The Second Republic (1973–1994)

1Why this matters

When soldiers took power in July 1973, the new rulers promised peace and national unity, and some Rwandans hoped discrimination would end. For about a decade donors praised Rwanda as orderly and stable. Yet the Second Republic kept the ethnic system, added regional favouritism, and ended in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. This lesson asks how both pictures can be true.

2How the Second Republic was organised

• Military rule, then one party. After the coup of 5 July 1973, a military Committee for Peace and National Unity governed. In 1975 President Habyarimana founded the MRND (National Revolutionary Movement for Development) as the only legal party. Every Rwandan was counted as a member from birth.
• A 1978 constitution, approved by referendum, confirmed the one-party state. Habyarimana was the sole candidate in 1978, 1983 and 1988, each time officially winning about 99% of the vote.
• Tight control. People needed permission to move and register residence, and weekly "animation" sessions praised the president and party.

3Socio-political features

• "Ethnic and regional balance". Official quotas limited Tutsi to a small share of school places and public jobs, roughly matching the official estimate of their share of the population. Ethnic labels stayed on identity cards, and Tutsi were almost entirely excluded from the army and politics.
• Regionalism. The north-west, especially the president's home prefecture of Gisenyi and neighbouring Ruhengeri, was favoured for jobs, promotions, schools and projects.
• The Akazu. A small circle around the president's family, especially the family of his wife, Agathe Kanziga, controlled much of the army, business and state. Nepotism and corruption grew.
• Refugees kept out. In 1986 the ruling party declared that Rwanda was too crowded to take back its refugees.
• Umuganda, compulsory community work, was introduced in the 1970s and used partly as a tool of political control.

4The economy: growth, then crisis

Aid and good coffee prices brought growth in the 1970s and early 1980s: roads, power and schools expanded. From the mid-1980s the economy collapsed. Tin prices crashed (1985), and in 1989 world coffee prices fell sharply, cutting export earnings. Famine struck parts of the south in 1988–1989. In 1990 the government accepted a structural adjustment programme with the IMF, which brought devaluation and higher prices.

Worked example: comparing the two republics

Judgement: the Second Republic changed who was favoured, from Gitarama to the north-west, but continued the ethnic discrimination of the First, and concentrated power even further.

Practice

Solution. The National Revolutionary Movement for Development, founded by President Habyarimana in 1975 as Rwanda's only legal party.

Solution. Official quotas that limited Tutsi to a small share of school places and public jobs, alongside favouritism for the north-west.

Solution. The small, powerful circle around President Habyarimana's family, especially his wife's relatives, that controlled much of the army, business and state.

Solution. Any two of: the collapse of tin prices (1985); the fall in world coffee prices (1989); famine in the south (1988–1989); falling aid and structural adjustment.