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Early Rwanda History: The Contribution of Comparative Ethnography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Richard Sigwalt
Richard Sigwalt*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
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Extract

The most important development in African historiography since 1970 is almost surely the growing awareness that oral tradition alone is insufficient as a source for reconstructing the past beyond about 1750. Henceforth historians will be increasingly obliged to turn to other bodies of data, at least if they wish to avoid writing history which, in Bradbury's words, is no more than “the rationalization of myth.” Despite pleas by, among others, Bradbury, Vansina, and Lewis as long ago as a decade or more, historians have thus far shown little sign of incorporating ethnographic data into then-catalog of sources, or comparative ethnography into their methodological tool-kit. One reason for this reluctance (at least among English language Africanists of our generation) may be a vague acquaintance with the serious abuses which European Africanists— especially those associated with the Vienna ‘culture-historical school’—committed by stretching ethnographic data to fit grand, but spurious, global schemes of human evolution. Clearly, though, earlier abuses in no way justify our refusing now to exploit a body of data we badly need, provided we examine it with appropriate care and modesty. We must admit at the outset that ethnographic comparisons for historical purposes on a continental scale will be impossible until a good many regional studies are available. In turn, such regional studies will normally be limited to selected aspects of related culture, and not to cultures as holistic units. This means that points of articulation between regional studies may well be difficult to identify.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 2 , 1975 , pp. 137 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1975

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References

1. See, for example, Vansina, J., “L'influence du mode de comprehension d'une civilisation sur ses traditions d'origine: le cas Kuba,” Bulletin des séances de l'Académie royale des sciences d'Outre-mer, (1973), pp. 220–40Google Scholar; idem, “Traditions of Genesis,” JAH, 15 (1974), pp. 317–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Henige, David, The Chronology of Oral Tradition (Oxford, 1974)Google Scholar, passim. I am particularly indebted to Professor Vansina for comments on an earlier draft of this paper without, however, wishing to impute any of its arguments or conclusions to him.

2. Bradbury, R.E., “The Historical Uses of Comparative Ethnography with Special Reference to Benin and the Yoruba,” in Vansina, J.et al. (eds.), The Historian in Tropical Africa (London, 1964), p. 147.Google Scholar

3. Ibid.; Vansina, J., “The Use of Ethnographic Data as Sources for History,” in Ranger, T.O. (ed.), Emerging Themes in African History (Nairobi, 1968), pp. 97–124Google Scholar; Lewis, H.S., “Ethnology and African Culture History,” in Gabel, Creighton and Bennett, Norman R. (eds.), Reconstructing African Culture History (Boston, 1967), pp. 25–44.Google Scholar

4. Christopher Ehret's examination of cattle and sheep terms shows how new data raise new questions. See his “Cattle-Keeping and Milking in Eastern and Southern African History: The Linguistic Evidence,” JAH, 8 (1967), pp. 1–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, “Sheep and Central Sudanie Peoples in Southern Africa,” JAH, 9 (1968), pp. 213-21. Language classification alone poses intriguing historical questions. For example, see Heine, B., “Zur genetischen Gliederung der Bantu-Sprachen,” Afrika und Ubersee, 56 (1972/1973), pp. 161–85.Google Scholar

5. Karugire, S.R.A History of the Kingdom of Nkore in Western Uganda to 1896 (Oxford, 1971), pp. 46–47.Google Scholar

6. Ibid., p. 47. Here Karugire follows a suggestion of Posnansky. See Posnansky, M., “Kingship, Archaeology, and Historical Myth,” UJ, 30 (1966), p. 6.Google Scholar

7. The exact nuances of the term -nyiginya are not entirely clear. See d'Hertefelt, M., Les clans du Rwanda ancien (Tervuren, 1971), pp. 18–20Google Scholar, for a discussion.

8. d'Hertefelt, M. and Coupes, A., La royauté sacrée de l'ancien Rwanda (Tervuren, 1964), p. 404.Google Scholar Both mugabe and mukama were used as royal titles in precolonial Nkore. See Taylor, Brian K., The Western Lacustrine Bantu (London, 1962), p. 108.Google Scholar

9. The Nyoro/Toro/Haya and Rwanda/Rundi/Ha groups seem in general to resemble each other more closely than either resembles the Ganda/Soga or eastern Zaire groups, but this impression awaits systematic confirmation.

10. There does exist a clan called -twa in Nokre, a member of which (along with representatives of the other clans) participates in the installation of a new king. See Wilhams, F. Lukyn, “The Inauguration of the Omugabe of Ankole to Office,” UJ, 4 (1936/1937), pp. 307–8.Google Scholar This clan, which Williams did not associate with ‘Pygmies,’ seems to belong to a deeper substratum of culture which does not directly concern us here.

