The origins of the Tutsi and Hutu peoples is a key issue in the history of Rwanda, as well as the Great Lakes region of Africa. While the Hutu are generally recognized as the ethnic majority of Rwanda, in racialist ideology the Tutsi were identified as a foreign race, as opposed to an indigenous minority. The relationship between the two is thus, in many ways, derived from the perceived origins and claim to "Rwanda-ness". The largest conflict related to this question was the 1994 Rwandan Genocide The Tutsi are one of three native peoples of the nations of Rwanda and Burundi in central Africa, the other two being the Twa and the Hutu. ... The Hutu are a Central African ethnic group, living mainly in Rwanda and Burundi. ... This article discusses the history of Rwanda. ... The Great Lakes and the East African coastline as seen from space. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... An ethnic majority refers to a condition in which a particular ethnic group comprises the majority of a particular population. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... This article concerns the term race as used in reference to human beings. ... The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass extermination of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutu sympathizers in Rwanda and was the largest atrocity during the Rwandan Civil War. ...

Ugandan scholar Mahmoud Mamdani identifies at least four distinct foundations for studies that support the "distinct difference between Hutu and Tutsi" school of thought: phenotype, genotype, cultural memory of inhabitants of Rwanda, and archeology/linguistics. Mahmood Mamdani (b. ... Individuals in the mollusk species Donax variabilis show diverse coloration and patterning in their phenotypes. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Archaeology or sometimes in American English archeology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains, including architecture, artefacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ... Linguistics is the scientific study of language, which can be theoretical or applied. ...

Phenotype argument

The first type of studies were carried out by colonial scholars, who began with the casual observation that the Twa were short, like pygmies, that the Hutu were of medium height, and that the Tutsi were tall and slender. After gathering data, physical anthropologists confirmed this observation. A German scholar working in the early twentieth century, found a 12-centimeter difference between those identified as Tutsi and those identified as Hutu. As late as 1974, Jean Hiernaux of the National Center for Scientific Research noted a height difference of almost ten centimeters.^[1] Colonial scholars, influenced by racialist theories, especially as developed by Arthur de Gobineau, concluded that such physical differences meant that the Hutu and Tutsi must have originated from different regions. Racialist theory, perhaps most memorably described by German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, divided Africa into: "European Africa", aka North Africa; "the land of the Nile", aka Egypt, considered a part of Eurasia and a civilizing force; and "Africa Proper", aka "Subsaharan Africa, which Hegel described as "the land of childhood, which lying beyond the day of conscious history is enveloped in the dark mantle of Night".^[2] As Europeans became more familiar with Africa, the conception of the Sahara as barrier between civilization and savagery became increasingly less credible. A new racialist theory to explain this discrepancy was developed, namely that all evidence of progress in "Africa Proper" was the result of the influence of an outsider race, who were Caucasian in race but black in skin color, known as the "Hamitic theory". The origin of the "Hamites" is normally placed somewhere in the Horn of Africa.^[3] Finding a large, centrally directed monarchy in Rwanda, colonial authorities refused to consider the possibility that the complex social structure had developed without external direction and identified and designated the Tutsi as a foreign race of Hamites who, in European racialist thought, must have civilized the backward indigenous people, namely the Twa and Hutu. This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) is the largest and most prominent public research organization in France. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau (July 14, 1816 - October 13, 1882) was a French aristocrat who became famous for advocating White Supremacy and developing the racialist theory of the Aryan master race in his book An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1853-1855). ... Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (IPA: ) (August 27, 1770 – November 14, 1831) was a German idealist philosopher born in Stuttgart, Württemberg, in present-day southwest Germany. ...  Northern Africa (UN subregion)  geographic North Africa, including the UN subregion North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, generally divided politically from Sub-Saharan Africa. ... The Nile (Arabic: , transliteration: , Ancient Egyptian iteru, Coptic piaro or phiaro) is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. ... Eurasia African-Eurasian aspect of Earth Eurasia is the Earths largest landmass covering about 21215121321km² compared with the Americas (approximately 42,000,000 km²), Africa (approximately 30,000,000 km²), and Antarctica (approximately 13,000,000 km²). Eurasia comprises the traditional continents of Europe and Asia. ... Sub-Saharan Africa, Africa south of the Sahara Desert, is the term used to describe those countries of Africa that are not part of North Africa. ... The 4th edition of Meyers Konversationslexikon (1885-1890) shows the Caucasian race (in blue) as comprising Aryans, Semites and Hamites. The Caucasian race (sometimes called the Caucasoid race) is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as, relating to a broad division of humankind covering peoples from Europe, the Middle East... Hamitic is an obsolete ethno-linguistic classification of some ethnic groups within the Afroasiatic (previously termed Semito-Hamitic) language family. ... The Horn of Africa. ...

