The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

1894: Count Gustav Adolf von Götzen is received by King Kigeli IV
Rwabugiri
1896: In the “Rucunshu Coup”, Musinga succeeds Mibambwe IV
under the dynastic name of Yuhi V.
1899: Rwanda becomes a German Protectorate.
1900: King Yuhi Musinga receives the first European Catholic missionaries,
the “White Fathers” (the missionaries of Africa), who first
settle at Save, in the South. This is the beginning of a religious colonization
and forced Christianization.
1919: After the defeat of Germany and its withdrawal in 1918, the
Supreme Council of the Allied Powers awards Belgium the Mandate
for “Ruanda-Urundi”. The League of Nations, the precursor of
the UN, ratifies the mandate in 1923; later, in 1946, it is transformed
into a “trusteeship”.
1923: The League of Nations awards a mandate to Belgium to administer
Ruanda-Urundi. The king no longer has any authority, and is
forced to remain in Nyanza, the capital. Everything is destabilized.
1925: Ruanda-Urundi is formally annexed to the Belgian Congo and
placed under the authority of a Belgian Vice-Governor-General.
Nov. 12, 1931: King Yuhi V Musinga, who is very suspicious of the
Belgian Government and Catholicism, is removed and replaced
by his son Rudahigwa Mutara III, age twenty (crowned on November
16, 1931). Musinga is exiled to Moba (near Kalemie) in
the Belgian Congo, where he dies on December 25, 1944. For
Rwandans, it is as if the sky has fallen on them.
Nov. 16, 1931: Belgium imposes a Christian king, Mwami Mutara III,
and an identification system indicating membership in one of the
communities of Hutu, Tutsi or Twa, which the colonizers view as
ethnic groups.
After the christianization of the kingship, the population was baptized
en masse, since it was attached to its king. The church thus pulled off
a successful coup. Here it should be noted that the Rwandans were a
monotheistic people. They prayed to one God, Imana, who had nothing
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