Kigeli IV of Rwanda

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Kigeri IV King of Rwanda ruled the country from 1853 to 1895. He was a Tutsi with the birth name Rwabugiri. He established an army equipped with guns and prohibited most foreigners from entering his kingdom.

Rwabugiri's administration imposed a harsh regime on the formerly semi-autonomous Tutsi and Hutu lineages, confiscating their lands and breaking their political power. Rwabugiri amplified feudal labour systems, in particular the uburetwa, i.e. labour in return for access to land, a system that was restricted to Hutu peasant farmers while exempting Tutsi. He also manipulated social categories, and introduced an "ethnic" differentiation between Tutsi and Hutu based on historical social positions. Polarization and politicization of ethnicity thus began before the advent of European colonialism.