The migration theory came under two rounds of criticism. The first, exemplified by Walter Rodney in his 1972 work How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, was a militant attack on colonial ideology and denied any possibility of migration. Rodney argued that the physical differences were a result of social development, namely that the Twa's diminutive stature was a result of chronic malnutrition resulting from their hunter-gatherer lifestyle and that Tutsi physical stature was a result of a pastoralist protein-rich diet compared to the relatively poor food available to the agriculturalist Hutu. Rodney's writing was required reading for many Rwandan Patriotic Front cadres in the late 1980s and early 1990s, coinciding with the Rwandan Civil War and Rwandan Genocide. To Rodney's argument for a selective diet explanation, others add status and breeding. Noting that a 12-centimeter difference in average height also distinguished a military conscript and senator in 1815 France, social geographer Dominique Franche argued that the height difference can also be explained by physical effects of hard labor among agriculturalists, as well as self-selective breeding towards different standards of beauty between different social groups.^[4] Walter Rodney (March 23, 1942 - June 13, 1980) was a prominent Guyanese historian and political figure. ... How Europe Underdeveloped Africa is a book written by Walter Rodney in which he portrays an Africa that was deliberately exploited and underdeveloped by European colonial regimes. ... The Rwandan Patriotic Front (also translated as: Rwandese Patriotic Front; or referred to as: Patriotic Front of Rwanda) abbreviated as RPF (also often referred to as FPR from French: Front patriotique rwandais) is the current ruling political party of Rwanda, led by President Paul Kagame. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass extermination of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutu sympathizers in Rwanda and was the largest atrocity during the Rwandan Civil War. ...

Genotype argument

More recent studies have deemphasized physical appearance, such as height and nose width, in favor of examining blood factors, the presence of the sickle cell trait, lactose intolerance in adults, and other genotype expressions. A 1987 study, "Genetics and History of Sub-Saharan Africa", published in Yearbook of Physical Anthropology found that the Tutsi and Hima, despite being surrounded by Bantu populations, are "closer genetically to Cushites and Ethiosemites".^[5] Another study concluded that, while the sickle cell trait among the Rwandan Hutu was comparable to that of neighboring people, it was almost nonexistent among Rwandan Tutsi. Presence of the sickle cell trait is evidence of survival in the presence of malaria over many centuries, suggesting differing origins. Regional studies of the ability to digest lactose are also supportive. The ability to digest lactose among adults is widespread only among desert-dwelling nomadic groups that have depended upon milk for millenia. Three-fourths of the adult Tutsi of Rwanda and Burundi have a high ability to digest lactose, while only 5% of the adults of the neighboring Shi people of eastern Congo can. Among Hutu, one in three adults has a high capacity for lactose digestion, a surprisingly high number for an agrarian people, which Mamdani suggests may be the result of centuries of intermarriage with Tutsi.^[6] Bethwell Ogot in the 1988 UNESCO General History further notes that the number of pastoralists in Rwanda increased sharply around the fifteenth century. Sickle-shaped red blood cells Sickle cell anemia (American English), sickle cell anaemia (British English) or sickle cell disease is a genetic disease in which red blood cells may change shape under certain circumstances. ... Hima means (is Arabic for) inviolate zones solely for the conservation of natural capital, typically fields, wildlife and forests (contrast haram to protect areas for more immediate human purposes). ... Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease that is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa. ... Lactose is a disaccharide that consists of β-D-galactose and β-D-glucose molecules bonded through a β1-4 glycosidic linkage. ... A glass of cows milk. ...

