The colonial policies of Germany and Belgium altered the powers of chiefs and accelerated the growth of social stratification in Rwanda. At the same time the progressive incorporation of this state into the world economy-an integral part of the colonial experience provided both incentives and rationalizations for the powerful to make further exactions on the rural masses. While the goals of European administrators and their Rwandan collaborators differed, their interests were often complementary; each made use of the other. It is therefore hardly surprising that changes occurred in relations between state and people.

What we wish to explain, though, is why these transformations should have resulted in the intensification of cleavages between Tuutsi and Hutu. Part of the answer lies in European policies that openly favored Tuutsi as rulers, excluding Hutu from powerful positions. But to understand the depth of anti-Tuutsi protest which emerged in Rwanda during the 1950s, we need to explore how Tuutsi chiefs used their power-what was the character of relations between them and the less powerful? A study of transformations in patron–client ties in Kinyaga offers revealing insights on such relationships. As a dynamic process articulating and channeling relations among people, clientship was in fact many institutions: One form of clientship evolved into other forms, and patron–client ties branched into new fields of relations. A survey of changes in patron–client relationships in Kinyaga over the five decades of colonial rule will help to illuminate this dynamic role of patron–client ties, and the changing character of rural class relations reflected in them. But first, we need to look briefly at the alterations in clientship that occurred during the years just preceding colonial rule. Many of these changes resulted from ecological factors but they had

strong influence on subsequent political developments, affecting the way that people viewed clientship and the way that patron–client ties and the state affected their lives.

THE FINAL YEARS OF RWABUGIRI’S REIGN AND THE PERIOD OF GERMAN COLONIAL RULE (1890-1916)

Thelastdecade of the nineteenth century was a period of great upheaval for Rwanda in general, and Kinyaga in particular. The decade opened with an epidemic of rinder pest which swept through the country killing many cattle (more than 90% in some locales). Almost simultaneously the population suffered an outbreak of smallpox. The period also saw the introduction of “jiggers,” (sand fleas) a parasite new to the area. These embedded themselves in the human body (often under toenails); if left unattended, jiggers could lead to serious infection and eventually loss of limb. In the initial stages, these parasites caused great concern as the population did not know how to treat them. Then, as we have seen, Rwabugiri’s death in 1895 plunged the country into mourning; not long after, the Abapari (the first Europeans to occupy Rwanda) arrived to set up a camp in Kinyaga. And about the same time the central court was riven by internal conflicts culminating in the Rucunshu coup d’état. These events were all important in the development of clientship, because of the insecurities, as well as opportunities, they created. But the rinderpest epidemic, the Abapari occupation, and the Rucunshu coup affected clientship institutions in specific ways, structuring the later development of patron–client ties.

In its effect on the lives and fortunes of people, the Umuryamo cattle epidemic was comparable to a major depression in an industrialized country. At a stroke, a family’s wealth and entire social apparatus of security, identity, and relationships were wiped out. One Kinyagan observed that “The cows would come home in the evening, and the next morning, they would all be dead.” Another remarked that “Some Tuutsi who saw their cows die committed suicide; others died from ubworo, lack of milk.

Cattle in Rwanda served as a source of wealth, a symbol of prestige, and a mechanism to record relationships and establish alliances. Thus Umuryamo destroyed not only material wealth but the very means of contracting and recording social ties as well. In Kinyaga, as elsewhere in the country, the damage to local herds was catastrophic. People, who had subsisted mainly on cattle found themselves impoverished, deprived of their principal source of livelihood. Lineages which had possessed several herds of thirty to forty head each were left with only one or two cows, if any at all. Even chiefs who had possessed many herds were hard hit. Rubuga, chief of Abiiru Province and reputed to have had many herds, remained with only ten or twenty imponooke (cows “rescued” from the epidemic). Rwanyamugabo, leader of the Abeerekande lineage and one of the largest cattle-owners in the region, had about twenty cows left. At the central court, the effects were similar and this led to even more basses of cattle in Kinyaga. For Kinyaga’s location as a frontier region bordering on forest areas permitted some herders to take cattle back into the forest, and other small groups of cattle in isolated corners of the region had been spared the epidemic. But after Umuryamo Rwabugiri sought to rebuild the depleted royal herds; he ordered a general “review” (umurundo) throughout the kingdom, and his agents requisitioned many of the cattle which had survived the devastation of the epidemic.

