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The first known inhabitants of Rwanda were the Twa, a people thought to be related to
hunter gatherers. The Hutu, probably from the Congo Basin, were well established by the
15th century, when the Tutsi came down from the north and conquered the area. The Tutsi
kings, or mwamis, became the absolute monarchs of the region. Their rule was
enforced by chiefs and sub-chiefs, who each ruled an umusozi, a domain that
consisted of a single hill.
Political and economic relations were based on a feudal relationship, known as the ubuhake
system, in which the Hutu became a caste of serfs forced into slavery and economic
dependence by the Tutsi. This caste system was rigidly upheld, and intermarriage was
almost non-existent.
German explorers arrived in the area in the 1880s, and Roman Catholic clergy established
missions. Later in the decade, Rwanda (then called Ruanda) and Burundi (then called
Urundi) were incorporated into German East Africa. The indigenous rulers maintained good
relations with the Germans, and later with the Belgians, who occupied the country during
World War I. After the war the area was mandated to Belgium by the League of Nations and
became known as the Territory of Ruanda-Urundi. After World War II, when Rwanda became a
United Nations (UN) trust territory, the Belgians continued previous policies of
encouraging education by missionaries and of ruling through the Tutsi chiefs. However,
they also forced the Tutsi to phase out the ubuhake system by 1958.
Today, the population of Rwanda is almost entirely rural. Most of the people live in
family groups scattered throughout mountainous regions. Three ethnic groups make up the
population: the Hutu (about 90 per cent); the Tutsi (9 per cent), who are mainly cattle
raisers; and the Twa (1 per cent).
Rwanda's estimated 1995 population density was about 316 persons per square kilometre (819
persons per square mile), making Rwanda one of the most densely populated countries in
Africa. Ethnic division and rivalry have been the dominant features of Rwandan society
since independence in 1962. A civil war that broke out in Rwanda in 1994 greatly disrupted
the ethnic and geographic distribution of the population and caused tens of thousands of
deaths.
Rwanda is divided into ten prefectures, each of which is administered by a prefect who is
appointed by the president. The principal cities are Kigali (the capital) and Butare.
As political consciousness increased among Africans after World War II, the Hutu grew
more vocal in protesting about the political and social inequalities in Rwanda. In 1959
the antagonism between Tutsi and Hutu erupted into violence; the next year the Tutsi king
fled the country, and an exodus of some 200,000 Tutsi followed. A republic was established
in January 1961. In elections held the following September, the Hutu-dominated Paripehutu
party won a large majority of the seats in the National Assembly, and a 4 to 1 majority
voted against the return of the king.
Belgium granted Rwanda independence on 1 July 1962. In 1963 some exiled Tutsi returned to
Rwanda as a rebel army. Although unsuccessful, the takeover attempt prompted a large-scale
massacre of the Tutsi by the Hutu, followed by periodic ethnic violence. At the same time,
thousands of Hutu victimized in Burundi took refuge in Rwanda. In 1990 Belgium and several
central African nations sent troops to Rwanda to oppose an uprising by the Tutsi-backed
RPF. A new constitution authorizing the establishment of a multi-party democracy became
law in 1991, and a prime minister was appointed to organize a transitional government in
preparation for multi-party elections in 1995.
In April 1994, shortly after concluding peace negotiations with the RPF that called for
United Nations (UN) peacekeeping forces to be stationed in Rwanda, President Juvénal
Habyarimana and Burundi's President Cyprien Ntaryamira were killed in a plane crash near
Kigali in suspicious circumstances. Habyarimana's death provoked a wave of ethnic
violence, prompting UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to accuse the
Hutu-dominated Rwandan Army of genocide against the Tutsi.
At the height of the violence, the UN forces, lacking authorization to protect civilians,
abandoned Kigali. Over the next few months, an estimated 500,000 Rwandans, mostly Tutsi,
were massacred. The RPF army pushed towards Kigali, and a civil war ensued. In June 1994
the French government sent 2,500 troops to Rwanda to establish a safe area in the
southwestern part of the country, but attempts to mediate a ceasefire failed as the RPF
mounted a successful final assault.
After capturing the capital of Kigali, RPF troops began to drive the Rwandan Army and Hutu
civilians northwest, towards the Rwanda-Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
border. Retaliatory violence by Tutsi claimed several thousand lives, including that of
the Roman Catholic archbishop of Kigali. By mid-July, an estimated 1.2 million Rwandans
had fled from the advancing RPF army across the border and into Zaire, forming enormous
refugee camps around the city of Goma.
By early August 1994, an estimated one-quarter of the pre-war population of Rwanda had
either died or fled the country. International relief efforts were mobilized to care for
the refugees, but available supplies were inadequate and outbreaks of disease were
widespread. In the squalor of the camps, more than 20,000 refugees died in a cholera
epidemic.
A ceasefire was declared in July 1994, and an RPF-backed government was established with
Pasteur Bizimungu as president. The RPF made a point of including other groups in the
government. In spite of international efforts, refugee camp conditions in Zaire and
Tanzania have remained poor, owing to transport difficulties and the sheer number of
refugees. Many Tutsi refugees have returned to Rwanda, including refugees who had fled in
the 1960s. Hutu refugees began forming armed movements to overthrow the RPF government.
Rwandan officials rejected any extension of the UN Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR)
mandate beyond March 1996, and on 8 March the UN forces began to withdraw from Rwanda. All
forces had been withdrawn by April. In the latter part of 1996, hundreds of thousands of
Rwandan Hutu refugees were forced out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and
Tanzania. Ethnic conflict heightened after the return of the refugees, and in 1997 and
1998 thousands of Rwandans were killed by militant Hutu. The militants included Hutu
extremists who had returned to Rwanda, as well as others who had remained in neighbouring
countries and launched cross-border attacks. Northwestern Rwanda was the most painfully
affected by the attacks. Meanwhile, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda,
established in Arusha, Tanzania by the UN Security Council, continued proceedings on the
war crimes of 1994.
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