Identity Politics and Ethnic Conflicts in Rwanda and Burundi: A Comparative Study
Author: Godfrey Mwakikagile
Paperback: 426
Publisher: New Africa Press (21 May 2012)
ISBN-10: 9987160298
ISBN-13: 9789987160297
Book Description:
This work looks at conflicts between the Hutu and the Tutsi in Rwanda and Burundi.
The conflicts between the two groups have sometimes been characterised as ethnic, although neither group has fundamental attributes of ethnicity or ethnic identity which separate one from the other. They share a common identity.
They don't have a common ancestry, which is one of the fundamental attributes of ethnic identity. The two groups have different origins. But they have the same culture. They also speak the same language. And they have had a common history at least during the past four centuries.
They have intermingled and intermarried for so long - since the Tutsi arrived in the region more than 400 years ago - that whatever differences existed between them in the past in terms of culture, identity, and biology have been erased.
Yet they do exist as distinct social groups, but not as biological entities each with its own gene pool. They maintain separate group identities, as Hutus and as Tutsis, mainly because of the asymmetrical relationship between them. Inequity of power has solidified those identities.
Historically, the Tutsi minority have been the rulers. Their status as the dominant group was enhanced during colonial rule when the Belgians favoured and recognised them as the traditional rulers, and superior to the Hutu, thus legitimising inequalities between the two groups.
The differences between them were even given official sanction. And the subordinate status of the Hutu majority was used by the Belgians to justify discrimination against them in terms of employment and educational opportunities while favouring the Tutsi.
The colonial rulers also reinforced prejudice against the Hutu majority who were considered to be intellectually inferior to the Tutsi. Both the Tutsi and the Belgians considered the Hutu to be inferior, in fact in more than one way. They were even considered ugly.
The conflict between the two groups is rooted in inequity of power, fuelled by stereotypes against the Hutu majority.
Domination of the Hutu majority by the Tutsi minority, which started before the advent of colonial rule, has also solidified ethnic identities of the two groups through the years.
A shared consciousness among the members of each group and their distinctiveness - each seeing themselves as different from the other - have also played a major role in the evolution and consolidation of these separate identities.
The rivalries between the Hutu and the Tutsi can be defined by one thing: the struggle for power. No group wants to be dominated by the other. And no amount of talk and reconciliation is going to end conflicts between the two groups unless this fundamental problem is solved.