HISTORY OF RWANDA
Chap I: PRE-COLONIAL RWANDA
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The course is interested in looking back in the pre-colonial period of Rwanda. The end of pre-colonial period varies according to how we view and how we handle it, as we also place it on Rwanda’s domestic and foreign level. On international level, pre-colonial period ended in 1885 and marked the beginning of colonial period with the Berlin conference which placed Rwanda in the hands of Germany (German East Africa).
Internally, this date had no significant impact on history of Rwanda at that time. However, 1897 is an important date because the Germans signed a treaty with King Yuhi IV Musinga which made Rwanda a Germany protectorate. It is in 1897 when the German authorities believed that time had come to impose their rule on Rwanda. It was captain Bathe who was in charge of this mission. He presented the terms of agreement to the king’s court. The king came to accept the Germany protection over the whole country and refused control by any other European superpower.
Earlier in1890, there was German- British treaty which valued the observation of Berlin treaty limiting the Germany zone of influence in east Africa and after all Rwanda had not yet got explored between that zone . The year 1900 is very important because it is when European presence began to be more effective. In the same year, catholic missionaries established their first mission station at Save by white fathers.
This course aims at retracing the grand lines of Rwanda’s history as they are now represented in the books of A. Kagame, L. de Lacger, A. Pages, R.Hermans, and J. Vansina. The publication of J. Vansina tries to highlight some first hand remarks and critics on Rwanda’s history.
In this course also we shall look into the problem of the sources of Rwanda’s history and the way they were used. These sources were influenced by different factors such as Hamitic myth, Bantu myth and ideologies of historians them selves. We shall also try to examine the problems faced by the new generation of historians today.
Another aspect of the course will be the settlement of Rwanda. The first research carried out explained the settlement structure of Rwanda is still presented in the form of vague migrations in relation with all ancient theories about successive migrations of Bantu first, followed latter by migration of pastoralists (hamites). The conclusions drawn had hypotheses revealing their “racist” character despite that they based on scientific grounds supported by the traditions and myths of the country. We will examine these myths and see how they have influenced history of Rwanda. Thereafter, we shall look into the state of the problem of Rwanda’s settlement.
Finally, we will examine the foundation and evolution of Rwanda as a state according to the historians mentioned above as well as ancient civilization of Rwanda.
I.1. SOURCES OF THE HISTORY OF RWANDA
I.1.1.ORAL SOURCES OF RWANDA’S HISTORY
The archeological sources of Rwanda’s history are still limited , written sources are of recent , the reconstitution of Rwanda’s history is mainly that of ancient Rwanda which is widely based on oral sources.
