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Kigeli IV Rwabugiri (1840? - November 1895) was the king ('' mwami'') of the
Kingdom of Rwanda The Kingdom of Rwanda was a kingdom in East Africa which grew to be ruled by a Tutsi monarchy. It was later annexed under German and Belgian colonial rule while retaining some of its autonomy. The Tutsi monarchy was abolished in 1961 after ...
in the mid-nineteenth century. He was among the last
Nyiginya The Nyiginya or the Banyiginya were a royal Tutsi ruling clan in the pre-colonial Rwanda.Leon Delmas References Further reading *''Antecedents to modern Rwanda : the Nyiginya Kingdom'' / Jan Vansina ; translated by the author.JISC Catalogue ...
kings in a ruling dynasty that had traced their lineage back four centuries to
Gihanga Gihanga I ("Creator", "Founder") is a Rwandan cultural hero described in oral histories as an ancient king popularly credited with establishing the ancient Kingdom of Rwanda. Oral legends relate that Gihanga descended from a line of 12 gods heade ...
, the first 'historical' king of Rwanda whose exploits are celebrated in oral chronicles. He was a
Tutsi The Tutsi (), or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi (the other two being the largest Bantu ethnic g ...
with the birth name Sezisoni. He was the first king in Rwanda's history to come into contact with Europeans. He established an army equipped with guns he obtained from
Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...
and prohibited most foreigners, especially
Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
, from entering his kingdom. Rwabugiri held authority from 1853 to 1895. He died in November 1895, during an expedition in modern-day Congo, shortly after the arrival of the German explorer Count Gustav Adolf von Götzen. His adopted son,
Mibambwe IV Rutarindwa Mibambwe IV Rutarindwa (?? – December 1896, Marangara province, Nyanza, German East Africa) was Mwami of Rwanda between November 1895 and December 1896, having been made co-ruler by his father Kigeli IV Rwabugiri in 1889. Rutarindwa is sometime ...
, was proclaimed the next king. By the end of Rwabugiri's rule,
Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
was divided into a standardized structure of provinces, districts, hills, and neighborhoods, administered by a hierarchy of chiefs. The chiefs were predominantly Tutsi at the higher levels and with a greater degree of mutual participation by
Hutu The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic or social group which is native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they form one of the p ...
s. He defended the borders of the Rwandan kingdom against invading neighboring kingdoms, slave traders, and Europeans. Rwabugiri was a warrior king and is regarded as one of Rwanda's most powerful kings. Some Rwandans see him as the last true King of Rwanda due to the tragic assassination of his successor Rutarindwa and coup by his stepmother Kanjogera who installed her son
Musinga Yuhi Musinga (Yuhi V of Rwanda, 1883 – 13 January 1944) was a king of Rwanda who came to power in 1896 and collaborated with the German government to strengthen his own kingship. In 1931 he was deposed by the Belgian administration because of hi ...
. By the beginning of the 20th century, Rwanda was a unified state with a centralized military structure. Rwabugiri is sometimes attributed for the tactics used by the RPF during the
Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu ...
to retain Tutsi superiority .


Pre-colonial Rwanda

Tradition has it that the kingdom of
Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
was originally occupied by a number of
Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle * Black Association for Nationa ...
chieftainships which were conglomerated during the 10th century by Tutsi pastoralists from the North who brought ideas of caste systems and a political society. By the 19th century, the state had become much more centralized. Rwabugiri established a royal court that collected labor dues and claimed tributary food in
Rubengera Rubengera is a community in Rwanda, part of the Mabanza commune. It is the capital of Karongi District in Western Province, Rwanda. Rubengera lies in the western mountains of Rwanda between Lake Kivu and the divide that separates the catchments ...
around 1870. This served the purpose of channeling food across the country and becoming a center of commerce. During periods of food shortages, most of the country would suffer while the very rich Tutsi who resided in Rubengera would be able to find food and livestock. The royal court was prepared for this situation usually, however, and controlled the production of produce as to always create a surplus. This was meant to serve as a famine strategy. This surplus would then be distributed by the king's order to the poorest citizens in exchange for their labor