Kinyagans speak of the post-Umuryamo period in ecological terms: with so few cattle left, pasture was left ungrazed, and this blurred the distinctions between homestead and “bush.” “The grass grew and grew, right to the interior of the houses.” And the hills became overgrown “like forests.” Economic relations were also affected. With the paucity of cattle, a primary goal was to rebuild the herds. This inflated the value of heifers and altered commercial relations between Kinyaga and the non-Rwandan neighboring areas. To obtain a single heifer in Bushi to the west, for example, Kinyagans were willing to offer a sterile cow and three bull ca1ves.

In Kinyaga control over igikingi pasturage temporarily declined in importance, as the ratio of pasturage to cattle available changed so dramatically. And Kinyagans found it difficult to supply the normal prestations in cattle for their umuheto patrons, even while the pressures increased on them to furnish cattle, as the patrons too sought to recoup their losses. These new realities altered the general approach to clientship and the parameters of client arrangements. Some Kinyagans, deprived of their cattle by the rinderpest, apparently saw in ubuhake clientship an opportunity to rebuild their herds through the usufruct of a cow and its offspring. it is likely that Umuryamo was, then, important to the growth of ubuhake in the early years of this century.

Other means of obtaining cows existed, however-such as purchase (even at inflated prices) or cattle raids across the border to the west and south. Seeking client ties, therefore, was not the only means available

for rebuilding herds. Besides, with such a global devastation one might have thought that the entire structure of cattle clientship would be altered. And so it was, but in the direction of increasing importance of cattle ties and greater dependence of the client on the patron. Therefore the causes of the increased importance of ubuhake must be sought in the power politics of the time.

Rwabugiri died toward the end of 1895, about three years after the rinderpest epidemic. His death had a great impact on Kinyaga as he had launched his final military campaigns (which were in process at the time of his death) from hills in western Kinyaga. Only a few months after his death the Abapari (a small group of Belgian officers and African soldiers) invaded the region. We have seen in chapter 4 that after the central chiefs had fled several Kinyagans became the clients of the Abapari intruders. In the oral accounts about these men two significant characteristics stand out: They became rich and powerful as a result of European support; and they used their power arbitrarily, terrorizing the population. The cuelty of Kabundege, one of the Abapari’s Kinyagan collaborators, was captured in the dictum, “Anyone who didn’t rally to the side of Kabundege, was not seen again by Seekabaraga,” referring to the belief that those who opposed Kabundege had been killed; they were no longer around to welcome Seekabaraga on his retum after the Abapari departure. Another of the collaborators, Gato, gained fame for his audacity. He began to take on airs, acting as if he were king, and he reportedly destroyed Rwabugiri’s former residence at Rubengera, north of Kinyaga.

When the central court’s chiefs retumed to Kinyaga, they quickly deposed Kinyagans who had cooperated with the Abapari: some lost their power and their cattle; at least one (Gato) was kilIed.But often former collaborators of the Abapari tried to curry favor with the retuming chiefs. The surest way to do this was to seek “protection” through ubuhake clientship, to show submission, and (hopefully) avoid the wrath of the powerful by becoming an umugaragu (client). This was the stratagem pursued by Gisaaza, a Kinyagan collaborator who had received a number of cows from the Abapari. Gisaaza offered one of these cows to Rwidegembya, the umuheto chief of Impara. Rwidegembya then placed one of his own cows among those of Gisaaza. This symbolized that the latter’s cows were under Rwidegembya’s protection, “and therefore no one could (legally) seize them.” The man recounting this episode thought Gisaaza very clever: He sought protection of his cattle before he could be dispossessed of them. This became a common motive for ubuhake clientship in the years that followed.

