Tutsi

 

(tūt'sē, tū'–) or Watutsi (wä–) , cattle-raising people of central Africa, particularly in Burundi and Rwanda; they are also known as Watusi or Batusi. The original Tutsi homeland was probably in Ethiopia, and c.400 years ago they migrated south to around Lake Kivu. Here they established the native kingdoms of Rwanda and Burundi, ruled by a mwami (king). An aristocratic people, the Tutsi long held the peasant Bahutu, or Hutu, in feudal subjugation. In the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, despite much integration of Tutsi and Hutu culture, many members of both tribes died in bloody fighting in Burundi, Rwanda, and Congo. The Tutsi are spectacularly tall, often 7 ft (2.1 m) in height.

Tutsi
Total population
2.5 million (Rwanda and Burundi)
Regions with significant populations
Rwanda, Burundi, Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
Language(s)
Kirundi, Kinyarwanda, French
Religion(s)
Catholicism
Related ethnic groups
Hutu, Twa

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The Tutsi are one of three native peoples of the nations of Rwanda and Burundi in central Africa, the other two being the Twa and the Hutu. A Human Rights Watch analysis estimated that 77% of the Tutsi population of Rwanda was slaughtered in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.The Tutsi are currently in power in Rwanda, although they do not refer to themselves as Tutsi.^[1]

Origins

Main article: Origins of Tutsi and Hutu

The ideas surrounding real and supposed ethnic groups in Rwanda have a long and complicated history. The definitions of "Hutu" and "Tutsi" may have changed through time and location. Societal structures were not identical throughout Rwanda. There was clearly a Tutsi aristocracy that was distinguished from Tutsi commoners, and wealthy Hutu were often indistinguishable from upper class Tutsi. When the Belgian colonists conducted their censuses, they desired to classify the people throughout Ruanda-Urundi with a single classification scheme. They merely defined "Tutsi" as anyone with more than ten cows or a long nose, while a "Hutu" meant someone with fewer than ten cows and a blunt nose. (German colonists, amazed by the prominent "European-like" noses of some Rwandans, invoked historical and racial theories to explain how some Africans acquired such noses. According to these early twentieth-century Europeans such organization and such noses could only be explained by European descent, transmitted by way of Ethiopia.) Modern day genetic studies on the y-chromosome show the tutsi to be 100% indigenous African (80% e3a, 4% e3, 1% e3b and 15%B). [1] The data also show that the tutsi are genetically very similar to the hutu. There are currently no mtDNA data for the tutsi.

Racial

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Today there is considerable debate about the racial validity of the term Tutsi as distinct from Hutu. Some researchers believe there is no genetic difference between the two supposed groups, and that what difference did exist can be explained by social and procreative patterns within the Great Lakes region. At one time, there may have been economic and cultural differences in the Rwandan population, although this is also disputed. One such difference was occupational. Some people were farmers and ate a varied diet. Others were cattle keepers and had a diet that consisted of mainly dairy and meat products. The so-called "Hutus" were formerly associated with the former characteristics, and the so-called "Tutsis" with the latter characteristics. Since there weren't any blood or cultural differences between the two "groups", it was easy for them to change their supposed identity or to confuse the two. A Hutu could become a Tutsi simply by raising cattle, and a Tutsi could become a Hutu by working in agriculture. Mahmood Mamdani states that the Belgian colonial power designated people as Tutsi or Hutu on the basis of cattle ownership, physical measurements and church records.^[2] This view has become popular since the genocide, with the current regime at pains to portray itself as being merely one group within a homogenous population, rather than an ethnic minority dominating an ethnic majority.

Other researchers (and local tradition) indicate that the ethnic divide was real, and that the Tutsi were not a Nilotic warrior/cattle herder tribe that invaded several hundred years ago, conquering the more sedentary agricultural (Bantu) Hutu, and establishing a quasi-feudal system in the country, with the mwami (king) and landlord structure. Under this structure, it was possible for a favored Hutu or Twa to become an honorary Tutsi by decree of the mwami, which might account for the crossovers noted. It is also understood under this view that in the course of time the invaders' language was submerged in the majority Hutu language, somewhat modifying the latter (similar to the way in which Norman French became subsumed by the Germanic Anglo-Saxon in England, while modifying it also). Thus the commonality of language is not necessarily an argument for tribal identity. Local comment indicates that while it was not uncommon for a Tutsi woman to marry a Hutu man, it was very rare for a Tutsi man to marry a Hutu woman.

