Ethnic Groups in Rwanda - Tutsi Political & Economic Hegemony

Tutsi Political & Economic Hegemony

Next, Belgian promotion of Tutsi political domination served as a prime catalyst of growing “ethnic” resentments. The Belgians dismantled Hutu kingdoms that had maintained local control in the northwest. In 1926 the Belgians abolished the local posts of “land-chief”, “cattle-chief” and “military chief,” and in doing so they stripped the Hutus of their limited local power over land. Instead, they entrenched an authoritarian Tutsi aristocracy to rule over the Hutu majorities in which Tutsis took over as provincial governors, local chieftains, and civil bureaucrats. Hutu officials were excluded from local administrative structures while Hutu chieftains were systematically denied from ruling their own people, as they had done for centuries before. The establishment of Tutsi minority rule created much bitterness among the Hutu majority, who felt disenfranchised and politically repressed. This political resentment fueled the development of an ethnic gulf between Tutsis, who wielded political power, and Hutus, who were locked out of power.

Belgian economic policies also further increased the ethnic divide between Tutsis and Hutus. Colonial elites appropriated large land grants to Tutsis, displacing formerly wealthy Hutu landowners. The Belgians strengthened the feudal arrangement of Rwanda’s pre-colonial past by forcing Hutus to work on lands owned by Tutsis. Moreover, Tutsis were appointed as trade officials and tax collectors, further reinforcing Tutsi economic hegemony over the Hutus. Colonial policies deepened the pre-existing class stratification: Tutsis were primarily upper-class wealthy landowners and merchants, while Hutus occupied lower-class occupations as poor farmers and laborers. These deep class differences provided a framework for mapping ethnic identities on top of them: class-hatred was a prominent tool for fueling divergent ethno-nationalist ideologies. Thus, this socioeconomic stratification was a chief driver in formulating both ethnic identities: the oppression of the Hutus by the Tutsis served as a key catalyst in forming a common Hutu identity among the exploited lower classes, while the Tutsi economic supremacy over the Hutus served as a key catalyst in shaping a singular Tutsi identity among the privileged upper classes.

Lastly, the education system reinforced the bifurcation of Tutsi and Hutu ethnic identity. The Roman Catholic Church, the primary educators in the country, subscribed to the differences between Hutus and Tutsis by developing separate educational systems for each. Not surprisingly, in the 1940s and 1950s, the vast majority of students were Tutsis, even though the majority of Rwandans now self-identified as Hutus.