The Court, the Germans, and the Missionaries
Faced with further trouble with the Fathers in the next months, Musinga again made use of Kandt and von Grawert. When the Fathers wanted to cut timber in the forest of Budaha, north of Nyantango, Musinga replied that this was…
From The War Years To The Abolition Of Ubuhake(1940-1954)
In 1943, a severe famine devastated many areas of Rwanda. Food shortages were less severe in Kinyaga, but Bunyambiriri and other areas to the north and east of the region were hard hit. This famine, called Ruzagayura, is remembered by…
The Early Years Of Belgian Rule (1916-1940)
We haveseen that Rwidegembya sent his son Rwagataraka to Kinyaga to administer the Impara region in 1911, not long after the establishment of German civil administration in Rwanda. Initially, the young chief left the region south of the Mwaga River…
Revival Of Kin-Group Status
Although lineages gradually lost their corporate and political functions, they continued to serve as an important medium for social identification and, to judge from later events, kinship linkages retained their organizational alternatives became available through socio-economic change, younger members of…
Lineages And Government Exactions
Theintroduction of land prestations to Kinyaga during the reign of Rwabugiri altered the hereditary rights which Kinyagan lineages had previously held over their land, as occupation became conditional upon compliance with a hill chief's demands. Subsequently, authority which formerly had…
Lineages And Hill Chiefs
The hillchiefs introduced to Kinyaga from the time of Rwabugiri resembled lineage heads in several respects. They collected prestations, settled disputes, and served as intermediaries to outside authority. But unlike the lineage heads they displaced, each hill chief (umutware w'umusoozi)…
Lineages And Ubuhake Clientship
We have seen that during Rwabugiri's reign chiefs from central Rwanda introduced ubuhake clientship to Kinyaga. Unlike early umuheto clientship, which usually involved the gift of a cow at regular intervals from a client lineage to its patron, ubuhake involved…
Lineages In Nineteenth-Century KINYAGA
During the nineteenth century the lineage (umuryango) formed the most important political unit in Kinyaga. Local affairs were normally handled by lineages acting as corporate groups, represented by their lineage head, and there was no hierarchical political authority encompassing the…