionary priorities of White Fathers in Rwanda was to prevent the expansion of Islam in that small heart of African landlocked country. In their view, “Islam was inspired by the spirit of evil.”10
In this journey of research for peaceful coexistence between Christian and Muslim communities in Rwanda, we cannot overlook Rwandan Traditional Religion. It will be of paramount importance to bring out the tenets of the Rwandan practices in terms of reconciliation and peace building. Christianity and Islam arrived in Rwanda at the end of 19th century; they found that Rwandan Traditional Religion was already present. This research brings out its relation with both new religions in Rwanda and how Traditional Religion influenced both. It is important to clarify it because Traditional Religion was “a social trait which made cohesion of Rwandan society”11 It is always present in the mind of Rwandans with Christian and Muslim ideas and “exerts probably the greatest predominance upon the thinking and living of the people concerned.”12
7 David Livingstone, Last Journal, vol.11, p.212.
8 Cf. Conférence donnée au premier séminaire islamo-chrétien au Rwanda, Septembre 1998 à Kabusunzu.
9 Gerrie ter Haar and James J. Busuttil, Ibid, p.5.
10 J.-H. Kagabo, Ibid p. 21.
11 Gérard Prunier, The Rwanda Crisis, Ed. Fountain Publishers, Kampala, 1994, p.13.
12 John Mbiti, African religions and philosophy, Heinemann, London, 1969, p1.
I tried to understand why the Tutsi kings of Rwanda were close to Muslims and the consequences of such open defiance to a colonial system where the Roman Catholic Church was a dominant force both politically and religiously. In fact, this will be my second argument of the root cause of violence in Rwanda. When the Tutsi kingdom was abolished in 1959, the Tutsi ethnic group and Muslims were marginalized and oppressed by a new political system which was openly under the influence of Roman Catholic Church. The Primate of the Church, Archbishop
“André Perraudin”13, was a government maker of Rwanda.
The chapter three, “Religion and violence”, I analyzed the crusades and Jihad, as part of the historical memory of people in the Muslim and the Christian worlds, influencing relations between believers of both religions even to this day.14 I inspected the statement of a White Father Serge Moussa Traoré, who argued that: “Religions failed in solving or preventing the conflicts in the world in large part because many perpetrators of violence and conflict are themselves, believers”.15 I included evidence of the violent role played by religions in the Genocide against Tutsi and other conflicts in Rwanda, and importance to clearly identify the presence of violence, its seeds, and its deepest causes in preventing future violence in Rwanda. In the analysis, I considered the importance of being careful in showing the link between the factors and positions of the two major religious communities, whether they were part of the problem or of the solution with regard in sources of these conflicts.
In chapter four, I demonstrated that from religious dogma, it is possible to raise a non-violent coexistence and reconciliation between religions, peoples, races and different ethnic groups.
Thus, I entitled that chapter “Healing and Reconciliation of Memories.” Healing of memories is one of the tasks challenging various religious traditions.16 The first step to create a new life after violent atrocities where children, women and men were suffered and, were killed, is to heal
13 André Perraudin (1914- 1990) was born at Cotterg, Vallée de Bagnes in Switzerland. He worked in Roman Catholic Church of Rwanda as Bishop and Archbishop from 1950 to 1990.
14 Gerrie ter Haar, and James j. Busuttil, Bridge or barrier: Religion, violence and visions for peace, Brill, Leiden, Nederlands, 2005, p.5.
15 Traoré S.M., The truth in Islam according to the official teaching of the Catholic Church, Ed.
L‟Harmattan, Paris, 2010, p.240.
16 Gerrie ter Haar, Ibid, p.5.
memories. That process of healing is an important instrument to use for overcoming any kind of violence and to prevent it in the future. Therefore the different religions have to work together on that real need of healing memory in a Rwanda where many people were traumatized by the 1994 genocide against Tutsi and its consequences. Coming together, as believers of faith, along with all organizations in charge of healing memories like the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide, and the National Commission of Unity and Reconciliation, can help to heal memories. For the major faith communities in Rwanda, it is “an act of courage and humility in recognizing the wrongs done by those who have borne or bear the name of Christian or Islam.”17 Interreligious dialogue “is one way of recalling together times of communities living in peace with each other but also offers space for listening people recounting their stories and experiences repleted with painful memories of controversy.”18
Finally, this study is to serve Rwanda, as a wounded society, and it will be looked from a Christian perspective. Although I am not educated in Islam but having had profound encounters with Muslims in many interreligious Christian-Muslim dialogues, I offer also some reflections from Islam and Christian perspectives on healing wounds and memories.
