The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

REPORT ON RWANDA
YOLANDE MUKAGASANA, KIGALI
Presentation of Rwanda
To better understand the genesis of the Rwandan conflict, we must first
understand Rwanda and its people during the pre-colonial period, and
follow the thread of events. Rwanda provides certain exceptions, compared
with other African countries discovered by European explorers.
Rwanda has been a state for several centuries. Despite its small size of
26,338 sq. km., Rwanda enjoys a temperate, mild and humid climate.
The terrain is particularly mountainous, since the entire country is more
than 1000 m above sea level, and half its total area is between 1500 and
2000 m above sea level. Nicknamed the “land of a thousand hills” for
its beautiful lush greenery, the areas of moderate altitude are home to
the majority of the population. Rwanda is a nation populated by three
major human groups: the Twa, the Hutu and the Tutsi, which all constitute
one and the same ethnic group, the Banyarwanda. According to legend,
all Rwandans are originally brothers, because they have a common
ancestor, Kanyarwanda. Per capita GNP was $230 in 2005.
Rwanda is not the creation of the colonizers, nor did they give it its name.
Rwanda has always called that, except that the colonizers decided to spell
it Ruanda instead of Rwanda, because the “w” is pronounced differently
in German and French. Otherwise, Rwanda never changed its name.
The history of Rwanda can be divided into four periods:
� The pre-colonial period
� The colonial period, 1889-1962
� The independent period, from 1962 to 1994, and
� The post-genocide period, from 1994 to date.
Summary of the pre-colonial period
The political system in Rwanda was always a monarchy, certainly since
the thirteenth century, under the Nyiginya dynasty. Rwanda was one of
the last African countries to be incorporated into the European colonial
system in the late nineteenth century (1890).
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