The Nyiginya Kingdom - Essay Example

Antecedents to Modern Rwanda: The Nyiginya Kingdom, a synopsis Written after the great tribulations that befall the Rwandese in mid 1990’s, “The antecedents to modern Rwanda: the Nyiginya kingdom” gives an historical background of the Rwanda republic, as we know it today. Recent events reawakened interest in the history of Rwanda before 1900, with the topic embroidered in a great deal of controversy relating to contemporary political, social and economic issues confronting the Rwanda republic. It is important to learn the history of Rwanda, particularly the Nyiginya kingdom in order to understand its modern day history, since modern Rwanda has its foundation on economic, social and political foundations encountered by the first colonial masters. The Nyiginya Kingdom was inexistence for over two centuries before the arrival of German colonialists in Rwanda. This history is of great value not only to Rwandans, but is also important to comparative studies of kingdoms in the entire great lake region, since it reveals peculiar characteristics that make it extraordinary and the most complex kingdom of the time. Furthermore, there is a great wealth of information available about the kingdom, stemming from a rich corpus of oral tradition, which consist the main foundations of its historiography. Standardization of oral traditional history in Rwanda began in 1917, thanks to collaboration between historians and historiographers, who arrived at a permanent definitive version in 1936. The divergent versions of history were no a result of incompetence or misunderstanding of information, but presents variants that were accepted before standardization, at a time when for a section of the population Ruganzu Bwimba had indeed campaigned against Bugesera, and Ruganzu Ndori against Karagwe. Historical narrative remains the keystone for any reconstructions, for which establishing their value, their variants are necessary. The reconstruction in this book keeps in mind the imperfection of the sources, since in the last resort none of them is beyond suspicion, judge to be the most credible. Oral traditions begin by narrating the story of kings, since according to them kingdoms were all about kings. The first king is Kigwa who descended from heaven and organised aristocracy. From this, there is a series of successors until king Gihanga (creator) the cultural hero who founded the first empire, which he left to his children. One these children were Kanyarwanda, an eponym for the country. After this point, there is a series of successors until Ruganzu Bwimba appears as the first monarch. From then on, the lists of dynamic successors constitute a framework around which the whole body of oral tradition has its organization. Nyiginya kingdom was in central Rwanda where history plays out, and is the main theatre for this book. The kingdom has its base on social, economic and cultural circumstances, which its founder encountered in that land. The author sketches the physical nature of the country, its economic occupation, its social structures, and political entities at the time. Central Rwanda is a natural space located to the east of upper Nyabarongo and Mwogo rivers, and south of Byumba prefecture highlands. To the east and to the south, its limits are the Akanyaru River, which separates it from Burundi and Bugesera. Central Rwanda has a varied internal ecology even though the country is separate as a natural region from the ones surrounding it. Its landscape consists of hills surrounded by rivers and marshes, with flat and windy ridges that are infertile due to lack of top fertile soil. Its economic activities range from pottery and ceramics dating back to the reign of King Ndori and his son in the seventeenth century. It is tempting to link the appearance of luxury vessels and the deco r change in utilitarian pottery to creation of a kingdom in central Rwanda by a group coming from the north that did not disturb a big population. A brief overview of archaeological data indicate that after the early iron age there may be a migration that took place at the time when ceramics begun to surface. Looking at the settlements of east Butare convinces of the stability of settlements for the last two thousand years. This wealth of known sites clearly is the fruit of intensive research over long periods in the region, which does not alter conclusions. Actually, Rwanda was a privileged region compared to the rest of tropical habitats since it had neither malaria nor trypanosomiasis. The people of Nyiginya kingdom engaged in different subsistence economic activities that included farmers and sedentary livestock keepers, who kept a few number of herds due to the limited size of land. In terms of family matters, the wife of the family head was automatically the mistress assisted by other women married of the household to direct all the functions. As population increased the need for use of all land on the hill, causing conflicts relating to such issues as the rights of passage for cattle, and the damage they caused on farmlands. The other point of conflict was on the use of low-lying wetland during the dry seasons since both the arable farmers and livestock keepers need the land for their production in the dry weather. The other cause of conflicts was the fact that herding required more land per unit of production than farming, with each heard requiring as twice the amount of land needed by a farmer to adequately support one complete family. The basic social unit was the localized and exogamic patrilineage called Inzu consisting of three generations made up of grandparents, their married sons, and their grand children all living in the same compound or adjacent to one another. In every time save for rituals, the local group also included spouses and servants. The lineage leader practiced rites of worship for the male ancestor of their liniage from the immediate generation to as far as the ancestry could stretch back to its founder. The leader also regulated marriage, paid or received ransoms and held collective title or a landed domain or to a heard. Moreover, the inzu was the smallest unit concerned with vendetta or collective vengeance. The duty of vengeance had priority over all other roles for the members of the aggrieved lineage, even over a royal order to mobilise