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Tutsi

Paul Kagame • Renovat Ndayirukiye Richard Sezibera • Esther Kamatari
Total population
2.5 million (Rwanda and Burundi)
Regions with significant populations
Rwanda, Burundi, Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
Languages
Rwanda-Rundi, French, English
Religion
majority: Christianity, minority: Islam
Related ethnic groups
Hutu, Twa

The Tutsi ( /ˈtʊtsi/;^[1] Rwanda-Rundi pronunciation: [tūtsī]), or Abatutsi, are an ethnic group in Central Africa. Historically, they were often referred to as the Watutsi and the Wahuma. They are the second largest population division among the three largest groups in Rwanda and Burundi, the other two being the Hutu (largest) and the Twa (smallest). Small numbers of Hema, Kiga and Furiiru people also live in Rwanda.

History[link]

A Tutsi man.

Conceptions of the supposed ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi have a long history. The definitions of "Hutu" and "Tutsi" people may have changed through time and location. Social structures were not stable throughout Rwanda, even during colonial times under the Belgian rule. The Tutsi aristocracy or elite was distinguished from Tutsi commoners, and wealthy Hutu were often indistinguishable from upper-class Tutsi. When the European colonists conducted censuses, they wanted to identify the people throughout Rwanda-Burundi according to a simple classification scheme. They defined "Tutsi" as anyone owning more than ten cows (a sign of wealth) or with the physical feature of a longer nose, or longer neck, commonly associated with the Tutsi. A person could change from Hutu to Tutsi by obtaining enough cows to acquire the status.^{[citation needed]}

The Europeans noticed that some Tutsis had facial characteristics that were generally atypical of other Bantus. They sought to explain these divergent physical traits by postulating admixture with or partial descent from migrants of Caucasoid stock, who usually were said to have arrived in the Great Lakes region from the Horn of Africa and/or North Africa.^[2] Some Tutsi also believe they are descendants of the ancient Israelites and had a mystical connection to Israel.^[3]

By contrast, the Europeans considered the majority Hutu to be characteristic Bantu people of Central African origin. These various migration theories of foreign provenance were also in part inspired by the Tutsi's own long-held oral traditions asserting that they originally descended from "white" migrants, who subsequently "lost" their original language and culture as they intermarried with the local Bantus. The British explorer John Hanning Speke recorded one such account in his book Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile:^[4]

"The governor[...] said he thought the white men were flocking this way to retake their lost country; for tradition recorded that the Wahuma were once half black and half white, with half the hair straight and the other half curly; and how was this to be accounted for unless the country formerly belonged to white men with straight hair, but was subsequently taken by black men?"

Beginning about 1880, Roman Catholic missionaries arrived in the Great Lakes region. Later, when German forces occupied the area during World War I, the conflict and efforts for Catholic conversion became more pronounced. As the Tutsi resisted conversion, the missionaries found success only among the Hutu. In an effort to reward conversion, the colonial government confiscated traditionally Tutsi land and reassigned it to Hutu tribes, igniting a conflict that has lasted into the 21st century.^[5]

Language[link]

Tutsis speak Rwanda-Rundi as their native tongue, which is a member of the Bantu subgroup of the Niger–Congo language family. Rwanda-Rundi is subdivided into the Kinyarwanda and Kirundi dialects, which have been standardized as official languages of Burundi and Rwanda. It is also spoken as a mother tongue by the Hutu and Twa. Additionally, many Tutsis speak French, the third official language of Rwanda and Burundi, as their lingua franca.

