New Year`s Message to the Rwandan Youth:

The Banyarwandan Doctrine, A Specious and Insidious Supremacist and Hegemonic  Ideology

In the Defense of the Rights of the Banyarwanda or Kinyarwanda Speaking People

 

By Dr. Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro

Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro is the former Director of the Office Rwandais d’Information (ORINFOR), the Rwandan Information Authority, a Rwandan government agency that oversaw Radio Rwanda, Rwandan Television, and state-controlled print media. Dr. Higiro and his family were evacuated from Rwanda on 9 April 1994 and remained in Kenya during the tragic events of 1994. On 19 July 1994, he flew to the United States where he has since remained in exile from his beloved country. Dr. Higiro is a Professor of Communication at Western New England University.

 

I grew up speaking Oruciga, a language spoken in the Ugandan province of Kigezi as well as in the neighboring region of northern Rwanda. In this part of Rwanda, on a swathe of land stretching from Nyagatare to Butaro live people who speak Oruciga. Oruciga is my mother tongue. In primary school teachers would force us to speak Orunyarwanda (Kinyarwanda) as we called it as the Belgian colonial administration had designated it as the official language. The teachers had a wooden stick handy ready to punish a student who forgot to speak Orunyanrwanda. I started speaking Orunyarwanda in earnest while at the Minor Seminary of Rwesero as I found myself and two other students from the parish of Rushaki become the object of curiosity from other students who heard us converse in Oruciga. Rushaki is a village belonging to the Rwandan territory adjacent to Uganda. People living in that part of Rwanda identified themselves as Baciga.

Ethnic labels were unheard of in that part of Rwanda as we labelled Hutu and Tutsi alike “Banyarwanda”. Our social identities were founded on the language while in other parts of Rwanda social identities were based on ethnicity and economic activities. We did not consider ourselves Banyarwanda even though we lived in Rwanda. Furthermore, there was peaceful coexistence between us, Baciga and Banyarwanda.

To me, the label “Banyarwanda” no longer connotes peaceful coexistence as was the case in my village of Rushaki. Instead, it connotes political violence across the region of the Great Lakes of Africa as it has become the foundation of a hegemonic ideology consisting of defending the rights of the Kinyarwanda speaking people. The current government of Rwanda has appointed itself the defender and protector of the rights of the Banyarwanda or Kinyarwanda speakers regardless of internationally recognized borders. The purpose of this writing is to trace the development of Banyarwanda hegemonic ideology in the region of the Great Lakes of Africa.

1 The “Banyarwanda” in The Region of the Great Lakes of Africa

The label Banyarwanda is an umbrella that covers people who speak Kinyarwanda or whose culture and traditions are like those found in Rwanda. Such people are to be found in Uganda, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

1.1 Banyarwanda in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Banyarwanda exist in the Democratic Republic of Congo in South Kivu and North Kivu. In South Kivu there are Banyamulenge a group of cattle herders who settled at the hill of Mulenge in the 18th century well before the partition of Africa by European colonial powers at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885. The Banyamulenge arrived at the hill of Mulenge in waves following intense competition for power at the Tutsi Nyiginya royal court of Rwanda. The Banyamulenge have a territory but do not have a traditional leader.

Banyarwanda who live in North Kivu  arrived in a series of migrations or waves. The first wave settled there in the 19 th century. The second wave arrived in the 1920s during a forced resettlement implemented by the Belgian colonial administration to provide labor to Belgian plantation owners.  They were made up mostly of Hutu.

The third wave came to the area after the Rwandan Social Revolution of 1959 that overthrew the Tutsi Nyiginya monarchy and brought to power a Hutu elite. Some Tutsi aristocratic clans who opposed the new social and political order sought exile in neighboring countries mainly Burundi, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda. These aristocrats had ruled the small kingdom of Rwanda with an iron fist. The majority of Tutsi were not in leadership positions and stayed in Rwanda. However, to Tutsi aristocrats the social revolution of 1959 was a kind of Nakba.

The Banyamulenge speak Kinyamulenge while the other people speak Kinyarwanda. Among Tutsi, there are Banyamulenge, the Bagogwe, the Tutsi of Jomba, the Tutsi of Rutchuro, and the Tutsi of Masisi. Some Banyamulenge do not identify themselves as Banyarwanda even though Rwanda has sought to co-opt them over the last three decades.

