The largest ethnic groups in Rwanda are the Hutus, which make up about 85% of Rwanda's population; the Tutsis, which are 14%; and the Twa, which are around 1%. Starting with the Tutsi feudal monarchy rule of the 10th century, the Hutus were a subjugated social group. Belgian colonization also contributed to the tensions between the Hutus and Tutsis. Hutu Power ideology propagated the myth that Hutus were the superior ethnicity. The resulting tensions would eventually foster the slaughtering of Tutsis in the Rwandan genocide. Since then, policy has changed to recognize one main ethnicity: "Rwandan".
In comparison to the Hutu (4.3% B), the Tutsi have three times as much haplogroup B (14.9% B), a haplogroup found at the highest rate in different African pygmies populations.
Genetics Y-DNA (paternal lineages) Modern-day genetic studies of the Y-chromosome generally indicate that the Batutsi, like the Bahutu, are largely of Bantu extraction (60%E1b1a, 20% B, 4% E3). Paternal genetic influences associated with the Horn of Africa and North Africa are few (16% E1b1b), and are ascribed to much earlier inhabitants who were assimilated. However, the Batutsi have considerably more Nilo-Saharan paternal lineages (14.9% B) than the Bahutu (4.3% B).
Research has found very little evidence of E1b1b in the Batutsi population (less than 3%). When compared to the Kikuyus of Kenya (a Bantu tribe with 19% evidence of E1b1b but still classified as Bantu), this percentage is negligible and does not validate the claim that they are Cushitic. It however suggests that the ancestors of Batutsi in this area may have assimilated some South Cushitic pastoralists.
mtDNA (maternal lineages) There are no peer-reviewed genetic studies of the Batutsi's mtDNA or maternal lineages. However, Fornarino et al. (2009) report that unpublished data indicates that one Mututsi individual from Rwanda carries the India-associated mtDNA haplogroup R7.
Autosomal DNA (overall ancestry) In general, the Batutsi appear to share a close genetic kinship with neighboring Bantu populations, particularly the Bahutu. However, it is unclear whether this similarity is primarily due to extensive genetic exchanges between these communities through intermarriage or whether it ultimately stems from common origins:
[...]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 Bahutu and Batutsi.Joseph C. Miller (ed.), New Encyclopedia of Africa, Volume 2, Dakar-Hydrology, Charles Scribner's Sons (publisher).
Tishkoff et al. (2009) found their mixed Bahutu and Batutsi samples from Rwanda to be predominately of Bantu origin, with minor gene flow from Afro-Asiatic communities (17.7% Afro-Asiatic genes found in the mixed Bahutu/Batutsi population).Michael C. Campbell, Sarah A. Tishkoff, African Genetic Diversity: Implications for Human Demographic History, Modern Human Origins, and Complex Disease Mapping, Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics Vol. 9 (Volume publication date September 2008)(doi:10.1146/annurev.genom.9.081307.164258)http://www.sciencemag.org/content/suppl/2009/04/30/1172257.DC1/Tishkoff.SOM.pdf
Pre-colonial background of Rwanda When Europeans first explored the region around the Great Lakes of the Rift Valley in Africa that has since become Rwanda, they created an interpretation of the people found in the region as three racially distinct tribes, coexisting in a complex social order: the Tutsis, Hutus, and Twa.Lemarchand, Rene. 1999. Ethnicity as Myth: The View from Central Africa. University of Copenhagen: Center for African Studies The Tutsis are anyone that the Europeans classified as Tutsi during colonialism because of their height. The Hutu majority, about 75% of the population, were farmers. And the Twa were a minority of 1%.Human Rights Watch. 1999. "The Meaning of ‘Tutsi’, ‘Hutu’ and ‘Twa’"
Although these groups were distinct and stratified in relation to one another, the boundary between Tutsi and Hutu was somewhat open to social mobility. The Tutsi elite were defined by their exclusive ownership of land and cattle. Hutus, however, though disenfranchised socially and politically, could shed Hutuness, or kwihutura, by accumulating wealth, and thereby rising through the social hierarchy to the status of Tutsi.
A contrasting picture of human cultural diversity was recorded in the early Rwandan oral histories, ritual texts, and biographies, in which the terms Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa were quite rarely used and had meanings different from those conceived by the Europeans.Coupez, A and Th. Kamanzi. 1962. Recits Historiques Rwanda. Musee Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, Belgiumd'Hertefelt, M. and A. Coupez. 1964. La Royaute Sacree de l'Ancien Rwanda. Musee Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, Belgium.Codere, Helen. 1973. The Biography of an African Society 1900-1960, Based on Forty-Eight Rwandan Autobiographies. Musee Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, Belgium. In those, the term Tutsi was equivalent to the phrase "wealthy noble"; Hutu meant "farmer"; and Twa was used to refer to people skilled in hunting, use of fire, pottery-making, guarding, etc. In contrast to the European conception, rural farmers are often described as wealthy and well-connected. Kings sometimes looked down on them but still formed marriage bonds with them and are frequently described as conferring titles, land, herds, armies, servitors, and ritual functions on them.
