The Tutsi (/ˈtʊtsi/ TUUT-see[2]), also called Watusi, Watutsi or Abatutsi (Kinyarwanda pronunciation: [ɑ.βɑ.tuː.t͡si]), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region.[3] They are a Bantu-speaking[4] ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi (the other two being the largest Bantu ethnic group Hutu and the Pygmy group of the Twa).[5]
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Burundi | 1.7 million (14% of the total population) |
| Rwanda | 1–2 million (9%–15% of the total population)[1] |
| Languages | |
| Kinyarwanda, Kirundi | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity (80%), Islam (5%) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Rwanda-Rundi peoples | |
Historically, the Tutsi were pastoralists and filled the ranks of the warriors' caste. Before 1962, they regulated and controlled Rwandan society, which was composed of Tutsi aristocracy and Hutu commoners, utilizing a clientship structure. They occupied the dominant positions in the sharply stratified society and constituted the ruling class.[5]
Origins and classification
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The definition of "Tutsi" has changed through time and location. Social structures were not stable throughout Rwanda, even during colonial times under the Belgian rule. The Tutsi aristocracy or elite was distinguished from Tutsi commoners.
When the Belgian colonists conducted censuses, they wanted to identify the people throughout Rwanda-Burundi according to a simple classification scheme. They defined "Tutsi" as anyone owning more than ten cows (a sign of wealth) or with the physical features of a longer thin nose, high cheekbones, and being over six feet tall, all of which are common descriptions associated with the Tutsi.
In the colonial era, the Tutsi were hypothesized to have arrived in the Great Lakes region from the Horn of Africa, in accordance with the Hamitic hypothesis.[6][7]
Tutsi were considered by some to be of Cushitic origin, although they do not speak a Cushitic language, and have lived in the areas where they presently inhabit for at least 400 years, leading to considerable intermarriage with the Hutu in the area. Due to the history of intermingling and intermarrying of Hutu and Tutsi, some ethnographers and historians are of the view that Hutu and Tutsi cannot be called distinct ethnic groups.[8][9] [unreliable source?]
Genetics
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Y-DNA (paternal lineages)
Modern-day genetic studies of the Y-chromosome generally indicate that the Tutsi, like the Hutu, are largely of Bantu extraction (60% E1b1a, 20% B, 4% E-P2(xE1b1a)).
Paternal genetic influences associated with the Horn of Africa and North Africa are few (under 3% E1b1b-M35), and are ascribed to much earlier inhabitants who were assimilated. However, the Tutsi have considerably more haplogroup B Y-DNA paternal lineages (14.9% B) than do the Hutu (4.3% B).[10]
Autosomal DNA (overall ancestry)
In general, the Tutsi appear to share a close genetic kinship with neighboring Bantu populations, particularly the Hutu. 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 Hutu and Tutsi.[11]
Height
Their average height is 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm), although individuals have been recorded as being taller than 7 feet (210 cm).[12]
History
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The traditional Tutsi king's palace in Nyanza (top) and Rwanda c. 1900, Tutsi Chief Kaware travelling (bottom)
Prior to the arrival of colonists, Rwanda had been ruled by a Tutsi-dominated monarchy since the 15th century. In 1897, Germany established a presence in Rwanda with the formation of an alliance with the king, beginning the colonial era.[13] Later, Belgium took control in 1916 during World War I. Both European nations ruled through the Rwandan king and perpetuated a pro-Tutsi policy.
In Burundi, meanwhile, a ruling faction known as the ganwa emerged and quickly assumed effective control of the country's administration. The ganwa who relied on support from both Hutu and Tutsi populations to rule, were perceived within Burundi as neither Hutu nor Tutsi.[14]
Rwanda was ruled as a colony by Germany (from 1897 to 1916) and by Belgium (from 1922 to 1961). Both the Tutsi and Hutu had been the traditional governing elite, but both colonial powers allowed only the Tutsi to be educated and to participate in the colonial government. Such discriminatory policies engendered resentment.
When the Belgians took over, they believed it could be better governed if they continued to identify the different populations. In the 1920s, they required people to identify with a particular ethnic group and classified them accordingly in censuses.
In 1959, Belgium reversed its stance and allowed the majority Hutu to assume control of the government through universal elections after independence. This partly reflected internal Belgian domestic politics, in which the discrimination against the Hutu majority came to be regarded as similar to oppression within Belgium stemming from the Flemish-Walloon conflict, and the democratization and empowerment of the Hutu was seen as a just response to the Tutsi domination. Belgian policies wavered and flip-flopped considerably during this period leading up to independence of Burundi and Rwanda.[citation needed]
Independence of Rwanda and Burundi (1962)
The Hutu majority in Rwanda had revolted against the Tutsi and was able to take power. Tutsi fled and created exile communities outside Rwanda in Uganda and Tanzania.[15][16][17][18][19] Their actions led to the deaths of up to 200,000 Hutu.[20] Overt discrimination from the colonial period was continued by different Rwandan and Burundian governments, including identity cards that distinguished Tutsi and Hutu.
