Kingdom of Rwanda

The Kingdom of Rwanda (Nyiginya), Tutsi monarchy of the thousand hills, was among the most centralised states of Central and East Africa. A Bantu kingdom grown great on cattle clientship, where Tutsi lords granted cows to Hutu farmers for service, it expanded by conquest and assimilation under warrior kings, with ritualists, armies and hill chiefs answering to the Mwami. German and then Belgian rule annexed it while keeping a shadow of autonomy. The Hutu revolution from 1959 broke the monarchy; a 1961 referendum abolished it, Kigeli V went into exile, and 1962 brought a Hutu republic. Intore dancers, inzu poetry and the royal drum Kalinga survive in museums and festivals, and monarchists keep a court-in-exile while Rwanda debates what the thousand hills remember. Cattle clientship bound Hutu farmers to Tutsi lords for generations. German askari and Belgian administrators both ruled through the Mwami. Kigeli V died in American exile without regaining the throne.