The Tutsi, also known as the Abatutsi, are an ethnic or social group from the area around the African Great Lakes. They were sometimes called the Watusi, Watusi, Wahuma, Wahima, or Wahinda in the past.
The Tutsi are a branch of the Banyarwanda and Barundi people. Most of them live in Rwanda and Burundi, but there are also large groups in the DR Congo, Tanzania, and Uganda.
The Hutu are the biggest group of people in Rwanda and Burundi, and the Twa are the smallest. The Tutsis are the second largest group of people in those countries.
There are also a few Hema and Kiga people living near the Tutsi in Rwanda.
The Banyamulenge doesn’t have a region. The northern Tutsi who live in Rwanda are called Ruguru (Banyaruguru), and the southern Tutsi who live in Burundi are called Hima.
Origins And Classification
People may have had different ideas about what it means to be “Hutu” or “Tutsi,” depending on the time and place. In Rwanda, social systems were not stable, even when the country was a colony and Belgium was in charge. Tutsi commoners were different from Tutsi aristocracy or elite, and rich Hutu people were often hard to tell apart from upper-class Tutsi.
When the Belgian colonists did surveys, they wanted to use a simple classification system to find out who lived in Rwanda and Burundi. They called someone a “Tutsi” if they had more than ten cows, which is a sign of wealth, or if they had a longer nose or neck, which is a physical trait often associated with Tutsis.
People used to say that Tutsis came to the Great Lakes area from the Horn of Africa.
Some researchers think that Tutsis are of Cushitic descent, even though they don’t speak a Cushitic language. They have lived in the places they are now for at least 400 years, which has caused a lot of marriages between them and Hutu people in the area. Ethnographers and scholars have recently agreed that Hutus and Tutsis, having mixed and married each other over the years, cannot truly be considered two separate ethnic groups.
A lot of experts and people who live in the Great Lakes Region think that the Tutsi are “Cushitics,” who are against Bantu groups like the Hutu and other groups in Uganda and the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It does, however, refer to a group of languages. For example, the Bantu lemma and the lemma on “Bantu people” both say that Bantu people speak Bantu languages. The Tutsi and the Hutu both speak the same Bantu language, so they are both Bantu people.
Tutsi Clans
According to Sebagabo Simon (2004:21), one of the main reasons for the start of the genocide was the changing of the meanings of Rwandan and Burundi words to create an ethnic idea in Rwanda. At different times, these words have had different meanings. Before European settlement, “Ubwoko” meant clannish identity, which is a group of families who share a common ancestor and come from the same family.
Abanyiginya, Abagesera, Abega, Ababanda, Abacyaba, Abasinga, Abashambo, Abahinda, Abazigaba, Abungura, Abashingwe, Abenengwe, Abasita, Abatsobe, Abakono, Abanyakarama, Abarihira, Abahondogo, Abashambo, and Abongera are the 20 groups that make up Rwanda. In Kinyarwanda, they are referred to as ubwoko. These groups were a big part of how Rwandans and Burundians saw themselves. When you ask an old person in Kinyarwanda what their name is, they will name the different clans, like Umugesera, Umunyiginya, Umushambo, and so on. The West frequently uses the words “Umutwa,” “Umuthutu,” and “Umututsi” to refer to the same ethnic group.
Colonialists learned about Rwandan society from a political, social, and religious point of view as soon as they got there. In terms of religion, they chose to bring Christianity, which is a new religion. The colonists didn’t understand some cultural ideas, though, because they didn’t know enough Kinyarwanda, the local language.
When it comes to racial strife, colonization changed the meanings of the words “Ubwoko,” “Umuhutu,” “Umututsi,” and “Umutwa.” According to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), those terms have nothing to do with the idea of “race or ethnicity”: “Ethnic group” means a group of people who share a language and culture (see Akayezu, TC, para. 513).
Three groups: the Abanyiginya, the Abasindi, and the Abatsobe, all share the crested crane, for example. Both Abega and Abakono use the frog as a totem. The hyena is both Abacyaba and Ababanda’s totem animal, and the leopard is both Abazigaba and Abenengwe’s totem animal. The sole explanation for these distinct clans sharing the same totem is their intentional or accidental split from the main clan.
Social groups consciously and willingly split apart to create a new sense of who they are as a whole. For example, the Christian Church and the Muslims split into different groups but kept the same traditions and symbols. When people move or lose their memories, social groups can also change their collective identity. However, they will always cling to their collective sign, as it remains the only aspect of their collective memory that has not faded.
For Abega and Abakono, the frog is their totem animal. For Abacyaba and Ababanda, the hyena is the totem animal. For Abazigaba and Abenengwe, the leopard is their totem animal. These people are likely moieties, which are groups that had a shared ancestor but split up. Abanyiginya, Abasindi, and Abatsobe constitute a phyratry, a social group consisting of three distinct clans.
