Hutu and Tutsi - Rwanda

Christian Century, June 15, 1994

Hutu and Tutsi speak the same language, and both trace their origins to t common group known as the Badyarwanda. Before the arrival of European colonists a century ago, the Hutu, who tended the land as farmers, and the Tutsi, who roamed the region as cattle herders, lived in relative harmony. A caste system developed in which the minority Tutsi, who developed an army of their own, became dominant. The uneasy peace that existed between the two groups changed with the arrival of German colonists in the late 19th century, and then Belgians after World War I.

European colonialists favored the Tutsi, both because they had lighter skin than the Hutu and because they were already de facto rulers, explained Liberian lay Catholic leader Ezekiel Pajibo in an interview. But ethnic identity was fluid. Over time, social mobility and intermarriage blurred distinctions between the two groups. A wealthy Hutu could become a Tutsi, while a Tutsi family down on its luck could turn to farming and become Hutu. The result was social division based on class rather than ethnicity. A system evolved in which both impoverished Hutu and Tutsi were treated shabbily and had to eke out livings in one of the most densely populated nations in Africa.

That system continues. Rwandans remain primarily farmers and cattle herders, crowded in a nation the size of Maryland with a population, before the current carnage, of 8 million. All arable land is being used, resulting in enormous soil erosion--and worsening poverty for Hutu and Tutsi alike. "Tribal differences have always been a factor, but they have been used as political tools by those in power," Pajibo said. "The beneficiaries were first the Belgians and later the Rwandans who controlled the country. Every one of these relationships was clouded by injustices."

If ethnic identity became fluid, so too did colonial allegiances. Belgium, made uneasy during the late 1950s by calls for independence by progressive Tutsi, shifted its support to the Hutu, who make up 90 percent of Rwanda's population. Civil war broke out in 1959, and Rwanda--one-half of the Belgian-ruled trusteeship that also included neighboring Burundi--eventually became independent in 1962. A new ruling class of Hutu came to power, prompting the formation of Tutsi guerrilla units. Thousands of Tutsi were murdered in retaliation, and tens of thousands fled to neighboring countries as refugees.

A 1973 military coup brought to power another Hutu-led government. This government, still in power, has proven even more discriminatory against the Tutsi and has waged a lengthy war against the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a Tutsi-dominated guerrilla movement. It is this government--with abundant arms and aid provided by France, South Africa and Egypt--that has resisted calls for democratic pluralism, according to Tutsi and Hutu critics alike. Indeed, it has been an unusually truculent and brutal regime. Human Rights Watch noted that the Rwandan government killed at least 2,000 Tutsi and political opponents between 1990 and 1992. Those killings served as a kind of prelude to the bloodshed of recent weeks, which Human Rights Watch says constituted not spontaneous acts of violence, but calculated and systematic murders that had been planned months in advance.

The rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front now gaining ground in Rwanda was established by Tutsi exiles in 1979 in Nairobi, Kenya. While both the RPF and the Ugandan government deny that Uganda is supplying material aid to the rebel group, observers say that the Ugandan government is squarely behind the RPF and has been its main source of armaments. Over the past decades Uganda has been home to the largest concentration of Rwandan exiles.