The Tutsi and the Ha: A Study

in Integration

JAMES L. BRAIN

State University of New York, New Paltz, New York, U.S.A.

THE PAST decade has been the witness of bloody conflict between the former ruling elite of the Tutsi and the agricultural Hutu in the countries of Rwanda and Burundi. While it is true that Rwanda probably represented the stratified caste structure in its most extreme form, a very similar form of social structure did exist in the neighboring area of Buha in what is now Tanzania, and to date no comparable conflict and bloodshed has occurred. It is the pur- pose of this essay to examine why this was so. Although the colonial powers in their wisdom excised Rwanda and Burundi from formerly German Tangan- yika after the First World War, and gave them to Belgium, this did not, of course, alter the ethnic and cultural makeup of the area. Thus Buha, which under German administration had been separated from the Belgian Congo by Ruanda-Urundi, now found that it formed the frontier of British Tanganyika, and joined Belgian territory. In reality this did little to hinder local trade and movement between the areas, in spite of the police and customs posts set up on the main roads. Census figures (see Appendix) show that almost half the popu- lation of Kibondo District in Buha was composed of people classified as Rundi, and in the late 1950s efforts of local agricultural extension officers to improve the quality of tobacco offered for sale to B.A.T. Ltd (British American Tobacco Company Ltd) were nullified by the discovery that it was far more lucrative to sell any tobacco of any type across the border in Burundi than to grade and select leaf for sale through legitimate channels. Culturally and linguistally there is nothing to choose between Rundi and Ha (I studied the Ha language through the medium of a Rundi grammar), why then the great difference in historical events over the past few years? It is my intention to show that this difference stemmed partially at least from a historical accident brought about by the policies of the European colonial powers. The area known as Buha spreads over three administrative districts of western Tanzania-Kigoma, Kasulu, and Kibondo. The whole area is bounded to the east by Unyamwezi, to the south by Ufipa, to the north by Buzinza, and to the west by Lake Tanganyika and Burundi. Although the Ha are numerical- ly one of the largest peoples of Tanzania, 289,789 in the 1957 Census, and think of themselves as one people having a common language and culture, there is not 40 now nor has there been in the past, a kingdom of Buha as a whole, and if we group the Interlacustrine Bantu peoples into sub-groups, the Ha fall into the pattern exemplified by the Soga, Haya, Zinza, and Sukuma, rather than the larger kindoms such as Bunyoro or Ankole. Audrey Richards described the former as "multiple kingdom tribes, composed that is, of a series of small prin- cipalities, each with its own hereditary ruler." (Richards 1959: 2). Polycephal- ous would be an appropriate term to classify Buha. The entire Interlacustrine area is characterized to a greater or lesser extent by the presence of a caste of aristocrats claiming a different ethnic origin from that of the farmers over whom they ruledl, providing a good example of the conquest state situation, though Maquet's remark that it was probably "an infiltration rather than a conquest" is considered correct (Maquet 1961: 12)2. In Buha this ruling caste is known by the name found in Rwanda and Burundi, the Tutsi ( Umututsi pl. Abatutsi), sometimes rendered as Tusi or Tussi. The Hima or Huma, who are probably the same people, are in Buha reckoned as one of the Tutsi clans. One of the confusing points for the newcomer to the area is that whereas the whole area is known as Buha, that is to say in common Bantu usage, the land of the Ha people, all of the people are not called the Ha, who are the middle of the three castes - the Tutsi, the Ha, and the Kiko, the same three found in Burundi and Rwanda under the names of Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa. In practice this difficulty is not a reality since the total population is referred to by the name of the king- dom, e.g. Muhambwe has the Abahambwe people, Buyungu has the Abayungu in the same sort of way as Burundi has the Barundi, Bunyoro the Banyoro etc., though in the case of Buha "kingdom" is rather a grandiose title for such small areas. Scherer, a Dutch scholar, carried out research in this area from 1951-3 and reported that there were only two castes, the Tutsi and the Ha (Scherer 1959: 845), and this has been repeated by La Fontaine utilizing his material (La Fontaine 1959: 214). My own research showed that three castes are known, and, it was said, still existed at that time (1959-60). I did not personally make contact with any of the Kiko, but was assured by several informants that they existed in the district.3 A myth of origin recorded by an early British administra- tor was checked with informants and found to be known, though it is evident that Scherer did not consult all available sources since he notes that "the origin of the name Ha is obscure" (Scherer 1959: 842). Since it provides one of the clearest "charters for social action" that one could imagine for what Maquet terms "the premise of inequality" (Maquet 1961) it is given in full here. 1 With the exception of Buganda, which will be considered later. 2 I am not taking seriously Murdock's assertions about the origins of the Nima/Tutsi (1959: 350). 3 It seems almost incredible that Scherer did not consult either the District Book or Kibondo or TanganyikaNotes and Records.There are a number of interesting mentions of the Kiko, e.g. they are said to be called Kiko as a pejorative term and their real name is Banyahoza who have their own language (Moffett 1943: 54-75; Macquarie 1940: 61-7) and later we are told that they have a number of different names all equated with the Twa, e.g. Banyungwe,Bakimbili, and again Banyahoza (Procter 1960: 48-50).