ABSTRACT
The Rwandan Settlement The people of Rwanda are divided into three identity groups: the Hutus who are mainly labeled farmers and make up 85 percent of the population, the Tutsis who are defined as cattle breeders and comprise around 14 percent of the population, and the Batwa or Pygmies who account for almost 1 percent and are mainly hunters and gatherers. The available documentation suggests that the first inhabitants of Rwanda were hunter-gatherers and forest dwellers, the ancestors of the Batwa.The same sources suggest that they inhabited the area from as early as 2000 B.C. Around 1000 A.D. a migration of Bantu or Hutu farmers began, part of the so-called Bantu expansion from the savannahs of present-day Cameroon to the Great Lakes subregion. Their social organization was based on lineages and clans, which were under the leadership of chiefs. Apparently, there was a peaceful coexistence between Hutus and Twas, who bartered skins and meat in exchange for salt and
Rwanda has a long history of ethnopolitical conflict that has caused much suffering. The most recent, horrific example is the 1994 genocide of Tutsis. The roots of Rwanda’s ethnopolitical conflict are deep and complex. In this chapter, I explain the underlying causes and history of identity-based, deep-rooted conflict in Rwanda.
