Rwanda Under German and Belgian Colonial Rule (1897-1962)
Senior 4 · History
Rwanda Under German and Belgian Colonial Rule (1897-1962)
Lesson 4 of 4
25 min
Ruanda-Urundi was a United Nations trust territory, so the UN had a duty to watch over its path to self-government. In 1961, after Belgium and the new Rwandan leaders had swept away the monarchy, a UN report on Rwanda concluded:
"An oppressive system has been replaced by another one."
United Nations report on Rwanda, 1961, as quoted on Wikipedia.
Analyse it. Which "oppressive system" did the UN mean, and which was "another one"? The words suggest that the UN saw the old order, in which a narrow aristocracy held office under Belgian rule, as oppressive, and judged the new order oppressive too. Lesson 3 gives the evidence you need to test that judgement: power passing to one party, PARMEHUTU, with Belgian support, violence against Tutsi left unpunished, and refugees abroad. The UN had called for elections and a referendum before any change of regime. This lesson follows how Rwanda nonetheless reached independence on 1 July 1962, and asks what kind of independence it was.
Definition
Self-government: rule of a territory by its own people's representatives. Commune: the local government unit created in 1960, headed by a burgomaster, which replaced the chiefs. Republic: a state whose head is elected or appointed, not a hereditary monarch.
Referendum: a vote of all citizens on one question. Coup d'état: the seizure of power by a group, outside the normal legal process. Decolonisation: the ending of colonial rule.
| Date | Step | Who decided? |
|---|---|---|
| June 1960 | The Belgian Congo becomes independent; Belgium decides it can no longer hold its African territories for long | Events in the Congo; Belgium |
| June and July 1960 | Commune elections, held despite the UN's suggestion to postpone them; PARMEHUTU wins an overwhelming victory (160 of 229 seats in one count), and communes replace the chiefs. Local attacks on Tutsi continue | The Belgian administration under Logiest |
| July 1960 | Mwami Kigeli V, living under close watch, leaves the country | The Mwami, under pressure |
| 20 December 1960 | UN General Assembly resolutions 1579 and 1580 call for elections and a referendum on the monarchy; Logiest dismisses them as "perfectly useless" | The United Nations |
| January 1961 | A reconciliation conference in Belgium ends in failure | Belgium and Rwandan parties |
| 28 January 1961 | At Gitarama, a meeting of burgomasters and councillors called by PARMEHUTU leaders and backed by Logiest proclaims a "sovereign democratic Republic of Rwanda", with Dominique Mbonyumutwa as interim President, while Kigeli V was abroad | PARMEHUTU leaders with Belgian support: a coup d'état |
| 25 September 1961 | Legislative elections and a referendum on the monarchy (see the chart) | Voters, in the vote the UN had called for |
| 26 October 1961 | Grégoire Kayibanda is elected President | Rwanda's newly elected leaders |
| 1 July 1962 | Independence: Ruanda-Urundi is divided into the Republic of Rwanda and the Kingdom of Burundi | Belgium and the United Nations |
PARMEHUTU won about 78% of the votes and 35 of the 44 seats, and 80% of voters, on a turnout of 95%, rejected both the monarchy and Kigeli V. Kigeli claimed the vote had been rigged. Remember who could not vote: the Tutsi refugees already abroad. And in December 1961 some 60,000 more Tutsi fled to Kivu in the Congo (the film in lesson 3).
| Feature | Evidence |
|---|---|
| Managed from outside more than won from below | Independence came largely because of events elsewhere, above all in the Congo, and the transition was steered by a Belgian officer; unlike Ghana or Kenya (S3), there was no long national movement uniting the country against the coloniser |
| A change of regime as well as of ruler | The monarchy was abolished; the Gitarama coup (January 1961) came before the UN-observed vote (September 1961) |
| A nation divided at birth | Politics was organised by fixed categories; identity cards were kept; hundreds of thousands of Tutsi refugees were excluded and attacks on Tutsi inside the country went on (lesson 3) |
| One-party rule | By 1965 PARMEHUTU was the only legal party, and Kayibanda stood unopposed in 1965 and 1969; he was overthrown by Juvénal Habyarimana on 5 July 1973 (S2) |
| Separation from Burundi | The two kingdoms ruled together as Ruanda-Urundi became separate states; their governments took two more years to separate completely |
The UN's verdict, "an oppressive system has been replaced by another one", is a judgement about this process. Rwanda's later history, the refugees' long exile, the liberation war from 1990 and the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, cannot be understood without it.
Warning
Do not equate "majority rule" with "democracy" without asking who the majority was. In 1959 to 1962 a majority was defined by birth into a social category, not by citizens' free political choices, and a large group of Rwandans were refugees who could not take part. Also keep the dates in order: the republic was proclaimed at Gitarama in January 1961, before the referendum of September 1961.
Tip
The road to 1 July 1962: "C-G-R-I". Commune elections (June and July 1960), Gitarama coup (28 January 1961), Referendum and elections (25 September 1961), Independence (1 July 1962).
Important
Discuss. Rwanda replaced its flag on 31 December 2001, choosing a sun as a symbol of national unity. Why do new states, and states rebuilding after violence, care so much about symbols? What should the symbols of a nation try to say about who belongs to it?
Practice
Key points
Further reading
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the analysis, the chart, the tables and the exercises. This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick check
Put these steps to independence in order, earliest first.
Tap the cards in the right order.