17 Traoré S.M., Ibid, quoted Jean Paul II, incarnationis Mysterium,11, p. 230.
18 Ucko Hans, When you get to the edge of the Abyss, step back, in Current dialogue No 49, July 2007, pp:23-26, p:23.
SECTION I:
RWANDA AND THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN TRADITIONAL RELIGION, CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM
Chapter I. RWANDAN HISTORY AND POPULATION Introduction
Rwanda is a small land-locked country situated in the Great lakes Region of Central-East Africa, with 11.5 million people living on 26.338 Square kilometers. “The population density has increased from 321 persons per sq.km in 2002 to 416 in 2012 at the national level. It is the highest density in the East African Region and quite high compared to other countries globally.”19The Rwandan population is expected to increase to about 16 million by 2020.20 Rwanda is located in Central/Eastern Africa, and is bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west,
19The provisional results of the 4th population and housing census of Rwanda, < http://www.gov.rw/The- provisional-results-of-the-4th-Population-and-Housing-Census-of-Rwanda-as-of-census-night-August-15th-2012- give-a-total-resident-population-of-10-537-222-people>, 30th March 2014.
20 Rwanda vision 2020, <http://www.gesci.org/assets/files/Rwanda_Vision_2020.pdf>, 02nd April 2014.
Uganda to the north, Tanzania to the east, and Burundi to the south as it can be seen below:
Most of the Rwandans depend on subsistence agriculture, generally using a hoe as the main tool.21 The population of Rwanda is composed of three social groups: Bahutu, Batutsi, and
“Batwa.”22 They speak the same language, Kinyarwanda which is closely related to Kirundi, spoken in Burundi, Mashi spoken in the South Kivu region of Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kiha, spoken in northwestern Tanzania, Kinyarwanda is part of “Bantu language”23. All three social groups practice the same religions, and live in the same territory with a same culture.24
Tharcisse Gatwa, a Rwandan author, explains that “these three social groups who belonged to the same culture and civilization began to be divided into ethnic and racial categories which led, many times during the twentieth century to unbelievable violence in 1959, 1963, and 1973.”25 However, in 1994, Rwanda had endured an unprecedented genocide of Tutsi where approximately 1 million people were killed in one hundred days.
This chapter seeks firstly to investigate the root causes and key roles of religions in violence from the perspective of external influences of Rwanda at the end of 19th century with explorers, colonizers, Arabs, and missionaries. “In the history of Rwanda, myths, historical legends, the
21 Rwanda hope, <http://www.rwandahope.com/rwandaHistory.htm>, 02nd April 2014.
22 The Batwa are one of the Rwanda‟s three ethnic groups. They make up only the number about 35.000, less than 0,4%. The most pressing issue facing the Batwa is land ownership, intrinsically linked to their right to
movement, residence and protection of property. The semi-nomadic lifestyle of Batwa with its forest-based existence is not conducive to the land regime in Rwanda which does not recognize them right to the land on which they live. 91% have no formal education. The Batwa have the highest incidences of poverty and lowest access to social services of all Rwandans. See UNPO web site, introduction according to the UN, the population of Rwanda. They are recognizable by anybody who speaks Kinyarwanda language because they have a distinct accent as far as tone intonations are concerned. Rwandan culture has a lot of jokes about Batwa which ridicule them as being dumb, naïve, and stupid. They are entertainers: clowns, singers, and dancers. See Alexandre Kimenyi, The Batwa language: studies in cultural survival, language preservation and ethnic identity.