Genetics[link]

Modern-day genetic studies of the Y-chromosome suggest that the Tutsi are largely of Bantu extraction (80% E1b1a, 15% B, 4% E3). Paternal genetic influences associated with the Horn of Africa and North Africa are few (1% E1b1b), and are ascribed to much earlier inhabitants who were assimilated. The Tutsi, in general, demonstrate a close ethnic kinship with neighboring Bantu populations, particularly the Hutu.^[6]

[...]generations of gene flow obliterated whatever clear-cut physical distinctions may have once existed between these two Bantu peoples -- renowned to be height, body build, and facial features. With a spectrum of physical variation in the peoples, Belgian authorities legally mandated ethnic affiliation in the 1920s, based on economic criteria. Formal and discrete social divisions were consequently imposed upon ambiguous biological distinctions. To some extent, the permeability of these categories in the intervening decades helped to reify the biological distinctions, generating a taller elite and a shorter underclass, but with little relation to the gene pools that had existed a few centuries ago. The social categories are thus real, but there is little if any detectable genetic differentiation between Hutu and Tutsi.^[7]

Culture[link]

Tutsi students in a Rwanda classroom.

In the Rwanda territory, from the 15th century until 1961, the Tutsi were ruled by a king (the mwami). Belgium abolished the monarchy in response to Hutu activism, following the national referendum that led to independence. In the northwestern part of the country (predominantly Hutu), by contrast, the society more closely resembled that of Bugandan society (in what is now Uganda); large regional landholders shared power instead of a central monarch.

Little difference can be ascertained between the cultures of the Tutsi and Hutu; both groups speak the same Bantu language. The rate of intermarriage between the two groups has traditionally been very high, with historically amicable relations until the 20th century. Many scholars have concluded that the determination of Tutsi was and is mainly an expression of class or caste, rather than ethnicity. DNA studies, as noted above, show clearly that the peoples are more closely related to each other as Bantu than to any other. Differences have arisen due to social constructs, which create greater differences between the groups. During the 1980s, school principals reported that, although secondary school admissions were in accordance with quotas mandated by the Habyarimana government (in line with the proportions of the groups within the country), and by competition within ethnic groups, the students of Tutsi origin (14% of intake) comprised nearly 50%, on average, of those who graduated. This result provoked accusations of tribal favoritism.^{[citation needed]}

Colonial influences[link]

Both Germany (before World War I) and Belgium ruled the area in a colonial capacity. They allowed only the Tutsi to be educated and only they could participate in the colonial government. Such discriminatory policies engendered resentment. When the Belgians assumed control following World War I, they asked for advice from the Germans, who told them to continue promoting the Tutsis, which they did.^{[citation needed]}

The traditional Tutsi king's palace in Nyanza.

When the Belgians took over the colony in 1916, they believed the colony could be better governed if they continued to identify the different populations. In the 1920s, they required people to identify with a particular ethnic group and classified them in censuses. Belgian colonists viewed Africans in general as children^{[citation needed]} who needed to be guided, but noted the Tutsi to be the ruling culture in Rwanda-Burundi. In 1959, Belgium reversed its stance and allowed the majority Hutu to assume control of the government through universal elections.

A Tutsi immigrant in Berlin.

The Hutu majority had revolted against the Tutsi but was unable to take power. Since the nation's independence, more extremist Tutsi came to power and oppressed the Hutu people, especially those who were educated.^{[8][9][10][11][12]} Their actions led to the deaths of up to 200,000 Hutus.^[13]

In 1993, Burundi's first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, was assassinated by Tutsi officers, as was the person entitled to succeed him under the constitution.^[14] This sparked a period of civil strife between Hutu political structures and the Tutsi military, in which an estimated 800,000 Burundians, mostly Tutsi, were murdered. Since the 2000 Arusha Peace Process, today in Burundi the Tutsi minority shares power in a more or less equitable manner with the Hutu majority. Traditionally, the Tutsi had held more economic power and controlled the military.^{[citation needed]}

^[15]

A similar pattern of events took place in Rwanda, but there the Hutu came to power in 1962. They in turn often oppressed the Tutsi, giving rise to Tutsi rebel movements. The exiled Tutsi attacked Rwanda in 1990 with the intention to liberate Rwanda. This lead later to a genocide started by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)^{[citation needed]} which was to be continued by the Interahamwe. This culminated in the Hutu mass killings of Tutsi and Hutu in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, in which the Hutu then in power killed an estimated 500,000–1,000,000 people, largely of Tutsi origin. Contemporary to these events in 1994, the RPF, constituted mostly from diasporic Tutsi in Uganda, had begun a strategic move on Rwandan territory from Uganda, where they had acquired significant experience of highly organized irregular warfare in the Ugandan Bush War. The RPF was also materially and substantially supported by the government in Uganda. The initial RPF advance was halted by the arms lift of French arms to the Rwandan government. Attempts at peace culminated in the Arusha Accords, which broke down in after the assassination of the Rwandan and Burundian Presidents. Victorious in the aftermath of the genocide, the RPF came to power in July 1994. The RPF killed numerous Hutus after taking power to revenge the genocide.