Origin myths Elites in pre-colonial Rwanda propagated an origin myth of the three groups to justify the hierarchical relationship of sociopolitical inequality between them in sacred, religious terms. According to this myth, Kigwa, a deity who fell from heaven, had three sons: Gatwa, Gahutu and Gatutsi. He chose an heir by giving each son the responsibility of watching over a pot of milk during the night. Gatwa drank the milk, Gahutu fell asleep and carelessly spilt his pot, and only Gatutsi kept watch, keeping his milk safe. Therefore, Kigwa appointed Gatutsi to be his successor, and Gahutu to be his brother's servant, while Gatwa was to be resigned to the status of an outsider. Gatutsi would possess cattle and power, and Gahutu would only be allowed to acquire cattle through service to Gatutsi, whereas Gatwa was condemned to the fringe of society.Jean, Moise. 2007. The Rwandan Genocide: The True Motivations for Mass Killings. Emory University: Emory Endeavors in World History This myth was the basis of the hierarchical relationship that placed the Tutsi at the apex of the social pyramid: above the Hutu, who were in turn above the marginalized Twa. The prevalence of this myth became the basis of the social and political stratification of Rwanda.
From the fifteenth century, when the Tutsi arrived in what is now Rwanda as migrant pastoralists, to the onset of colonization, Rwanda was a feudal monarchy. A Tutsi monarch ruled, distributing land and political authority through hereditary chiefs whose power was manifest in their land and cattle ownership. Most of these chiefs were Tutsis. The land was farmed under an imposed system of patronage under which Tutsi chiefs demanded manual labor in return for the rights of Hutus to occupy their land. This system left Hutus with the status of serfs. Additionally, when Rwanda conquered the peoples on its borders, their ethnic identities were cast aside and they were simply labeled "Hutu". Therefore, "Hutu" became an identity that was not necessarily ethnic, but rather just associated with subjugation.
Stratified social hierarchy This social system was based on five fundamental assumptions, as reinforced through group interactions and influenced by cultural myths:
That there were fundamental natural differences between the groups That the origin of the Tutsi was celestial That the civilization that the Tutsi brought to Rwanda was superior That the kingship of the Tutsi Mwami was divinely ordained and That divine sanctions would occur if the monarchy was usurped by any other group.
Despite the stratification promulgated by these ideas, Rwanda was still very much a unified society. Notwithstanding association with different groups in the sociopolitical hierarchy, the inhabitants all considered themselves part of the same nation, the Banyarwanda, which means "people of Rwanda." They spoke the same language, practiced the same cultural traditions, and worshiped the same God.Mamdani, Mahmood. When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda, Princeton University Press, 2001. 43-44. However, the arrival of European colonizers would later exploit group divisions as a means of securing control. The modern conception of Tutsi and Hutu as distinct ethnic groups in no way reflects the pre-colonial relationship between them. Tutsi and Hutu were simply groups occupying different places in the Rwandan social hierarchy, the division between which was exacerbated by slight differences in appearance propagated by occupation and pedigree.
German and Belgian colonization Some European intellectuals argue that the construction of divergent ethnic "Tutsi" and "Hutu" identities was formulated during the era of European colonization from the late 1880s to the 1950s. German colonialism did little to alter the existing stratified social system. The Germans were not interested in disrupting social affairs – their sole concern was the efficient extraction of natural resources and trade of profitable cash crops. Colonial bureaucrats relied heavily on native Tutsi chiefs to maintain order over the Hutu lower classes and collect taxes.Pottier, Johan. Re-Imagining Rwanda: Conflict, Survival, and Disinformation in the Late Twentieth Century. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Thus, the German affirmation of the stratified social structure was utilized by the Tutsi aristocracy as justification for minority rule over the lower-class Hutu masses. Germany's defeat in World War I allowed Belgian forces to conquer Rwanda. Belgian involvement in the region was far more intrusive than German administration. In an era of Social Darwinism, European anthropologists claimed to identify a distinct "Hamitic race" that was superior to native "Negroid" populations. Influenced by racialized attitudes, Belgian social scientists declared that the Tutsis, who wielded political control in Rwanda, must be descendants of the Hamites, who shared a purported closer blood line to Europeans. The Belgians concluded that the Tutsis and Hutus composed two fundamentally different ethno-racial groups. Thus, the Belgians viewed the Tutsis as more civilized, superior, but most importantly, more European than the Hutus. This perspective justified placing societal control in the hands of the Tutsis at the expense of the Hutus. Moreover, this Belgian affirmation of the Hamitic theory provided a conceptual foundation for Tutsis and Hutus to start identifying themselves as different ethnic groups. The Belgians established a comprehensive race theory that was to dictate Rwandan society until independence: Tutsi racial superiority and Hutu oppression. The institutionalization of Tutsi and Hutu ethnic divergence was accomplished through administrative, political economic, and educational means.