<http://www.kimenyi.com/The%20Batwa%20Languag1[1].pdf>. From 1970, Rwanda governments evicted thousands of the Batwa from their homes at Nyungwe forest and from the Volcanoes National Park for
conservation and tourism commercial projects, and gave to them little or no compensation. See Nick Ashdown, Rwanda’s invisible people, <http://nickashdown.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/rwandas-invisible-people/>.
23 The Bantu linguistic group covers an area from South Cameroon to almost the whole Southern Africa, including then Eastern and Central Africa. This is a family of hundreds of languages whose number of speakers is close to 220 million ( See <http://www.bantu-languages.com/en/bantu_intro.html>, 01st March 2016).
24 Countries and their cultures, <http://www.everyculture.com/No-Sa/Rwanda.html>, 02nd April 2014.
25 Tharcisse Gatwa, The Churches and Ethnic Ideology in the Rwandan Crises 1900-1994, Regnum Books International, 2005, p.3.
cultural universe and religious of imandwa (spirits), and the dynamism of dynasties and clans played big roles in the affirmation of the kingdom of Rwanda.”26 Secondly, the first white peoples to arrive in Rwanda through colonization and evangelization, read the history of Rwanda through “the hamitic myth and with diagrams of the European feudal history.”27Thirdly, as said Emile Mworoha, Professor of History at University of Burundi, it is not possible to penetrate the pre-colonial monarchical facts in Rwanda in ignoring the system of clans and the different social categories.28
1.1. Origin of the Rwandan Kingdom
The origin of the Rwandan kingdom is known through oral stories, myths, and legends. It is Gihanga Ngomijana who apparently begun and founded the Rwandan kingdom and the Banyiginya royal dynasty clan from a place called Gasabo near lake Muhazi in the western part of Rwanda. “It is him who introduced the cow and the drum, (Gihanga cyahanze inka n’ingoma) fire, and religion.”29 It was at the end 10th and beginning of 11th century. He ruled Rwanda from his palace in the forest of “Buhanga.”30 Ian Vansina confirms that, Gihanga never was an historical figure even if Rwandans believed, and still believe that he was a living king.31
According to one of the legends from Rwandan oral tradition, King Gihanga is the father of the three ancestors of all Rwandans: Gatwa, father of the Twa, Gahutu, father of the Hutus and Gatutsi, father of the Tutsis.32 In Rwandan tradition, “the king was treated as a semi-divine being, believed to have come from heaven. He was a source of life and symbol of unity for the
26 Emile Mworoha, L‟Etat monarchique et son emprise sur la société dans la région des Grands Lacs au XIXème siècle, in Histoire sociale de l’Afrique de l’Est (XIXe-Xxe siècle), Karthala, 1991, p. 37, pp.37-58.
27 Ibid 28 Ibid
29 Bernadin Muzungu, Histoire du Rwanda Pre-coloniale, Ed. l‟Harmattan, Paris, 2003,p. 72.
30 Scholars have said that Buhanga is in Musanze Distict (former Ruhengeri near the Mukungwa river) However, other reseach says that Buhanga was in today‟s Gicumbi District(former Byumba). There are a grave people in Nyamirembe where residents believe that is was a grave of a King. Gihanga was buried in Nyamirembe in the South of Buhanga II. See <http://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/article/2007-09-08/78219/>, 01st March 2016.
31 Jan Vansina, Antecedents to Modern Rwanda, Ed. The University of Wisconsin Press, 2004, p53, quoted A.Kagame, Abrege1,41.
