HISTORY OF RWANDA SUMMARY

1. The Rwandan Oral sources

they transmitted verbally information about individuals, families, important events,

or everyday life from one generation to another through storytelling, songs, etc.

TYPES OF ORAL SOURCES IN ANCIENT RWANDA

 Historical accounts, (Ibitekerezo)

 genealogies, (Ubucurabwenge)Kagame wrote, initially, in Kinyarwanda in

Inganji Kalinga published in 1943 and reedited in 1959. In this year,
Kagame translated into French, a passage of Ubucurabwenge for the French-
speaking readers (La notion de généalogie, pp. 15-17).

 scattered information,

 poems, (KAGAME, A., La poésie dynastique au Rwanda, Brussels, 1951

RUGAMBA, C., La poésie face à lhistoire. Cas de la poésiedynastique, 1987)

 songs,

 ubwiru (State secret),

 proverbs,

 legends, tales

 Idiomatic expressions, etc.

2. Material source

3. First written documents on Rwanda were produced by explorer Most of

their originals are kept in Rome at the White Fathers headquarters and
Sweden for the Catholic Church. For Protestant missionaries, their archives
are scattered in Britain and in the USA.

Example: Byanafashe, D. (Ed.). (2004). Les défis de l'historiographie

rwandaise. T1. Les faits controversés. Butare: Editions Universitaires du
Rwanda.

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  VANSINA, J., L’évolution du royaume Rwanda…, pp. 20- 24
 KAGAME, A., La notion de génération…, pp.31-34

4. Audio-visual source

HISTORIOGRAPHY is evolution and interpretation of history through various

methodologies.

 precolonial oral traditions embed myths, ideologies, stereotypes, and clichés

of all sorts. traditions have been manipulated by those who are supposed
to strictly conserve them. Among those who kept them are the great ritual
Chief Kayijuka, Rwanyange, Sezibera, Karera and Sekarama).

 lack of professionalism: These historiographers emphasised mainly on the

conquests not on the reverses. They highlighted also politico-military events
and pay a little attention to socio-economic structures.

 political influence. most of the time historiographers wrote according to

official ideology. Rwandan historiography was influenced by political
leaders. The nyiginya dynasty was termed as feudal regime.

 The influences of the official tradition: Missionaries such as Loupias (1907),

Albert Pages (1933), Pierre Schumacher (1943), and Leon Delmas (1950)
and Louis de Lacger (1939) conducted studies and listened to traditional
informants. they produced in their writings an official and ideological
history in favour of the ruling class.

 Antoine Nyagahene (1997, p.16) posits that a big gap was the ignorance of
the regional diversities despite the narrowness of Rwandan territory.

 where the Nyiginya ascendancy was strong, was spread abusively to the
whole Rwandan territory.

 The foreign historians

There are two generations of foreign historians: the first was composed of the first
explorers, the colonial administrators, the Catholic missionaries of the White
Fathers of Africa founded by the Cardinal Charles Lavigerie. The second

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generation included anthropologists (Jan Vansina, Marcel d’Hertefelt, Claudine
Vidal.) and trained historians who appeared just before independence.

 They were influenced by the royal court and the colonial politics of indirect
rule. They wanted to maintain and to reinforce the traditional administration
because it was necessary to pacify the country and to pass the "civilisation"
through them.

 Jan vansina attacked the studies done by Alexis Kagame for instance where
he said that history of Rwanda in a linear way. However, Vansina's critiques
were sometimes also motivated by eurocentrism.

 Kagame was influenced by the official ideology of the court. He wrote

history with some shortcomings: nationalism or jingoism, globalization, and
the ideology in favor of the ruling class.

 They were influenced also by the Bantu Hamitic myth. The ruling class was
considered as a superior race" of Nordic origin, therefore more capable to
the command.

 since 1975, a generation of young Rwandan historians from the History

Department of the National University Rwanda had begun re-writing the
history of Rwanda. But they were still influenced by the first writings. the
missionary expansion was the most favored topic.

 Influence of the Bantu Hamitic myth: This myth depicts Tutsi as superior
and born to rule.

 Political influence: first historians were influenced by official sources. most

of the time historiographers wrote according to official ideology. Rwanda
historiography was influenced by political leaders. The Nyiginya dynasty
was termed as feudal regime.

IRSAC: institute de Recherche Scientific En Afrique Central