Early 20th Century: (The Reinvention of Rwanda — Pre-Colonial Hutu-Tutsi Relations as Complex and Fluid, German and Belgian Administrations Bolstering Tutsi …

Early 20th Century: (The Reinvention of Rwanda — Pre-Colonial Hutu-Tutsi Relations as Complex and Fluid, German and Belgian Administrations Bolstering Tutsi Dominance, Myths of Hamitic Superiority Created Around Physical Stature, Pastoralism, and Northern Racial Provenance, a Hierarchical Tutsi Monarchy That Had Not Existed Before 1900, and the Tragic Long-Term Consequences of Colonial Ethnic Engineering): It was the process of reinvention in Rwanda, however, that produced the most tragic long-term consequences — a catastrophe whose seeds were planted in the fertile soil of colonial ethnic engineering. Before colonial rule, relations between the majority agricultural Hutu and the cattle-owning Tutsi were complex and fluid — there was rivalry between them, but also extensive intermarriage and deep economic and cultural interdependency. On the eve of colonial rule they spoke the same language and shared much in the way of culture and religion, their differences largely related to class. These class divisions widened dramatically during the colonial period as German and Belgian administrations sought to bolster what they perceived as the natural social and political dominance of the Tutsi over the Hutu. From the early 1900s, myths of historic hegemony and superiority were created around the Tutsi — by both colonial administrators and by the Tutsi themselves — based on everything from physical stature to the supposed dignity of pastoralism to racial provenance, the claim that the Tutsi were carriers of civilization from the north. A singular, hierarchical Tutsi monarchy, which had not existed in this form before 1900, was created as the instrument through which to administer the Hutu majority. The written word was deployed to produce the impression of permanence — fluid, pragmatic identities that had been continually evolving in the pre-colonial era were made rigid and codified, and hegemonic narratives emerged at the expense of historical complexity and smaller groups marginalized or subsumed.