32 African creation myths, <http://skyview.vansd.org/bquestad/myth/africa/creation1.htm>, 28th April 2014.
nation.”33 The symbol of the royal power was a sacred drum called Kalinga which was accorded the same respect as the king.34
1.1.1. Pre-colonial time
In Pre-colonial times, Africa was divided into many kingdoms with diversified populations speaking more than 800 different languages. African kingdoms “favored oral tradition and few possessed written languages.”35 There were more than ten thousand states and kingdoms before the arrivals of Europeans. 36 In Rwanda, it was a similar reality;
From the 15th century, the clans began to coalesce into kingdoms. By 1700, approximately eight kingdoms existed in present-day Rwanda, the largest ones being Bugesera, Gisaka, the northern part of Burundi, and the early kingdom of Rwanda. The kingdom of Rwanda, ruled by the Tutsi Nyiginya dynasty, became increasingly dominant from the mid-eighteenth century, as the kings centralized power and expanded the kingdom militarily, taking control of several smaller kingdoms. The kingdom reached its greatest extent during the nineteenth century under the reign of King Kigeli IV Rwabugiri (1853–1895).37
The political structure of Pre-colonial Africa was decentralized in certain parts and centralized in other parts. But Rwanda in particular
Was a highly centralized kingdom presided over by Tutsi kings who hailed from one ruling clan. The king was supreme, he ruled through three categories of chiefs, cattle chiefs, land chiefs, and military chiefs. The chiefs were predominantly, but not exclusively, Batutsi, especially the cattle and military chiefs. While the relationship between the king and the rest of the population was unequal, the
33 Julius O. Adekunde, Culture and Customs of Rwanda, Greenwood Press, London, 2007, p.7.
34 Ibid
35 Toyin Falola and Tayler Fleming, African civilization, <http://www.eolss.net/sample-chapters/c04/e6-97- 09.pdf>, 20th June 2016.
36 Ibid.
37 History of Musanze, <http://www.musanze.com/history-of-musanze/>, 24th April 2013.
relationship between the ordinary Bahutu, Batutsi and Batwa was one of mutual benefit mainly through the exchange of their labour.38
Working activities were well divided. Tutsi pastoralists were cattle keepers, aborozi, whereas Hutu were agriculturalists, abahinzi. Twa were pottery workers, ababumbyi. “For exchanging product through barter trade with one another, there were also wood workers, textile workers for bark cloth, metal workers, medicine men, magicians, musicians…”39 It is reported that, “Bahutu, Batutsi and Batwa, lived in symbiotic harmony in using same language, same culture, and same territory.”40 But the Rwandan historian Déogratias Byanafashe argues that history indicates some violent crisis of succession as the extermination of the Abagerekas 1868-1869, the murder of Murorunkwere 1876-1880, the death of Nyirimigabo 1885-1887/8. The one better known is the tragic coup d‟état of Rucunshu.41
1.1.2. The tragedy coup d’état of Rucunshu in 189642
This crisis intervenes as to close the crises of the old Rwanda; it is one of the last with the reign of King Kigeli IV Rwabugili. The“Rucunshu”43 crisis was opposed, in a classic case of rivalry and competition for the throne which ended up in favour of opponents to King Rwabugiri. It means that it opposed supporters of the throne, represented by Rutalindwa, son of Queen Murorunkwere, the first wife of the king,“who was chosen in 1889 to replace his father”44, and those of Queen Kanjogera, second wife King Rwabugili, who wanted to enthrone her son, Musinga.
The war of Rucunshu in December 1896 happened between two politically very influential lineages: the royal lineage of the Banyiginya-Bahindiro and the matri-dynastic lineage of the Bega-bakagara that mobilized each of the partisans in the whole Rwanda. It was of short length
38 Official website of Rwandan government, <http://www.gov.rw/PRE-COLONIAL>, 24th April 2014 39 In 2 East Africa Reporter, Museveni’s speech during the 20th commemoration of genocide,
<http://in2eastafrica.net/musevenis-speech-during-the-20th-genocide-commemoration/>, 11th May 2014.
40 Official website of Rwandan government, <http://www.gov.rw/PRE-COLONIAL>, 24th April 2014
41 Déogratias Byanafashe, Rwanda Ruptures du capital social multiséculaire et genocide, Ed. CLE, Yaoundé, 2004, pp46-48.
42 Ibid.
43 Runcunshu is located in sector of Nyamabuye in Muhanga District.
44 Ian Linden, Chrsitianisme et Pouvoirs au Rwanda, 1900-1990, Ed.Karthala. Paris, 1990, p.46.
for about one afternoon, but extremely murderess and violent. It ended in favour of Queen Kanjogera and her son Musinga Umwega-umwakagara and Umunyiginya-umuhindiro after having finished by dividing Rwanda in two irreconcilable factions: the faction of the Banyiginya and the faction of the Bega.
