Mutara III Rudahigwa

Mutara III Rudahigwa
Mwami of Rwanda
Reign 16 November 1931 – 25 July 1959
Predecessor Yuhi V Musinga
Successor Kigeli V Ndahindurwa
Born March 1911
Nyanza, Rwanda
Died 25 July 1959(1959-07-25) (aged 48)
Bujumbura, Burundi
Spouse Nyiramakomali (m. 1933; div. 1941)
Rosalie Gicanda (m. 1942)
Clan Abanyiginya
Father Yuhi V Musinga
Mother Radegonde Nyiramavugo III Kankazi

Mutara III Rudahigwa (March 1911 – 25 July 1959) was King (Mwami) of Rwanda between 1931 and 1959. He was the first Rwandan king to be baptised, and Roman Catholism took hold in Rwanda during his reign. His Christian name was Charles Léon Pierre, and he is sometimes referred to as Charles Mutara III Rudahigwa.

Early life and education

Rudahigwa was born in March 1911,[1] in the royal capital of Rwanda, Nyanza, to King Yuhi V Musinga,[2] and Queen Kankazi (later Queen Mother Radegonde Nyiramavugo III Kankazi), one of his wives.[3][4] He was a member of the Tutsi Abanyiginya clan.[5]

In 1919 he began his education at the Colonial School for Chiefs' Sons in Nyanza, subsequently becoming his father's secretary in 1924.[2] In January 1929 he was appointed a chief and administered a province.[6][7]

Reign

Rudahigwa became king on 16 November 1931, the Belgian colonial administration having deposed his father, Yuhi V Musinga, four days earlier.[8] He took the royal name Mutara, becoming Mutara III Rudahigwa.[9] He is sometimes referred to as Charles Mutara III Rudahigwa.[10]

He was the first Rwandan king to convert to Catholicism, converting in 1943 and taking the Christian name Charles Léon Pierre.[2] His father had refused to convert to Christianity, and the Rwandan Catholic Church eventually perceived him as anti-Christian and as an impediment to their civilising mission.[11] Rudahigwa had been secretly instructed in Christianity by Léon Classe, the head of the Rwandan Catholic Church, since 1929, and was groomed by the Belgians to replace his father.[6] In 1946 he dedicated the country to Christ, effectively making Christianity a state religion.[9][12] His conversion spearheaded a wave of baptisms in the protectorate.[2][13]

His reign coincided with the worst recorded period of famine in Rwanda between 1941 and 1945, which included the Ruzagayura famine (1944 - 1945], during which time 200,000 out of the nation's population of around two million perished.[9]

Rising ethnic tensions

During Rudahigwa's reign there was a marked stratification of ethnic identity. In 1935 the Belgian administration issued identity cards formalising the ethnic categories, Tutsi, Hutu and Twa.[14] After World War II, a Hutu emancipation movement began to grow in Rwanda, fuelled by increasing resentment of the inter-war social reforms, and also an increasing sympathy for the Hutu within the Catholic Church.[15] Although in 1954 Rudhahigwa abolished the ubuhake system of indentured service that exploited Hutus,[16] this had little real practical effect.[17][18]

The monarchy and prominent Tutsi sensed the growing influence of the Hutu and began to agitate for immediate independence on their own terms,[19] culminating in Rudahigwa's demand for independence from Belgium in 1956.[16] In 1957, a group of Hutu scholars wrote the "Bahutu Manifesto". This political manifesto denounced the "exploitation" of the Hutus by the ethnic Tutsi and called for their liberation from first Tutsi, and then Belgian, rule.[20] Hutu political parties quickly formed after that, with future-president Gregoire Kayibanda forming the Hutu Social Movement (soon renamed MDR-PARMEHUTU), and Joseph Gitera creating Association for Social Promotion of the Masses (APROSOMA).[21]

Death

On 24 July 1959, Rudahigwa arrived in Bujumbura, Burundi, for a meeting with Belgian colonial authorities arranged by Father Andre Perraudin.[22] The following day, he visited his Belgian doctor at the colonial hospital, where he died.[23] The Belgian authorities put out several conflicting explanations for his death. One was that he complained of a severe headache and been treated by his doctor, but collapsed as he left the hospital of what was later determined, by three doctors, to be a cerebral haemorrhage. Another Belgian explanation was that he died from a reaction to a penicillin shot. An autopsy was not carried out due to the objections of Queen Mother Kankazi.[24]

Rumours that he had been deliberately killed by the Belgian authorities were rife, and tensions rose: ordinary Rwandans gathered along routes and stoned European's cars.[24][25] Rumors that he was in poor health, suffering from the effects of excessive drinking,[24][26] as well as the effects of untreated syphilis, are claims unverified by any evidence.[26] A Twa attendant of the king said he was in great health at the time,[27] which is supported by his active engagement in sporting activities then, including vigorous games of tennis.

