A Look at the Country of Rwanda Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

A Look at the Country of Rwanda - Essay mannikinToday, Rwanda, with the densest population in Africa, struggles to bring more prosperity to its approximately 9 million people by attracting investments, promoting tourism and boosting its agricultural output.-- and this property is most ordinarily used in connection with the Rwandan civil war or the genocide in 1994. However, the Rwandan people have historically belonged, using common culture and lyric as criteria, to one ethnic group called Banyarwanda (people of Rwanda).5 Dr. Anastase Shyaka, a professor at the University of Rwanda writes that prior to European colonization, all the Hutus, Tutsis and Twas were united and swore allegiance to one monarch, Umwami. Further cementing this shackle were the myths and folktales and clan-based identity, in which every Rwandan would trace his genealogy to one ancestor, called Kanyarwanda. While the first king of Rwanda in the 15th century was identified as a Tutsi - the ethnic identity a s explained by Prof. Shaka was more in connection with certain economic activities, and a Tutsi could lose his Tutsiness and become a Hutu and be deprived of his possessions. Therefore, the distinction was more economic and social, rather than strictly genetic - a fact boosted by subsequent intermarriages, making the genetic basis moot and academic. All of Rwandans presently speak the same language (Kinyarwanda), and most are Christians (majority of whom are Catholic), with a sprinkling of Muslims. Political CulturePrior to the coming of European colonizers (first the Germans in 1894 and the Belgians in 1917), Rwanda was under a monarchy and its society was cohesive and stable. Political effect was vested i the King who was in turn recognized and respected as protective of the interests of the citizens of Rwanda.6 To insure checks and balances, three or four ministers were in-charge of different spheres of economic activity - for pasture, agriculture and hunting.7 When the Belgia ns ruled Rwanda, the political culture built on trust of the monarchical power to ensure fairness and equality was destroyed. Instead of three or four chiefs to oversee the different areas of livelihood, a single chief was installed, bringing the socio-economic foundation in service to the interests of the colonizers and its appointed rulers, while introducing forced labor.8 In 1935, the Belgian Colonial Administration issued identification cards clearly categorizing Rwandans as Hutu, Tutsi and Twa on the basis on the number of heads of cattle they owned, with Tutsis classified as those with 10 or more cows. From then on, Rwandans came to see that their ethnicity is linked to opportunities for jobs and positions of power - as if identity comes first and was the main(a) factor over and above legitimate efforts to achieve success in society. That ethnicity became the crux of achieving or