Why Rwanda was colonised, and German rule (1897–1916)

1Why this matters

For centuries Rwanda was an independent kingdom with its own king (the Mwami), army, laws and one shared language, Kinyarwanda. Europeans reached it later than most of Africa: the first European to cross the country arrived only in 1894. Within three years Rwanda had come under German control, and it did not regain its independence until 1 July 1962.

This unit follows those 65 years of colonial rule. It matters today because several of the divisions that led to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi were planted or deepened during this period.

Colonisation means a foreign power taking political control of a territory and its people. A protectorate is a territory whose ruler keeps his title but accepts a foreign power's "protection" and, in practice, its control.

2Why Germany wanted Rwanda

• Agreements made in Europe. The Berlin Conference (1884–1885) set rules for claiming Africa. In the Anglo-German Agreement of 1890, Britain accepted that Rwanda and Burundi lay in the German sphere. Rwanda was "given" to Germany before any German had set foot there.
• Economic hopes. Germany expected fertile land, cattle, labour, taxes and future markets from a densely populated highland kingdom.
• Strategic rivalry. Holding Rwanda protected the western edge of German East Africa against the Congo Free State of King Leopold II and against British expansion from Uganda.
• Prestige. A newly united Germany (1871) wanted an empire to match Britain and France.
• Missionary interest. Catholic missionaries wanted to spread Christianity in a large, well-organised kingdom.

3Why the royal court accepted the Germans

In 1894 the German officer Count Gustav Adolf von Götzen crossed Rwanda and met Mwami Kigeli IV Rwabugiri. Rwabugiri died in 1895. In 1896 a violent succession struggle at Rucunshu overthrew his heir, Mibambwe IV Rutarindwa, and placed the young Yuhi V Musinga on the throne, backed by his mother Kanjogera and her Abega relatives. The new court had enemies inside the kingdom, and soldiers of the Congo Free State had appeared on the western border.

When the German captain Hans Ramsay reached the court in 1897, Musinga's court accepted German protection. For the court, the Germans' guns were a way to secure a shaky throne. For Germany, it was an almost free way to take control.

4How the Germans governed

Rwanda became part of German East Africa, first run from the military post at Usumbura (today Bujumbura). The Germans had very few officials in Rwanda, so they used indirect rule: governing through the Mwami and his chiefs.

• 1900: the Catholic White Fathers (Missionaries of Africa), led by Bishop Jean-Joseph Hirth, opened the first mission at Save. Protestant missions followed from 1907.
• 1907: Richard Kandt became the first German Resident (the senior colonial official in Rwanda) and founded Kigali as the administrative centre.
• 1910: a conference in Brussels fixed the borders between German, Belgian and British territory. Some Kinyarwanda-speaking areas were left in Uganda and the Congo.
• 1912: German troops helped the court crush a rising in the north led by Ndungutse. German force extended the Mwami's control over northern regions that had kept their own leaders.

5Effects of German rule

Worked example: explaining a decision

Question: Why did Yuhi V Musinga's court accept German protection in 1897?

The court was weak. Musinga had come to power in the Rucunshu coup of 1896 and faced rivals inside Rwanda, while Congo Free State soldiers threatened the west. The Germans had modern firearms and asked for little at first. Accepting their protection strengthened the court in the short term, and German troops did later help it crush northern risings such as Ndungutse's in 1912. The cost was Rwanda's independence: the final say passed to a foreign power.

Practice

Solution. Indirect rule is governing a colony through its existing rulers. The Germans had only a handful of officials in Rwanda, so ruling through the Mwami and chiefs was cheap and met less resistance.

Solution. The first German Resident of Rwanda, from 1907. He founded Kigali as the colony's administrative centre.

Solution. It fixed Rwanda's colonial borders with the Congo and Uganda, and it left some Kinyarwanda-speaking areas outside Rwanda.

Solution. It helped him when German troops crushed northern risings such as Ndungutse's (1912). It weakened him because final power passed to the German Resident, so Rwanda was no longer sovereign.