Hutu
Regions with significant populations | |
---|---|
Rwanda | 11.1–12 million (84%–90% of the total population)[1] |
Burundi | 10.4 million (85% of the total population) |
DR Congo | 2 million (2% of the total population) |
Languages | |
Kinyarwanda, Kirundi | |
Religion | |
Predominantly Christianity, minority Islam | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Other Rwanda-Rundi peoples |
The Hutu (/ˈhuːtuː/), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic or social group which is native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they form one of the principal ethnic groups alongside the Tutsi and the Great Lakes Twa.
Demographics
The Hutu is the largest of the three main population divisions in
The
Origins
The Hutu are believed to have first emigrated to the Great Lake region from Central Africa in the great Bantu expansion.[6] Various theories have emerged to explain the purported physical differences between them and their fellow Bantu-speaking neighbors, the Tutsi. The Tutsi were pastoralists and are believed to have established aristocratic control over the sedentary Hutu and Twa. Through intermarriage with the Hutu, the Tutsi were gradually assimilated, culturally, linguistically, and racially.[7]
Others suggest that the two groups are related but not identical, and they also suggest that the differences between them were exacerbated by Europeans,[8] or they were exacerbated by a gradual, natural split, as those who owned cattle became known as the Tutsi and those who did not own cattle became known as the Hutu.[5] Mahmood Mamdani states that the Belgian colonial power designated people as Tutsi or Hutu on the basis of cattle ownership, physical measurements and church records.[9]
The debate over the ethnic origins of the Hutu and Tutsi within Rwandan politics predates the Rwandan genocide, and it continues to the present day,[10] with the government of Rwanda no longer using the distinction.
Genetics
Y-DNA (paternal lineages)
Modern-day genetic studies of the
Autosomal DNA (overall ancestry)
In general, the Hutu appear to share a close genetic kinship with neighboring Bantu populations, particularly the Tutsi. However, it is unclear whether this similarity is primarily due to extensive genetic exchanges between these communities through intermarriage or whether it ultimately stems from common origins:
[...] generations of gene flow obliterated whatever clear-cut physical distinctions may have once existed between these two Bantu peoples – renowned to be height, body build, and facial features. With a spectrum of physical variation in the peoples, Belgian authorities legally mandated ethnic affiliation in the 1920s, based on economic criteria. Formal and discrete social divisions were consequently imposed upon ambiguous biological distinctions. To some extent, the permeability of these categories in the intervening decades helped to reify the biological distinctions, generating a taller elite and a shorter underclass, but with little relation to the gene pools that had existed a few centuries ago. The social categories are thus real, but there is little if any detectable genetic differentiation between Hutu and Tutsi.[12]
Tishkoff et al. (2009) found their mixed Hutu and Tutsi samples from Rwanda to be predominately of Bantu origin, with minor gene flow from
Language
Hutus speak
Additionally, a small portion of Hutu speak French, the other official language of Rwanda and Burundi, as a lingua franca, although the population is dwindling given the poor relations between Rwanda and France.[citation needed]
Post-colonial history
Hutu militants |
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Rwandan genocide (1994) |
|
Refugee crisis |
RDR (1995–1996) |
1st and 2nd Congo War |
The Belgian-sponsored
In Rwanda, this led
In Burundi, a campaign of genocide was conducted against the Hutu population in 1972,[15][16][17][18][19] and an estimated 100,000 Hutus died.[20] In 1993, Burundi's first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, who was Hutu, was believed to be assassinated by Tutsi officers, as was the person constitutionally entitled to succeed him.[21] This sparked a counter-genocide in Burundi between Hutu political structures and the Tutsi military, in which an estimated 500,000 Burundians died.[citation needed] There were many mass killings of Tutsis and moderate Hutus; these events were deemed to be a genocide by the United Nations International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi.[22]
While Tutsis remained in control of Burundi, the conflict resulted in
About 30% of the Twa pygmy population of Rwanda were also killed by the Hutu extremists.
As of 2006[update], violence between the Hutu and Tutsi had subsided, but the situation in both Rwanda and Burundi was still tense, and tens of thousands of Rwandans were still living outside the country (see Great Lakes refugee crisis).[2]
See also
- Burundi Civil War
- History of Burundi
- History of Rwanda
- Rwanda Civil War
References
- ^ Since the Rwandan massacre, no ethnic census has been conducted an estimated 84 to 90 percent of the population is Hutu.
- ^ a b "Rwanda: People". CIA World Factbook. Retrieved 2006-10-31.
- ^ "Burundi: People". CIA World Factbook. Retrieved 2006-10-31.
- ^ "Twa". Encyclopædia Britannica. 11 October 2019.
- ^ a b
Des Forges, Alison (1999). "The Meaning of "Hutu," "Tutsi," and "Twa"". Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda (PDF). ISBN 1-56432-171-1. Retrieved 2006-10-31.
- PMID 14973781.
- ^ International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, Africa, Volume 76, (Oxford University Press., 2006), pg 135.
- SSRN 2272193.
- ISBN 0691102805.
- JSTOR 4187200.
- PMID 14973781.
- ^ Miller, Joseph C. (ed.). New Encyclopedia of Africa. Vol. 2, Dakar–Hydrology. Charles Scribner's Sons.
- PMID 18593304.
- ISBN 978-0-3133-3177-0.
- ^ Bowen, Michael; Freeman, Gary; Miller, Kay (1973). Passing by; The United States and genocide in Burundi, 1972. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
- ^ René Lemarchand, Selective genocide in Burundi (Report - Minority Rights Group; no. 20, 1974), 36 pp.
- ^ Rene Lemarchand, Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide (New York: Woodrow Wilson Center and Cambridge University Press, 1996), 232 pp.
- Edward L. Nyankanzi, Genocide: Rwanda and Burundi (Schenkman Books, 1998), 198 pp.
- ^ Christian P. Scherrer, Genocide and crisis in Central Africa: conflict roots, mass violence, and regional war; foreword by Robert Melson. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2002.
- ^ Weissman, Stephen R. "Preventing Genocide in Burundi Lessons from International Diplomacy Archived 2009-03-11 at the Wayback Machine", United States Institute of Peace
- ^ Rwanda 1994: Genocide + Politicide, Christian Davenport and Allan Stam
- ^ International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi: Final Report. Part III: Investigation of the Assassination. Conclusions at USIP.org Archived 2008-12-01 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi (2002)
- ^ "The Hutu Revolution". Human Rights Watch. 1999. Retrieved 2006-10-31.
- ^ "Timeline of the genocide". PBS. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
- ^ "How the genocide happened". BBC. 2004-04-01. Retrieved 2006-10-31.
- ^ "Minorities Under Siege: Pygmies today in Africa". UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-12-01. Retrieved 2006-12-11.