as totems , is associated with clans . There are no taboos or totems associated with Hutu or Tutsi .
As an example , some of the people we call Tutsi Banyaruguru ( comprising abanyakarama , abenengwe , abanyagisaka ) didn ’ t marry in Bahima families . There are also clans like Abahanza and Abajiji who didn ’ t marry someone from Bahima clans or in other clans .
Further , there are no myths ( Icyivugo ) specific to Hutu or Tutsi . But there are myths common to clans , such as “ umuhanza umuhizi adahizana kwijambo ”; or icyivugo cyumujiji atajijana ku ngoma .
With regard to the question of marriage , imagine someone has two children . One of them is successful and becomes a chief for up to ten generations . The other is a servant and does manual work with serious hardships . After ten generations , the children of the first child will never admit that they are related to the other person whose family faces hardships . This also happened between families and clans . When you happen to be a Tutsi able to provide for yourself and extend favours , those who labour in your household or clan could not marry your daughter . It ’ s about status . Generally , people want to marry their children to those in the same status category . In the past when looking for a wife , they would look for fertile land ( ahantu hazava igiseke ) or a household where there were many cows ( ahantu hataha inka ). So , this is why if some looked down on others to the point where they refused to marry them , it was primarily due to disparities in economic standing , as a person sought a wife from a family with which they could form a partnership and alliance that would help them grow .
Mr . Mugenzi : A caller said that he knows many people in his neighbourhood in Rwanda who were called Abahutu but have cows and some Tutsis who were called Abatutsi but who had no cows ; they were agriculturalists but were called Abatutsi
Prof . Manirambona : The colonial paradigm mixed two things . In addition to one ’ s property ( amatungo umuntu afise ), they considered physical features such as the nose . An explorer called Speke ( John ) arrived from Uganda and saw people who looked like Ethiopians . He said these people must have originated from Ethiopia . Oscar Boman relied on this . Different writers , such as Monsignor Léon-Paul Classe in Rwanda , Monsignor Gorge in Burundi , and Reverend Father Alexis Kagame relied on Speke ’ s observations . Alex Kagame wrote that Tutsis came from Abyssinia and that , when they arrived in Rwanda and Burundi , the autochthones who they met there called them Abatutsi . But here is the problem : if they were called Tutsis , then it most likely means that word already existed among the autochthones . If it existed before they came , what did it mean ?
Secondly , using archaeology , language , culture , and political institutions as reference points , you notice that in Kenya or Ethiopia , no one is called a Tutsi . In Uganda , above Bunyoro and Busoga , in the territory of Itesot and Karamojong and the Luo , there ’ s no one called a Tutsi . The issue is this : at the scientific level there ’ s no trace at all showing the migration of people from Abyssinia . From this observation , I asked myself : “ Did those people migrate all the way from Abyssinia and no one was so exhausted by the journey that they remained behind and were called this name , Tutsi ? This is also a strong indication that the word Tutsi does not originate from elsewhere .
Also , to say they came from Abyssinia means they should have had a language of their own . Monsignor Gorge said that they lost that language over centuries of socialization , that they forgot it . Reverend Father Alex Kagame also says they forgot it . But which language is it that they lost ?
Counterexamples are the Luhya of Kenya and the Nilotics around them . None of their languages became extinct . We have languages in Namibia and Tanzania that are spoken by the smallest groups that survived . So , it ’ s difficult to explain how , from Bunyoro , Busoga all the way down to Buha and beyond , the entire region is inhabited by Bantu speakers only . If Tutsi had truly originated from Abyssinia , they would have a language specific to their group .
Mr . Mugenzi : So , it ' s a socioeconomic class .
Prof Manirambona : A socioeconomic class . ❧ ❧ ❧
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