Africa A to Z: Continental and Country Profiles: Third Edition

Rwanda

COUNTRY PROFILES A-Z 316 Africa A-Z: Continental and Country Profiles | Africa Institute of South Africa Rwanda Orientation One of Africa’s smaller countries, Rwanda borders on Lake Kivu, between Uganda and Burundi. Rwanda is slightly smaller than Burundi, its southern neighbour, and it shares many other similarities with Burundi, so that the two of them are often spoken of as twin countries (see Burundi Profile). Both countries lie in the heart of what is sometimes called the Great Lakes region. Much of Rwanda is rugged terrain, especially in the northwest where the country borders on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda; in this area Mount Karasimbi, in the volcanic Virunga Mountains, rises to 4 587 m above sea level. To the east the land slopes towards marshy lakes along the Kagera River that forms the border with Tanzania before it drains into Lake Victoria. The climate is tropical with abundant annual rainfall in two rainy seasons ( March – May and October – December). Most of the country is covered by lush vegetation, mainly wet savanna, though grasslands occur in the high-lying areas. Yet overcultivation, overgrazing and deforestation are causing serious degradation of the environment. Rwanda has some of the most interesting national parks in Africa but they have been damaged by war and continue to be threatened by poaching and farming activities. The Parc national des volcans, in the Virunga Mountains, and the adjoining Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, are famous for being a natural habitat of the mountain gorilla, an endangered species. People With more than 8 million people, Rwanda has the highest population density in sub-Saharan Africa (over 300 persons per km2 ). Many thousands of Rwandans died in the civil war of the 1990s. The citizens of Rwanda are called Rwandans but in a cultural context they are referred to as the Banyarwanda, speaking Kinyarwanda (a Bantu language) that is an official language besides French. The Banyarwanda consist of three sub-groups, the Bahutu (Hutu), accounting for about 80% of the total population , the minority Batutsi (Tutsi) whose ancestors were Nilotes and the Batwa (Twa) descendants of the early Pygmy population who now speak Kinyarwanda and number only a few thousand. Although the ethnic religions are still professed, most Hutu and Tutsi are Christians and overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. About 90% of Rwandans live in the rural areas. The only city of consequence is the national capital, Kigali, with about 750 000 residents; other large towns are Butare, COUNTRY PROFILES A-Z Africa Institute of South Africa | Africa A-Z: Continental and Country Profiles 317 south of Kigali, Ruhengeri, in the north, and Gisenyi and Cyangugu near Lake Kivu. Economy Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, contributing about 40% of GDP. Food production does not meet the country’s needs, despite the fact that the rainfall pattern makes it possible to have two planting seasons per year. Land is in short supply and farming takes place on very small plots. Much of the livestock was decimated during the civil war but their numbers are slowly recovering to pre-war levels. Tea has supplanted coffee as the main export crop; tea and coffee exports accounted for more than one-third of foreign earnings in 2002. There is very little commercial forestry production and the fishing potential of Lake Kivu has not yet been fully exploited. Rwanda has deposits of several minerals of which only columbo-tantalite (coltan) and cassiterite (tin) are mined in significant quantities. Owing to rising international demand for coltan in recent years, this mineral became a substantial export earner for Rwanda. In addition, there is a large natural gas field at the bottom of Lake Kivu but only small quantities are currently being extracted. The manufacturing and commercial sectors are poorly developed and hampered by the small market and the country’s remote and landlocked location. History Early settlement Bantu-speaking groups settled around Lake Kivu and Lake Tanganyika from early times and drove out the original Stone Age Pygmies; in the course of time the Banyarwanda emerged. From about the 16th century AD they were subjugated by southward -moving Nilotic groups such as the Hima who settled in present- day Rwanda. Rwanda COUNTRY PROFILES A-Z 318 Africa A-Z: Continental and Country Profiles | Africa Institute of South Africa Although the Hima were a minority group, the Banyarwanda...