1.2 Banyarwanda in Tanzania

Banyarwanda are also found in Tanzania particularly in the Karagwe and Buha regions which before the partition of Africa had close trade relationships with the Nyiginya Kingdom of Rwanda.

The people of Karagwe speak Kinyambo and the people of Buha speak Kiha.

Before colonial rule Tutsi and Hima lived in those kingdoms of the northwest of Tanzania. After the overthrow of the Tutsi monarchy in 1959, Tutsi refugees moved there. The joined Hutu who settled there fleeing German colonial rule and Belgian colonial rule as forced labor and other exactions pushed some people out of Rwanda. There are also Hutu who settled there looking for land. My paternal uncle, his wife and two children settled there around 1960. I have not seen them or spoken to them since then.

1.3 Banyarwanda in Uganda

In Uganda, Banyarwanda have a language and a culture, particularly in Bufumbira, a territory given by the German colonizer  to British Uganda following the International Delimitation Commission that marked the boundaries of Rwanda in 1911.

Beyond Bufumbira, Banyarwanda do not have a territory and a leader such as a king. They are divided into three ethnic groups: the Hutu, the Tutsi, and the Twa. They may be subdivided into the migrants, mostly Hutu, who left Rwanda during German  and later Belgian colonial rule  and Tutsi exiles who left Rwanda after 1959. Some of them arrived with their Hutu servants.

Tutsi refugees who lived in refugee camps in Uganda were poor. The camps were divided into two categories of pastoralists and agrarians: camps of cattle keepers and camps of farmers. Cattle keepers were given areas where they could take care of cattle and live off it. Tutsi refugees who wanted to farm were taken to areas where they were given land to farm. Some of these refugees were so poor that Ugandans used two labels to distinguish the poor Tutsi , the “Aboro” and the wealthy Tutsi (Abatusi).

The label “Aboro” referred to the Banyarwanda or Tutsi refugees who were poor. The label called for disdain and disrespect. The label “Abatusi” not “Abatutsi” referred to the Banyarwanda or Tutsi refugees who were wealthy, therefore socially acceptable in the Ugandan community. Abatusi or wealthy Tutsi did not farm, did not speak Kinyarwanda, shunned anything related to Rwandan culture, and did not talk about how they had arrived in Uganda. They wanted to be perceived as Ugandans.

2 The Origin of the Banyarwanda Hegemonic Ideology

2.1 The Association of the Banyarwanda in Diaspora (USA)

The origin of the Banyarwanda hegemonic ideology may be traced back to the hardships of the refugees in Uganda and their determination to retake power in Rwanda. Most Tutsi refugees were the descendants of the dynastic lineages which were  the Tutsi aristocratic clans from which the Rwandan kings selected wives .

Important positions such as the military commanders and key senior civilian positions are selected form the old aristocratic lineages.

In order to explain this tradition and its current practice here are some names that come to mind as the sons and daughters of  Tutsi aristocracy:

General Kabandana, General Karuretwa, General Nyamvumba are the descendants of Kigeli III Ndabarasa.

Image: Yolande Makolo

Yolande Makolo is the grand daughter of Chief Kayihura, the Prime Minister of the Rwandan Government in exile after the Rwandan social revolution of 1959. She is the current face of Rwanda and spokesperson for the government.

 

Image: Wikipedia : Aloisea Inyumba at the UNCTAD XIII High Level Event on Women in Development, April 2012

Aloysia Inyumba  is Chief Kayumba’s daughter

Image: Wikipedia : Jeannette Nyiramongi Kagame, wife of Paul Kagame

Jeannette Nyiramongi  is Chief Murefu’s daughter

Image: Wikipedia: Paul Kagame

Paul Kagame is Rutagambwa’s son, a descendant of Rwakagara

After multiple attempts to overthrow the Rwandan Republic led by the first president, Gregoire Kayibanda, the elders passed on the torch to their descendants who in turn joined the National Resistance Army (NRA) of Yoweri Museveni with the hope of using their military skills and Uganda’s arsenal to retake power in Rwanda.