The repercussions of this fratricide war will agitate Rwanda until 1912 with the revolt of the legitimate Ndungutse and even subsequently with the inexpiable enmities between chief Kayondo, brother in law of King Musinga and Rudahigwa (Musinga‟s son and king of Rwanda since December 1931). Ndungutse declared himself son of Rutalindwa and therefore true legitimate prince. He led some expeditions from the Ndorwa in the northeast of Rwanda. The revolt of Ndungutse was controlled by a German military expedition with several hundreds of the deaths and enormous material damages.
1.1.3. 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.
1.2. Colonialism
Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) a psychiatrist and philosopher from Martinique asserted that colonialism was violence in three ways: First as physical violence. Throughout colonial history physical violence has been perpetrated by the colonizer to “pacify” the colonized and to force them to accept the laws and order of the colonizer. Second as structural violence which refers to the social injustice that one sees in colonized societies through the economic exploitation of the colonized. Third as psychological violence, the injury or harm done to the human psyche of the colonized decreased their sense of self-worth and integrity. In the colonial context the imposition of the colonizers language on the colonized is a form of psychological violence.59 Besides these forms of violence, “colonialism completely destroyed what remained of the political, economic and socio-cultural achievements of Africa and left in its place „nothing of compensatory value‟.
Colonialism is „violence in its natural state.”60
The post-colonial civil violence observed in Africa as the genocide in Rwanda, political rebellions, and interethnic conflicts are a common legacy of colonialism, for example in Eastern DRC at the boarder of Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, where an arbitrary partition of the region was made by European powers without taking into consideration the population. This created the unsolved question of identity and citizenship of Banyarwanda and Banyamulenge which generated violence in the Great Lakes region of Africa.61 After the decolonization process, this influence continues to permeate the social and cultural identities of the populations formerly involved in the colonial experience, still deeply affecting inter and intra group dynamics.62
59 Nessa, Colonialism as violence in its natural state, in Cure curious,
<http://curecurious.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/franz-fanon-describes-colonialism-as-%E2%80%98violence-in-its- natural-state%E2%80%99/>, 10th August 2014.
60 Ibid.
61 Sabelo, Ndlvou Gatsheni, <http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/ferguson-centre/working-papers/working-paper-2.doc>, 10th August 2014.
62 Chiara Volpato, Introduction: Collective Memories of colonial violence, International Journal of conflict and violence, vol.4(1) 2010, pp.4-10, <www.ijcv.org/index.php/ijcv/article/download/61/201>, 11th August 2014.
1.2.1. German colonization63
The Berlin Conference held between December 1884 and February 1885 “sliced Africa into Portuguese Africa, British Africa, German Africa, Italian Africa, Spanish Africa, French Africa and Belgian Africa.” 64 Both Rwanda and Burundi formed the territory called „Ruanda-Urundi‟, the Berlin conference “assigned it to Germany and marks the beginning of the colonial era.”65 It was then united with the German territory of Tanganyika to form German East Africa. Explorer Gustav Adolf von Götzen (1866-1910), who later became Governor of German East Africa, was the first European to significantly explore Rwanda in 1894; he crossed from the south-east to Lake Kivu and met the King Rwabugiri at Kageyo in Ngororero District in Western Province.
Germany appointed Richard Kant as the first Resident governor for Rwanda in 1907, and German missionaries and military personnel began to arrive in the country shortly thereafter.
One of the differences between German and Belgian colonization is that:
The Germans did not significantly alter the societal structure of the country, but exerted influence by supporting the king and the existing hierarchy and placing advisers at the courts of local chiefs. They also observed and perpetuated the ethnic divisions of the country; they favored the Tutsis as the ruling class and aided the monarchy in putting down rebellions of Hutus who did not submit to Tutsi control.66
63 History of Musanze, <http://www.musanze.com/history-of-musanze/>, 24th April 2013.
64 Motsoko Pheko, Effects of colonialism on Africa‟s past and present,< http://www.pambazuka.org/global- south/effects-colonialism-africas-past-and-present>, 14th July 2016.
65 Rwanda: Key historical and constitutional developments,<http://www.kituochakatiba.org/sites/default/files/legal- resources/Rwanda%20Key%20Historical%20and%20Constitutional%20Developments.pdf> , 14th July 2016.
