The hatching of Genocide: a father to son talk

One morning, weeks after the initial conversation Gatera had with his father, he and his two siblings were going to the field with their mother. Time and again women folks have been thought of as the weaker of the two sexes, but Rwandan women’s contribution to the farm and the welfare of the family especially during those difficult days in the refugee camps should be duly acknowledged. Mothers were the major food producers; they went to the farm, they fetched water, they most often made meals out of nothing and particularly, they always strove to bring up their children with positive norms and ethos, with a view to building a family equipped to contribute to the foundation and preservation of the Rwandan culture and society, as was the case at the time. But that is another story.So, this morning, their mother was leading the way. The quartet had not gone far from the house when his father called Gatera back. The mother said to him: “Go back and hear what your father has to tell you. You shall come with us tomorrow.” Reluctantly, the boy went back, as the others went on.His father was seated on his usual low stool, and he made a sign for Gatera to sit down beside him.“The other day,” the father began matter of fact, “you asked me why the Hutu wanted to exterminate the Tutsi.” When Gatera said nothing, he went on. “How old do you reckon I am now, son? Gatera said he did not know and the father smiled ruefully. “To tell the truth, I don’t exactly know how old I am myself,” the father admitted. “I wouldn’t be able to tell you the exact number of years I lived on this wretched earth. But I can tell you that I have lived long enough to serve and witness the reign of two kings. I have seen the advent of the Germans and of the Belgians and I am glad I have lived long enough to see them all go. At least, I saw a great many of them go”. He corrected himself. “Now, to answer your question, all I can tell you for certain is that not once before the coming of the Germans and later on before the departure of the Belgians, did I ever witness any animosity and hatred of this magnitude between the Bahutu and the Batutsi. “The Umwami (king) had absolute powers, yes. But the Umwami was for all and sundry. Then again, in all matters related to the administration of the country, he was assisted by chiefs. These chiefs were responsible, some for the army, to ensure territorial security, integrity and expansion. Others oversaw all matters pertaining to cattle keeping and grazing and the settling of related disputes, while others yet were responsible for agricultural land, crop production and other related matters. The cattle chiefs were mainly Batutsi, while most often the land chiefs were Bahutu. “At the time, there also existed a socio-economic system known as ‘Ubuhake’, a system which was mainly one of a set of organs which enabled a symbiosis kind of relationship between the wealthy and privileged on one hand, and the less privileged on the other. It was a system in which ordinary Batutsi, Bahutu and Batwa participated and mutually benefited. This system was voluntarily subscribed to and was entered into for many reasons. These included protection, and the anticipation of getting favours from the wealthy and powerful. It harmonised and ensured a strong interdependency and relationship between two individuals of unequal status in the Rwandan society.Gatera was attentively listening to all this, drinking it all avidly, mesmerised by what the father was telling him. “In those days, before the advent of the Bazungu”, the oldman went on, “Rwanda’s main economic activities were cattle keeping and farming. It is on the basis of these economic activities that one’s status or a family’s status in the society was determined. And because cows were considered very important in our country’s economy, Banyarwanda with more cows were considered wealthier than the land farmers. So, in this system of Ubuhake, the patron was most of the time a Mututsi, but the clients could be Bahutu or Batutsi of inferior social status. Also, one person could be a client as well as a patron; even a Mututsi patron of a Muhutu could be a client of yet another Mututsi. Take my case for instance: until now, I still swear by the names of Chief Buzizi or Chief Kamuzinzi, because they were of a superior status than mine and because at one given time, they have given me a cow or cows as a present. But on the other hand, there are also those who swear by my name because I was of a superior status than they, and that at one given time I gave them a cow. One could be a patron or a client depending on how many cows one had. And an uncountable number of Bahutu were owners of cows at that time, a fact that made them patrons of less affluent Bahutu and Batutsi alike. The King was the only person who could not be a client. The relationship between the King and the rest of the population was sustained by this highly organised system of Ubuhake, a client-patron kind of relationship between the landed gentry and the ordinary subjects who were all equal before the King”. The father went on to explain that apart from the wars of conquest and expansion in the early years, Rwandans were largely at peace, their peaceful coexistence marked by the ‘Ubuhake’ relationship, even though for a long time, only one clan of Batutsi ‘the Abanyiginya’ dominated the political scene.By all this, the father wanted the son to understand that unlike colonial anthropological theorising on the origins of the Rwandan people, the term Batutsi was used in pre-colonial Rwanda to mean cattle keepers - and, therefore ,affluent, and Bahutu to mean farmers - and, therefore, less affluent. Bahutu and Batutsi individuals could and did move from one category to the other on the basis of accumulated wealth. “The other economic activity,” Gatera’s father continued, “was hunting and gathering. It was mainly done by the less privileged members of Banyarwanda community, the Abatwa. But the Abatwa were marginalised and often discriminated against by both Bahutu and Batutsi. “But now let’s come back to your question of why the Bahutu wanted to exterminate the Batutsi. The genesis of it all began with the Belgians, or the White Fathers to be exact. It was during the reign of King Yuhi Musinga IV. The Germans, who first colonized Rwanda, until they lost their colonies following their first war defeat against the world, had found a country where Umwami enjoyed absolute powers over his subjects, over the land and over the cattle, in a hierarchical society where just a few Batutsi families held commanding positions. In exchange for his recognition, the German administration supported the authority of Umwami Musinga Yuhi IV, leaving intact his existing local administration system, avoiding any form of interference in his existing social rapports with his people. “But later, the Belgian administration who took over from the Germans’ exploited to the fullest the complicity between colonialism and evangelisation, through the missionaries, especially the Roman Catholics, who were also known as the White Fathers. “The Belgians, unlike the Germans never took into account the specific unity of the Bahutu and the Batutsi people, their common pride which made them Rwandans, nor the fact that ninety per cent of the Batutsi belonged to the mass of poor peasants. They shifted their alliance with the Bahutu and the Batutsi at will, as a strategy to gain influence and protect their interests. “What they did in the first years, was to systematically support the Bahutu in their relationship with the traditional authority, establishing a new centre of power in the country, and displeasing the German authority which favoured respect for the tradition. You must take note of the fact that King Yuhi IV had, right from the start, stubbornly and ferociously resisted the Whiteman’s civilisation, especially Christianity. So, the Belgians, in connivance with the missionaries deposed and expelled Yuhi, first to Kamembe in Cyangugu and later to a place called Moba in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Then they set about taking their revenge on him, and by extension, on the Batutsi. How? Find out in the next article of “The Hatching of Genocide!”

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The hatching of Genocide: a father to son talk