The Trusteeship Era and the Rise of "Ethnic" Tensions – Divisive Colonial Policies in Rwanda (Senior 4 History) | Ganzaa

Divisive Colonial Policies in Rwanda

Lessons

Senior 4 · History

Divisive Colonial Policies in Rwanda

3 lessons

Lesson 3 of 3

The Trusteeship Era and the Rise of "Ethnic" Tensions

25 min

The source: a bishop's letter, February 1959

On 11 February 1959 André Perraudin, the Swiss bishop at Kabgayi, the centre of the Catholic Church in Rwanda, issued a pastoral letter on social justice. It contained this passage, translated into English:

"In our Rwanda, differences and social inequalities are to a large extent related to differences in race, in the sense that the wealth on the one hand and political and even judicial power on the other hand, are to a considerable extent in the hands of people of the same race."

Bishop André Perraudin, pastoral letter of 11 February 1959, as quoted on Wikipedia.

Analyse it. Thirty years earlier Bishop Classe had defended the Tutsi aristocracy as "natural chiefs" (lesson 2). Now the head of the same Church denounced the inequality that policy had created. The Church had changed sides. But look at the vocabulary: Perraudin still described Rwandans in terms of "race". The idea that Hutu and Tutsi were different races, invented by Europeans, was now being used to argue for the other side. Part of the population read the letter as a declaration against Tutsi power. This lesson asks how, between 1946 and 1959, the categories that colonial rule had fixed became rival political camps.

Definition

Trusteeship: the UN system under which Belgium ruled Ruanda-Urundi from December 1946, with a promise to prepare it for self-government. Universal male suffrage: the right of all adult men to vote. Counter-elite: a new educated group that challenges the existing elite; in 1950s Rwanda, mostly Hutu former seminarians.

Mise au point ("clarification"): a statement of early 1957 by Mwami Mutara III's High Council (Conseil Supérieur) asking for Rwandan-run ministries. Bahutu Manifesto: a document of 24 March 1957 by nine Hutu intellectuals, including Grégoire Kayibanda, presented to the Governor.

A changing society after 1945

The UN watches. In December 1946 the United Nations made Ruanda-Urundi a trust territory. Belgium promised to prepare it for independence but believed this would take many decades. UN pressure pushed the administration to open up public life.
A cash economy. Demand grew for workers in the mines of Katanga and on the coffee and sugar plantations of Uganda, giving some Rwandans incomes outside the chiefs' control.
A different Church. The older, conservative missionaries such as Classe (who died in 1945) were replaced by younger clergy, many of working-class and Flemish background, who sympathised with the Hutu poor. Seminary education produced a Hutu counter-elite: Grégoire Kayibanda, a former seminarian, became editor of the Catholic magazine L'Ami in 1952 and later of Kinyamateka.
Limited reforms. The Belgians named a few Hutu to responsible posts, admitted more Hutu to secondary schools and held limited elections to advisory councils. In 1954 Mutara III abolished ubuhake. In September 1956 men voted under universal male suffrage for the first time, at the level of the sub-chiefdoms: about two thirds of those elected were Hutu, while the higher, appointed posts stayed overwhelmingly Tutsi.

Human Rights Watch sums up the result: the changes were "hardly revolutionary", but they "were enough to frighten the Tutsi, yet not enough to satisfy the Hutu".

Two documents of 1957

	Mise au point (early 1957)	Bahutu Manifesto (24 March 1957)
Authors	Mwami Mutara III and the High Council, dominated by Tutsi chiefs	Nine Hutu intellectuals, including Kayibanda, helped by young Belgian clergy
Main demand	Faster self-government: new ministries of finance, education, public works and the interior, run by Rwandans	Social change first: the end of ubuhake, a Hutu middle class, and a transfer of power according to the numbers of each group ("statistical law")
View of the problem	The real problem was colonial rule; the court said no barrier between Hutu and Tutsi existed	The real problem was a "monopoly" of power held by one group; its full title spoke of the "native racial problem"
What it reveals	The monarchy wanted independence before the balance of power shifted	The counter-elite had adopted the colonial racial vocabulary, calling the Tutsi "Hamites"

Analysis. Each side had real grievances: the monarchy against colonial control, the Hutu counter-elite against a monopoly of office that colonial rule had built. But both now argued in the categories the colonisers had fixed. The Manifesto was the first major Rwandan document to describe Hutu and Tutsi as separate races, borrowing the colonial myth of lesson 1 and turning it against the Tutsi.