Some of the descendants of Rwandan Tutsi refugees sought asylum in Western Europe and  America. In  America, they launched an association called “Association of Banyarwanda Diaspora (USA) and a magazine called Impuruza edited by Alexandre Kimenyi a professor at State University of California at Sacramento. It is through this magazine and the association that Tutsi aristocrats such as Mungarulire and their descendants, laid out a Banyarwanda hegemonic ideology. The president of the Association of Banyarwanda Diaspora (USA), George Rubagumya stated the vision of the organization this way:

Image : George Rubagumya

“The Association [of Banyarwanda in Diaspora (USA)], unlike many others made up of our people across this wide world, it is not solely made up of Rwandese refugees, nor was it created to serve only refugees’ interest. In 1982, when the association was chartered, its aims were to promote the interests of Banyarwanda regardless of nationality, who shared our problems, ideas and hopes. One of its principal purposes was to publicize the plight of Rwandese refugees who were suffering mass prosecution at the hands of officials of some of the host governments. Being in the United States, where the UN has a strong base and with access to greater media coverage, we hoped that we could dramatize the neglect and suffering of the Banyarwanda refugees in the host countries, the rights of Banyarwanda citizens of those countries would also be protected. A perfect example is Uganda of 1982-1985. In mistreating a Munyarwanda, Obote and his cronies did not care whether he had a Ugandan passport or a U.N. certificate of refugees. We look alike, so we die together at the hands of the oppression (Impuruza no 11, June 1988, Page 2).”

Rubagumya continued;

“In our desire to find the exile of Rwandese refugees and the persecution of other Banyarwanda in their native lands, we are mindful of the fact that 30 years have gone by since the exile began, and that some of our people have made new homes for themselves in the host countries, and they would wish to remain there (Impuruza no 11, June 1988, Page 2).”

The association intended “to promote the interests of Banyarwanda regardless of nationality, who shared our problems, ideas, and hopes” and to protect: the rights of Banyarwanda citizens of those countries.” The statement referred to the Banyarwanda living in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (then called Zaire).  The jurisdiction of the association went beyond current Rwandan borders.

In the same issue of Impuruza, Festo Habimana who had previously served as the president of the association stated the same vision;

“So, let me appeal to you my brethren – the question of Banyarwanda refugees is not a question of any particular group. It is a question for every munyarwanda [1]everywhere, regardless of his or her nationality, citizenry or origin. It is a broad question that transcends borders and boundaries, language and colors, nationality and loyalty. It is a question that is inextricably bound and intertwined with our survival now, and in the future. What is at stake is that is not only for a few people, in one country or a historical accident; what is happening here is what is at stake in all surrounding countries in the region, where a munyarwanda is. We shall never be peace or even be taken seriously as long as some of our brethren are oppressed and suppressed, and the rest of us are indifferent, or won’t stand up in the defense (Impuruza no 11, June 1988, Page 8)

 

I call the vision laid out by Rubagumya and Habimana the Banyarwanda hegemonic ideology. It appeared in Impuruza and was published two months before the Association of Banyarwanda in Diaspora (USA) that convened in August 1988 in Washington, DC. Let’s recall that it was an international conference on the status of Banyarwanda refugees in Washington, DC under the sponsorship of Roger Winter, the executive director of the US Committee for Refugees (USCR).

The association and the USCR served as fronts for the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in the United States.

Image: AllAfrica: Brian D’Silva, Eric Reeves, Roger Winter John Prendergastb and Ted Dagne . Photo: Eric, Roger, Ted, and JP.

Image: Ted Dagne copyright: Kagame awarding the National Liberation Medal to Roger Winter, July 4 , 2010

Rubagumya presided over the conference, Kimenyi acted as its secretary and became later the director of information of the RPF. Winter provided the hall and ensured logistics for the conference. The conference lasted three days. Aloys Habimana, a doctoral student in agriculture at Colorado State University at Fort Collins and I attended the session that was open to the public. Other sessions were moved to an undisclosed location where deliberations continued. However, the session we attended focused on the right of the refugees to return home.

 

I recognized four former students at The National University of Rwanda, Radegonde Ndejuru and Candide Mukagatare. I also remember Jean Claude Rukeba, the son of the president of L’Union Nationale Rwandaise (UNAR) and Jean Marie Vianney Masabo, a person I knew at the Minor Seminary of Rwesero where were both students. Two US diplomates from the US Department of State and a diplomat from the embassy of Uganda in Washington attended the conference. I also remember particularly Tito Rutaremara for snatching the microphone from me and pushing me aside as Habimana and I were fielding questions from the participants. I don’t really know whether Rubagumya’s and Habimana’s vision of the interests of the Banyarwanda was approved by the conference. What is interesting is that their vision was spread around the world by the news coverage of the (RPF) war against the government of Rwanda led by President Juvenal Habyarimana and invoked by President Paul Kagame to justify his meddling in the politics of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

 

3 The Dissemination of the Banyarwanda Hegemonic Ideology Through the News Coverage of Burundi and Rwanda

 Catharine Watson,a journalist who was based in Uganda in late and early 1990s disseminated the Banyarwanda hegemonic ideology in her news coverage of Burundi and Rwanda. Her knowledge of the region of the Great Lakes of Africa was scant as my analysis of her news reports will show.

