UC Santa Barbara Dissertation Template
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara Iron Mothers and Warrior Lovers: Intimacy, Power, and the State in the Nyiginya Kingdom, 1796-1913 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Sarah Elizabeth Watkins Committee in charge: Professor Stephan F. Miescher, Chair Professor Mhoze Chikowero Professor Erika Rappaport Professor Leila Rupp June 2014 The dissertation of Sarah E. Watkins is approved. _____________________________________________ Mhoze Chikowero _____________________________________________ Erika Rappaport ____________________________________________ Leila Rupp ____________________________________________ Stephan F. Miescher, Committee Chair May 2014 Iron Mothers and Warrior Lovers: Intimacy, Power, and the State in the Nyiginya Kingdom, 1796-1913 Copyright © 2014 by Sarah Elizabeth Watkins iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS While responsibility for the end result of this work rests with me, its creation would not have been possible without the support and dedication of many others. For their intellectual and moral support through the preparation and writing of this dissertation, I want to thank Stephan Miescher, my advisor, and Mhoze Chikowero, Erika Rappaport, and Leila Rupp, for agreeing to shepherd me through this process. Writing a dissertation can be excruciating, but having such a supportive and engaged committee makes all the difference. For their mentorship during my research and writing in Rwanda, I want to thank David Newbury, Catharine Newbury, Rose-Marie Mukarutabana, Bernard Rutikanga, and Jennie Burnet, as well as the Faculty of History at the National University of Rwanda. Their insights have sharpened my analysis, and consistently challenged me to engage more deeply with the sources, as well as to consider the broader context of the stories with which I am so fascinated. I want to also thank Erin Jessee and Gillian Mathys for their tireless contributions in the form of reading drafts, engaging in analytical discussions, and simply offering encouragement when I was exhausted. Thanks also to Tim Williams, Kirsten Pontalti, Marie Berry, Laura Mann, Kirrily Pells, and Helen Simms, and the other graduate researchers who have banded together to swap sources, engage in important debates, and generally support one another through what can be a very contentious process. And a further thank you to Kim Yi Dionne, Kimberley Foulds, Heather Switzer, Laura Seay, Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, Ryan Abrecht, Nicole Pacino, and Damian Nemirovsky, for being available with a listening ear, helpful advice, and—on more than one occasion—the ability to procure necessary PDFs. There will never be an adequate way to express my gratitude to Bridget Mutoni and Sylvere Mwizerwa for their hours of translation, discussion, and helping me track down interviewees. I could never have produced this work without these truly amazing research assistants. I also want to thank Abigail Dowling and Carolyn Morgan for their vital help in making sure my translations were accurate. Finally, I want to thank my family for their support. My parents, John and Mary Watkins, for encouraging my intellectual curiosity and oftentimes reckless ambition. My sister, Katie Hagmann, for her steadfast support and ready humor when I need it. My other sister, Missy Smith, for her unflinching and fierce love and sustenance. And to Krysta Curl and Rachel Firkins, who literally fed me, brought me groceries, took care of my cats, and did my laundry sometimes so I could focus on research and writing. It really does take a village. iv VITA OF SARAH ELIZABETH WATKINS May 2014 EDUCATION AND RESEARCH PhD, History, with Doctoral Emphasis in Feminist Studies University of California, Santa Barbara, Expected June 2014 Master of Arts, Pan-African Studies, with Graduate Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies University of Louisville, 2008 Bachelor of Arts, History, Philosophy, Political Science Indiana University Southeast, 2005 PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS/EMPLOYMENT University of California, Santa Barbara Instructor, Department of History, 2014-15 University of California, Santa Barbara Teaching Associate, Department of History, 2013 Indiana University Southeast Adjunct Instructor, Department of History, 2008, 2013 PUBLICATIONS “Good Kings, Bloody Tyrants, and Everything In Between: Representations of the Monarchy in Post-Genocide Rwanda,” with Erin Jessee, History in Africa (forthcoming, 2014) August 2013, Review of Genocide Lives in Us: Women, Memory and Silence in Rwanda by Jennie E. Burnet, Oral History Forum Special Issue, “Confronting Mass Atrocities,” http://www.oralhistoryforum.ca/index.php/ohf/article/view/530/608. Essay, “Marxism in Context: The Development of Socialism in the Nineteenth