Polarisation, 1958 to 1959

In 1958 Mutara III humiliated the APROSOMA leader Joseph Gitera when he came to the palace at Nyanza, calling his followers inyangarwanda ("haters of Rwanda"); Kinyamateka published the story, and the break between the court, the Hutu counter-elite and the Belgians became permanent. The Belgian colonial ministry tried to reduce the Mwami to a figurehead. Belgium, which had backed the Tutsi aristocracy for thirty years, now turned towards the Hutu leaders, and so did the Church, as Perraudin's letter shows. When Mutara III died suddenly in July 1959, the crisis of lesson 3 in unit 7 followed within months.

Warning

Do not present the 1950s as "Hutu against Tutsi" from the start. In the early 1950s educated young Hutu and Tutsi, the "évolués", worked together in the colonial service and the Church. The split came later, driven by colonial policies, the competition for power before independence, and leaders on both sides who adopted the language of race.

Tip

Three "shifts" of the 1950s: the UN pushed for change; Belgium and the Church switched their support from the Tutsi aristocracy to the Hutu counter-elite. What did not shift was the colonial idea that Hutu and Tutsi were races.

Important

Discuss. Both documents of 1957 contained real grievances. How could the problems of the 1950s, colonial rule and an unequal monopoly of office, have been addressed without dividing Rwandans by category? What does Rwanda's policy of unity today suggest?

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Practice

What was a trust territory, and what did Belgium promise when Ruanda-Urundi became one?
Give three social or economic changes in Rwanda between 1945 and 1956.
In the 1956 vote, about two thirds of those elected at the lowest level were Hutu. Why did this result increase tension?
Compare the Mise au point and the Bahutu Manifesto: authors, demands and view of the problem.
How did the Catholic Church's position change between Classe (1927) and Perraudin (1959)? What stayed the same?
Explain how the vocabulary of the colonial myth was used by Rwandans themselves in the 1950s.
"The tensions of the 1950s were caused more by colonial and Church policy than by Rwandans themselves." Assess this view.

Show answersHide answers

A territory administered for the United Nations with a duty to lead it to self-government; Belgium promised to prepare Ruanda-Urundi for independence (from December 1946), though it thought this would take decades.
Any three: a growing cash economy; labour migration to Katanga and Uganda; a younger, more pro-Hutu clergy; a Hutu counter-elite educated in seminaries; limited elections and reforms, including the abolition of ubuhake (1954).
It showed what a free vote at the lowest level produced, while the higher, appointed posts stayed overwhelmingly Tutsi; the gap made the system look unfair to Hutu and made the monarchy fear that it would lose power in any wider election.
Mise au point: the Mwami and the High Council; Rwandan-run ministries and faster self-government; the problem is colonial rule. Bahutu Manifesto: nine Hutu intellectuals; end of ubuhake, a Hutu middle class, power by "statistical law"; the problem is a monopoly held by one group, described in racial terms.
Classe supported the Tutsi aristocracy as "natural chiefs"; Perraudin denounced the inequality between "races" and was read as supporting the Hutu cause. What stayed the same was the description of Hutu and Tutsi as races and the Church's involvement in politics.
The Bahutu Manifesto called the Tutsi "Hamites" and spoke of a "native racial problem"; Hutu leaders turned the myth of Tutsi foreign origins against them, while the court elite had earlier used it to claim a right to rule.
For: colonial policy created the monopoly, fixed the categories and then switched sides; the Church taught the myth and then changed sides too. Against: Rwandan leaders on both sides chose to use racial language, the monarchy sought power before reform, and the counter-elite framed justice in racial terms. Judgement: e.g. colonial and Church policy created the conditions, but Rwandan leaders' choices turned them into confrontation.

Quick check

Put these events in order, earliest first.

Tap the cards in the right order.

Key points

Under UN trusteeship (from December 1946) Rwanda changed: a cash economy, a younger pro-Hutu clergy, a Hutu counter-elite from the seminaries, limited reforms, the abolition of ubuhake (1954) and the vote of September 1956.
In 1957 the Mise au point (the Mwami and High Council) demanded faster self-government, while the Bahutu Manifesto (24 March) demanded social change in the language of race.
From 1958 Belgium and the Church switched their support to the Hutu leaders, but kept the colonial idea of race (Perraudin, 11 February 1959): the categories fixed by colonial rule had become rival political camps.

1The source: a bishop's letter, February 1959

2A changing society after 1945

3Two documents of 1957

4Polarisation, 1958 to 1959

The source: a bishop's letter, February 1959

A changing society after 1945

Two documents of 1957

Polarisation, 1958 to 1959