3.1 Massacres of Ntega Marangara

Watson’s news coverage of coverage of Rwanda started with the crisis of Ntega and Marangara in Burundi where the Burundian army perpetrated massacres against Hutu in 1989.

The title of her article was After the Massacre in Africa Report, Volume 34, 1989. The article focused on the massacres of Ntega and Marangara in Burundi opposing Hutu and Tutsi and the Burundian army but contained inaccuracies on both Burundi and Rwanda. To illustrate her knowledge of Burundi and Rwanda, I will point to some excerpts.

Watson said:

“The Tutsi are said to have arrived in about 1600 from the Horn of Africa. Cattle keepers of Nilotic stock, they disdained manual labor. They nevertheless “bantu-ized,” adopting the Hutu language and many of their customs. Through their cattle wealth, the Tutsi became aristocrats. A Tutsi who gave a Hutu a cow became his master. The Hutu and his children became his serfs, obliged to work without pay and render tribute in kind. Serfdom endured in Burundi and Rwanda until the 1950s.”

 In the same issue of the Africa Report, Watson wrote an article on Rwanda titled “Rwanda: relying on “Equilibrium.” Speaking on Burundi she said, “When Hutu in Rwanda learned that the Burundi army had massacred Hutu in the neighbor to the South, they felt anguish but also grim satisfaction.” She does not tell the reader how she conducted her survey. The sentence implies Hutu and Tutsi are savages who just kill each other and get satisfaction out of it, a stereotype found in African colonial literature.

3.2 The Banyarwanda in the Great Lakes of Africa

Watson introduced the reader to the concept of Banyarwanda which she uses interchangeably with Rwandan Tutsi, exile Tutsi, stateless Tutsi, and Rwandan Tutsi in exile. According to her there are more than one million Banyarwanda outside Rwanda. She said,

“Many Banyarwanda are pastoralists living in Tanzania (where they have been given citizenship) and Uganda (where a decision about their ultimate nationality is still pending). But many are well-educated. Eastern Zaire contains a sizeable Tutsi business community. Its success has incurred the jealousy of Zairians, and it is there on sufferance…………Stateless Tutsi are vulnerable and often fall victim to xenophobia.”

According to her,

“The Tutsi business community flourishes, and Kigali has a prominent Tutsi smart set. Habyarimana has managed Hutu and Tutsi ethnic tensions by introducing a policy of “equilibrium.”

She said,

“There [in Rwanda] a policy of equilibrium restricts Tutsi to 15 percent of school and university places, jobs in parastatals, ministries and so on, a figure commensurate with their percentage of the population.’

She mentions the identification card  and says,

“Exiled Tutsi and Tutsi in Burundi make much of the fact that Rwandan identity shows ethnicity. But it may be better to admit Tutsi – Hutu differences exits than to deny it as Burundi does. The fact is that Tutsi ruled Hutu for centuries. There must be positive discrimination for Hutu if equality is to be achieved.”

She also raised the authoritarian nature of the Habyarimana’s rule whose roots are in a Hutu subgroup of Gisenyi saying,

“In fact, Rwanda is ruled by a sub-group of Hutu from the north. Resentment over this has largely replaced Tuti – Hutu strife, according to some commentators.” She states, “Tutsi women are still better educated and more confident.”

Watson’s article advanced the narrative that Banyarwanda meaning Tutsi, face persecution in Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zaire. President Habyarimana had denied them the right to return.

Her articles displayed her limited knowledge of the history of the Great Lakes of Africa. For instance, there is no Hutu language spoken in Burundi and Rwanda. The language spoken in Rwanda is Kinyarwanda with regional variations of dialects.

Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa speak the same language, Kinyarwanda.

Also, Watson presented pre-colonial Rwanda as a unified state where Tutsi aristocrats ruled over Hutu through an economic system founded on cattle. Historically Rwanda became the unified state we know as Rwanda today under German and later Belgian colonial rule.

