The History of Rwanda
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Pre-Colonial Rwanda
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Rwanda was a highly centralized kingdom
ruled by Tutsi kings
The king ruled through three categories of
chiefs – cattle chiefs, land chiefs and military
chiefs
“Ubuhake,” a clientele system, permeated the
whole society
Colonial Rwanda
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In 1899, Rwanda
became a German
colony
In 1919, after the
defeat of the
Germans during
World War I, Rwanda
became a territory of
the League of
Nations under the
Belgian
administration
Colonial Rwanda (Cont’d)
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In 1935, the Belgian
colonial administration
introduced a prejudiced
national identification based
on ethnicity; wealthy people
such as the ruling elite were
registered as Tutsi and
those with less wealth as
Hutu
With the demand for
independence arose the
Union Nationale Rwandaise
(UNAR), a political party
consisting of the Tutsi
people
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The Belgians then quickly
sided with another party
called PARMEHUTU which
was founded as a sectarian
ethnic ideology
In 1959, the first massive
slayings of Tutsi by
PARMEHUTU occurred
under Belgian supervision
With widespread violence,
PARMEHUTU destroyed
the monarchy
On July 1st, 1962, Rwanda
was granted formal
independence from Belgium
Post-Independence
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From 1959 onward, Tutsi
people were targeted causing
the deaths of thousands
The First Republic under
President Gregoire Kayibanda
institutionalized the
discrimination and massacre of
Tutsi people
In 1973, President Kayibanda
was overthrown in a coup
d’etat; Major General Juvenal
Habyarimana was brought to
power and more massacres of
Tutsi occurred
Post-Independence (Cont’d)
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In 1975, President
Habyarimana formed
MRND, a single ruling party
that in 1978 created a
constitution to return him to
office repeatedly through
“elections” where he was
the only candidate
Habyarimana’s regime
became more violently
intolerant; political activities
remained banned
Post-Independence (Cont’d)
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Divisions within the ruling Hutu class, which culminated
in the 1973 coup, became more heightened in the 1970s
and 1980s
In 1987, the Rwandese Political Front (RPF) was
formed, its objectives included promoting national unity,
establishing a true democracy and providing security for
all Rwandese
On October 1st, 1990, the RPF took up arms against the
dictatorship; France, Belgium, and the Democratic
Republic of Congo dispatched troops to Rwanda to help
in the civil war
On August 4th, 1993, the Arusha Peace Agreement was
signed by both the RPF and the ruling government but it
was never implemented
Summary Slide
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Pre-Colonial Rwanda
Colonial Rwanda
Post-Independence
Genocide
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Although mass slayings of Tutsi took place
throughout the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and
early 1990s, between April and July 1994
over a million Rwandese (mainly Tutsi and
Hutu opposition) were killed by the genocidal
regime
The Fall of the Genocidal Regime
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On July 4th, 1994, the
capital of Rwanda,
Kigali, fell to the forces
of the Rwandese
Patriotic Army, a wing
of the RPF
Members of the former
regime fled to the
Democratic Republic of
Congo
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On July 19th, 1994,
RPF established a new
government called the
Government of National
Unity with four other
political parties
Eight Years of Progress
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About 3 and a half million
refugees have returned to
Rwanda
The Government of
National Unity has made
progress rebuilding the
justice system by starting
with the enactment of the
Genocide Law
The Genocide Law allowed
for the trial and conviction of
genocide suspects;
currently 120,000 genocide
suspects are in prison
Eight Years of Progress (Cont’d)
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The Genocide Survivor Fund provides
education, shelter, health and incomegenerating activities to the most vulnerable of
survivors
A Human Rights Commission has been
established to protect the rights of all citizens
Summary Slide
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Genocide
The Fall of the Genocidal Regime
Eight Years of Progress
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The Government of National Unity
The Genocide Law
The Genocide Survivor Fund
The Human Rights Commission