As we promised in our last issue, let’s explore what two of the first writers on the history of Rwanda said about the so-called “Hutu” kingdoms, starting with the kingdoms associated with Ababanda. Louis de Lacger wrote about “Hutu” territories in chapter three of his book “Rwanda.” He never called them kingdoms, but compared them to French civitates, which means territories inhabited by people of the same clan. For Louis de Lacger, these civitates were ruled by chefs of clans. But as he said, these civitates developed, and their chiefs became more powerful and were named “roitelets” or small kings. Among these Louis de Lacger called roitelets, included Mashira of Nduga, Nkoma of Marangara and Rutoke of Buhanga. After Louis de Lacger published his book, King Mutara III Rudahigwa was not satisfied with the publication, deeming it a distorted history of Rwanda. King Rudahigwa tasked Alexis Kagame to write a new book that tells the true history. He ordered Abiru to tell him everything he needed. Unfortunately, Alexis Kagame published Inganji Kalinga, without demystifying Louis de Lacger. It is clear that as a Catholic Church priest, he had to respect his hierarchical chief, Bishop Leon Paul Classe. That is why he did not contradict Louis de Lacger. Although Father Alexis Kagame wrote that the “Hutus” territories pre-date the arrival of Nyiginya dynasty, he did not agree that they met “Hutu” kingdoms in Rwanda. For Alexis Kagame, the Banyiginya are not the first Batutsi to be in Rwanda. For him, the Nyiginya dynasty in Rwanda were kingdoms of other Batutsi, who were in Rwanda before the Banyiginya. He says that the Barenge and the Bungwe kingdoms belonged to Batutsi who were in Rwanda before the Abanyiginya. He recognized the existence of “Hutu” territories and “small” kings, Abahinza. This name Abihinza has generated many explanations that need clarification. Some call them kings of “Hutu” kingdoms, others calling them chiefs of clans. Our research revealed that they were neither kings nor chiefs, but leaders of agriculture activities. Even Ferdinand Nahimana himself who insists on calling them kings, recognized in his book that abahinza were “maitres de cultures,” masters of agriculture, like we had masters of hunt, abahigi, masters of forge, abacuzi and masters of rain, abavubyi. As many writers continued to write on Rwanda, what Louis de Lacger compared to French civitates gradually changed meaning to become kingdoms and their roitelets, kings. Ferdinand Nahimana was inspired by Eugène Ernotte, a priest who founded the Christ Rois College in Nyanza, and Arthur Dejemepe, another priest who was the Director of ETO at St Paul in Kigali and who was the mentor of former President of Rwanda, Gregoire Kayibanda. Both Eugène Ernotte and Arthur Dejemepe are believed to be the authors of the “Hutu Manifesto,” in 1959. Other authors who inspired Ferdinand Nahimana’s works were colonial scholars, who published a lot of books on this issue, including Marcel Pawels, who published “Le Bashiru et son Muhinza ou roitelet hutu,” in 1967; Marcel d’Hertefelt, with his “Les clans du Rwanda ancien, Éléments d’ethnosociologie et d’ethnohistoire;” in 1971 or Bernard Lugan “Entre les servitudes de la houe et les sortilèges de la vache. Le Monde rural dans l’ancien Rwanda,”that was published in 1983. We cannot mention all the works on this issue in this limited space, but, recently, Sarah Warshauer Freedman conducted a research, published in 2006 titled “The teaching of the history of Rwanda”, that contradicted Ferdinand Nahimana. It said that all clans in Rwanda did not own a kingdom. Only four clans had kingdoms, including the Banyiginya, the Basinga, the Bagesera and the Bacyaba. We will come later to these kingdoms. But, what is of interest for us is the Babanda’s kingdom of Nduga. It was not mentioned in this work. Three reasons why Nduga Kingdom didn’t exist Colonial scholars told us that the Kingdom of Nduga, had kings including Sabugabo, Nkuba, Mashira and Kibanda. This list of kings of Nduga provides us with three clear reasons that prove the Kingdom of Nduga never existed. First, the kings they told us ruled over Nduga, including Sabugabo and Nkuba existed before Nduga. Both never even arrived in Nduga. It is their son Mashira who settled in Nduga from Bugesera. So, Sabugabo and Nkuba could not be kings of a kingdom that was not in existence. Lie number one, Sabugabo and Nkuba did not rule over a kingdom they never knew. Second, Sabugabo who is the son of Gihanga, the father of Nkuba and the grandfather of Mashira could not have been a king of a kingdom that pre-exist his father’s kingdom of Gasabo. Second lie, there has never been a kingdom called Nduga before Gasabo because its so called kings were not yet into existence. Third, it is not possible for Sabugabo, Nkuba and Mashira to be kings of a kingdom of people who were not born yet. The Babanda are descendents of Kibanda, the son of Mashira. How Mashira and his father Nkuba and his grandfather Sabugabo were kings of people who were not there yet? Lie number three, Sabugabo, Nkuba and Mashira could not have been kings of a people who were not born yet. Did colonial scholars know that Sabugabo, Nkuba, Mashira and Kibanda were descendents of Gihanga the Founding Father? YES. Did they know that the Babanda and Banyiginya are siblings? YES. We say YES because they left writings that prove they knew. Did they know that Sabugabo, Nkuba and Mashira were not Ababanda? YES, as Ababanda are descendents of Kibanda. Since they knew this was true, why did they tell us that Sabugabo, Nkuba, Mashira and Kibanda existed before their forefather, Gihanga the Founding Father? I believe you know the answer. “Make the black Rwandan forget his ancestors.” Before we delve into the other kingdoms attributed to Ababanda, we would like to discuss in our next feature, the “true story of Mashira.’