Rudahigwa was succeeded by Jean-Baptiste Ndahindurwa, as Kigeli V.[16]

Personal life

Mutara married Nyiramakomali on 15 October 1933 and they divorced in 1941. He married Rosalie Gicanda, a Christian, in a church wedding on 13 January 1942.[28]

After Rudahigwa's death, Rosalie Gicanda remained in Rwanda. She was murdered in 1994 during the Rwandan Genocide, on the orders of Idelphonse Nizeyimana. He was later caught, convicted by a UN war crimes court and sentenced to life imprisonment.[29]

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ Laurent Gakuba (1991). Rwanda, 1931-1959 (in French). La Pensee universelle. p. 96.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Aimable Twagilimana (2007). Historical Dictionary of Rwanda. Scarecrow Press. p. 199.
  3. ↑ Alexis Kagame (1988). Alexis Kagame: l'homme et son oeuvre : actes du Colloque international, Kigali, 26 novembre-2 décembre 1987 (in French). Ministère de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche scientifique. p. 67.
  4. ↑ Leon Delmas (1950). Généalogies de la noblesse (les Batutsi) du Ruanda (in French). Vicariat Apostolique du Ruanda Kabgayi. pp. 25, 91.
  5. ↑ "Rwanda: Clan of the dynasty Abanyiginya". Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. 31 October 2002.
  6. 1 2 J. J. Carney (2011). From Democratization to Ethnic Revolution: Catholic Politics in Rwanda, 1950-1962 (Ph.D). Catholic University of America. pp. 62–63.
  7. ↑ J. J. Carney (2014). Rwanda Before the Genocide. Oxford University Press. p. 36.
  8. ↑ Frank K. Rusagara (2009). Resilience of a Nation: A History of the Military in Rwanda. Fountain Publishers. p. 99.
  9. 1 2 3 Aimable Twagilimana (2007). Historical Dictionary of Rwanda. Scarecrow Press. p. xxviii.
  10. ↑ Aimable Twagilimana (2007). Historical Dictionary of Rwanda. Scarecrow Press. p. 7.
  11. ↑ Aimable Twagilimana (2007). Historical Dictionary of Rwanda. Scarecrow Press. p. 25.
  12. ↑ Carol Rittner; John K. Roth; Wendy Whitworth, eds. (2004). Genocide in Rwanda: Complicity of the Churches?. Paragon House. p. 231.
  13. ↑ Michael Rectenwald; Rochelle Almeida; George Levine, eds. (2015). Global Secularisms in a Post-Secular Age. Walter de Gruyter. p. 207.
  14. ↑ Helena Cobban (2007). Amnesty After Atrocity?. Routledge. p. 33.
  15. ↑ Gérard Prunier (1995). The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide. C. Hurst & Co. pp. 42–44.
  16. 1 2 3 Aimable Twagilimana (2007). Historical Dictionary of Rwanda. Scarecrow Press. p. xxix.
  17. ↑ Gérard Prunier (1995). The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide. C. Hurst & Co. p. 46.
  18. ↑ Tharcisse Gatwa (2005). The Churches and Ethnic Ideology in the Rwandan Crises, 1900-1994. Regnum Books International. p. 50.
  19. ↑ Gérard Prunier (1995). The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide. C. Hurst & Co. p. 43.
  20. ↑ Aimable Twagilimana (2007). Historical Dictionary of Rwanda. Scarecrow Press. p. 82.
  21. ↑ Gérard Prunier (1995). The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide. C. Hurst & Co. p. 47.
  22. ↑ Helen Codere 1973:293
  23. ↑ Tharcisse Gatwa (2005). The Churches and Ethnic Ideology in the Rwandan Crises, 1900-1994. Regnum Books International. p. 55.
  24. 1 2 3 Rosamond Halsey Carr (2000). Land of a Thousand Hills. Plume. p. 115.
  25. ↑ Ian Linden; Jane Linden (1977). Church and Revolution in Rwanda. Manchester University Press. p. 262.
  26. 1 2 Filip Reyntjens (1985). Pouvoir et droit au Rwanda (in French). Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale. p. 239.
  27. ↑ Codere 1973: 293
  28. ↑ Laurent Gakuba (1991). Rwanda, 1931-1959 (in French). La Pensee universelle. p. 96.
  29. ↑ "Rwanda genocide: Nizeyimana convicted of killing Queen Gicanda". BBC News. 19 June 2012.

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