3RwandaWho



In early April, 1994, groups of Hutu, armed mostly with machetes, began a mission of terror and bloodshed which angered the African country of Rwanda. For about 100 days, the Hutu militias, known in Rwanda as //interhamwe//, followed what evidence suggests was a clear and premeditated attempt to wipe out the country's Tutsi population.

In Rwanda, a main system of monarchy founded on the Tutsi monarch, the Mwami, existed. In the northwestern part of the country, the society more resembled that of Bugandan society, with large regional landholders instead of a central monarch. Today, there is little difference 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, and relations between the two were considered, most of time, normal up until the 20th century. Hutu men often took Tutsi wives, though Tutsi men rarely married Hutu women. The ethnicity of the father was used by the society to label the ethnicity of the children, in time, partially contributing to the continued larger proportion of Hutu in the region. Many, though, have concluded that Tutsi was and is mainly an expression of class or caste, rather than ethnicity. Though, even today, experts dispute whether similarities between Hutus and Tutsis are from common ancestry, frequent intermarriage, or both. One difference noted by school principals during the 1980s was that although secondary school intakes were governed by quotas mandated by the Habyarimana government, and by competition within tribes, the students of Tutsi origin on average were almost 50% of graduands. This tended to result in accusations of tribal favoritism. The Tutsi were ruled by a king also known as the mwami from the 15th century until 1961. The monarchy was abolished by the Belgians, in response to the desires of Hutu, following a national referendum leading up to independence. Hutus are a central african ethnic living mainly living in Rwanda and Burundi.

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