The power struggles associated with the Rucunshu coup also generated shifts in existing patron–client ties and an impetus to create new ones. When the central chiefs returned to Kinyaga, Musinga was on the throne, and the Abeega perpetrators of the coup were carrying out their purge of those believed to be partisans of the dead Rutarindwa. In Kinyaga, individuals and lineages linked by residence on intoore hills, or by clientship to powerful chiefs who had supported Rutarindwa at Rucunshu, found it necessary to shift their allegiances. These changes reflected both the growing intermingling of clientship with central administration in Kinyaga, and the increasing incorporation of the Kinyagan elite into politics of the central arena. Local oral traditions single out three central chiefs-Seemakamba, Kanyonyomba, and Rutiishereka, whose deaths were felt directly by their clients in Kinyaga.

Kinyagans who already had client ties to the victorious Abakagara Lineage found their opportunities for advancement greatly enhanced after Rucunshu. The rise to prominence of Seekabaraga and his lineage, the Abadegede, is a case in point. We have seen that the Abadegede, who lived at Shangi, were descendants of the famous Rwanteri. They had become clients of Ntiizimira when he took over command of Impara, and after his fail from favor the Abadegede became clients of Cyigenza, a member of the Abakagara lineage. Later, at the time of Rucunshu, the Abadegede were clients of Cyigenza’s son, Rwidegembya, a nephew of Kabaare. In subsequent years, as representatives of Rwidegembya, the Abadegede substantially enlarged their local following.

The establishment of the Germans in the region was important to the rise to power of the Abadegede as well as several other local lineages. The center of activities for the German East Africa military administration in Ruanda-Urundi was at Bujumbura (then called Usumbura) in Burundi. But the major German outpost in Rwanda was initially in Kinyaga at Shangi (and later Kamembe). It was not until 1907, when German civil administration was established, that Kigali (in east-central Rwanda) became the capital for European activities in Rwanda. Captain von Bethe and a contingent of African soldiers set up the first German military post at Shangi in 1898. At about the same time Dr. Richard Kandt undertook geographic and ethnographic studies of Rwanda and Kivu, establishing Shangi as his western base in 1899.

By 1902 the entire German military force in western Rwanda consisted of Lieutenant von Parish with twenty-one African askaris at Shangi, and Unteroffizier (Sergeant) Ehrhardtwith four askaris at Gisenyi, at the northern end of the lake.

The small size of the German force, however, was no measure of its influence on power relations. In Kinyaga, Dr. Kandt, known locally as Kaanoyooge or Bwana Kooge, was particularly influential. Though he visited his residence near Shangi (which he called Bergfrieden) only irregularly over a period of three years, Kandt established firm ties with local notables such as Seekabaraga and Nyankiiko. Ndaruhuutse, a very old Kinyagan living at Shangi, used the traditional Rwandan form of igiteekerezo to recount Kinyagan perceptions of early relations between Kandt and Seekabaraga:

A few days after [the departure of the Abapari and Abagufi], the chiefs retumed with their cattle. Then we came back with our mothers and fathers who were still alive. A short time later we learned that some Europeans had arrived at Shangi. People said, “the Europeans who’ve arrived at Shangi, it’s not known what they’re like, these are not Belgians.” They set up their tents at Shangi. Then they asked, “‘Who is the chief who commands this hill?” _

They were told, “Seekabaraga.”

“Where is Seekabaraga,” they asked.

“He’s at home.”

The Europeans sent word to Seekabaraga to come and meet them at their camp. These were the Europeans Bwana Kooge and Bwana Bethe. Thus they told the messenger, “We aren’t going to kill anyone; on the contrary we want to have friendly relations with the people. We will even give them positions of command and we will enrich them.”

So the messenger went to inform Seekabaraga. Then Seekabaraga said, “Since the Europeans want peace and not war, we must send them food.” Food was given to a certain Kagoro who lived right near here. Kagoro’s father was Sinayobye. He took that [food] to the Europeans, Bwana Bethe and Bwana Kooge. They accepted it, and then said, “Well, good-you who come to bring food, and this gift of welcome, go tell Seekabaraga that he should not be afraid, that we do not kill people; rather we want only understanding and good relations -with the Rwandans. If he was away yesterday, let him come to see us tomorrow.” They gave this man cloth and beads for Seekabaraga. They commissioned him to give the gifts to Seeka-baraga and to tell him to corne and see them.