66 History-Research Africa,< http://www.afran.info/modules/publisher/item.php?itemid=425>, 14th July 2016.
1.2.2. Belgian colonization
“When Germany invades Belgium, at the start World War I, Belgian troops move east from the Belgian Congo to occupy Ruanda- Urundi in 1916.”67 After defeating German troops, “on 31st August 1923, the League of Nations passed a resolution granting Belgium the right to govern Rwanda and its southern neighbor Burundi, as the territory of Ruanda-Urundi,”68 which was attached to the portion of the German East Africa colony. Then after, “a colonial military campaign from 1923 to 1925 brought the small independent kingdoms to the west such as Kingogo, Bushiru, Bukunzi and Busozo, under the power of the central Rwandan court.”69 Belgian colonizers replaced Germans. “They portrayed Tutsi as natural rulers, with superior intelligence and morals.”70 White Fathers and Belgian administrators “reinforced many of the ideas of strict ethnic separation and Tutsi political dominance.”71 At the same time, they allowed the King to govern indirectly as stated by Timothy Longman:
The policy of indirect rule implemented by both the Germans and Belgians left the Rwandan monarchy in place, using the existing political structures to administer colonial policies. The system lost much of its complexity, as power became increasingly centralized. Since indirect rule required identifying indigenous authorities, the Belgian administration registered all of the population in the 1930s and issued identity cards that designated each person's ethnicity.72
This classification into ethnic groups intensified the ethnic division between the Tutsis and Hutus With the institution of national ID cards in 1933, “the Tutsis went from being the naturally superior race, to being the marginalized minority. Rwandan leaders used the ID cards to
67 History of Rwanda, <http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ad24>, 05th March 2016.
68 The league of Nations grant Belgium the right to govern Rwanda, < http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated- event/league-nations-grant-belgium-right-govern-rwanda>, 05th March 2016.
69 South African History, <http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/league-nations-grant-belgium-right-govern- rwanda>, 05th March 2016.
70 Timothy Longman, Christian Churches and Genocide in Rwanda, quoted Leroy Vail, Introduction: Ethnicity in Southern African History, in The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa, edited by Leroy Vail, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989, pp1-19,
<http://faculty.vassar.edu/tilongma/Church&Genocide.html>, 05th March 2016.
71 Timothy Longman, Christian Churches and Genocide in Rwanda, ,
<http://faculty.vassar.edu/tilongma/Church&Genocide.html>, 05th March 2016.
72 Ibid
construct two separate races, thus their usage by colonial and postcolonial governments nevertheless helped to transform the manner in which Rwandans regarded identity.”73
On that new identification system,
Words: "Tutsi", "Hutu" and "Twa" were indicated on identity cards. However, because of the existence of many wealthy Hutu who shared the financial (if not physical) stature of the Tutsi, the Belgians used an expedient method of classification based on the number of cattle a person owned. Anyone with ten or more cattle was considered a member of the Tutsi class. The Roman Catholic Church, the primary educators in the country, subscribed to and reinforced the differences between Hutu and Tutsi. They developed separate educational systems for each, although throughout the 1940s and 1950s the vast majority of students were Tutsi.74
In 1960, the Belgian government agreed to hold democratic municipal elections in Ruanda- Urundi. The Hutu majority elected Hutu representatives. Such changes ended the Tutsi monarchy, which had existed for centuries. A Belgian effort to create an independent Ruanda- Urundi with Tutsi-Hutu power sharing failed, largely due to escalating violence. At the urging of the United Nations, the Belgian government divided Ruanda-Urundi into two separate countries, Rwanda and Burundi.75
1.3. Hamitic theory
For centuries, the issue of ethnic identities or racial origin of the inhabitants of Rwanda has been a source of debate among historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and ethnologists. Moreover, some scholars set up several theories of the Bantu migrations to indicate particularly that in Rwanda the three ethnic groups are distinct and come from different areas. According to one of the most well-known theories,
73 Jacklyn Nardone, Intolerably Inferior Identity, quoted Timothy Longman, pp.347-354, < http://www.monitor.upeace.org/archive.cfm?id_article=707>, 05th March 2016.
