Since the leaked report alleging that Rwanda and Uganda troops committed genocide against Rwanda and DR Congo Hutu in DRC, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and government spokesperson Hon. Louise Mushikiwabo has been talking negatively and discouragingly about rewriting the history of Africa’s great lakes region. In contrast, many believe that the region is and has been unstable precisely because the history of the region was not properly written.
Influenced by European race theories that put a black person at the bottom of the race pyramid and the white person at the top, aristocratic explorers, missionaries and colonial officials in the great lakes region (Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi) credited all the magnificent civilizations they found in the region to Bahima and their Batutsi and Bahororo (Batutsi from Rwanda) cousins whom they described as ‘white’ people who got lost in the region and turned dark because of tropical sunshine. Further, they described them as intelligent, physically attractive and born leaders to indefinitely rule others in the region. On the other hand, Bantus or Negroes (especially Bahutu and Bairu) were described as a race of ugly and unintelligent human beings without leadership qualities and only fit for menial work. They were denied the civilizations they had developed in a region that had been described as part of the ‘Dark Continent’ without a history and civilization.
Because of their so-called superiority which they have falsely clung to till now under cover of western support Bahima and Batutsi/Bahororo men do not marry women from Bahutu and Bairu race although Batutsi/Bahororo and Bahima women overwhelmingly if not entirely from lower social classes marry potentially promising Bahutu and Bairu men largely for purposes of political domination and exploitation of so-called inferior people. Comments to this day in the 21st century, for example, that one Muhima or Mututsi/Muhororo man is worth 1000 Bahutu and Bairu men convey the extent to which the former despises the latter.
In order to save on human and financial resources, colonial officials in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi decided to use Bahima and Batutsi/Bahororo to assist in the administration of colonies through the indirect rule system. Bahima, Batutsi and Bahororo children were educated and employed in colonial and missionary administrations. Bahutu and Bairu were forced to grow cash crops to raise tax money and tithes and to construct for free infrastructure such as roads, public buildings and churches. They were caned and/or imprisoned for any signs of disobedience including resistance to exploitation. Bahutu and Bairu were described as ‘lazy’ in order to force them to work for governments, chiefs and churches. Their short horn cattle disappeared for lack of pasture which was used to graze Bahima/Batutsi and Bahororo long horn cattle. They were reduced to crop cultivation primarily to feed the Bahima, Batutsi/Bahororo chiefs, their families, relatives and friends. Bahutu and Bairu were humiliated, marginalized and impoverished thereby rendered voiceless and powerless throughout the colonial period.
However, towards the end of colonial rule, education was opened to Bahutu and Bairu in missionary schools with a level playing field. Within a short time, Bahutu and Bairu demonstrated that they are more intelligent than Bahima, Batutsi and Bahororo especially in science and mathematics subjects. Further, shortly before independence in 1962, stories began to circulate that the history of the region needed to be revisited because pre-independence aristocratic researchers both foreign and local had distorted the facts. For illustrative purposes, let us record what was distorted and is being corrected as part of rewriting the region’s history. This is what Louise Mushikiwabo is objecting to.
First, it has been shown that the Nilotic Bahima and Batutsi Luo-speakers who entered the great lakes region from southern Sudan about 600 years ago had been nomadic pastoralists who lived simple lives in grass thatched huts of tree branches, wore simple clothes including cow hide sandals. As nomadic people they had no system of centralized administration. They became experienced warriors to defend or steal cattle from others, an instrument they have used effectively in the great lakes region with the repercussions we are witnessing.
Second, they entered the region without civilizations except long-horn cattle. That they had no civilization is confirmed by the fact that they adopted Bantu language, names, religion and Bantu king names such as Mwami (king) of Bahutu in Rwanda. Bantu adopted nothing from the new arrivals.
Third, Nilotic Bahima and Batutsi Luo speaking pastoralists that became Nilotic Bantu speakers were poorer than Bantu. The latter had a mixed economy of crop cultivation and herding supplemented by wild game and fish, fruits and vegetables. They also manufactured a wide range of products especially those that used iron ore. The population grew fast and settled in fertile areas. With population settlements centralized administrations arose to maintain law and order, settle disputes when they arose and defend the settlements against invaders. Various Bantu communities cooperated in matters of mutual interest, introducing an element of diplomacy. Specialization ensued with some families concentrating on herding, and others on administration resulting in the emergence of chiefs and kings with palaces and names of kings like Mwami (kings) of Bahutu in Rwanda. Bachwezi were a Bantu aristocracy of black people. They were not ancestors of Bahima and Batutsi. The famous earthen works including of Ntusi, Mubende and Bigo were constructed by Bantu people as they transitioned from mixed farming to herding by the time they settled at Bigo.
Fourth, the alleged atrocious behavior of Batutsi/Bahororo/Bahima towards others in Uganda in the Luwero Triangle between 1981 and 1985 and in northern and eastern Uganda since 1986; Batutsi in Burundi towards Bahutu since independence in 1962 and the alleged Hutu genocide by Tutsi in 1972 and 1993; and Batutsi in Rwanda towards Bahutu since 1990, the mixed stories associated with genocide of Batutsi and moderate Bahutu in 1994 and alleged genocide of Hutu by Tutsi in DR Congo between 1993 and 2003 has exposed the ‘barbaric’ nature of the so-called superior race of Bahima, Batutsi and Bahororo. Although western supporters have covered up Bahima/Batutsi and Bahororo atrocities in Uganda since 1981, in Rwanda since 1990 and in Burundi since 1972, the truth could not be hidden forever. Equally, the need for rewriting the history of the great lakes region could not be more urgent and appropriate than now.
In rewriting the history of the great lakes region, the relevant provisions of the United Nations Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights that all people are born free and equal in rights and dignity should be applied to all peoples in the region. Meanwhile, the eyes of the world are focused on UN Security Council and UN General Assembly to see how they deal with the report of the alleged Hutu genocide in DRC.