Rwanda and Burundi, 1889-1930: Chronology of a Slow Assassination, Part 2

Abstract

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Problematizing state capacity: the Rwandan case

“…The Nyiginya state expanded slowly over time introducing variation in exposure of different parts of Rwanda to Nyiginya rule. At the time of colonization in 1897, some parts of Rwanda had been under Nyiginya rule for over 200 years, whereas others were de facto outside state control and were only incorporated with the help of German and, later, Belgian troops (see Botte, 1985aBotte, , 1985b on these expeditions). Heldring (2021) reconstructed the timing of the expansion of the state at the level of the regions that the Nyiginya state successively incorporated.…”

Mwami Musinga et la sauvegarde de la frontière de la Kagera entre le Rwanda et le Tanganyika

“…En 1901, sous la direction d'un descendant de l'ancien roi, un soulèvement contre l'occupation rwandaise y éclate. À la demande de Musinga, une expédition militaire allemande, dirigée par Werner von Grawert, commandant du district militaire d'Usumbura responsable de la colonisation du Burundi et du Rwanda, a réprimé la révolte et confisqué un millier de vaches 33 . C'est l'un des innombrables exemples où les colonisateurs allemands ont sauvé le royaume du Rwanda et son étendue impériale 34 .…”

The Banyamulenge of South Kivu: The ‘Nationality Question’

“…Firstly, these seminal works have influenced the entire corpus of subsequent historiography, perpetuating the myth of a pre-colonial idyll that occludes 19 th century upheaval and violence: during which social and ethnic divisions began to crystallise [as] Rwabugiri's administration not only rigidified social distinctions in ethnic terms, but also engendered a process of ethnic self-consciousness among groups of Tutsi in Nduga, central Rwanda. (Pottier 2002:112, see Taylor 2011:1072, Botte 1985 These divisions and growing social conflict are reflected in some of the earliest accounts of German travellers and settlers of the 1890s and early 1900s (see, for example, Kandt 2010) in typically synchronic snapshots of circumstances on the ground (see, for example, Mecklenburg andHerzog1909:44 -85, Von Bethe 1989). Several founding works of the post-colonial period (see, for example, Vansina 1962, Rwabukumba and Mudandagizi 1974, C Newbury 1988 instead present diachronic analyses of the pre-colonial transformation of the kingdom and continuities with the colonial state.…”