| Total population |
|---|
| 2.5 million (Rwanda and Burundi) |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Rwanda, Burundi, Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo |
| Languages |
| Religion |
| Related ethnic groups |
The Tutsi ( /ˈtʊtsi/;[1] Rwanda-Rundi pronunciation: [tūtsī]), or Abatutsi, are an ethnic group in Central Africa. Historically they were often referred to as the Watutsi or Watutsi. They are the second largest caste in Rwanda and Burundi, the other two being the Hutu (largest) and the Twa (smallest).
Contents |
Conceptions of the supposed ethnic groups in Rwanda have a long history. The definitions of "Hutu" and "Tutsi" people may have changed through time and location. Social structures were not stable throughout Rwanda, even during colonial times under the Belgian rule. The Tutsi aristocracy or elite was distinguished from Tutsi commoners, and wealthy Hutu were often indistinguishable from upper-class Tutsi.
When the European colonists conducted censuses, they wanted to identify the people throughout Rwanda-Burundi according to a simple classification scheme. They defined "Tutsi" as anyone owning more than ten cows (a sign of wealth) or with the physical feature of a longer nose, or longer neck, commonly associated with the Tutsi. The Europeans noticed that some Rwandans had noses they thought characteristic of their people, so they created historical and racial theories to explain why some Africans inherited such features. Early 20th-century Europeans believed the physical feature meant that some of the Tutsi had Caucasian or European ancestry, perhaps by migrations from Ethiopia (cf. the Ethiopid race), what was called the Hamitic Theory. According to their racially based ideas, they thought the Tutsi were a "superior" people of a primarily Horn African and/or North African ancestry; descent from Arabs of the Middle East was also suggested. In addition, some Tutsi believed they were descended from the ancient Israelites and had a mystical connection to Israel.[2] The Europeans considered the majority Hutu to be characteristic Bantu people of Central African and Sub-Saharan origin.
Beginning about 1880, Catholic missionaries arrived in the African Great Lakes region. Later, when German forces occupied the area during World War I, the conflict and efforts for Catholic conversion became more pronounced. As the Tutsi resisted conversion, the missionaries found success only among the Hutu. In an effort to reward conversion, the colonial government confiscated traditionally Tutsi land and reassigned it to Hutu tribes, igniting a conflict that has lasted into the 21st century.[3]
Modern-day genetic studies of the Y-chromosome suggest that the Tutsi are largely of Bantu extraction (80% E1b1a, 15% B, 4% E3). Paternal genetic influences associated with the Horn of Africa and North Africa are few (1% E1b1b), and are ascribed to much earlier inhabitants who were assimilated. The Tutsi, in general, demonstrate a close ethnic kinship with neighboring Bantu populations, particularly the Hutu.[4]
...generations of gene flow obliterated whatever clear-cut physical distinctions may have once existed between these two Bantu peoples -- renowned to be height, body build, and facial features. With a spectrum of physical variation in the peoples, Belgian authorities legally mandated ethnic affiliation in the 1920s, based on economic criteria. Formal and discrete social divisions were consequently imposed upon ambiguous biological distinctions. To some extent, the permeability of these categories in the intervening decades helped to reify the biological distinctions, generating a taller elite and a shorter underclass, but with little relation to the gene pools that had existed a few centuries ago. The social categories are thus real, but there is little if any detectable genetic differentiation between Hutu and Tutsi.—[5]
In the Rwanda territory, from the 15th century until 1961, the Tutsi were ruled by a king (the mwami). Belgium abolished the monarchy in response to Hutu activism, following the national referendum that led to independence. In the northwestern part of the country (predominantly Hutu), by contrast, the society more closely resembled that of Bugandan society (in what is now Uganda); large regional landholders shared power instead of a central monarch.
Little difference can be ascertained between the cultures of the Tutsi and Hutu; both groups speak the same Bantu language. The rate of intermarriage between the two groups has traditionally been very high, with historically amicable relations until the 20th century. Many scholars have concluded that the determination of Tutsi was and is mainly an expression of class or caste, rather than ethnicity. DNA studies, as noted above, show clearly that the peoples are more closely related to each other as Bantu than to any other. Differences have arisen due to social constructs, which created greater differences between the groups.
