Rwanda Under German and Belgian Colonial Rule (1897-1962)
Senior 4 · History
Rwanda Under German and Belgian Colonial Rule (1897-1962)
Lesson 1 of 4
25 min
Mission societies raised money in Europe by selling picture postcards. This one was printed for the German house of the White Fathers in Trier and shows their station at Nyundo, in north-western Rwanda, one of the first three missions founded in 1900 and 1901 (unit 5).
Analyse it. Who is at the centre of the picture, and who is at its edge? The postcard was made for German Catholics who might give money, so it puts the missionaries in front and shows the station as a solid outpost. It tells us little about what Rwandans thought of the mission, and nothing about the Mwami's court, which in these years still governed most of the country. That is the first lesson of German rule in Rwanda: it was real, but thin. A handful of Germans claimed the country, and Rwanda's own institutions went on running it.
Definition
German East Africa: the German colony that included today's mainland Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. Residency: a district in which a German official, the Resident, advised and supervised a local ruler rather than governing directly. Indirect rule: colonial rule through existing African rulers.
Schutztruppe: the German colonial army, made up mainly of African soldiers (askari) under German officers. Boundary convention: an agreement between colonial powers fixing a border, often without asking the people who lived on it.
| Area | Effect |
|---|---|
| Political | Rwanda lost its independence but kept its monarchy; the Mwami's power reached further than before, into once-autonomous regions, backed by German guns; opponents of the court were crushed |
| Territory | Borders fixed by Europeans in 1910; Rwanda lost Bufumbira and lands west of Lake Kivu |
| Economic | The start of a cash economy and foreign trade centred on Kigali; but very small before 1914 |
| Religious and educational | Catholic and Protestant missions spread (unit 5); the first government schools, for chiefs' sons |
| Ideas | Missionaries and officials began to describe Rwandan society through European racial ideas; Father Léon Classe's influential paper of 1916 on Rwanda's political organisation is an example, and the Belgians would harden these ideas (unit 8) |
Assessment. Human Rights Watch's history of Rwanda sums up both colonial powers: they "sought to rule Rwanda with the least cost and the most profit", and using the existing state was the obvious way to do so. German rule lasted under twenty years and changed less than Belgian rule would; its main legacy was a stronger central court, a colonial capital and colonial borders.
Warning
Do not say "the Germans ruled through the Tutsi". In this period the Germans ruled through the Mwami's court and the chiefs who served it. The northern risings they helped to crush were led by people of different social categories, including Muhumusa and the Twa leader Basebya. Avoid labelling every political conflict by Hutu, Tutsi or Twa; explain who held power and who resisted it.
Tip
German rule in five words: "Flag, Fewness, Force, Frontiers, Fall". The flag of 1897; the fewness of Germans; force used for the court; frontiers fixed in 1910; the fall of Kigali on 6 May 1916.
Important
Discuss. The borders agreed in 1910 left Kinyarwanda-speaking communities in Uganda and Congo as well as in Rwanda. Who should decide where a border runs? What problems can colonial borders cause long after the colonisers have gone?
DW History and Culture, "How Africa Remembers German Colonial Rule", a report from Cameroon, Tanzania and Namibia. Watch how other former German colonies remember that rule, and compare their experience with Rwanda's lighter, indirect German period.
Practice
Key points
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the analysis, the timeline, the table and the exercises. This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick check
Put these events of the German period in order, earliest first.
Tap the cards in the right order.
