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Imagination, the Hamitic Myth and Rwanda: the Foundation of Division in Rwanda ______

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Imagination, the Hamitic Myth and Rwanda: the Foundation of Division in Rwanda ______ IMAGINATION, THE HAMITIC MYTH AND RWANDA: THE FOUNDATION OF DIVISION IN RWANDA ____________________________________ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University, Fullerton ____________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in History ____________________________________ By Timothy Barrette Thesis Committee Approval: Professor Robert McLain, Chair Professor Nancy Fitch, Department of History Professor Steven Jobbitt, Department of History Spring, 2016 ABSTRACT Historians studying Rwanda largely focus on the devastating genocide that claimed the lives of narrowly a million Rwandans within 100 days. This has led to fragmented conclusions for the causation of the genocide—much of which are used to push personal agendas. The debate within these circles, however, tends to focus solely on the genocide, and it misrepresents precolonial, colonial, and post-colonial history in order to make Rwanda’s history fit their contemporary narrative. With that, the thesis Imagination, the Hamitic Myth, and Rwanda: The Foundation of Division in Rwanda takes on the challenge of analyzing the precolonial and colonial foundations that permitted a genocide to unfold. More specifically, it investigates precolonial division and economic strife, the colonial imagination, colonial uses of alienation in society, and the irreparable effects of misused science. Overall, the purpose of this is not to levy a claim of guilty to any one constituency involved in the genocide—as everyone was guilty to an extent—but to adjust the historiographic trajectory of Rwandan history making sure new research encompasses the complications within Rwandan society. ii iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................. x Chapter 1. THE WEIGHT OF MISUNDERSTANDING .................................................... 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 Historiography ...................................................................................................... 7 Methodological and Theoretical Approaches ....................................................... 12 2. REALITY, IMAGINATION, AND UNFORESEEN DEVASTATION ............ 16 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 16 African Rwanda (16oos to 1896) .......................................................................... 17 Source of the Nile and the Tribes of East Africa (1864-1894) ............................. 24 The Hamitic Hypothesis ................................................................................ 31 Predetermined Greatness: Geographic/Topographic Speculations ................ 32 Imagined Rwandans ....................................................................................... 38 Reconciling Imagination with Reality: ................................................................. 43 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 50 3. WHEN IMAGINATION SETS THE PRECEDENT FOR REALITY ................ 51 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 51 German Control .................................................................................................... 53 Racial Division .............................................................................................. 58 Physical Force ................................................................................................ 61 Christianity ..................................................................................................... 64 Belgian Occupation............................................................................................... 68 Hutuness ......................................................................................................... 71 The Rise of the PARMEHUTU ..................................................................... 73 4. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 74 When Imagination Became History ...................................................................... 74 The Discourse ....................................................................................................... 77 iii 5. EPILOGUE ........................................................................................................... 79 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................... 83 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank all of the professors at CSUF who have shaped and molded me into the academic I am today, especially those who have foregone the easy path to ensure that their career choice had a meaningful impact. Additionally, I owe a special thank you to my committee, Dr. McLain, Dr. Fitch, and Dr. Jobbitt, your feedback has been invaluable throughout this entire process, and your positivity has been the most encouraging part of this thesis. Lastly, I owe this to my wife who has encouraged me to continue on my path at every weak point in my journey; I am indebted to you for a lifetime. v 1 CHAPTER 1 THE WEIGHT OF MISUNDERSTANDING Introduction It is not only today that the Rwandan Patriot Front’s (RPF) Inyenzi [RPF supporter] Batutsis [Tutsi] want to take and monopolize power in order to oppress the Hutus and cast democracy out of the window, the Batutsi’s superiority complex has been around for a very long time. Thus, they established schools like the famous Astrida Secondary School in Butare and the Ishuri ry’Indatwa, the elite Nyanza School in Nyabisindu, opened in 1907. The schools were not for everybody, much less for the Hutus, who had been enslaved for centuries and had no access to these schools. According to the feudal colonial legend, the schools were meant for only those born to govern, in other words, Tutsi children considered as the most intelligent. It is this superiority complex which set the Tutsis apart because, even today, many of them are still convinced of their intellectual superiority to the rest of the Rwandans.1 Under the guise of altruism and benevolence, powerful nation-states in Western Europe used the continent of Africa to coerce labor, extract resources, and to commodify human beings. Scholars appropriately focus on devastating tragedies such as the slave trade, blood diamonds, or post-revolutionary wars due to their shocking nature, yet all these catastrophes were short-lived and highly visible. In the wake of these predominantly capitalistic events, countless Africans suffered irrevocable damage rooted 1 Georges Ruggiu made this inflammatory argument on Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), a radio station that many came to know as “hate radio.” This station only ran for little over a year, but their broadcasts became popular with many ordinary and militarized Hutu. RTLM’s interviews perpetuated racial hatred towards Tutsis, moderate Hutu, and the United Nations. During the genocide, they often gave directions for killing Tutsi. In the 2014 report, “Propaganda and Conflict: Evidence from the Rwandan Genocide,” David Yanagizaw-Drott concluded that RTLM was responsible for 51,000 deaths and 10 percent of the total violence—naming them the most destructive facets of the Genocide. Georges Ruggiu, “RTLM 4,” Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines trans. U.S. State Department (April 12, 1994). 2 in the colonial imagination and worldwide misunderstandings. With Africans’ independence came the perception of Africa as war-torn and helpless, and as the scars of violence faded away both figuratively and literally in a generation, the introduction of European ideas of nationalism, racial hierarchy, and capitalism slowly ossified with every passing year. With these ideas adulterating African culture, many Africans became aliens to their own identity. Despite the revolutions of the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, when Africans almost unanimously rejected foreign control of their governments, European concepts of exclusivity and identity—“othering”—ironically persisted in African society. The epistemological channels of Africa remained distinctly Western and consequently, disasters continued to befall the continent. Whites by in large adopted two radically different views of the inhabitants of the continent, either continuing the colonial tradition of perceiving them as a savage being subjected to their own shortcomings due to outdated ideas of tribalism, or they began to view them as well-intentioned, but helpless. “Save Africa” became a slogan adopted by countless white “heroes” attempting to purge their guilt from building their societies off Africa’s natural resources. Those who came to assist Africans came with missionaries, medical assistance, and most devastatingly with loans that stipulated the liberalization of markets; meanwhile, the figurative scales leaned towards Africans being indebted to the West, despite the West’s fundamental role in the destruction of their culture and economy. No country exemplifies this dichotomous existence quite like Rwanda. Much of the recent scholarship focuses on the short-lived yet immensely
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