Prior to colonial rule, there were independent farmer kingdoms living at the periphery of a small kingdom, the Tutsi Nyiginya Kingdom of Gasabo. These kingdoms existed in a conflictual relationship with the Tutsi kingdom led by a Tutsi aristocratic Nyiginya clan based in current central Rwanda. That kingdom did not control over the peripheric kingdoms such as the kingdoms of Busozo, Bukunzi, and Bushiru.

The German colonial military intervened to put down rebellions in northern Rwanda before World War I while Belgian colonial officials integrated Bukunzi, Busozo, and Bushiru into Rwanda in the 1920s. Watson simply repeated the Hamitic hypothesis popularized by colonial writings and the legend of  King Solomon’s Mines [2] whose narratives claimed Tutsi were Caucasians who originated from Egypt. Thus, during Belgian rule, Tutsi and Hamites were used interchangeably to mean a Caucasian race with dark skin.

 The articles mentioned above shaped the subsequent news coverage of the invasion of the RPF launched from Uganda on October 1, 1990. Watson strove to portray the RPF as the response to oppression that Banyarwanda suffered across the region of the Great Lakes of Africa.

Some sub themes of her news coverage are discussed below.

 3.4 The RPF: a Multi Ethnic Army

 After the RPF invaded Rwanda from Uganda, she wrote Deserters Are Determined to Return Home: Catharine Watson in Mbarara talks to Rebels and Refugees Arrested by Ugandan Forces as They Try to Follow the Trail of Invaders Crossing into Rwanda [Independent Print Ltd. October 6, 1990.]

 The article argued that the RPF comprised the deserters of the Ugandan army. To back it she wrote:

“Interestingly for the invaders have been portrayed as a Tutsi force, about a third of the 700 men arrested were Hutu.”

She claimed to have met a Hutu refugee in Uganda who joined since he feared being deported to Rwanda. Watson’s article portrayed the invaders as a multiethnic force comprising Hutu and Tutsi. Why would Hutu be among the invaders? How does she explain that after Hutu took power after the overthrow of the Tutsi monarchy, Hutu residing in Uganda or their descendants did not return to Rwanda? How did she know they were Hutu? Did they carry an identity card showing their ethnicity? Did she rely on the stereotypes spread by Hamitic hypothesis anthropologists such as not looking Caucasian? Why were Hutu refugees in Uganda?

Despite her limited knowledge of the region of the Great Lakes of Africa the U.S. Committee for Refugees hired Catharine Watson to write a research paper on Rwanda  She produced a research paper titled “Exile from Rwanda: Background to an Invasion published by The U.S. Committee for Refugees. Issue Paper. February 1991.”  The central theme of the research paper was the oppression of Tutsi across the Great Lakes of Africa.

 3.5 The Oppression of Tutsi Across the Great Lakes of Africa

 The research paper stated;

“The Banyarwanda are East Africa’s largest ethnic group or tribe. A Bantu people who live in Rwanda, eastern Zaire, western Tanzania, and southwestern Uganda, they speak Kinyarwanda and are close relatives of the Banyankole and Bakiga in Uganda, the Barundi in Uganda, and other neighboring groups.”

She divided the Banyarwanda living in Uganda into the following categories:

“About half are descendants of migrants who came to Uganda in search of a better life, most between 1920 and 1960, before independence. Slightly more than a third are “truly Ugandan” Banyarwanda, whose parents and grandparents were living inside what became Uganda when the colonial boundaries were made final early in the twentieth century; and slightly less than 15 percent are refugees who have arrived since 1959 embraces three subgroups: Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa.”

 The term Banyarwanda is used interchangeably to mean Tutsi; when it relates to people who live on the Rwandan territory, the term disappears since it is replaced by Tutsi. For instance, Watson says, “From November 1989 to June1990, Banyarwanda refugee Major Paul Kagame was acting head of the NRA’s military intelligence. She further says, “In late August, Rwigyema visited the Banyarwanda communities in Europe and North America, probably fundraising for the RPF.”

The Rwandan Diaspora is fighting the politics of exclusion. Watson visited Byumba, which was at the time, a zone occupied by the RPF and wrote “Rebels at the Ready in Fragile Rwanda Truce” in The Guardian, in September 1992, a British newspaper.

She developed the following themes:

the multiethnic character of the RPF; the origin of the recruits, the exclusion of Tutsi in eastern Congo, the funding of the war, the low morale of the government forces; and the determination of the RPF soldiers. Here are some excerpts:

“[They] don’t want to resist.”

              “The rebels are mostly children of Tutsi of Tutsi tribespeople forced from Rwanda 30 years ago when the Hutu majority overthrew the Tutsi monarchy. They speak about dying rather than returning to refugee life.”