Expansion

Ethnicity became an important factor during the period of state expansion that began in the late 19th century. Rwabugiri gained increasing control over land, cattle, and people in Central Africa. Rwabugiri not only saw a personal increase in power over the land, but also consolidated power among political elites that became known either officially or informally as Tutsi. Previously, they had mostly been local chieftains who were now finding themselves as part of a complex network that allowed the Mwami to build national cohesion in newly acquired regions. The appointed chieftains were occasionally met with local resistance. For example, in the Northwest region the Balera group challenged the power of the Nduga who had been appointed to the region by the royal court. The contestation was along clan, rather than ethnic, lines, as both groups were considered Tutsi under the then ethnic understanding. During this period, there was an increase in the long-standing traditions of ''ubuhake'' and ''ubureetwa'', a practice of vassalage under which labor and resources are exchanged for political favor. Many of the lands that Rwabugiri had annexed, such as Bugoyi, Bwishaza and Kingogo in the east had no previous contact with Tutsi pastoralists and had been entirely inhabited by Hutu. The period following annexation saw a heavy influx of Tutsi into these areas. At first, the relationship between Tutsi and Hutu in these areas were mostly peaceful and commercial. After Rwabugiri instated a stronger administrative machinery, however, he used force to pacify resistance which led to a series of brutal encounters between Hutu and Rwabugiri's forces.


German Colonial influence

Rwanda was unlike other African states as it was initially not divided among the colonial powers during the
Berlin Conference The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, also known as the Congo Conference (, ) or West Africa Conference (, ), regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period and coincided with Germany's sudden emergenc ...
in 1884. Instead, Rwanda was assigned to the
German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
in the later 1890 conference in
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
. Still, there were no expeditions made until 1894, when the German explorer, Count
Gustav Adolf von Götzen Gustav Adolf Graf von Götzen (12 May 1866 – 2 December 1910) was a German colonizer and Governor of German East Africa. He came to Rwanda in 1894 becoming the second European to enter the territory, since Oscar Baumann’s brief expedition in ...
led an expedition into
Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...
. Germany had made little effort to establish a colonial administration at the time, as they had limited forces in East Africa, and Rwanda was a densely populated territory with an existing strict administrative network. The death of Kigeli IV, however, and the subsequent coup weakened the state and opened a window for German direct colonization in 1897.


Last True Rwabugiri

After Kigeli IV died, his son Rutalindwa was declared king. The new mwami's queen mother, however, was not his biological mother but was another wife of Kigeli IV; Kanjogera of the Bega clan. Rutalindwa's birth mother was from a politically weak clan, the Abakono. The Nyiginya Clan, to which the old and new mwami belonged, was also weak at this particular time because Kigeli IV had killed chiefs from this lineage of clans who had showed too much independence. As such, the Bega clan was in a unique position after the death of Kigeli IV to change the status quo and assume power. Together with her brother Kabare, chief of the Bega clan, Kanjogera carried out a coup d'état at Rucunshu where Rutalindwa was killed and Kanjogera's own son, Musinga, was named mwami under the name
Yuhi V Musinga Yuhi Musinga (Yuhi V of Rwanda, 1883 – 13 January 1944) was a king of Rwanda who came to power in 1896 and collaborated with the German government to strengthen his own kingship. In 1931 he was deposed by the Belgian administration because of h ...
. Kanjogera and her brother were effectively in charge at his point, as Musinga was still too young to rule. The two continued to purge the Nyinga who had survived Kigeli IV's purge, as to avoid the possibility that they would return to power. It was under this conflict that German colonialists began to exercise control over the Mwami by supporting their royal forces.


References


Bibliography

* Léon Delmas. '' Généalogie de la Noblesse du Ruanda.'' Kabgaye.


External links


The International Response to Conflict and Genocide: Lessons from the Rwanda Experience
see Historical Perspective {{DEFAULTSORT:Kigeli 04 Rwandan kings 19th-century monarchs in Africa Tutsi people