During the 1980s, school principals reported that, although secondary school admissions were in accordance with quotas mandated by the Habyarimana government (in line with the proportions of the groups within the country), and by competition within ethnic groups, the students of Tutsi origin (14% of intake) comprised nearly 50%, on average, of those who graduated. This result provoked accusations of tribal favoritism. It may have been a product of the wealthier Tutsi not needing their children's labor to contribute to family welfare and therefore being able to let them stay in school long enough to graduate.
Both Germany (before World War I) and Belgium ruled the area in a colonial capacity. Like most Europeans before them, the Belgians believed that the Tutsi were originally not from sub-Saharan Africa but had migrated from Europe via northern Africa or from the Middle East, due to what they characterized as physical features they associated as Caucasian. . As a result, they allowed only the Tutsi to be educated and only they could participate in the colonial government. Such discriminatory policies engendered resentment. . When the Belgians assumed control following World War I, they asked for advice from the Germans, who told them to continue promoting the Tutsis, which they did..
When the Belgians took over the colony in 1916, they believed the colony could be better governed if they continued to identify the different populations. In the 1920s, they required people to identify with a particular ethnic group and classified them in censuses. Belgian colonists viewed Africans in general as children who needed to be guided, but noted the Tutsi to be the ruling culture in Rwanda-Burundi. In 1959, Belgium reversed its stance and allowed the majority Hutu to assume control of the government through universal elections.
The Hutu majority had revolted against the Tutsi but was unable to take power. Since the nation's independence, more extremist Tutsi came to power and oppressed the Hutu people, especially those who were educated.[6][7][8][9][10] Their actions led to the deaths of up to 200,000 Hutus.[11] In 1993, Burundi's first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, was assassinated by Tutsi officers, as was the person entitled to succeed him under the constitution.[12] This sparked a period of civil strife between Hutu political structures and the Tutsi military, in which an estimated 800,000 Burundians, mostly Tutsi, were murdered.
Since the 2000 Arusha Peace Process, today in Burundi the Tutsi minority shares power in a more or less equitable manner with the Hutu majority. Traditionally, the Tutsi had held more economic power and controlled the military.
A similar pattern of events took place in Rwanda, but there the Hutu came to power in 1962. They in turn often oppressed the Tutsi, giving rise to Tutsi rebel movements. The exiled Tutsi attacked Rwanda in 1990 with the reason to liberate Rwanda. This lead later to a genocide started by the RPF which was to be continued by the Interahamwe. This culminated in the Hutu mass killings of Tutsi and Hutu in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, in which the Hutu then in power killed an estimated 500,000–1,000,000 people, largely of Tutsi origin. Contemporary to these events in 1994, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, constituted mostly from diasporic Tutsi in Uganda, had begun a strategic move on Rwandan territory from Uganda, where they had acquired significant experience of highly organized irregular warfare in the Ugandan Bush War. Victorious in the aftermath of the genocide, the RPF came to power in July 1994. The RPF Rwandan Patriotic Front,killed numerous Hutus after taking power to revenge the genocide.
In the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), ethnic Tutsi formerly from Rwanda (Banyarwanda) are concentrated on the Itombwe Plateau of South Kivu, close to the Burundi-Congo-Rwanda border. Use of the term Banyamulenge has been controversial, but since the late 1990s following the Rwanda Genocide, it has been used to refer to all ethnic Tutsi living in North and South Kivu.
Banyarwanda may have migrated from Rwanda as early as the seventeenth century. The first significant migration of Banyarwanda into South Kivu was recorded in the 1880s. Banyarwanda migrants continued to arrive during the colonial period, particularly as labor migrants. In the early 1970s, they began calling themselves Banyamulenge to avoid being called Banyarwanda and seen as foreigners, as they had been settled there with descendants for many generations.
The Banyamulenge have an ambiguous political and social position in the Congo, which has been an issue of contention with other ethnic groups. They played a key role in the run-up to the First Congo War in 1996-7 and Second Congo War of 1998-2003.