Tutsi

Lore & Background

The Tutsi are believed by some scholars to descend mainly from speakers of an extinct branch of South Cushitic called 'Tale South Cushitic', who entered the African Great Lakes region before 800 BC. These pastoralists relied on livestock, avoided grain cultivation, and shunned fish, practices mirrored by the Tutsi. Additionally, the Tutsi derive ancestry from the Sog Eastern Sahelians, a Nilo-Saharan agro-pastoralist group that entered the region around 2000 BC, and from Central Sudanic peoples who arrived around 3000 BC. Loanwords in the Rwanda-Rundi languages, such as 'inka' (cow), reflect these influences.

Reader's Guide

The Tutsi have played a central role in the history of Rwanda and Burundi, ruling through a Tutsi-dominated monarchy from the 15th century until the colonial era. German and later Belgian colonial administrations perpetuated a pro-Tutsi policy, allowing only Tutsi to be educated and participate in government, which engendered resentment. After independence in 1962, the Hutu majority in Rwanda revolted, forcing many Tutsi into exile. In Burundi, the assassination of the first democratically elected Hutu president in 1993 by Tutsi officers sparked ethnic violence. Genetic studies show that Tutsi are largely of Bantu extraction, with little detectable genetic differentiation from Hutu, despite historical social divisions. The definition of 'Tutsi' has shifted over time, with Belgian censuses using cattle ownership and physical traits to classify individuals.

Did You Know?

• The Tutsi traditionally shun the cultivation and consumption of grains, pottery, hunting, and eating fish.
• The word for 'cow' in Rwanda-Rundi languages, 'inka', originally meant 'cattle camp' in the Sog Eastern Sahelian language.
• Tutsi women, especially if menstruating, are strictly forbidden to milk cows, a practice shared with Central Sudanic–speaking societies.
• Some oral traditions link Tutsi origins to Somali clans like the Gadabuursi, but mainstream scholarship does not accept this.