The Intriguing History of the Banyarwanda People: From Precolonial Clans to Post-Genocide Unity

Spread across East and Central Africa, but primarily in present-day Rwanda, the history of the Banyarwanda is a complex one—even the term itself carries layers of meaning. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), ‘Banyarwanda’ refers to the group of Rwandan colonials or nationals who emigrated to the Central African nation between the end of World War I (1911-1919) and 1960. This is different from the Banyamulenge, an earlier wave of Rwandan emigrants who settled in the region in the 19^th century.

In Rwanda, the aftermath of the 1994 genocide ushered in the use of the term ‘Banyarwanda’ as a political unifier. The people of Rwanda were no longer Hutu or Tutsi—or Twa—but now simply Banyarwanda. Of course, these ethnic groups still exist, but the emphasis on ‘Banyarwanda’ serves as a conscious effort to bridge an ethnic divide that had indeed proven to be deadly.

In the context of this article, however, we will be primarily discussing the ‘Banyarwanda’ as a Bantu ethnolinguistic group who made their home in the African Great Lakes region many centuries ago.

The Origins of the Banyarwanda

There are varying theories about the earliest inhabitation of the region now known as Rwanda. The predominant one is that it was the ancestors of the Twa, a group of hunter-gatherers, who first settled there as early as the 5^th century. The Hutus soon followed and by the 14^th century, the Tutsis had also settled in the region. The Hutus were said to be stocky, strong farmers while the Tutsis were tall, thin pastoralists.

The three distinct groups chiefly formed the clans (ubwoko) in the area, which gradually united to form kingdoms. One of these kingdoms was the Kingdom of Rwanda which emerged sometime in the 15^th century on the shores of Lake Muhazi. The first Banyarwanda were people of this kingdom.

Another theory developed by historians is that the Hutus were the first settlers while the Tutsis came along later and formed a distinct social group. Even more interesting, the elites in precolonial Rwanda perpetuated a mythic origin theory to justify the ethnic hierarchy that existed at the time.  

According to the myth, Kigwa, a deity who fell from heaven, had three sons named Gatwa, Gahutu and Gatutsi. Kigwa assigned his sons the task of watching over a pot of milk at night. Gatwa drank the milk, Gahutu fell asleep and spilt his milk while Gatutsi alone did as he was told. Consequently, Kigwa appointed Gatutsi as his successor, Gahutu as Gatutsi’s servant and condemned Gatwa to the fringes of society. For a long time, this myth formed the basis of the social and political stratification of the kingdom.

According to oral history, when the Kingdom of Rwanda emerged, it was a Tutsi king, Gihanga, who ruled. The Tutsi feudal monarch distributed land and political authority to hereditary chiefs, most of whom were fellow Tutsis. Tutsi chiefs would then demand manual labour from Hutus in return for the rights to occupy their own land. Thus, many Hutus became serfs, a term used to describe agricultural labourers who were forced to work for their masters in feudal systems.

Moreso, when the Kingdom of Rwanda conquered other territories, the defeated peoples were simply dubbed ‘Hutu’, notwithstanding their original ethnic identity. In this way, ‘Hutu’ became more indicative of a lowly social status rather than ethnicity. To buttress this, some Rwandan oral histories suggest that ‘Tutsi’ was equivalent to the phrase ‘wealthy noble’ while ‘Hutu’ meant ‘farmer’. It is worth noting that just like in modern Rwanda, the Hutus by far outnumbered the Tutsis and Twa. Thus, the Tutsis were a ruling minority.

The Great Kingdom of Rwanda

The Kingdom of Rwanda flourished in its early days and expanded outwards towards lake Kivu.  However, around 1600, Rwanda was invaded by the powerful Bunyoro-Kitara kingdom in present-day Uganda. Consequently, they were forced to flee the Lake Muhazi area, but later in the 1600s, they were able to reconquer the area under the leadership of the new Nyiginya Dynasty.

The kingdom continued to expand, seeing its greatest extent under the leadership of King Kigeli Rwabugiri in the 19^th century. Rwabugiri conquered several smaller territories, expanding the kingdom west and north.

Not much is known about the kingdom’s economic structure, except that it was mostly agrarian in nature. This means that cattle herding and farming formed the central pillars of Banyarwanda’s economy. It was on this basis that Rwabugiri introduced administrative reforms called ubuhake (a cattle patronage system) and uburetwa (a labour system), which further established feudalism.

In ubuhake, Tutsi patrons (usually powerful elites) ceded some cattle to lower class Hutu or Tutsi clients in exchange for economic and personal service. In uburetwa, the Hutu were forced to work for Tutsi chiefs for limited time periods. These systems triggered a rift between the Hutu and Tutsi populations.