74 Rwanda, <http://www.ciaworldfactbook.us/africa/rwanda.html>, 14th July 2016.
75 Ibid.
The Twa were the original inhabitants of Rwanda (700 BC), the second settlers were Hutus, while the Tutsis migrated later in the 14th to 15th century and formed a distinct racial group, possibly of Cushitic origin. An alternative theory is that the migration was slow and steady, with incoming groups integrating into rather than conquering the existing society. Under this theory, the Hutu and Tutsi distinction arose later and was a class distinction rather than a racial one.76
Furthermore, they represented the Batutsi as “a class of smart people that was naturally fit to rule. A chronological order of land occupation by the three ethnic groups was later used as an intellectual basis for the exclusionist ideology and the denial of citizenship to Tutsi.”77 And then, the major formulations of the Hamite myth were drawn up from the 1880s. According to Gudrun Honke, Captain Speke (1861) and Henry Morton Stanley (1871) were the first explorers who, from travelers, heard about the Banyarwanda people. Two major sources were used:
- The first source was the Ugandans who told of the images left by King Rwabugiri, the warrior king of Rwanda, who had occupied their country.
- The second source was Arab slave traders. These described a people who resisted strongly and prevented them from entering Rwanda. Captain Speke described Rwanda as a country in the hands of foreign invaders, of Galla origin from Abyssinia and Asia.78 Dr Oscar Baumann, an Austrian was the first European to live in Rwanda from 1892 to 1894. He sets the tone for what was going to become a systematic application of the theory of race supremacy as follows: Everywhere Watutsi who stood out by their slenderness and their near European type. Some were hardly brown and were doubtless the origin of the legend about the white negroes. Their style of dress recalls the description of the royal figures of ancient Assyria.79
76 History of Musanze, <http://www.musanze.com/history-of-musanze/>, 24th April 2013.
77 IRDP, History and conflict in Rwanda, <www.irdp.w/indexphp/component/.../13-history?...17...rwanda>, 24th April 2014.
78 Tharcisse Gatwa, Ibid., p.65.
79 Ibid., p.100.
According to Gatwa, the second European to enter Rwanda in 1894, Gustav Adolf Duc Von Goetzen, gave a description that would be repeated again and again: “A strange Semitic or Hamitic aristocratic caste, whose ancestors originated from Gallaland, in the South of Abyssinia, and had occupied the regions of the Great Lakes. Their gigantic stature, with a height of more than two meters, reminds one of the worlds of fairy tales.”80
Jean Joseph Gobineau (1853-1855) affirmed that the Hamites descended, 5000 years before, from the white race in Mesopotamia. Confronted by the black African masses, non-Adamic from the south, they would have mixed and become diluted.81
In 1926, Mary Hastings Bradley, an American traveler and author, spoke of sophisticated Tutsi who had a precise theology and a number of biblical sounding stories. These, she explained, came down from the north with these tribes of pronounced Hamitic and Semitic origins. New scientific racial theories started to circulate suggesting that the Tutsi and also Masai came from a primordial red race. Some thought they came from India. A certain Dominican Father Etienne Brosse (1892), suggested that they originated in the Garden of Eden, while others suggested that the Tutsi were survivors of the lost civilization of Atlantis.82
This created a wrong awareness in Rwanda that Tutsis were invaders, foreigners with no right to live in the country as citizens. Later, after independence, this ideology supported by religious and political authorities led to killings, marginalization and ultimately the genocide of the Tutsis.
Churches and colonial powers also reinforced the existing class system in promoting Tutsi superiority. They considered Hutus and Tutsis as different races with different origins.
80 Ibid., pp.97-110.
81 Ibid., p.65, quoted Baron d‟Eckstein in 1854, and the Dominican Vicwa-Mitra in 1892, both referred to in Chrétien, J.P., Burundi, Histoire retrouvée. 25 ans de métier d’historien en Afrique (Paris:Karthala, 1993), p.339.
82 Tudor Parfitt, Black Jews in Africas and Americas,<books.google.rw/books?isbn=0674067908>, 10th May 2014, p.56.