Abahinda, whose totem animal is the inkende “squirrel” and who ruled Karagwe, Tanzania, for a long time before moving to Rwanda for unknown reasons, may also have ties to Abazirankende, a subclan of Abagesera, whose totem animal is the wagtail. Abazirankende means “those for whom the squirrel is a taboo.”
The only groups whose totems are unknown are Abanyakarama, who are believed to have originated in Burundi, and Abashingwe.
Clans As A Social Construction
For a long time, people have thought that biologically linked individuals naturally form social groups called clans. The Rwandan story serves as evidence that this is not true. Two things show this: first, people can marry within their own group, and second, the same clans and totems can marry people of different ethnicities.
Rwanda also has bloodlines, known as imiryango in Kinyarwanda and umuryango when used independently. Igisekuru: A lineage refers to a group of people who share a common ancestor. Examples of such lineages include Abahidiro from Gahindiro, Abajiji from Bajiji, Abenebwimba from Bwimba, and Abaganzu from Ruganzu, among others.
The lineage’s name is derived from the name of the shared ancestor. Exogamy needs to happen. No matter how far away they are, marrying someone from the same family is known as incest. Rwanda’s culture is based on men and their families. Children adopt the race and clan of their dads. Endogamy is very common within groups, but not within families.
Another thing that shows clans are not genetically linked social groups is that even though Rwanda has three different ethnic groups (Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa), all three of them share the same clans and totems.
Clans And Castes
People are born into both clans and castes, which are social groups. People’s social standing is often based on what clan or group they are from. It looks like they were made to meet a need in society, especially when it comes to getting better at your job and sharing your social duties. The Abanyiginya clan had kings. The Abatsobe clan supplied royal ritualists called abiru. These people learned all of the rituals used to crown the new monarch and kept all of the royal secrets. The Abega and Abakono clans produced queens.
Abagesera, Abasinga, and Abazigaba were abasangwabutaka, which means “primordial clans” or “the ones found on the land.” They were abases, or ritualists, for other clans.
In case the head of the family of someone from another clan wasn’t there, they could do all of his rites. They could also do these rituals for people from other clans because they weren’t allowed to do them themselves. Gooderana ubuse is another thing that clans could do. This is when they insult each other for fun. In some ways, they are very similar to the West African caste structure. For instance, the Fulani, residing in numerous West African countries, have clans connected to castes.
There are 12 castes, but they are not based on social rank like India’s low and high castes or Japan’s Burachumins. Instead, each caste is based on a specific type of work. For example, there is a caste for griots, a caste for wood carvers, a caste for blacksmiths, a caste for grave diggers, a caste for hunters, a caste for farmers, a caste for cattle herders, a caste for circumcisers, and so on.
In some cultures, headwear, chestwear, armwear, tattoos, and other totemic traits help clans stand out from other clans. Pacific Northwest Indian groups, like the Chinook, Haida, Nookta, Tlinkit, and Hawaiians, have totem poles that represent their clans. The Haida, for example, have two groups, each with its own totem animal: the raven and the eagle. These two totems are visible on their totem poles.
In Rwanda, there is no physical sign that shows who is in a clan. People learn about their clan and spirit by hearing stories.
Culture And Tradition
The male line passes down the family name in Tutsi and Hutu families. People from Rwanda and Burundi used to marry based on how well their families knew each other. Most Tutsis today pick out the person they want to marry.
Rites of passage for Tutsis and Hutus are a lot alike. The first one, the naming event, happens seven days after a baby is born.
Paying the bride a lot of money makes the marriage official. The groom’s family pays the bride’s clan this because they are losing her work. No ceremony other than marriage marks becoming an adult.
Royal music and dance groups put on shows for the kings of Burundi and Rwanda. For the prayers, they arranged twenty-two tall drums around a central drum. They played the drums in a circle around them. They all took turns hitting the drum in the middle. People continue to perform this type of drumming, and recordings of it exist.
In the country, singing, dancing, and drumming are big parts of life. People write a lot of different types of songs, like lullabies, hunting songs, and ibicuba (songs that praise cattle).
Igisoro is a game that both kids and adults like to play. A wooden board with holes for stones or beads serves as the playing surface. Set up rows of pieces, and try to take as many of your opponent’s pieces as you can. Some parts of Africa refer to the game as mancala.
When someone passes away, there are prayers, discussions, and restrictions on various activities. After a death, close family members should not do hard work or have sex. The family has a traditional feast when the time of mourning is over.
Congolese Tutsi
In the Congo (DRC), there are two main groups of Tutsi. They live at the very end. Their ancestors were pastoralists from Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania who moved to the area. There are also Tutsi in North Kivu and Kalehe in South Kivu. Hutu and Tutsi form the Banyarwanda society, which includes both groups.
These are not chameleons. Before colonization, some Banyarwanda lived in Rutshuru, now in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Belgian colonists “tranplanted” others from Rutshuru or Rwanda. Most of them moved to Masisi in North Kivu and Kalehe in South Kivu.
Also Read: Who Are The Mandé People?
