Mutara Semugeshi and Mibambwe Gisanura: Innovative Kings or Imaginary Kings?
Such questions can be extended. Many of the uncertainties in the traditions attributable to Nyamuheshera appear also in the traditions of his immediate predecessor and successor. To Mutara Semugeshi are attributed few historical traditions, over a reign that Kagame estimates…
On Kigeri Nyamuheshera, One of Rwanda’s Great Warrior Kings
Thus the external evidence relating to Ruganzu suggests that Ruganzu may have lived sometime near, and maybe shortly after,1700. Of course, the search for such chronological precision may be, as Henige suggests, but a chimera. Nonetheless, inquiry of this type…
Comparative Explorations from West of Lake Kivu
First, the Abozi on Ijwi, who are said to be a part of the Balega clan, take their name from Mwoozi, an ancestor who is said to have helped Ruganzu escape by canoe from some (unspecified) enemies. The Abozi trace…
From Interest to Suspicion: The Havu Case
The royal genealogy of the senior Havu kingdom, along the western shores of Lake Kivu, repeats the general pattern noted above. But it does more, transforming “interest” to “suspicion” by deepening the parallels. Most written materials on Havu royal history…
Burundi and Rwanda: The Recurring Ntare
In Burundi, south of Rwanda, there occurred a similar process of reconstructing the royal line, a process that assumed the cyclic succession of a given set of dynastic names and the correspondence of Rundi dynastic generation lengths with those of…
Recontextualizing Rwandan Dynastic Chronology
The ideology of kingship asserted that kingship was legitimated by its antiquity: the dynasty was at the heart of Rwandan culture, so the founding of the dynasty must (logically) correspond to the origin of the culture. By one official source,…
The Umuganura Ritual of Rwanda: An Analysis
The ritual begins in the moon of kaanama (corresponding to the month of August–September in the Gregorian calendar) with the transfer of hoes that are ritually pure; they must be without blemish, they must never have touched the ground, and…
The Umuganura Ritual of Rwanda: An Overview
In Rwanda of the late nineteenth century, the centralized political structure and hierarchialized administrative structures meant that in most areas of the country the influence of the central court was able to penetrate directly to the lowest level of society.…
The Rwandan Context of the Royal Rituals
Following a period of important military expansion and internal political consolidation, the kingdom of Rwanda included close to two million people within a highly centralized polity and hierarchized society at the time of European arrival in the early twentieth century.…
Ritual as Communication: Structuralists and the Analysis of Drama
Rituals are essentially formalized social drama. They are performed by people; therefore (where not esoteric) they invariably focus attention on the social aspects of the ritual, because in the performance there is no way of ignoring the question of who…