Antecedents to Modern Rwanda: The Nyiginya Kingdom (Africa and the Diaspora)

Contents......Page 6
Maps......Page 8
Preface......Page 10
Acknowledgments......Page 12
Note on Spelling......Page 14
Introduction......Page 22
The Oral Sources......Page 24
The Country and Its Inhabitants......Page 33
Fields and Herds: Subsistence Activities......Page 42
Kinship and Society......Page 49
Polities......Page 57
The Foundation of the Kingdom......Page 63
Subsequent Military Campaigns: Conquests or Raids?......Page 70
Government: The Ritual Institutions......Page 73
Instruments of Government: The Corporations......Page 77
The Realm......Page 81
Conclusion......Page 84
3 Toward the Centralization of Power......Page 86
The Seizure of the Herds and the Land......Page 87
The Armies......Page 92
At the Hub: Court, King, and Elites......Page 98
The Recasting of Royal Ideology during Rujugira’s Reign......Page 109
The Weight of the State......Page 114
Government from Gisanura to Rwaka......Page 118
Government under Rujugira and Ndabarasa......Page 123
Foreign Relations under Gisanura and Mazimpaka......Page 128
Foreign Relations under Rujugira and Ndabarasa......Page 135
Conclusion......Page 141
5 Social Transformations in the Nineteenth Century......Page 145
The Transformations of Society......Page 146
Hutu and Tutsi......Page 153
Civil War and the Supremacy of the Elites......Page 159
Struggles for Power at Gahindiro’s and Rwogera’s Courts......Page 166
Expansion of the Kingdom Eastward and International Trade......Page 172
A Spontaneous Expansion toward Lake Kivu and the Land of the Volcanoes?......Page 177
Conclusion......Page 181
7 Nightmares: The Age of Rwabugiri (1867–1897)......Page 183
Political Crises and Wars from 1867 to 1889......Page 184
Isolation Breached and the Hatching of a Coup d’État......Page 192
The Nightmare of Violence Used as a Political Tool......Page 199
A Balance Sheet......Page 213
In Conclusion: History and the Present......Page 215
The Foundations......Page 226
Dating Rwabugiri’s Reign......Page 228
From 1796 to the Death of Rwogera......Page 231
Before 1796......Page 233
Appendix 2: Predynastic Fairy Tales: Central Rwanda before Ndori......Page 236
Notes......Page 240
Works Cited......Page 320
Index......Page 332