“Except for the arms the original RPF fighters took when they deserted from Uganda’s National resistance Army (NRA), the war has been paid for by the Rwandan diaspora, about 700,000 people mainly in east Africa. Donations and monthly levies may have amounted to as much $ 1 million, enabling the purchase of uniforms and at least three shipments of arms.”

“It [The Ugandan contingent] is now outnumbered by recruits from the Rwandan communities in Tanzania, Zaire, and Burundi.”

“In Zaire, pressure on Rwandans has grown in the last year as politicians attempted to exclude non-national from political parties. In land-scarce Kivu in eastern Zaire, Hutu, Banande and Bahunde people have been attacking cattle-keepers.”

“Recruits have also come from inside Rwanda, including Hutu disaffected by the 19-year-old regime of President Habyarimana.”

The article relies only on two sources Commander Karyango and the RPF military chief Paul Kagame. Nothing in the article criticizes the RPF war. Instead the emphasis is on the Rwandan composition of the rebellion and the injustice suffered by the Rwandan communities in East Africa and Zaire (the DRC).

 Africa Report published Watson’s article titled `War and Waiting` in November / December 1992. Its central theme is that the RPF occupies a huge swath of northern part of Rwanda where it has set up two “safe villages” where its staff delivers social services contrary to the territory under control where violence prevails. The article repeats the themes developed in previous articles such as

•  Tutsi refugees are the victims of Belgian colonialism.
•  Tutsi refugees are the victims of a racist dictatorial Rwandan regime.
•  The Banyarwanda (Kinyarwanda-speakers: Hutu migrants / descendants of Hutu migrants, Tutsi refugees have suffered from discrimination in Uganda, Zaire, Tanzania, and Burundi.
•  The denial of the rights of Tutsi refugees by the pretext there is no space for them.
•  The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) is a multi-ethnic organization made up of Tutsi refugees and the descendants of Hutu migrants).
• The RPF troops are well organized and disciplined.
•  The Banyarwanda diaspora provides the financial foundation of the RPF [Since the invasion on October 1, 1990, the Banyarwanda diaspora has donated over $2 million, enabling purchases of food, bedding, and three shipments of arms].
• Major Paul Kagame, the commander of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) is a strong leader. “He is the man who held it (the RPF) together,” says a European diplomat, who describes him as “tenacious and highly competent.”
• There is low morale in the Rwandan army.
•  The RPF has demonstrated bravery and is determined to fight on.

 

Watson’s articles conflated the labels Banyarwanda and Tutsi.  The thread of her articles is that the RPF forces that invaded Rwanda in October 1990 consisted of Banyarwanda, a label covering the coalition of exiled Rwandan Tutsi and Congolese, Tanzanian and Ugandan Tutsi citizens who belonged to a population speaking Kinyarwanda or related languages such as Kifumbira (the language spoken in Bufumbira), Kinyamulenge, Kinyambo, and Kiha.

The notion that the Banyarwanda or Kinyarwanda speaking people (took up arms due to oppression and discrimination normalized the use of force as a resolution of conflicts. That was the narrative Watson and Roger Winter spread around the world. That narrative appealed to non-Rwandan citizens such as Colonel Patrick Karegeya, General James Kabarebe, and Jacques Nziza whose origins are Ugandan; Colonel Jules Mutebutsi, General Laurent Nkundabatware Mihigo, Brigadier General Eric Ruhorimbere, General Pacifique Masunzu who were Congolese. To give this ethnic coalition a multiethnic character, the RPF recruited a small group of former Hutu senior officials such as Colonel Alexis Kanyarengwe, a Hutu and former minister of interior under Habyarimana and Pastor Bizimungu, the former director of a semi-public corporation were thrust into the limelight as the senior leaders of the RPF.

Image: Wikipedia: Patrick Karegeya  was  head of external intelligence under Paul Kagame. He was assassinated in Johannesburg while in exile on New Years Eve, 2013

Image: Wikipedia: General James Kabarebe : Rwandan Minister of Defence, Commander in the RPA , AFDL strategist, de facto leader of M23

Image: Major General Jacques Nziza, Inspector General of RDF

4 Banyarwanda: The Umbrella of a Hegemonic Ideology

The label Banyarwanda has become an umbrella comprising the people of Rwanda, the Banyamulenge of South Kivu, the Tutsi of North Kivu, and even the Hema of Ituri. The Hema are cattle herders whose lifestyle is like that of the Tutsi and the Hima of Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.