Congolese Tutsi[link]

Mixed group of Banyamulenge and Bafuliru repairing a road between Lemera and Mulenge, South Kivu (ca. 2003).

In the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), ethnic Tutsi formerly from Rwanda (Banyarwanda) are concentrated on the Itombwe Plateau of South Kivu, close to the Burundi-Congo-Rwanda border. Use of the term Banyamulenge has been controversial, but since the late 1990s following the Rwanda Genocide, it has been used to refer to all ethnic Tutsi living in North and South Kivu. Banyarwanda may have migrated from Rwanda as early as the seventeenth century. The first significant migration of Banyarwanda into South Kivu was recorded in the 1880s. Banyarwanda migrants continued to arrive during the colonial period, mostly as labor migrants. In the early 1970s, they began to call themselves Banyamulenge to avoid being called Banyarwanda and seen as foreigners, as they had been settled there with descendants for many generations. The Banyamulenge have an ambiguous political and social position in the Congo, which has been an issue of contention with other ethnic groups. They played a key role in the run-up to the First Congo War in 1996-7 and Second Congo War of 1998-2003.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

External links[link]

• "Tutsi" at everyculture.com
• The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (the status and judgments of all cases before the ICTR are available here)

Koffi Olomide
Background information
Birth name	Antoine Christophe Agbepa Mumba
Also known as	Koffi
Born	(1956-08-13) 13 August 1956 (age 55)
Genres	Soukous/Tcha Tcho
Occupations	composer, arranger, producer, singer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1978 - Present
Associated acts	Quartier Latin

Antoine Christophe Agbepa Mumba, also known as Koffi Olomide (Friday, August 13, 1956), is a DR Congolese soukous singer, dancer, producer, and composer. He is also known by a multitude of other names and aliases.^[1]

Background[link]

He was born in Kisangani, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. His father is Congolese (Gbandi tribe from Equateur region) and his mother was born from a Sierra-Leone father and a Congolese mother (Songye tribe from Kasaï region). According to the ethnic custom of his Sierra-Leone grand father, his mother named him 'Koffi' because he was born on a Friday ^[2]. Koffi grew up in the city of Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in a middle-class family, where education was valued.

Education[link]

He was a very bright student. He earned a scholarship and went to study in Bordeaux, France where he obtained a Bachelors Degree in Business Economics. He is also reported to hold a Masters Degree in Mathematics from the University of Paris.^[3]

Music career[link]

Upon his return to Congo in the 1970s he joined Papa Wemba's band, Viva la Musica, at first as a composer and song-writer, and later as a vocalist and lead-singer. He launched his solo career. In 1986, Koffi formed his band known as Quartier Latin, which celebrated its 20-year anniversary in 2006. Since then, he has performed and recorded both with the group and by himself. Over the years, he has built up a faithful fan base Internationally, particularly in Africa and Europe. Koffi popularized the slower style of soukous, which he dubbed Tcha Tcho. Koffi's music can be quite controversial, taking on current events and topics considered taboo in some conservative societies. He has also participated in the salsa music project Africando. For his effort, Affaire D'Etat, released in 2003, Koffi received four Kora Awards on a single night at the annual Kora Awards in South Africa for 2002/2003, including the award for Best African Artist, which he had earlier won in 1998. More recently, he has won the Kora Award for "Best African Artist of The Decade". This led to the establishment of one of his many aliases as the 'Quadra Kora Man'. ^[4]

His music[link]

Olomide's album Haut de Gamme: Koweït, Rive Gauche is listed in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.^[5] In March 2003 Olomide released "Affaire D'Etat", a double CD album featuring 18 tracks.

