The History of the Tutsi (As told to me by Prof. Bwejeri) The Tutsi people originated in Ethiopia when it was known as Kush and was a Jewish kingdom. There are numerous references to Kush in the Bible. The Jewish kingdom fell in 1270 CE. As a result, several clans, including the Bene-Zagwei clan, moved south and west to an area Bwejeri calls Havila or the African Great Lakes Region, consisting of Burundi, Rwanda, and parts of Uganda, Tanzania and the Congo. In this region, these clans reconstituted the South Kushitic Empire, which lasted from 1270 CE to 1527 CE. In the South Kushitic Empire the laws of Moses were the laws of the land. But it was the laws of Moses as they were remembered through oral transmission. The link between the written Torah and the Tutsi was broken with their departure from Ethiopia. Beginning about 1880, Catholic missionaries arrived in the South Kushitic Empire. A period of conflict began between the Tutsi who sought to remain faithful to their Tutsi religion and the missionaries — a conflict that lasted well into the 20th century. The military tide turned in favor of the missionaries when German forces entered the land and occupied it. Still the Tutsi resisted conversion. The missionaries found success only among the Hutu “gerim”. Because of Tutsi resistance and Hutu acceptance of Catholicism, Tutsi land was confiscated and given to Hutu “squatters”. This is the origin of the conflict between the Tutsi and the Hutu. About the time of World War I, Belgium became the colonial ruler of Rwanda, Burundi and Kivu (eastern Congo), which were in the historic domain of the Tutsi. Under the Belgians, the Catholic Church “began to destroy methodically the basis of the Tutsi Jewish religion.” Rwanda, Burundi and Kivu were separated and placed under different figureheads. The Jewish Rwandan King was exiled, and his converted son placed on his throne. An annual gathering of Tutsi lasting eight days used to take place in what is now Rwanda. The Catholic hierarchy noted that the rituals of the festival were in accordance with the Old Testament rites of Sukkoth, and in 1917 the festival was banned by the Belgians. The Jewish Tutsi King of Burundi managed to survive by subterfuge. One of his descendants, King Mwambutsa, was the first African sovereign to recognize the State of Israel and make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Nevertheless, one hundred years of “Inquisition and terrorism annihilated” the Tutsi ancient Jewish faith.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 16:03:33 +0000
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