The description is that Tutsis tend to be taller, with relatively thin or "lanky" frames, and have pointed noses and more "European" or Caucasoid facial features; whereas, Hutus are more average in height and stocky in body frame. Another difference is supposed to be that Tutsis have dark oral mucosa (gums) while Hutu have lighter coloured oral mucosa. The tutsi are also said to be darker skinned than the hutu. While many do fit the description, there are Hutu who slightly look like Tutsi and Tutsi who look like Hutu, but this could be due to intermarriages and there are many Rwandans and Burundians do not really fit either description^[3] , which, of course, only makes the case for the artificial nature of the racial line even stronger. In any case, Hutu and Tutsi commonly intermarry.

In the Kinyarwanda language, a single Tutsi is called umututsi, and more than one (the plural) are abatutsi. The terms Watutsi, Watussi, and Watusi are transliterations by Europeans, which were partially propagated by the 1959 Hollywood film Watusi.

Culture

The original European explorers were amazed by the organized society existing in the Kingdom of Rwanda. In much of Rwanda a centralised system of monarchy, based on the Tutsi monarch, the Mwami, existed. In the northwest of Rwanda (predominantly a Hutu area), the society more resembled that of Bugandan society existed, with large regional landholders instead of a central monarch.

Today there is little difference between the cultures of the Tutsi and Hutu; both groups speak the same language. Traditionally the rate of intermarriage has been very high, and relations between the groups were considered peaceful until the 20th century. Tutsi men rarely took Hutu wives, while Hutu men often took Tutsi wives. The ethnicity of the father determined the ethnicity of the children, however, which partially contributes to the continued larger proportion of Hutu in the region. Many have concluded that Tutsi is mainly an expression of class or caste, therefore, rather than ethnicity. Experts dispute whether similarities between Hutus and Tutsis are from common ancestry, frequent intermarriage, or both. The separation of the groups are sufficiently profound, however, that in any community in Rwanda, everyone knows who is Hutu and who is Tutsi; the genocide demonstrated a level of ethnically-based hatred that is hard to explain simply on colonial "definitions".

One cultural difference noted by school principals during the 1980s was that although secondary school intakes were governed by quotas mandated by the Habyarimana government (in line with the proportions of the tribes within the country), and by competition within tribes, the students of Tutsi origin (14% of intake) on average demonstrated a much stronger drive to succeed,^{[citation needed]} with the result that by the end of secondary school, the Tutsi usually were nearer 50% of graduands. (This argument was the same one used by the apartheid government in South Africa to justify educational favoritism for Europeans in that country.) This tended to result in accusations of "favouring the Tutsis", and was a contributor to the animosity of some in the genocide.^{[citation needed]}

The Tutsi were ruled by a king (the mwami) from the 15th century until 1961. The monarchy was abolished by the Belgians, in response to the desires of both Tutsi and Hutu, following a national referendum leading up to independence.

Colonial influences

Both Germany (before World War I) and Belgium ruled the area in a colonial capacity. The Germans theorized that the Tutsi were not originally from sub-saharan Africa at all. They thought that they had immigrated from somewhere else, or were survivors of the lost continent of Atlantis. When the Belgians took over the colony in 1916 from the Germans, they felt that the colony would be better governed if they continued to classify the different races in a hierarchical form. They felt that Africans in general were children who needed to be guided, but noted the Tutsi to be the ruling culture in Ruanda-Urundi. In 1959 the Belgian reversed their stance and allowed the majority Hutu to assume control of the government through universal elections. This allowed a backlash of oppression against the Tutsi by the Hutu, and led to many cultural conflicts, including the Rwandan Genocide.

In Burundi, there was a well prepared genocide by Tutsi extremist against the Hutu population in 1972 and an estimated 500,000 Hutu and moderate Tutsi died. Those who participated in that genocide are free after the current government of Burundi continue to urge all the people to forgive each other on all of the killings. There have been other mass killings against the Hutu population in Burundi, like in 1988, when the government struck innocent civilians in the region of Ntenga and Marangara . In 1993, Burundi's first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, was assassinated by Tutsi extremists.

References

External links

• Rwanda history
• A personal note by a Tutsi academic
• A case study of the conflict between Tutsi and Hutu
• A traveler learns about the Hutu and Tutsi conflict and reflects on it
• The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (the status and judgments of all cases before the ICTR are available here)
• Sexual Violence against Tutsi Women
• Tutsi
• Worlds Apart: The Roots of Regional Conflicts
• Ex-Rwandan PM contests genocide conviction
• [2]

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