In its government sponsored media such as Igihe and The New Times, the label indirectly justifies Rwanda’s support to the destabilization forces operating in eastern Congo. Rwandan officials use Rwandan media and international media to accuse the DRC government of not addressing the grievances of the Congolese Tutsi. Under that label contradictory claims are made.

The Rwandan government claimed that there was a genocide against the Kinyarwanda speaking people of the DRC. Over time, the Kinyarwanda speaking people who include Hutu Congolese were replaced by the Tutsi Congolese. In early March 2024, the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote a letter to the Chairperson of the African Union accusing the Congolese government of the “refusal of the government of the DR Congo to address genuine grievances of the Congolese Tutsi.” (Kutesa, 2024). In May 2024, President Kagame told two journalists of the Rwandan Broadcasting Agency this in Kinyarwanda.” (The translation from Kinyarwanda to English is mine.)

   The Banyarwanda particularly the Tutsi living in Congo – in fact other Banyarwanda who are not Tutsi who are talked about are once in while persecuted, they too are not better treated; they also suffer from persecution. All the Congolese Banyarwamda are not treated well, specifically Congolese Tutsi. In fact, it is for that reason that they should always express their willingness that they seek to coexist without being indoctrinated with the divisiveness that makes them identify as Tutsi and Hutu. When they begin to perceive themselves along ethnic lines such as Hutu and Tutsi, those who persecute them find an opening to hurting them and both Hutu and Tutsi are impacted. As to the rights of the Banyarwanda, they should not even ask for them. They should receive their rights. The lack of protection of their rights is the source of the conflicts we are witnessing. That is the situation now. What do they (reference to DRC authorities} think the outcome will be? You will not make some people refugees in the countries bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). There are some refugees here; there are some refugees in Uganda; and I think there are refugees in Burundi. Others (reference to Congolese Tutsi), they (reference to Congolese people) kill them; others (reference to Congolese Tutsi) are chased out of their property one way or the other. A solution must be found. It is the DRC that must find a solution; it is not Rwanda. It is not other people. It is not even the United Nations (UN).

 One of the journalists interviewing him remarked; “There is an instance where you mentioned the Banyarwanda of the DRC; I understand that as meaning ethnicity (ubwoko).

 President Kagame replied, “Congolese Banyarwanda.” The journalist followed with “There are some people who may say the President of the Republic should have said Congolese who speak Kinyarwanda. I am trying to make sure that those who do not understand it get it. President Kagame, “Okay. That is what I wanted to say

 To people unfamiliar with Kagame’s mendacity, the discourse seems to come from a revolutionary dedicated to fighting social injustice and oppression wherever it is. The discourse portrays him as a sort of Che Guevara in Central Africa. However, his record shows that he is the symbol of injustice and impunity. He is the person who ordered the shooting down of the plane carrying the Presidents of Burundi and Rwanda, Cyprien Ntaryamira and Juvenal Habyarimana, on April 6, 1994, according to General Kayumba Nyamwasa, Major Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa, close aids to Kagame, and James Munyandida, Kagame’s bodyguard. (Rwanda’s Untold Story Documentary).

Kagame is the person who ordered the assassination of Seth Sendashonga, former RPF minister of interior; Colonel Theoneste Lizinde, Kagame’s private doctor Emmanuel Gasakure; the assassination of artist Kizito Mihigo; the assassination of businessman Assinapol Rwigara; the assassination of businessman Venuste Rwabukamba, just to name a few. Kagame is also the commander in chief of an army that fought against the Ugandan army in Kisangani from June 5 to 10, 2000 killing an estimated 1000 civilians. He has never been held accountable for the devastation caused by that war.

Kagame’s defense of the rights of Kinyarwanda speaking people particularly the Tutsi of the DRC is hypocrisy as his governance has not achieved peaceful coexistence between Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda.  How does he explain the coexistence of Hutu and Tutsi when Tutsi genocide survivors die allegedly at the hands of the Hutu perpetrators? How can he rebuke divisiveness in the DRC when his government, and state-controlled or sponsored media dehumanize Hutu calling them “imbwa” or dogs and journalists spewing such hatred go unpunished? Kagame and his RPF regularly brag about defeating Hutu power or the ideology holding that all Tutsi were members of the RPF; therefore, all Tutsi were bent on restoring oppression and slavery over Hutu as  was the case during the Tutsi monarchy overthrown in 1959. To Hutu harboring such an ideology, they believed in the solution of a preemptive strike to physically eliminate all Tutsi. Doesn’t Kagame realize that a Tutsi power ideology has replaced the Hutu power ideology?

