Rwanda 

                                                                           By: Brandon Dallas Evans

Introduction  

Officially named the Rwandese Republic, Rwanda is located in central Africa, east of Zaire.  Populated by nearly seven million people, many of which reside in its country's capital of Kigali.  Kinyarwanda, French, Swahili, and English are among the many dialects spoken. 

National Name:
Repubulika y'u Rwanda

The red, yellow, and green of their countries' flag stands for Africa's unity and the "R" stands for Rwanda.

Brief History

The original inhabitants of Rwanda were the Twa, a Pygmy people engaged in hunting and pottery making. Exactly when the Hutu arrived in Rwanda is not known, but they were well established when the Tutsi appeared in the 14th century. The pastoral Tutsi established dominance over the Hutu agriculturists by their superior military skills and by a series of land and cattle contracts. In the 15th century, Ruganzu Bwimba, a Tutsi leader, founded a kingdom near Kigali. What is now central Rwanda was absorbed by this kingdom in the 16th century, and outlying Hutu communities were subdued by the mwami (king) Ruganzu Ndori in the 17th century. The borders of the Rwanda kingdom were rounded out in the late 19th century by Kigeri Rwabugiri, who is regarded as Rwanda's greatest king. By the beginning of the 20th century Rwanda was a unified state with a centralized military structure.

The Germans claimed Rwanda as a part of German East Africa from 1890 but kept their presence there minimal. The Belgians occupied Rwanda without opposition in 1916, and the League of Nations created Ruanda-Urundi as a Belgian mandate in 1923.

(However, racist ideas that Belgians, as well as Germans had brought with them made them think that the Tutsi were a superior group.)

The Belgians ruled through the traditional Tutsi kings and retained the traditional feudal structure, thus allowing the Tutsi to hold on to their dominant position in the society. Gradually, however, the Belgians sought to establish a more democratic atmosphere, and this encouraged the rise of the Hutu lower classes.

In 1959, civil war erupted between the Tutsi and the Hutu, and mwami Kigeri V was forced into exile, along with thousands of other Tutsi. Rwanda was declared a republic in January of 1961 and became independent the next year under its new Hutu leaders.

Large numbers of Tutsi were forced to leave the country after independence. A raid launched from Burundi by Tutsi exiles in 1963 brought severe reprisals against Tutsi within Rwanda. A military coup, led by Juvénal Habyarimana, took place in 1973. The new government pledged to put an end to tribal hostility; the Hutu monopoly of power, however, continued. A new constitution was introduced in 1978. Elections held in 1981 brought Rwanda its first elected legislature since the military coup of 1973.

In the late 1980s Rwanda's economy deteriorated sharply as world coffee prices fell and a serious drought caused crops to fail. In October 1990, the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded from Uganda; its troops were mostly Tutsis who had fled from ethnic violence during the 1960s and in 1973. Negotiations between the government and the RPF began in 1992, and peace accords were signed in Arusha, Tanzania, in August 1993. The Arusha Accords called for the formation of a broad-based transitional government, including members of the RPF, by the end of 1993. Extremist Hutu leaders refused to share power, however, and the transitional government was not installed.

Rwandan Genocide

On April 6, 1994, President Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the president of Burundi, were killed when their airplane crashed, apparently shot down, near Kigali. Rwanda's presidential guard, which opposed the sharing of power, was generally held responsible. A number of moderate Hutu politicians, including the acting prime minister, were killed on April 7, and in the months that followed the army, the presidential guard, and extremist Hutu militias killed an estimated 200,000–500,000 civilians, most of them Tutsi. In response, the RPF resumed its military campaign. Hundreds of thousands of people, both Hutu and Tutsi, fled to neighboring countries. By late July, when the RPF announced a cease-fire and declared victory, it was estimated that there were more than 2 million refugees, more than half of whom were in Zaire (now Congo). The repatriation of these refugees was marred by periodic outbursts of violence.

(In Context:  In 1994 genocide in Rwanda wasn't the biggest in history, but it may have been the fastest.  It happened in less than 100 days.  At least 500,000 people, mostly Tutsis, were killed from a population of nearly eight million.  By comparison, it took the Nazis six years to kill six million Jews in the Holocaust, a rate of about 2,700 people a day.) 

(In ten weeks, hundreds of thousands of innocent and unarmed people were slaughtered. Nearly one third of all Tutsis on earth were wiped out.)

Christianity 

Religions: 

Roman Catholic - 56% / Protestant - 18% / Islam - 1% / Animist - 25%

Nowhere in Africa has Christianity had a more decisive impact than in Rwanda. The Hutu revolution derived much of its egalitarian inspiration from the teachings of the European clergy, and Catholic seminaries served as recruiting grounds for Hutu leaders. Roman Catholicism claims the allegiance of about two-thirds of the population.  

The majority of Rwandans, about 56%, are Roman Catholic, with another 18% Protestant. Only about 1% of the population is Muslim and about a fourth of Rwandans are adherents of indigenous beliefs. However, these numbers and divisions are not clear cut. Many Rwandans practice both their traditional religion and Christianity at the same time. At the core of traditional religion is a supreme being or spirit called Imana. This supreme being can only be addressed through intermediaries, and they can be Christian, the spirits of deceased family members known as abazima, or other illustrious ancestors. In this final category, Ryangombe and Nyabingi are two venerated ancestral deities that can intercede and ask for power and benevolence from Imana but do not posses them themselves. Ryangombe is venerated mostly in southern and western Rwanda. Nyabingi is a goddess venerated mostly in northern Rwanda.

Rwandan's believe that one's familial ancestors, the abazima, can protect and benefit living family members if they are honored and remembered through sacrifices. When they are not, and sacrifices are not performed, they can cause illness or other misfortunes. Diviners are called upon by family members to interpret the wishes of abazima and to recommend ways to appease angered ancestors.

Rwanda's genocide of 1994 has radically changed the way in which Christianity is practiced in the region, according to a church leader and theologian from the central African country.
    They no longer can use worship as just a place for pastors to speak. Worship to them has now become a place for those who survived to speak, and for others [implicated in the violence] to confess," Andre Karamaga, a Rwandan theologian and church leader, told Ecumenical News International in Geneva recently.
    "Worship is now a place of healing, a place for people to speak."  

Reference Links:

http://www.countries.com/countries/rwanda/

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=66201&tocid=6316

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=127517&tocid=40763

http://www.umr.org/HTreconc.htm

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/NEH/rw-relig.html