He has trained many young musicians some of whom have since left his Quartier Latin band and gone solo while a few are still sticking with him. Some of those who have left are Fele Mudogo, Sam Tshintu, Suzuki 4x4, Soleil Wanga, Fally Ipupa, Montana Kamenga, Ferre Gola and are so far doing fairly well on their own. However "Suzuki 4x4" has recently showed up once more in some of Quartier Latin shows, along with new recruits like Cindy le Coeur, a female singer with very high pitched vocals.

Koffi, who mostly refers to himself as Mopao, has a brand new release known as La Chicotte a Papa, having recently excelled in hits like Cle Boa, Lovemycine, Diabolos, Grand Pretre Mere and Soupou, among others. Mopao has also proven to be of such very high standards of talent which could easily be compared to the once king of African rhumba the late Luambo Makiadi, who equally saw many artistes pass through his expert hands during his days. Today, Mopao is the undisputed king of romantic rhumba. Not only that, he is one of Africa's biggest musicians today.^[6]

Personal[link]

Koffi Olomide is reported to be very intelligent and wealthy. He is married and is the father of seven (7) children:Nzau Twengi Aristote, Elvis, Minou Miss Univers, Didi Stone Nike, Rocky, Del pirlo Mourhino and Saint James Rolls. Olomide's father, who is currently in poor health, lives in Paris, France. Olomide's mother lives in Kinshasa and works as a jewellery dealer in the Zando Market in the city. Koffi has an elder brother, Johnny Ko, who also lives in Paris. Also a younger brother Tutu Roba, who lives in London, England.^[7]

Photos[link]

• Koffi Olomide With Some of His Female Dancers

References[link]

External links[link]

• Fan-site with history and discography link

Immaculée Ilibagiza, 2007

Immaculée Ilibagiza (born 1972^[1]) is a Rwandan author and motivational speaker. She is also a Roman Catholic and Tutsi. Her first book, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust (2006), is an autobiographical work detailing how she survived during the Rwandan Genocide. She was featured on PBS on one of Wayne Dyer's programs, and also on a December 3, 2006 segment of 60 Minutes (which re-aired on July 1, 2007).

Left to Tell recounts Immaculée Ilibagiza’s experience during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. She survived hidden for 91 days with seven other women in a small bathroom, no larger than 3 feet (0.91 m) long and 4 feet (1.2 m) wide. The bathroom was concealed in a room behind a wardrobe in the home of a Hutu pastor. During the genocide, most of Ilibagiza’s family was killed by Hutu Interahamwe soldiers: her mother, her father, and her two brothers Damascene and Vianney. Besides herself, the only other survivor in her family was her brother Aimable, who was studying out of the country in Senegal. In Left to Tell Ilibagiza shares how her Roman Catholic faith guided her through her terrible ordeal, and describes her eventual forgiveness and compassion toward her family's killers.

Ilibagiza speaks all over the world and is the recipient of the 2007 Mahatma Gandhi Reconciliation and Peace Award.

Books[link]

• Ilibagiza, Immaculée (with Steve Erwin). Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2006. ISBN 1-4019-0896-9.

• Ilibagiza, Immaculee (with Steve Erwin). Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2008. ISBN 978-1-4019-1887-3

• Ilibagiza, Immaculee (with Steve Erwin). Our Lady of Kibeho: Mary Speaks to the World from the Heart of Africa. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2008. ISBN 1-4019-2378-X

References[link]

External links[link]

• Immaculee.com
• Apostles of Our Lady of Kibeho
• Official website
• Rwandan Genocide Survivor Recalls Horror 60 Minutes segment was originally broadcast on December 3, 2006 and updated on June 28, 2007. Transcript and video segment (12:57).
• Immaculee's report of Our Lady of Kibeho's message during an apparition.
• At Issue: Survivor of Rwanda (Windows Media, Quicktime). Interview of Immaculee Ilibagiza on At Issue, episode #2011, 11/22/2007, (26:47); produced by PBS station WTVP in Peoria, Illinois.

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