The man went and showed Seekabaraga what they had given him. Having seen that, Seekabaraga took some more food and set out. He went to the camp of Bwana Kooge and Bwana Bethe. When he arrived there, Bwana Bethe grabbed him by the arm and shook it a little, as they do by way of greeting, and said to him: ‘Don’t be afraid.” Bwana Kooge took him by one arm, and Bwana Bethe by the other, and they went to sit him down on a chair. They asked

“Yesterday you were afraid to come?”

He said: “No.”

They told him, “Don’t be afraid because we don’t kill people and we don’t wish to kill people.”

Seekabaraga said: “Yes.”

Seekabaraga and his clients remained there a while. Then in bidding him good-bye these Europeans told him, “Come more often, we are going to chat and we will get along well and we will give you a position of command.” So Seekabaraga went home and came back the next morning.

Then one day they said to Seekabaraga, “Seekabaraga?” Seekabaraga said, “Yes?”

They said, “Find us some men.”

He gave them some men, he gave them to Bwana Bethe, while Bwana Kooge stayed [at Shangi]. Bwana Bethe went to Cyoya’s country, to Burundi, in the region of Cyoya son of Ngwije. . He said to Seekabaraga, “Cyoya has scomed me, and that’s the reason I’m going to pillage cows from him to give you.” So he went and seized many cattle. (It was at this period that someone gave Bwana Bethe the name Rukiza. You understand? He called him Rukiza, the one who enriches-because he had just given the cow as bride-wealth for the girl he had married. So Bwana Bethe married the daughter of this man called Rutebuuka; the daughter of this man was called Mutuurwa, and I witnessed that.) After the arrivalof these cows [from Burundi] they said to Seekabaraga, “Choose forty with their bull.” So he took them home.

Then several days later they said, “Kabaraga?” [familiar form of address]. And he said, “Yes?”

They said, “Give us some more men to go to ljwi.”

He gave them around forty men and they went to Ijwi where they raided innumerable cattle. The udders of these cows were as long as a hand. Moreover, they brought back a man from there. His name

was Rwango, son of Mudanga. He was the herdsman for those cows from Mihigo’s country.

So the cows arrived and once again Seekabaraga took forty of them. He placed one of these herds at his residence here and another at his residence on Mwito bill. Thus Seekabaraga kept his command and also his cattle. The Europeans gave him much power. His younger brothers, Minyago and Ntaabukiraniro went to collect prestations on the hills while he sat as chief, and he became rich. These were the men I saw come to Rwanda. The cows multiplied and the people also received lots of things-Seekabaraga distributed these cows to many people. The cows multiplied and could graze in the grass which had grown right up to the inside of houses because there had been no more cows after the epidemic.

Later Bwana Kooge and Bwana Bethe moved down and built their post closer to the lake. (At first they had been near the big tree, near Seekabaraga’s residence.) So they moved down close to the lake and built there. They settled there and stayed a long time. Rugira became their client and so did Nyampeta, and [the Europeans] enriched them.

Although Seekabaraga and Nyankiko did not themselves have guns, people knew of their friendly relations with Kandt and other Germans, and the potential this gave of caling upon European coercive force. Another advantage of friendship with the German authorities was access to cattle which otherwise would not have been so readily available. As Ndaruhuutse stressed:

It was the Europeans who helped Seekabaraga become a cattle owner, for previously he had perhaps no more than a single cow! The others had been exterminated by Umuryamo. It was those Europeans Bwana Kooge and Bwana Bethe who distributed cattle in this region. They brought some from Ijwi and others from Burundi.

Raids for cattle were carried out within the region as well. Often the Germans would attack men on the express request of Seekabaraga. As one man explained:

It’s as if it were he [Seekabaraga] who commanded the Germans; it was sufficient for him to see you were rich and he would go and accuse you of rebellion, and the Germans would come to kill you, and then Seekabaraga would seize your belongings.

