Defeat Is the Only Bad News: Rwanda under Musinga, 1896–1931

6. The Europeans, New Court Tactics, 1913-1919

130 6 New Europeans, New Court Tactics, 1913– 1919 The Arrival of the Belgians Inkoni ivuna igufwa ntiivuna ingeso. [The stick breaks the bones, it does not break habits] With the outbreak of World War I, Musinga was freed from the fear that the Germans might try to replace him with another ruler. They faced a likely attack by far stronger British and Belgian forces massed in Uganda and the Congo; the Germans had to rely on Musinga to keep order within Rwanda and to guarantee their provisions. They sought to ensure his loyalty by promising to conquer and return to his control all the territory lost to Rwanda after Rwabugiri’s death and in the boundary delimitations of 1911. As a first step in this direction, they rapidly and effortlessly drove the Belgians from Ijwi Island in the early months of the war.1 World War I and Rwandan Colonial Control As the news of the war spread quickly through the kingdom, many Rwandans hoped this conflict might bring an end to colonial rule.2 Musinga too may have privately cherished such hope, but in the meantime he publicly supported the Germans and ordered his subjects to do the same. If the war were to mean not the elimination of the colonial powers but merely reapportionment of their holdings, Musinga wanted to be sure that the Germans would win. Above all, he feared a Belgian victory. Ever since the first battle with the Belgians at Shangi—a disaster for the Rwandans—the Court had experienced only trouble with the officials from the Congo. Court representatives who had entered Belgian territory to collect taxes had been killed or expelled. Like other Rwandans, Musinga and Kanjogera had heard of the abuses by Belgian soldiers or officials from refugees who had fled the Congo.* Once hostilities associated with World War I had begun, the Belgians together with the British raided Rwandan territory, pillaging cattle, other livestock, and produce to feed their troops. The raids, which cost several important notables large numbers of cattle, only increased the Court’s hatred and fear of the Belgians and their allies.3 Aside from the anticipated return of territory, Musinga stood to gain more immediately from cooperation with the Germans. Since most Rwandans refused to accept the Germans’ metal or paper currency, the administration had to requisition supplies and porters through the Court. As the number of German troops grew from a few dozen at the start of the war to more than one thousand by January 1916, the Court profited handsomely from this arrangement. The Germans, for example, recognized Musinga as the owner of all the cattle in the kingdom and paid him, rather than the notables, for the loan of three thousand milking cows and for the delivery of another three hundred cattle a year for slaughter. However, the notables who had produced the cattle lost nothing, since they had collected them without payment from their inferiors. As before the war, both Court and notables used German support to make additional demands for their own gain, including requiring three days’ uburetwa labor from their clients instead of the previous two.4 Musinga used the increased German backing to intimidate further his Bega kin, whose position had been eroding since Kabare’s death in 1911. He allowed one of his favorites to deprive his influential cousin Rwidegembya of a large domain in the north and soon after sent Rwidegembya on a campaign against the Hutu of a distant region (Itabire), in a thinly disguised temporary exile from the Court. Musinga was also looking with increasing disfavor on his cousin Kayondo, another member of the Bega, who would play a major role throughout the rest of his reign. Kayondo had been orphaned when a child and had grown up under the care of Kanjogera, his father’s sister. From the start, Musinga New Europeans, New Court Tactics, 1913–1919 131 *From time to time mutineer soldiers from the Force Publique (the military force in Congo) had entered territory claimed by the Rwandan Court and created havoc among the population. (See C. Newbury The Cohesion of Oppression, 54–57, for an example of this.) Consequently, the Court was wary of invasion from the west. had resented this rival for his mother’s attention. Later, Musinga took offense because even after Musinga acceded to power Kayondo continued the casual relationship they had known as children and...