scholars Many study the ethnic identity crisis in Rwanda. Many scholars believe that identity in Rwanda is more than ethnic. Scholars suggest identity in Rwanda also became politicized and racialized by Belgian colonial rule. In this essay I will discuss how "ethnic" identity in Rwanda became politicized and racialized. First, I will discuss identity in Rwanda. Second, I will discuss political identity. Third, I will discuss racial identity. Fourth and finally, I will conclude with a summary of the main points of this essay. Many scholars find the identity relationship between the Tutsis and the Hutus of Rwanda goes back to mythological stories. It said Tutsi emigrated from elsewhere. They were thought to be mwami, who were not black Africans. This idea made the Tutsis more superior. Tutsi were a Hamitic group, mainly cattle herders. Belgian rule set the Tutsis and Hutu farther apart by linking Tutsis power through race and politics. Looking at the view of a scholar, the Belgians developed a political economical system that separated the identity of the Tutsi and the Hutu. Scholars believed political identity in Rwanda was associated with the elites through compulsory labor. Scholars believed the way the labor system had worked was through the mwami, who were the Tutsi chiefs. The mwami were made to force labor on the abiiru who were Hutu peasants. Another political economical way that the Belgians separated Tutsis and Hutus was by the amount of cattle one owned. Whoever owned ten or more cattle was classified as a Tutsi. Tension was caused when the states allowed Tutsi herders to take harvest or graze herds on Hutu farms (p.97-8). Tutsi were farther politicized by class. Rwanda had a halfway house system, which was halfway between direct and indirect rule. (p.100). how this half way house was worked there was a subject races class, which was the Tutsi. The Tutsi and Hutu had their class division, but all the Hutu chiefs were replaced with Tutsi. Belgian power did not arbitrarily cook up the Hutu/ Tutsi distinction. What it did do was to take an existing sociopolitical distinction and racialize it. P. 99 Identity was also racialized by the uses of ideology and institutions. The Belgian used institutional construction to racialize Rwanda identity. Racial ideology was rooted through institution and tied to power. An example of racializing institutions in Rwanda was state administration. Scholars found that in state administration many Hutu chiefs were replaced by Tutsis. It is also suggested that the Belgians in the 1920s shifted power of chiefs from monarchs to local authorities. They reorganize the powers of local authorities and placed accountability to the colonial administration. Then, they racialized the local authority. Education also was an institutional racializion used in Rwanda. Tutsi and Hutu children were admitted to schools, but education teachings were different. Tutsi were taught in French, which was considered a superior language. Also, racial ideologies were instilled in the education system to show Tutsi superiority.
"The assimilations education prepared them for administrative positions in government and testified to their preparation for citizenship, even if at the lowest orders." The Belgian attitude was simple: "you whip the Hutu or we will whip you" (p.97)
In summary, ethnic identity has been politicized and racialized in Rwanda by colonial rules. Politically, the Belgians created economic and elitist institutions to identify between the Tutsi and the Hutu. Then they used the same political system to racialize the identity of tutsi and hutu.