Revolution and decolonization in Rwanda: between ethnic projects and class projects

Abstract

This article aims at reflecting on the way in which the ethnic relations of Hutus and Tutsi are also touched by class issues in Rwanda’s turbulent 1950s, mainly due to the process of independence from Belgium that took place in 1962. The main focus is on the so that Tutsis and Hutus are presented and disseminated in the sources from different faces, involving the relationship built between the two groups, their sense of belonging and their social practices. The emancipatory movement of Rwanda enables new reflections on ethnic and social class membership, and Rwandans build on themselves and others in a movement that fuses elements from local customs and the insertion of Western institutions in the country. These elements are fundamental to the construction of the Hutu Revolution of 1959, which ends with the monarchist domination of the Tutsis and brings deep marks that are revived at different moments in Rwandan history, including the 1994 genocide.