Tutsi (redirected from Tutsis)

Tutsi (tt`sē, t`–) or Watutsi (wä–), cattle-raising people of central Africa, particularly in Burundi and Rwanda; they are also known as Watusi or Batusi. The original Tutsi homeland was probably in Ethiopia, and c.400 years ago they migrated south to around Lake Kivu. Here they established the native kingdoms of Rwanda and Burundi, ruled by a mwami (king). An aristocratic people, the Tutsi long held the peasant Bahutu, or Hutu, in feudal subjugation. In the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, despite much integration of Tutsi and Hutu culture, many members of both tribes died in bloody fighting in Burundi, Rwanda, and Congo. The Tutsi are spectacularly tall, often 7 ft (2.1 m) in height.

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Tutsi

People of Rwanda and Burundi who are traditionally considered Nilotic. They speak Rundi or Rwanda (mutually intelligible languages of the Niger-Congo family) and number some 1.5 million. The Tutsi represent a traditional aristocratic minority, which has dominated the more populous Hutu. Originally warrior-herders, the Tutsi entered the area in the 14th or 15th century and later, assisted by German and Belgian colonial regimes, cultivated a lord-vassal relationship with the Hutu. At the head of the pyramidal political structure was the mwami (“king”), considered to be of divine origin. Today Hutu and Tutsi cultures have largely become integrated. In addition to sharing languages, they both adhere to similar traditional and/or Christian religious beliefs. The Tutsi retained their dominant position over the Hutu in Rwanda until 1961, when the monarch was overthrown. An unsuccessful Hutu revolt in Burundi in 1972 led to 100,000 deaths, mostly Hutu. In 1993 in Burundi and in 1994 in Rwanda, further clashes occurred, the latter including a genocidal campaign by Hutu militia and civilians in which more than a million Tutsi and their Hutu allies were killed and one to two million Hutu fled to refugee camps in Congo (Kinshasa; then Zaire) and Tanzania.