11. Thus the volume by Taylor cited in note 8 bears the title Western Lacustrine Bantu, although it does not deal at all with the westernmost lacustrine speakers, those in Zaire.

12. The only published history of any part of the area is an amalgam of missionary-collected traditions. See Masson, Paul, Trois siècles chez les Bashi (Tervuren, 1960).Google Scholar Important sources of raw data, both historical and ethnographic, for the area are Peter Schumacher, Die Kivupygmaen: Ihr soziale und physische Umwelt (Brussels, 1949)Google Scholar, and Moeller, P., Les grandes lignes des migrations des Bantous de la Province Orientale (Brussels, 1936).Google Scholar Both are more valuable for their data than for their interpretation of them.

13. For a general overview of the group see Cuypers, J.-B., “Les Bantous interlacustres du Kivu,” in Vansina, J. (ed.), Introduction à l'ethnographie du Congo (Brussels, 1965), pp. 201–11.Google Scholar

14. Viaene, L., “L'organisation politique des Bahunde,” Kongo-Overzee, 18 (1952), pp. 8–34, 111–21Google Scholar; Biebuyck, D., “Organisation politique des Nyanga-la chefferie lhana,” Kongo-Overzee, 22 (1956), pp. 301–41Google Scholar; 23 (1957), pp. 59–98; idem, “De Mumbo-instelling bij de Banyanga (Kivu),” Kongo-Overzee, 21 (1955), pp. 441-48.

15. Randall Packard has provided me with the information for the Nande. For Ninja the information was collected during field work in Bushi from 1970 to 1973.

16. For a map of this area see Vansina, , Introduction, p. 203.Google Scholar

17. Nyindu: Moeller, , Grandes lignes, p. 411Google Scholar; Nyanga: Biebuyck, Daniel, Lega Culture (Berkeley, 1973), p. 71Google Scholar; Furiiru: ibid., p. 21n30; Vira: ibid., pp. 21, 71; Tembo: Adm. Terr. Dubuisson, “Légende sur les origines des Watembo,” 13-report in the archives of the Musée Royale de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren; Havu: Schumacher, Pierre, Expedition zu den zentralafrikanischen Kivu-pygmaen, I, Die physische und soziale Umwelt der Kivu-pygmaen (Brussels, 1949), p. 259.Google Scholar I have verified the information on the Shi states in Moeller, Grandes lignes.

18. Nyanga: Biebuyck, , “Organisation politique,” pp. 313–14Google Scholar; Hunde: Viaene, , “Organisation politique,” p. 9Google Scholar; Havu: Veronck, , “Décès du Mwami Rushombo: intronisation du Mwami Baholé,” Revue Congo, 1 (1928), p. 296Google Scholar; Nyindu: Moeller, , Grandes lignes, p. 491.Google Scholar

19. Vira: Bragard, “Les Bacira,” document in the archives of the Musée Royale de l'Afrique Centrale; Havu: Verdonck, “Décès du Mwami”; Furiiru: “Etude sur les origines des Bafulero,” Musée Royale de l'Afrique Centrale; Hunde: Biebuyck, “Organisation politique”; Nyanga: Biebuyck, “Organisation politique.” The inference that title-bearing ritualists form a ‘college’ is my own.

20. Hunde: Schumacher, , Umwelt, p. 196Google Scholar; Havu: L. Viaene, “Essai de monographie des Bahavu,” document (undated but ca. 1960) in the Centre d'Etude des Langues Africaines, Bukavu; Nyindu: Corbisier, “Enquête/Lwindi,” 7-Musée Royale de l'Afrique Centrale and attested by fieldwork; Nyanga: Biebuyck, D. (ed.), The Mwindo Epic from the Banyanga (Congo Republic) (Berkeley, 1969), p. 7.Google Scholar

21. For luzi among the Nyanga: Biebuyck, , Mwindo, p. 4Google Scholar; Nyindu: Biebuyck, , Lega Culture, p. 21n30Google Scholar; Hunde: Schumacher, , Umwelt, p. 229Google Scholar; Tembo: Dubuisson, , “Légende sur les origines,” p. 4Google Scholar; Havu: Schumacher, , Umwelt, p. 259Google Scholar; Furiiru, , “Etude sur les origines,” p. 2Google Scholar (citing Fr. Feys). For cihugo see Biebuyck, , “Organisation politique,” p. 312Google Scholar (Nyanga). The lexical items are only meant to be suggestive. Two other terms, attested only for Rwanda and Bushi, deserve mention. Apparently the term used for royal installation in Rwanda is kuyima, with exclusively royal referent. Among the Bushi kuyima is the general term for succession, royal as well as commoner. This by no means implies a Shi conquest of Rwanda, of course; rather, it probably suggests that institutional notions survived significant culture change in Rwanda. A second observation, not yet tested, is that a link might exist between the ritualist -jiji in Rwanda and the -jinfi or -gingi ritualists in the Zaire southern lacustrine states. The nature of such a link, should it exist, is at the moment perfectly obscure.

