A brief introduction to Rwanda

Rwanda is one of the smallest but most populated African countries. It is also known as “The Land of 1000 Hills” and “The Land of Eternal Springs”.

Although there are three official languages, Kinyawanda, English and French, it is the first that is by far and away heard more on the streets and buses.

Up to a thousand years ago, the only inhabitants were Twa pygmies until the arrival of Hutus around 1000AD. The Tutsis began to migrate into the country in the seventeenth century.

Originally colonised by the Germans (1890 - 1916) and then the Belgians (1916-1962) who originally promoted Tutsi’s before then changing their allegiances to the Hutus in 1956 who wanted democracy in place before the move to Independence. It is with this partisan approach that historians often quote as the primary reason for the country’s tribal conflict.

Whilst unrest between Hutu and Tutsi had been simmering since independence, it violently exploded in on the 6th April 1994 with the shooting down of the plane resulting in the death of Rwandan leader Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira. Within three months of the attack an estimated 800,000 - 1,000,0000 people were murdered, three million immigrated to Uganda, Congo and Tanzanian and an estimated seven million of the country’s nine million people had been displaced. Many of the Tutsis seeked refuge in churches to no avail - in some cases turned in by Catholic priests.

Despite the presence of the United Nations throughout this horrific genocide, the World simply stood by and watched as the country imploded. Indeed much of the money and training of the militia came from the French government!

The tribal conflict seems to have moved across into DRC as Rwanda has made remarkable progress in eradicating tribalism and promoting a “Rwandan identity”.