Date: Wed, 09 Oct 1996 08:22:31 +1200
Subject: Re: Multiculturalism Debate


Just a tangential query about the recent report of the 
Multiculturalism Debate at SUNY . . . .

My understanding of the Tutsi-Hutu tension in Rwanda and Burundi is 
not that it is a conflict between historically Nilotic and 
Bantu-speaking peoples. The Nilotic migrations into the western rim of 
East Africa--Bunyoro, Toro, Ankole--occurred centuries ago and, as in 
many invasion scenaria, the conquering Nilotics (or Hamitics, I'm not 
sure which), largely adopted the cultures of the conquered. 

Rather, the Tutsi-Hutu conflict is one of class, not culture (they 
speak the same language, eat the same food, have the same traditional 
cosmology, etc.). The Tutsi provided the reigning monarchs and 
constituted the ruling elite (until the 1962 coup in Rwanda), a 
situation which the Germans and then the Belgians exploited and 
calcified (as did the British, by engineering the dominance of the 
Baganda in Uganda).  

There is a tendency to forget that many pre-colonial African societies 
had firm class structures, which often were sustained by colonial 
authorities to their great advantage. (Cf. Ngugi wa Thiong'o's _Petals 
of Blood_.)

Andrew Horn
Literature & Language
The University of the South Pacific
Suva
FIJI


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