Burundian genocide (1993)
In 1993, Burundi's first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, was assassinated by Tutsi officers, as was the person entitled to succeed him under the constitution.[21] This sparked a genocide in Burundi between Hutu political structures and the Tutsi, in which "possibly as many as 25,000 Tutsi" – including military, civil servants and civilians[22] – were murdered by the former and "at least as many" Hutu were killed by the latter.[23] Since the 2000 Arusha Peace Process, today in Burundi the Tutsi minority shares power in a more or less equitable manner with the Hutu majority. Traditionally, the Tutsi had held more economic power and controlled the military.[24]
1994 genocide against the Tutsi
A similar pattern of events took place in Rwanda, but there the Hutu came to power in 1962. They in turn often oppressed the Tutsi, who fled the country. After the anti-Tutsi violence around 1959–1961, Tutsi fled in large numbers.
These exile Tutsi communities gave rise to Tutsi rebel movements. The Rwandan Patriotic Front, mostly made up of exiled Tutsi living primarily in Uganda, attacked Rwanda in 1990 with the intention of taking back the power. The RPF had experience in organized irregular warfare from the Ugandan Bush War, and got much support from the government of Uganda. The initial RPF advance was halted by the lift of French arms to the Rwandan government. Attempts at peace culminated in the Arusha Accords.
The agreement broke down after the assassination of the Rwandan and Burundian Presidents, triggering a resumption of hostilities and the start of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, in which the Hutu then in power killed an estimated 500,000–600,000 people, largely of Tutsi origin.[25][26][27] Victorious in the aftermath of the genocide, the Tutsi-ruled RPF came to power in July 1994.
Culture
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In the Rwanda territory, from the 15th century until 1961, the Tutsi were ruled by a king (the mwami). Belgium abolished the monarchy, following the national referendum that led to independence. By contrast, in the northwestern part of the country (predominantly Hutu), large regional landholders shared power, similar to Buganda society (in what is now Uganda).
Under their holy king, Tutsi culture traditionally revolved around administering justice and government. They were the only proprietors of cattle, and sustained themselves on their own products. Additionally, their lifestyle afforded them a lot of leisure time, which they spent cultivating the high arts of poetry, weaving and music. Due to the Tutsi's status as a dominant minority vis-a-vis the Hutu farmers and the other local inhabitants, this relationship has been likened to that between lords and serfs in feudal Europe.[28]
According to Fage (2013), the Tutsi are serologically related to Bantu and Nilotic populations. This in turn rules out a possible Cushitic origin for the founding Tutsi-Hima ruling class in the lacustrine kingdoms. However, the royal burial customs of the latter kingdoms are quite similar to those practiced by the former Cushitic Sidama states in the southern Gibe region of Ethiopia. By contrast, Bantu populations to the north of the Tutsi-Hima in the mount Kenya area such as the Agikuyu were until modern times essentially without a king (instead having a stateless age set system which they adopted from Cushitic peoples) while there were a number of Bantu kingdoms to the south of the Tutsi-Hima in Tanzania, all of which shared the Tutsi-Hima's chieftaincy pattern. Since the Cushitic Sidama kingdoms interacted with Nilotic groups, Fage thus proposes that the Tutsi may have descended from one such migrating Nilotic population. The Nilotic ancestors of the Tutsi would thereby in earlier times have served as cultural intermediaries, adopting some monarchical traditions from adjacent Cushitic kingdoms and subsequently taking those borrowed customs south with them when they first settled amongst Bantu autochthones in the Great Lakes area.[28] However, little difference can be ascertained between the cultures today of the Tutsi and Hutu; both groups speak the same Bantu language. The rate of intermarriage between the two groups was traditionally very high, and relations were amicable until the 20th century. Many scholars have concluded that the determination of Tutsi was and is mainly an expression of class or caste, rather than ethnicity. Rwandans have their own language, Kinyarwanda. English, French and Swahili serve as additional official languages for different historic reasons, and are widely spoken by Rwandans as a second language.[29]
Tutsi in the Congo
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 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2025) |
Scholars have long recognized that the Tutsi presence in the modern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is best understood by distinguishing between two principal groups, whose histories have been significantly shaped—and often distorted—by colonial policies and later political struggles.
The Banyamulenge
The Banyamulenge are an established Tutsi group primarily residing in parts of South Kivu. Extensive research shows that the Banyamulenge have deep historical roots in the eastern Congo that predate colonial rule.[30] Colonial authorities, however, manipulated ethnic classifications to serve administrative and political purposes, a legacy that has contributed to contemporary tensions in the region.[31]
Banyarwanda in North Kivu and South Kivu
A second Tutsi presence is found among the broader Banyarwanda community in parts of North Kivu and the Kalehe region of South Kivu. This community, which includes both Tutsi and Hutu, is largely the result of multiple migratory waves from neighboring Rwanda, occurring over the pre-colonial, colonial, and post-genocide periods. In particular, the mass exodus during and after the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 is well documented and has significantly reshaped the ethnic landscape in eastern Congo.[32][33] The academic consensus holds that these migratory processes, far from being a single exogenous event, have complex historical antecedents that continue to influence regional politics.
Conflict and Contemporary Issues
The eastern DRC has been a hotspot of conflict for decades, involving numerous armed groups. Some of these, notably those evolving from the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) into what became known as the M23, have been led by individuals of Tutsi background. However, the portrayal of these groups solely through an ethnic lens oversimplifies the situation. Academic studies agree that the roots of the conflict lie in a mixture of colonial legacies, competition over valuable resources such as cobalt, and deep-seated political and social grievances.[34] Reports from international organizations have documented serious human rights abuses—including the recruitment of child soldiers and illegal exploitation of mineral wealth—but these are best understood within the broader framework of state fragility and international economic pressures rather than as a straightforward ethnic conflict.[35]
Notable people
References
External links
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