TRIBES IN RWANDA
Tribes in Rwanda : Just like any other African country, Rwanda is among the culturally rich countries with a number of tribes in the country that have a number of rewarding cultural values that you will find interesting visiting a number of cultural sites and different villages that will give you an insight about the different tribes and their cultural values, beliefs that will make your cultural tours in Rwanda quite memorable. Rwanda has three tribes that is the batwa, the Tutsi and the Hutu that have unique values. The batwa are the original inhabitants of Rwanda that can also be seen in Bwindi impenetrable national park and Mgahinga national park.
The batwa in Rwanda are believed to be hunter gatherers that depended on the forest products for survival. The batwa originally settled in volcanoes national park and20th they were believed to have lived with the mountain gorillas and other animals in the wild harmoniously as they carried out their activities like hunting small creatures in the park like squirrels, edible rats, eating a number of wild berries and many other forest products for survival.
The Hutu in Rwanda are also known as the wahutu , bahutu and are a bantu speaking people of Rwanda that can also be seen in Burundi that are believed to be about 9,500,000 in number and this was recorded within the late 20th century. The Hutu are believed to have entered Rwanda and forced the original inhabitants of the group the batwa/ twa to retreat the area and this is why they settled in areas where they co-existed with animals because they were chased away by the Hutu.
Once they settled in the area, they carried out mainly small scale agricultures, the established social organisation based on clans with petty kings that were the general overseers known as the bahinza. The Tutsi also known as the warrior Nilotic on the other hand visited Rwanda during the14th and the 15 century and once they settled in the country, were they dominated over the Hutu and this led to the lord vassal relationship where the tutsis took over the land and the hutus were granted access to the land to carry out agriculture and other activities. Because of this the and Hutu became enemies and this led them (the Hutu)to chase away the Tutsis from Rwanda in 1961 and this led the Hutu to occupy a number of government positions and this led to the clashes between the two tribes and hence the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
Today after the Rwanda genocide you can see that the Hutu and the tutsis in Rwanda live in harmony with one another and this led them to adopt each other’s ways of living for instance the tutsis adopted the bantu language of Rwanda and Burundi which they use as form of communication now and the Hutu adopted the Tutsi’s kinship and clanship.
To understand more about the tribes in Rwanda, you can visit the different cultural villages that can be seen in a number of areas in the country where you will understand more about the cultural values of the people in the country for an amazing experience. Some of the cultural villages that can be visited in the country include the iby’iwacu cultural village that can be accessed after you’ve taken part in gorilla trekking in Rwanda or hiking the Virunga mountains in Rwanda and sometimes after participating in golden monkey trekking in volcanoes national park. The Humure refugee village which is a camp that was established for refugees that flee from Tanzania during the Tanzanian crisis, this interesting group of people have unique cultural aspects which they have infused with that of Rwanda to make a beautiful blend of cultural values. You can also visit the kitabi cultural village that is found as you make your way to Nyungwe national park famous for chimpanzee trekking in Rwanda and East Africa’s only and canopy walk, visit the kin’s palace where you will have amazing tours round the set up that depicts how the people of Rwanda used to live during the monarchy period which was abolished during the Rwanda revolution in 1961.
You can’t talk about the tribes in Rwanda and fail to talk about the 1994 Rwanda genocide which happened due to the social differences between the different tribes which led to political rivalries among the Hutu and the Tutsi. It should be noted that during the Belgian rule in Rwanda, the Belgian’s favoured the Tutsi over the Hutu because of their physical attributes like their tallness, the skin complexion which was lighter than that of the Hutu and this led the Tutsi to occupy a number of powerful positions compared to the Hutu who came to Rwanda before the Tutsi which infuriated them and caused tension among the two tribes. It should be noted that the Tutsi migrated to Rwanda in the 15th and 16th century and are believed to have the connections between the maasi and the oromo people in Ethiopia who have close links to the ancient Egyptians, and the biblical Ham.
More about the 1994 Rwanda genocide can be understood when you participate in the Rwanda genocide tour which will give you access to visit a number of genocide memorial museums in Rwanda that will give you an insight of what transpired for the different events to take place for instance the Kigali genocide memorial museum, gisozi genocide memorial museum, the presidential palace will give you the opportunity to visit the different exhibition spaces and also get to see evidence of the dark period for instance the mass graves, skulls of the people that were killed which is quite heart-breaking but also gives you hope of how far the people of Rwanda have come to a stable country which is among the safest and the most peaceful countries in Africa and the world at large that can be visited by tourists interested in learning more about the tribes in Rwanda.