Still, the Banyarwanda were, to a large extent, unified. They spoke the same language, practiced the same customs and worshipped the same god. There was some tension, but it wasn’t enough to stir major conflict amongst the people. Additionally, ‘Hutu’, ‘Tutsi’ and ‘Twa’ were not rigid ethnic terms but rather fluid labels that were shaped more by occupation and social standing. Then the Europeans came.

The Colonial Weaponisation of Identity

When the Europeans stormed Africa with colonial ambitions in the late 19th century, the Kingdom of Rwanda was no exception. Although, unlike many other African territories whose boundary lines were arbitrarily drawn by the European powers, the German-ruled territory of Rwanda reflected the already existing nation-state.

When Germany established their presence in 1897, they did not introduce major structural reforms to Rwanda but instead worked with the existing hierarchy. They supported the king and delegated power to the local chiefs. Their focus was on efficiently extracting the territory’s natural resources and trading in profitable cash crops.

However, in 1918—towards the end of the First World War—the Belgian forces took over Rwanda and Burundi from Germany. The Belgians brought a much more involved form of colonial rule. They altered the political structure and redefined the state’s borders, incorporating some regions into the Belgian Congo. They introduced large-scale projects in education, public works, health and agriculture.

But most of all, they concretised the ethnic divides. In 1932 (some sources say 1933), the Belgian colonial government introduced an identity card system which labelled the Banyarwanda as either Tutsi, Hutu, Twa or Naturalised. Prior to that time, it had been possible for wealthy Hutu to ‘ascend’ to Tutsi status, but the identity cards now fixed the identities of the Banyarwanda.

The Belgians made the classification based on Eurocentric racial theories. They declared the Tutsis, who predominantly held positions of power, as descendants of the Hamites. This made them superior seeing as Hamites were believed to have stronger genealogical ties to Europeans. On the other hand, the Hutus were simply ‘Negroid’, which to Europeans was obviously synonymous with ‘uncivilised’ at the time.

The Germans had also supported Tutsi supremacy, but it was not on such a grave basis of racial discrimination. Belgian rule undoubtedly fuelled ethnic tensions that would lead to the devastating Rwandan Civil War (1990-4) and Genocide decades later.

But before then, Belgian rule also drove many Banyarwanda out of Rwanda. First, a 1926 change in labour laws allowed Rwandans to seek employment abroad. This led many of them, predominantly Hutus, to move to North Kivu in the Belgian Congo as well as to the British colonies of Tanganyika and Uganda. The migrant Rwandans in North Kivu became known as the ‘Banyamasisi’, also different from the earlier Banyamulenge.

Then later in the 1950s, Tutsi refugees also fled to the Belgian Congo in a bid to escape persecution from the uprising Hutus in Rwanda. This new wave of migrant Rwandans, who again were mostly resident in North Kivu, were simply known as Banyarwanda.

The Postcolonial Struggles of the Banyarwanda

Rwanda’s quest for independence from Belgium was marred by significant political upheaval. In 1959, the Hutu population revolted, massacring multiple Tutsis and eventually establishing an independent Hutu-led republic in 1962. In this first republic, led by Hutu President Grégoire Kayibanda, the Hutu leadership sought to dish out payback to the formerly ruling Tutsis by implementing policies that marginalised them.

This stark power shift precipitated waves of violence, prompting even more Tutsi refugees to flee. By 1964, there were at least 150,000 Tutsis in neighbouring countries. These exiled communities, often labeled as inyenzi (cockroaches), launched incursions aimed at reclaiming their homeland, further spurring internal strife.

The turmoil continued under the military rule of Hutu Major General Juvénal Habyarimana from 1973. By 1990, the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) revolted and launched the so-called 1990 Liberation War. This conflict had utterly devastating effects, chief of which was significant loss of life.

The culmination of these tensions was the tragic 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, a dark period where an estimated 800,000 lives were brutally terminated. In the genocide's aftermath, Rwanda embarked on a path of reconciliation and healing. The government implemented policies aimed at promoting a unified national identity: Banyarwanda. A new constitution, adopted in 2003, set this novel unified identity in ink. Efforts were also made to repatriate refugees and integrate them back into the society.

The Resilience of the Banyarwanda

With significant strides in socioeconomic development, the nation of Rwanda has since emerged as a beacon of progress in Africa, challenging the narratives imposed by colonialism. Initiatives aimed at fostering unity and reconciliation are evident in community programs, national policies, and the collective ethos of the populace—although there are still some who possess what is dubbed a ‘genocidal ideology’.

Outside of Rwanda, the prominent Banyarwanda communities in countries like Uganda and DRC continue to champion their cultural heritage. All in all, the ongoing journey towards unity and reconciliation remains a central theme in the story of the Banyarwanda.