22. E.g., Kagame, , Un abrégé de l'ethnohistoire du Rwanda (Butare, 1972), p. 23Google Scholar; de Lacger, L., Ruanda (2nd ed., 2 vols, in 1: Kabgayi, 1959), 1:69.Google Scholar

23. Oberg, K., “The Kingdom of Ankole in Uganda,” in Fortes, Meyer and Evans-Pritchard, E.E. (eds.), African Political Systems (London, 1940), p. 160.Google Scholar

24. Bourgeois, R., Banyarwanda et Burundi, II, La Coutume (Brussels, 1954), p. 36.Google Scholar

25. Names are also inherited. This hints at a kind of positional succession system similar to that prevailing in Bushi at all social levels.

26. Kagame, A., “Le code ésotérique de la dynastie du Rwanda,” Zaire, 1 (1947), pp. 366–67.Google Scholar

27. Kagame, A., Les organisations socio-familiales de l'ancien Rwanda (Brussels, 1954), p. 8.Google Scholar

28. d'Hertefelt, and Coupez, , Royauté sacrés, p. 494Google Scholar, s.v. ‘Twa,’ and passages cited there.

29. See note 9 above.

30. Lacger, , Rwanda, p. 121Google Scholar; d'Hertefelt, , Clans, p. 23.Google Scholar

31. E. Sosne, “A Note on the Luzi of Bushi,” Etudes d'Histoire Africaine, forthcoming. ‘Luzi’ cannot be derived from ‘Tutsi.’ Within the context of the present argument it appears reasonable to think of ‘tutsi’ as being etymologically tied to the term as it is used in Zaire. How such a change in meaning might have come about demands reconsideration of how Rwanda's ‘caste’ system emerged.

32. The absence of these elements in Ha royal ritual is probably due to the Ha Tutsi having established dominance over peoples with markedly different institutions. In Buha lineage heads (-teko) retained considerable authority. See Scherer, J.H., “The Ha of Tanganyika,” Anthropos, 54 (1954), pp. 867–69, 880–84.Google Scholar Professor Vansina adivses me that J. Chrétien has independently arrived at the same conclusion, viz., that Ha kingship differs significantly from that of Rwanda or Burundi.

33. Vansina, , L'évolution, pp. 44–45Google Scholar; Kagame, , Abrégé, p.42.Google Scholar

34. Vansina, , L'évolution, pp. 46–47.Google Scholar The dates must be treated with some caution.

35. Ibid., p. 47.

36. d'Hertefelt, , Clans, p. 24Google Scholar and his review of Vansina, L'évolution, in Africa, 32 (1962), p. 422.Google Scholar

37. d'Hertefelt, and Coupez, , Royauté sacrée, pp. 76–79.Google Scholar

38. Bourgeois, R., Banyarwanda et Barundi, I, Ethnographie (Brussels, 1958), pp. 418–28.Google Scholar

39. This ceremony is called mubande. Its distribution and relationship to the overall ethnographic map of the area is unclear; apparently it does not exist in the area of the mumbo complex.

40. Pagès, A., Un royaume hamite au centre de l'Afrique (Brussels, 1933), p. 638.Google Scholar See ibid., pp. 634–83, for clan traditions claiming Hunde origins. It is unclear when this occurred or what was the extent of pre-Tutsi Hunde cultural predominance in the area.

41. Vansina, , L'èvolution, p. 29.Google Scholar

42. Viaene, , “Organisation politique,” p. 113.Google Scholar This office-holder is described as follows: “At the death of the king, Mwiru occupies the throne until the enthronement of a successor. When the new king returns from the maziba [a spring to which he goes during the installation ceremony] he finds Mwiru seated on the royal chair. With a kick [‘un coup du pied’] the king dispossesses him from the throne and takes his own place there. The reign of Mwiru has come to an end. Thenceforth he will be minister charged with guarding the royal drum Kalinga.” Rwanda tradition says that the Rwanda royal drum, also called kalinga, came from the northwest in Ruganzu Ndori's time (early- to mid-seventeenth century by Vansina's chronology).

43. Colle, Pierre, Essai de monographie des Bashi (Bukavu, 1971), p. 265.Google Scholar

44. d'Hertefelt, , Clans, pp. 18–20.Google Scholar

45. Ibid., table 3 at end.

46. Scherer, , “Ha,” p. 868.Google Scholar