Before Colonialism
The name Rwanda is derived from the verb ‘kwanda’ in the local Kinyarwanda language, which means ‘to enlarge, to grow’. Oral traditions describe medieval Rwanda as a tiny kingdom of just a few square miles. The country is in other words originally comprised of many small kingdoms that emerged in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa. The earliest known inhabitants of Rwanda were pygmy hunter-gatherers; ancestors to the Twa population that today comprise 1% of the national population.
Prior to the 15th century, a ruler named Gihanga forged a centralized Rwandan state that comprised of cattle-owning nobility, the modern-day Tutsis, and of an agriculturist majority, the modern-day Hutus. The pygmy Twa minority were forest hunters. The kingdom of Rwanda was founded in the 16th century, in the East. The kingdom developed through conquest and alliance, expanding and incorporating neighboring kingdoms and chieftaincies. This means that the country was established based on a complex system of political and economic ties, rather than shared cultural identity. All three groups, however, speak the same language, practice the same religion and cohabit in the same territory. They essentially share the same culture, although each group traditionally had a specific socially proscribed public role.
During Colonialism
It was colonial rule, which officially began in 1895, that was the primary force leading to the emergence of the Rwandan national identity. Following the 1885 Berlin Conference, Rwanda became a German colony, although a permanent German presence was not established in the country for another full decade. In 1919, Rwanda was mandated to Belgium. This mandate led to the implementation of a system that intensified already existing divisions and polarizations between the Tutsi and the Hutu population. German and Belgian policies were based on the concept of indirect rule, and sought to administer their colonies through existing structures of power. In Rwanda’s case, colonial administrators mistakenly believed it to be organised along ethnic lines, so they instituted policies where the Hutu were dominated, and the Tutsi were favored and seen as the natural rulers.
During the German and Belgian colonial rule, local social and political variations that had existed prior to colonization were eliminated. The notion of nationality that was introduced by the colonial administrators created political and social conflicts revolving around how Rwandan national identity should be defined, and which ethnic groups were the ‘true‛ Rwandans. Within Rwanda, the myth was that the Tutsis had arrived recently and established their dominance over Hutu and Twa through conquest. The Germans and the Belgians that regarded them as natural rulers further reinforced the Tutsis’ position in Rwanda. In the 1950s, a movement of Hutu ethno-nationalism arose claiming that they were the true Rwandans. This led to the 1959 peasant uprising, where thousands of Tutsis fled to neighboring countries.
Post Colonialism
A UN General Assembly resolution terminated the Belgian trusteeship and granted full independence to Rwanda effective as of July 1st, 1962. Rwanda thereafter became a republic under Prime Minister Gregoire Kayibanda, leader of the PARMEHUTU Party that promoted a Hutu-supremacist ideology. This prompted frequent clashes between the newly dominant Hutu majority and historically more powerful Tutsi minority, resulting in the flight of more Tutsis across the Rwandan borders. In 1973, Major General Juvenal Habyarimana overthrew the repressive Kayibanda regime. This put the country in an even more complicated political situation over the next 20 years, and simmering ethnic tensions were exacerbated by events in neighboring states. On the 6th of April 1994, Habyarimana was killed in a plane crash triggering the genocide in which an estimated one million Rwandans lost their lives, and twice as many fled in exile. Despite the changing position of Hutus and Tutsis, the Twa remain fixed at the bottom of the hierarchy. They have no political power and remain the poorest segment of Rwandan society.