In 1899 Rwanda effectively became a German colony under the Germany East Africa. The Germans ruled indirectly through the Mwami and his chiefs. Having discovered that the existing kingdom functioned as a fully- fledged centralized administration even before the arrival of Europeans and also, undoubtedly, because of shortage of colonial personnel, the Germans decided from the very beginning to favor the policy of indirect rule in the form of a ‘protectorate’ achieved through a series of treaties negotiated with Umwami. After, World War 1, subsequently in 1919 Rwanda became a mandate territory of the League of Nations under the administration of Belgium . In 1946, after the Second World War, the country became a Belgium Trustee on behalf of the United Nations.

King Mutara III shaking hand with King Baudoin

When, in, 1916, Belgium occupied Ruanda-Urundi as a result of World War 1 East Africa campaign against Germany, the two kingdoms of Ruanda (Rwanda) and Urundi (Burundi) had only been marginally administered from Berlin (via Dar-as- salaam) since 1899.  For a period of over 40 years of Belgium administration, indigenous ways of life were dismantled and distorted. For example, pre-colonial patron/ client relationship which was hitherto flexible and which contained an important element of reciprocity and symbiosis was rigidified and politicized as an exploitative, and demeaning economic system administered in a coercive manner-not a voluntary quid-pro-quo. During the colonial era, a cash crop economy was introduced, and was administered through harsh methods, including corporal punishments that alienated the King and his chiefs-mainly from the Tutsis ethnic group from the rest of the population-something that continues to define relations between the Hutu and Tutsis. In 1933 the Belgian colonial administration introduced a discriminatory national identification on the basis of ethnicity. Banyarwanda who possessed ten or more cows were automatically registered as Batutsi and their descendants as such whereas those with less were registered as Bahutu. The Tutsi who had resisted become increasingly enrolled in the catholic mission schools, to encourage openly this process the church adjusted its educational policies and openly favored Tutsi and discriminated against Hutu. With some exception, Hutu received only the education required for working in mines-and later in seminaries. For practical and political reasons, the Belgians at first favoured the King and his chiefs, who were mostly a Tutsis ruling elite. When the demand for independence began, mainly by the same previously favoured Tutsi elite, under a political party, Union Nationale Rwandaise (UNAR), Belgian colonial authorities hastily switched support to a section of Hutu seminarians under a political party called PARMEHUTU founded on a sectarian ethnic ideology. Among the European colonial administrators and missionaries operating in the Great Lakes region at the turn of the century, many believed in the so- called Hamitic hypothesis that viewed Tutsis as a separate race that must have come from elsewhere to bring civilization to the ‘Negroid’ Bahutu and Batwa. According to the hypothesis “every thing of value in Africa had been introduced by a more ‘civilized race’-probably outside the continent.  It was decided to give preferential treatment to Tutsi elite when recruiting indigenous political authorities. The Hutu chiefs and deputy- chiefs were removed and replaced by Tutsi. Catholic Bishop Monsignor Classe in 1930 issued a warning: The greatest harm the government could possibly inflict on itself and on the country would be to do a way with Mututsi caste. Such revolution would lead the country into anarchy and towards ant- European communism far from reaching progress. As a rule, cannot possibly have chiefs who would be better, more intelligent, active, more capable of understanding idea of progress and even more likely to be accepted by the population than Batutsi (Classe, 1930) The possibilities of most Hutu were further limited by the discrimination introduced in the catholic schools, which represented the dominant educational system throughout the colonial period. Later, because Tutsis elites were asking for independence, colonial administration switched support and allied with Hutu elites, weeding its administration of Tutsi chiefs. The colonial policies were merely grafted onto a foundation that already contained a potential for conflict. In the mid 1950’s, political demands in Rwanda were formulated in ethnic terms. In March 24th, 1957, Grégoire Kayibanda, then the Chief Editor of the Catholic newspaper Kinyamateka with the help of Catholic Bishop Perrudin penned the famous Bahutu manifesto, in which, for the first time a political problem was explained in racial terms, demanding the emancipation of Bahutu and a racial quota system in education and employment. Under Belgian colonial administration connivance, the first massacres of Tutsis by PARMEHUTU party loyalists occurred in 1959. Amidst confusion and wide spread violence, with direct Belgian colonial administration support, PARMEHUTU abolished the monarchy and declared a republic in 1961-even before independence. On July 1st, 1962 Rwanda was granted formal political independence and separated from Burundi .  Finally, Hutu elite politics of 1959 and events leading to independence in 1962 came to constitute crucial points of reference in the political life of Rwanda .