The power of Seekabaraga and Nyankiiko was also enhanced by their position as clients and local representatives of the central chief Rwidegembya. This position, as well as the resources they acquired through clientship ta Europeans, enabled them to increase their followings of ubuhake clients and extend umuheto clientship. The reduced military role of the social armies, the power struggles following the Rucunshu coup, and the uncertainties of early dealings with European administrators and missionaries diverted the attention of many umuheto chiefs in the center. Kinyagan clients of central chiefs thus often found it necessary to accept clientship to local umuheto patrons such as Seekabaraga.

The experience of the Abaruruma lineage described in chapter 6 illustrates this pattern. The lineage had belonged to the Abakwiye social army, as umuheto clients of a central chief, for several generations before 1900. But after Rucunshu and the arrival of Germans in the kingdom, the Abaruruma found it necessary to accept Seekabaraga as their umuheto patron. Gihura, a senior member of the lineage, explained that Seekabaraga had become his lineage’s umuheto patronbecause he was powerful. Because the men from Nduga did not return any more [to collect prestations].So this other one appropriated command over us for himself. We gave him about fifteen cows, while he hadn’t given us a single cow and we also paid court to him (guhakwa) without his having given us any cow. I went to carry out gufata igihe at his residence; I stayed for a long time, then he set me free telling me to return home. It was truly exploitation.

Reluctantly, the Abaruruma paid court to Seekabaraga to protect lineage cattle. To judge from Gihura’s account, in this case umuheto was seen as more onerous than ubuhake, for the Abarururna received nothing in retum for the cows and service they provided.

Continuing the practice begun under Rwabugiri, chiefs also extended umuheto to lineages, both Hutu and Tuutsi, which had not had such ties in the past. But, as in the earlier period, not all Hutu were constrained to pay umuheto prestations; those selected were often relatively wealthy or had access ta prized items such as honey, ubutega fiber bracelets, or luxury mats coveted by die chiefs.

The extension of ubuhake clientship, like that of umuheto, was associated with the growing power of the political elite. At the same time, ubuhake ties served as a key instrument for Tuutsi to gain and maintain contral over the population. Through ubuhake, the elite gained support and services and, most important, control over cattle. Cons

quently, though Gihura lamented the fact that Seekabaraga had never given a cow to his lineage, other Kinyagans saw the transfer of cow from patron to client as a mixed blessing. An account by Seekimondo, a resident of Nyakaninya hill in the Abiiru region, dramatizes the methods by which ubuhake clientship was used to undermine possession of imbaata (personally owned) cattle.

Seekimondo’s lineage had belonged to the Abashakamba social army for two generations before 1900. During Rwabugiri’s reign their umuheto patron was Rutiishereka, who was, as we have seen, a favorite of the court and a renowned military hero. Rutiishereka transferred two cows to Maruhuuke, Seekimondo’s father; these cows may have established an ubuhake tie, but it is not clear that they did. At least one of the cows was given for Seekimondo’s sister, who became Rutiishereka’s inshoreke (“traveling companion,” or concubine).

After Rutiishereka’s death in the aftermath of Rucunshu, one of his clients, Ntaabwoba, took over for him in Kinyaga. Ntaabwoba began collecting prestations from Seekimondo’s lineage, demanding a cow at intervals of one or two years:

Seekimondo … took control over our lineage because our chief had just died. He said to himself, “These men of Kinyaga live far away [from the court] and no one else will concem himself with them.”

Ntaabwoba’s demands went beyond the umuheto obligations of the past, and continued to escalate. The lineage was required to contribute as prestations not only cows, but also European cloth. Ntaabwoba held an umurundo (review of cattle by a chief ), in the course of which he took two or three cattle from Seekimondo’s lineage. Later, his son appropriated two cows belonging to widows of the lineage. When the lineage received cows as bridewealth, Ntaabwoba would sometimes take these.

