Hutu and Tutsi

Starting in 1935, the Belgian Colonial government required all citizens to have "Tutsi", "Hutu" or "Twa" indicated on their identity cards. Admission to school was limited to only Tutsi. Following World War II, Rwanda began the process of becoming an independent country. First, it was made into UN trust territory with Belgium appointed as administrative authority. Belgium continued to support the Tutsi minority rule.

 

In 1954 King Mutara III began to redistribute and share out the land between the Hutu and the Tutsi. He also agreed to abolish the ubuhake and uburetwa system of indentured servitude which had been in place since the 15^th Century. Ubuhake was a system of cattle distribution and uburetwa was a land distribution system. Historically, Hutus were farmers while Tutsis were primarily cattle-raisers.

In 1961, the Belgian-sponsored Tutsi monarchy collapsed and Kigeli V was exiled from Rwanda. That same year, political power was transferred from the minority Tutsi to the majority Hutu. Kigeli V, also known by his Christian name of Jean-Baptiste, currently lives in the United States and has expressed a desire to return to Rwanda as its constitutional monarch to re-unite and heal the country. In neighboring Burundi, the minority Tutsis, maintained control of the government.

In Burundi in 1972, the Tutsi government launched a campaign of genocide against Hutu population and an estimated 100,000 Hutus died. In 1993, Melchior Ndadaye a Hutu and Burundi's first democratically elected president was assassinated by Tutsi officers. This sparked wide-spread violence between Hutu and the Tutsi, in which an estimated 500,000 Burundians have died. This violence spread to neighboring Rwanda and was one of the causes of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.