Century.” In Enduring Questions: Modern World History. (ABC-CLIO/Praeger, 2013). http://worldhistory2.abc-clio.com/ v Essay, “Industrialization and the Perpetuation of the British Empire.” In Enduring Questions: Modern World History. (ABC-CLIO/Praeger, 2013). http://worldhistory2.abc-clio.com/ Essay, “The Central Role of African Labor in European Economic Development.” In Enduring Questions: Modern World History. (ABC-CLIO/Praeger, 2012). http://worldhistory2.abc-clio.com/ Essay, “A People’s Revolution: The Myriad Causes of the End of Apartheid in South Africa.” In Enduring Questions: Modern World History. (ABC-CLIO/Praeger, 2012). http://worldhistory2.abc-clio.com Essay, “The European Roots of Africa’s Continuing Crises.” In Enduring Questions: Modern World History. (ABC-CLIO/Praeger, 2010). http://worldhistory2.abc-clio.com/ AWARDS UCSB Graduate Division Humanities Research Assistant Fellowship, 2013-14 American Historical Association Bernadotte E. Schmitt Research Grant, 2012 UCSB Graduate Division Humanities and Social Sciences Research Grant, 2012-13 UCSB Department of History Dissertation Fellowship, 2012-13 Brython Davis Endowment Graduate Fellowship, UCSB Graduate Division, 2011-13 UCSB Department of History Travel Grant, 2012-13 UCSB Department of History Stuart Bernath Research Prize, 2011 Palm Center Travel Grant, 2010 FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Gender and Power in African History Studies in Modern African History with Professors Stephan F. Miescher and Mhoze Chikowero Studies in World History with Professor Erika Rappaport Studies in Feminist Studies with Professor Leila Rupp vi ABSTRACT Iron Mothers and Warrior Lovers: Intimacy, Power, and the State in the Nyiginya Kingdom, 1796-1913 by Sarah Elizabeth Watkins This dissertation explores the development of the role of the Queen Mother in the Nyiginya kingdom between 1796 and 1913. Using case studies of four Queen Mothers immediately preceding the onset of Belgian colonial rule, I examine how they manipulated changing social and political circumstances to increase their own power bases, transforming the nature of the monarchy itself. Through oral historical narratives, royal rituals, colonial accounts, and local and family histories I reveal a social order in flux, and a monarchical system increasingly dependent upon intimate kinship relationships. Within this context, I argue that the power of the King, relative to the Queen Mother and other intimates, waned when faced with the innovations of joint rulership. These innovations developed in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and culminated with the reign of Nyirayuhi V Kanjogera (r. 1895- 1931), who has become the iconic image of the Tutsi monarchy for both supporters and detractors over the course of the post-colonial period. My research refocuses the historiography of the late Rwandan monarchy, which has previously centered on kings, warriors, and male ritual practitioners, to its women rulers as a way to illustrate the importance of clanship to the development of kinship. Further, I raise larger questions about vii the nature of monarchy and its sometimes perilous reliance upon a network of intimate relationships, and argue that this system is constructed in part out of what feminist scholars have labeled “intimate labors.” My research advances the current discourse within Rwandan studies about the nature of social identity in the period immediately prior to and during the early decades of colonial rule. I evaluate the historical construction of social identity by illustrating the importance of regional and family identities, and how gender identity and rank complicate these ideas even further. I challenge the conventional periodization of African history, which has centered the experience of colonialism as the defining event for African societies. Instead, I propose an approach to colonial history that treats European conquest as one of many important social and political upheavals that involved negotiation, adaptation, and resistance on the part of African polities. Finally, I place precolonial African history within a global context, drawing comparisons with cultures in East Asia, Latin America, and Europe, in order to emphasize African history’s vital contribution to world history. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Cast of Characters……………………………………………………………………...x Glossary of Terms……………………………………………………………………..xiii Introduction……………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter 1: The Rise of the Regent: Joint-Rulership and Clan Politics, 1796-1820…..40 Chapter 2: The Last Umutoni and the Triumph of the Wife: Sex, Envy, and Murder at the Nyiginya Court, 1820-1863……………… ................................................. … …….81 Chapter 3: Mommy Issues: Matricide and Regicide in the Reigns of Nyiramongi and Murorunkwere,