2. Rwanda
• One of the so-called
interlacustrine
states.
• Mountainous
terrain, very fertile
volcanic soil.
• Agriculture and
cattle pastoralism
3. History
The history of Rwanda, like that of other colonized
countries, has been wrongly interpreted and
distorted by travellers, explorers, missionaries and
historians who had little or no knowledge at all about
the areas they were discovering.
The leadership structure of the Rwandan social
organization that they described was basically a
reflection of the European system that they left at
home. That is why the history of Rwanda, written
and taught, played a significant role in internal
conflicts Rwanda underwent.
4. History
The starting point was the
theory on Rwandans’ origins
that was based on differences
between the three groups
making up the Rwandan
society. First of all, the
colonizers interpreted the socio-
political system they found in
terms of Tutsi, Hutu and Twa
ethnic groups. They
represented the Tutsi as a class
of aristocratic people that was
naturally ‘fit to rule’.
HAMITIC HYPOTHESIS
6. Nilotic Migrations
Around 1000CE Nilotic- SUDAN
speaking cattle herders
pushed southward into the ETHIOPIA
newly highland grasslands
of the Great Lakes region.
Some retained their Nilotic
language and culture,
such as the Luo northeast CONGO (DR)
UGANDA
of Lake Victoria. West of EQUATOR
Lake Victoria, Nilotic Lake KENYA
Victoria
herders integrated into RWANDA
Bantu society and BURUNDI TANZANIA
adopted local Bantu
7. Buhake
• Rather than ethnic
differences, it far more
representative to
understand the
distinctions between these
three communities as
different ‘classes’. But
perhaps not ‘class’ in the
same way you or I
understand it.
• Tutsi and Hutu can be
best understood as
ECONOMIC classes. Women at work in a Tutsi
Compound
• At the centre of this
8. BUHAKE
Milk
Meat
HUTU TUTSI
Hide
Male cows
Rights
FOREST PRODUCTS
TWA
9. BUHAKE
Buhake granted rights of USUFRUCT to a Garagu
by a Shebuja.
Maquet translates these terms as client and patron.
Is this correct?
Did Maquet get it right?
Maquet was working in the 1920s