The successful overthrow of President Habyarimana’s regime emboldened the RPF to the point that Rwanda has self-appointed itself the defender and the spokesperson of Tutsi in the Great Lakes region of Africa. The Banyarwanda hegemonic ideology entails that the people of Rwandan origin, including people without any connection with Rwanda other than the language, should use force to end oppression and social injustice against Banyarwanda.It does not matter whether the Banyarwanda are Rwandan citizens if they speak Kinyarwanda or were in a distant or near past related to Rwanda, Rwanda will defend and protect their rights.

The Banyarwanda hegemonic ideology as articulated by Rubagumya and Habimana, and President Kagame, is expansionist and dangerous. It has already been implemented through the overthrow of President Juvenal Habyarimana in 1994, Mobutu in 1998, civil war in Burundi, and decades long conflicts in the DRC. From the time, the RPF took power in Rwanda in 1994, Kigali became the hub of armed groups seeking to take power in the DRC and Burundi. Kagame trained and sponsored the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (ADFL), the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD), the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), M23, Twirwaneho, and RED-Tabara (Resistance pour un Etat de Droit au Burundi). The four first groups are Congolese armed rebel groups while RED-Tabara is Burundian.

The Congolese rebel groups are responsible for the direct or indirect death of more than ten million people in the DRC.

What is at stake is political and economic power and not the rights of the Kinyarwanda speakers; rights are invoked as a cover.

The Banyarwanda hegemonic ideology hides a panTutsi ideology that appeals to the mobilization of Tutsi. It purports to defend Kinyarwanda speaking people, particularly Tutsi, against oppression from other ethnic groups and when oppression does not exist, violence is instigated from Kigali using RPF covert operatives.

The Banyarwanda hegemonic ideology is founded on the belief that the survival of the Tutsi in the region of the Great Lakes of Africa depends on their military might imposed on other ethnic groups. Individuals and organizations seeking peace in the region of the Great Lakes of Africa should clearly condemn the Banyarwanda hegemonic ideology. It is no different than pan-Germanism, an ideology meant to unify all German speaking people in one state.

5 Conclusion

The label Banyarwanda used invariably to mean Kinyarwanda speakers and Tutsi harbors a call for “tribal” solidarity or ethnic solidarity and sectarianism depending on whether oppression or social injustice applies to both Hutu and Tutsi or to Tutsi only. This Banyarwanda hegemonic ideology is  not only  racist but also a source of political instability in Burundi and the DRC. It is very likely that political instability will spread to Tanzania and Uganda if Kagame and the RPF have their way. In both countries Tutsi have coexisted peacefully with other  diverse social communities. The Banyarwanda hegemonic ideology excludes a nonviolent social change approach since it implies that a Rwanda ruled by the RPF has some say over the citizens of other countries who speak Kinyarwanda and share Rwandan culture. When Rwanda does not have its way, the alternative is violence waged through proxy armed groups.

written by  Dr Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro

Massachusetts ,    30  December 2024

 

References

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Kutesa, Hudson. DR Congo: Rwanda protests AU’s non inclusive move to endorse SADC mission in The New Times, March 04, 2024.

Lemarchand, Rene. (2009) The Dynamics of Violence in Central Africa. University of Pennsylvania Press. Philadelphia.

Rubagumya, George. The International Conference on the Status of Banyarwanda Refugees in Impuruza no 11, June 1988.

Rwandan Broadcasting Agency (RBA) LIVE: IKIGANIRO NA PEREZIDA PAUL KAGAME | Tariki 1 Mata 2024

Rwanda’s Untold Story Documentary

Rwanda’s Untold Story Documentary on Vimeo

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Watson, Catherine. Exile from Rwanda: Background to an Invasion. The U.S. Committee for Refugees. Issue Paper. February 1991

Watson, Catharine. Rebels at the Ready in Fragile Rwanda Truce. The Guardian. September 8, 1992

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footnotes [ by editor PD Lawton]

[1] the prefix  `ba`refers to the plural. The prefix `mu` refers to the singular

[2] British novelist Ryder Haggard invented a fictional account of King Solomons Mines which romantisized historical connections to ancient Egypt because Ancient Egypt has always appealed to the imperialists and their colonial mindset