in times of war. Vendetta was not only directed to the offender, but also to any member of his Inzu. Runguza Ndori founded the Nyiginya kingdom, a statement that contradicts all the Rwandan historians and most of its oral traditional history. Ndori above all is the protagonist in an epic story, the hero of a great cycle of marvellous tales, some of which have great formal beauty. Above all, he like Sunjata or Alexander is the heroic founder of a state. The cycle opens when as a small kid reflects on his paternal aunt in Kagware, where his father Ndahiro had sent him, foreseeing his own death and the fall of his kingdom. When the time is ripe, a faithful servant of his farther recalls Ndori back to his home country. On his return, he escapes many clutches of his enemies, the Abanyabhinyis “those who have many things” and reaches Bugisi where he instigates miracles of fecundity that prove his kingship. Then he finds his dynastic drum Karinga, a feat that in his region announces the birth of a new kingdom. Once a king, Ndori surrounds himself with a prestigious army and “this triumpher triumphed in Rwanda. By guile and force, he makes numerous conquests and the small kings who occupy central Rwanda fall like trees under the axe of Ndori the pioneer. He dies from wound inflicted in an ambush that takes place in the high mountain forests. The appearance of Ndori in the scenes of central Rwanda occurs at a time when other kingdoms such as those of Nkore, Karagwe and Ndorwa were also emerging to the north of his kingdom. Although chronology of these polities remains uncertain, estimates show that they emerged in the 1700s. The creation of Ndori’s kingdom has two essential elements. First, there was an affirmation that there was a kingdom, acknowledging Ndori as the king by his companions from the start and later was supposed to be the very fire lit for Gihanga who had never experienced extinguishing since his early days. It served as a proof of apostolic succession: the Nyiginya king was truly the direct and legitimate descendant of the conqueror Gihanga. As the curtain rises again in 1720, it reveals a scene where Gisanura is king but the great chiefs in all other territories are all independent. Ndori’s successor had not managed to extend the kingdom’s authority and its centralizing power was still as fragile as it was right from the onset. However, starting with Gisanura, the kings and their courts attempt to attain a stronger hold over their subjects and succeed in this endeavour. During the eighteenth century, there is a history of political successions of autocratic actions by sovereigns accountable to no one. This history is mainly determined by the character of each individual kings in succession, with individual reign being its natural unit. Towards the end of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, a new political dynamic appears in the kingdom after the civil war. It grew in importance through the entire nineteenth century and resulted into transformation of the kingdoms and the overall structure of the society. The civil war destroyed the personal power of the king to a great advantage of families at courts whose aspirations will henceforth dictate the internal policies of the kingdom. As population grows, families increase in size, prompting them to look for alternative income generating ways for their adult sons. The foremost agricultural calamity occurs at the end of the eighteenth century, and breaks out when a great drought which had hit Bukoma and Nduga especially hard, further aggravates the destructive effects of the civil war. There is no trace concerning human epidemics before 1801, when there is a mention of smallpox for the second time. The death of Ndabarasa in 1796 triggers a catastrophe of succession war. Several of high powerful sons were bent on seizing power despite the fact that he had designated Sentabyo as his successor. More than ten lineages played a crucial role in this struggle. The conflict is a triumph for the elites and a disaster for the kings because it transforms the balance of power at court. By 1802, power already lay in the hands of an oligarchy that includes about twenty families who hold it for over two reigns. As the elite courts continually multiply and the struggles between lineages get more struggles that are ferocious, were mostly in courts although opposing lineages did fight each other to eliminate the ruler. The reign of Rwabugiri and his successor presents an overwhelming impression of unrelenting rise of a tide of terror that starts at the courts and engulfs the whole country. It finally erupts into a social crisis that has persisted for well over a century. The personal role of Rwabugiri was more limited and passive than we know it. He tried to solicit support from new men, to come up with the idea of new residence although he failed to persuade a political parade. He was a warrior inclined to using forceful means as the first option in solving all the problems that came his way. In deed, his habit of following on denunciations immediately and impetuously turned him to the perfect instrument of courtiers who wanted to settle accounts, which resulted to terrorizing the country and transformation in the end. As this study ends, the reader will remember that the main objective is to present a starting point for thinking about Rwanda’s past in the light of the present. External wars and internal politics are so intertwined during this period, with the internal policies driving the conflicts that afflict the kingdom. The dynamics are characterised by a succession of major upsets in the balance of power at the courts with an apparent periodicity of about seven to nine years. Each of these cycles were followed by a wave of executions and persecutions as well as realignment of the lineages. The Nyiginya kingdom was but one among several others, which rose during the seventeenth century and offer a classic example of examining the history of governance and social dynamics in Rwanda. Chronologically, the Nyiginya kingdom falls under the crucial times when Rwanda experienced dynamic shifts in governance, social transformations and great territorial expansions. Work cited Jan, Vansina. Antecedents to modern Rwanda: the Nyiginya Kingdom. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004. Print. Read More