Later, after being deposed from his position as hill chief of Bushenge in Impara region, Ntaabwoba came to live at Nyakanyinya and was appointed hill chief there by the chief of Abiiru at the time, Birasinyeri. This only exacerbated the situation for the Abakoobwa. Each day they sent milk to Ntaabwoba but this proved insufficient. Deprived of his previous wealth at Bushenge, Ntaabwoba sought to rebuild his herds. He seized all eighty of the lineage’s cattle (of which forty had been received for bridewealth and therefore theoretically were the exclusive property of the lineage). Fearing attack, the men of Seekimondo’s lineage fled the region. Ntaabwoba then expelled their mother from the lineage land.

Seekimondo attributes the loss of his cattle to the fact that he had received but a single cow from Ntaabwoba. During the reign of Musinga, Seekimondo and two others of his lineage had been called to the royal capital for training as intoore of the Abashakamba. The lineage had originally given three cows to Ntaabwoba, one for each recruit. Then when Seekimondo retumed to Kinyaga, Ntaabwoba gave him one ubuhake cow, which as he sees it, was the source of many of the excesses perpetrated by Ntaabwoba.

What is important about Seekimondo’s experience is the drastic changes in patron-client relationships that it indicates. What had formerly been a bond of elites, a form of alliance, became a means of increasing the power of the patron to the disadvantage of the client. It is also significant that the victims of this particular patron-client relationship were from a wealthy, cattle-owning lineage that would have been viewed as Tuutsi. As clientship was extended to Kinyagans who had less wealth and status in relation to the power of the chiefs it tended to take on even more of an exploitative character. The changes were closely associated with the growth of government penetration in the area.

We have seen that during the period of German administration the imposition of hill chiefs by the central court was continued and extended. This was a process, begun under Rwabugiri, by which lineage heads who had formerly preserved direct ties to the provincial chief found themselves placed under an intermediary authority (a hill chief) who represented the provincial chief. The change was most noticeable in Abiiru Province, where the organization of administration had been less developed under Rwabugiri. During the tenure of the central chief Nyamuhenda (who held authority from alter the departure of the Abapari to 1910) and Rubago [1910-1917) hill chiefs were introduced in virtually every part of Abiiru. In Impara Province, most of the hill chiefs were relatives or clients of Seekabaraga or Nyankiiko, sharing in the enhanced power these two men had gained under German rule. In both regions, the power of hill chiefs augmented as channels of appeal diminished.

One of the Abiiru hill chiefs, Mukangahe, acquired a particularly notorious reputation. A resident of Winteeko hill, he occupied a key “modern” role in the colonial context: He was an interpreter for the Germans. He was also one of Nyamuhenda’s favored clients. Mukangahe and another Tuutsi named Rwabiri (Nyamuhenda’s younger

brother) engaged in regular cattle raids against the population; on at least one occasion, they killed the victim of their raid. Later, Nyamuhenda’s successor, Rubago, launche mini-wars against his subjects. At one point, he and his men attacked the Abahande lineage at Mutongo. The Abahande held off the attackers for two days, killing nine of Rubago’s men, but ultimately Rubago succeeded in seizing many of the lineage’s cattle. In a separate incident, several of Rubago’s sons and their followers attacked a lineage at Nyakarenzo, seized a bull, and burned the homesteads of several lineage members. And in Impara Province, the Abadegede and their clients achieved notoriety for their treatment of Hutu.

The Abadegede leaders would report to their superior, Rwidegembya, “This Hutu is a rebel and I’d like to teach him a lesson.” Rwidegembya would answer: “I grant you this Hutu’s cows.” [The Abadegede] would say there was only one cow when in fact it was a whole herd.”

In this way, political office was seen as an opportunity for personal aggrandizement. The chiefs, their kinsmen, and their clients used power to extract surplus from the common people, or forcibly to create a surplus where there was none.

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https://uk.amateka.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/colon.jpghttps://uk.amateka.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/colon-150x150.jpgBarataChanges and ColonialismThe colonial policies of Germany and Belgium altered the powers of chiefs and accelerated the growth of social stratification in Rwanda. At the same time the progressive incorporation of this state into the world economy-an integral part of the colonial experience provided both incentives and rationalizations for the powerful...AMATEKA