Cultural memory argument

Several arguments made for the migration hypothesis are based upon regional myths that were recorded by early European explorers. The most recent and comprehensive such argument was made by Archie Mafeje, who combined multiple origin stories into an overarching theory in his The Theory and Ethnography of African Social Formation. Mafeje's focused upon the story that the Bachwezi dynasty of the Empire of Kitara, in what is now western Uganda, had originated in the current Somali-Ethiopian border region. Once displaced by the Babiito in the sixteenth century, Mafeje argues that the Bachwezi fled southwest in search of pastureland. The Bachwezi would thus be linked with both the Tutsi and Hima of Ankole. Given the lack of historical evidence from this period, most scholars are reluctant to either dismiss or endorse the validity of oral folk history.^[7] The Empire of Kitara (also known as Bachwezi or Chwezi empire) was a kingdom which, at the height of its power in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, included much of Uganda, northern Tanzania and eastern Congo (DRC), ruled by a dynasty known as the Bachwezi (or Chwezi) who were the... The Bahororo are a small nomadic tribe, comprised almost exclusively of the ruling Hima class. ... Ankole, originally known as Nkore, is one of the four traditional kingdoms of Uganda. ...

Anthropological argument

While most supporters of the migration theory are also supporters of the "Hamitic theory", namely that the Tutsi came from the Horn, a later theory proposed that the Tutsi had instead migrated from nearby interior East Africa, and that the physical differences were the result of natural selection in a dry arid climate over millenia. Among the most detailed theories was put forward by Jean Hiernaux, based on studies of blood factors and archeology. Noting the fossil record of a tall people with narrow facial features several thousand years ago in East Africa, including locations such as Gambles Cave in the Kenya Rift Valley and Olduvai in northern Tanzania, Hiernaux argues that while there was a migration, it was not as dramatic as some sources has proposed. He explicitly attacks the Hamitic theory that migrants from Ethiopia brought civilization to primitive Africans.^[8]  Eastern Africa (UN subregion)  East African Community  Central African Federation (defunct)  geographic, including above East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easternmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. ... Darwins illustrations of beak variation in the finches of the Galápagos Islands, which hold 13 closely related species that differ most markedly in the shape of their beaks. ... African Rift Valley. ... The Olduvai Gorge is a 30 mile long, steep-sided ravine, part of the Great Rift Valley which stretches along eastern Africa. ...

Migration hypothesis vs. Hamitic hypothesis

The colonial scholars who found complex societies in sub-Saharan Africa developed the Hamitic hypothesis, namely that "black Europeans" had migrated into the African interior, conquering the primitive peoples they found there and introducing civilization. The Hamitic hypothesis continues to echo into the current day, both inside and outside of academic circles. As scholars developed a migration hypothesis for the origin of the Tutsi that rejected the Hamitic thesis, the notion that the Tutsi were civilizing alien conquerers was also put in question.

One school of thought noted that the influx of pastoralists around the fifteenth century may have taken place over an extended period of time and been peaceful, rather than sudden and violent. The key distinction made was that migration was not the same as conquest. Other scholars delinked the arrival of Tutsi from the development of pastoralism and the beginning of the period of statebuilding. It appears clear that pastoralism was practiced in Rwanda prior to the fifteenth century immigration, while the dates of state formation and pastoralist influx do not entirely match. This argument thus attempts to play down the importance of the pastoralist migrations.

Still other studies point out that cultural transmission can occur without actual human migration. This raises the question of how much of the changes around the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was the result of an influx of people as opposed to the existing population being exposed to new ideas. Studies that approach the subject of racial purity are among the most controversial. These studies point out that the pastoralist migrants and pre-migration Rwandans lived side by side for centuries and practiced extensive intermarriage. The notion that current Rwandans can claim exclusively Tutsi or Hutu bloodlines is thus questioned.^[9]

Tutsi and Hutu today

In the modern day, the difference between Tutsi and Hutu is often stated as that between those in commanding and subordinate social positions. Tutsi can often be physically distinguished as taller than Hutu, but according to the vice president of the National Assembly Laurent Nkongoli, frequently "[y]ou can't tell us apart, we can't tell us apart." Complexities of meaning abound. Some Hutus do indeed own cattle and have important social standing. However, generally the Tutsi are the elite of the country, and people have been known to switch groups, reinforcing the idea that the Hutu and Tutsi labels are labels of class or caste rather than tribe or ethnicity as is usually portrayed by the media and militants on both sides.^{[citation needed]}

Since all three groups now speak the same language and regularly intermarry, some argue that the differences between Tutsi and Hutu may be exaggerated cultural constructs.^[10]

Notes and references