ABSTRACT
The Ruanda clientage system occupied an intermediate position between the public and private spheres. The buhake is an institution to which anthropologists who have studied Ruanda social structure have devoted a great part of their attention, if not the greatest. The buhake denoted the relation which existed between a person called garagu (client) and another called shebuja. The rights the client enjoyed over the cattle granted to him were those of usufruct: he had full rights of ownership over milk, the male increase of the cattle, and the meat and skin of a cow which had died or had to be slaughtered. To understand the functions of the feudal system in Ruanda society, one must first clarify some important features of that society. This chapter focuses on the function of the feudal system in Ruanda. One of the functions of feudality in Ruanda was its contribution to the cohesion of the society.
