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Ethnic Diversity Background and Issues: The Case of Rwanda James Vuningoma Introduction It is impossible to deal with the ethnic diversity issues after genocide in Rwanda in 1994 without considering historical flash backs that could shed some light and indicate what characterised the country at its different stages of state formation. It is in that history that one sees the social, political and economic developments and the evolution of social diversity which Rwanda still enjoys today. Social scientists have, among others, carried out extensive research on the origins of people and their final settlements in areas they call home. The ultimate findings indicate the birth of nations and nation-states. They have raised questions of the origins, migration trends, affinities, attitudes of the people as they move to settle and these have later informed future researchers and readers. It is on the basis of this experience that scientists, archaeologists, anthropologists, travellers and early missionaries have used now and then the vocabulary and familiar terms of race, ethnicity, ethnic group, tribe and clan to describe societies they “discovered”. But societies had their own names and their own organisations. A case in point is ancient Rwanda which for centuries used the term “Ubgoko” and its plural form “Amoko” to describe the people who constituted Rwandan society. With the scramble and partitioning ofAfrica at the 1884 Berlin Conference, the “newly found lands” were reshaped and people were described differently, given the time and its context. For example, new terms and labels were coined to describe communities. When new seeds emphasising the differences are planted and watered, they produce a new society different from the one people knew. The terms would carry emotive charges and bear aspects of rejection of another and generally hide anger and hate of the person seen as different. These newly imported terms were used, interiorized and even accepted as the new way of seeing oneself. It was the beginning of the politics of divide and rule. Rwanda has not been an exception to this imposed colonial reality. As a country, Rwanda has had a history of migrations over several centuries. It has had a history of peopling Rwanda and eventual expansion ETHNIC DIVERSITY IN RWANDA 161 162 ETHNIC DIVERSITY IN EASTERN AFRICA of the Kingdom of Rwanda. It has also known the official history of being explored and being ushered in the colonial history as the newly “found land” by travellers, missionaries and subsequent colonial masters. The history of contact with Germany first and Belgium second tells it all.1 This chapter seeks to present an overview of the political and social construction of Rwanda before the country met the West. It will further present the experience of contact and cultural clash the contact provoked while the colonial system became busy deconstructing and destroying values on which Rwanda was built. The consequences of divisionism and promotion of ethnic ideology will explain the divisiveness between Abahutu, Abatutsi, and Abatwa. Later the chapter will highlight the current efforts Rwanda has undertaken to reconstruct the nation by trying to heal the wounds of divisionism as a direct consequence of the past bad political leadership of colonial and post independence periods but above all deal with the pressing issues as a result of the genocide of Batutsi in 1994. The construction of a nation: an overview of Rwanda before colonization “…. Rwanda, like Buganda, Burundi and other kingdoms is the result of the political and cultural construction both of which allow us to reaffirm the existence of an old “people’s nation” (…) The paradox of the Rwandan society is not surely the existence of some sort of pluriethnic unity but the continued hereditary cleavage, which is felt for centuries despite a remarkable cultural unity.” 2 For too long a culture of oral tradition has been a powerful tool of communication relating to the myths of origin and how Rwanda was peopled. In the recent past such myths as they are told, are taken as historical truths. In Rwanda’s myths of existence, we learn that the origin of Rwandans emanates around two persons: Kigwa and Gihanga. According to the recent research we can distinguish through the following tales: The birth of Kigwa in the world beyond marks the beginning of the tale (the founding myth). On Kigwa’s arrival on earth with his companions, the Bimanuka, they introduced seeds, fire wood-carving, tanning and hunting. Kigwa and his group are at the root of various clans in Rwanda.3 We are also told of...

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