Legal basis of genocidal practice in traditional Rwanda (XV-XX centuries)

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Legal basis of genocidal practice in traditional Rwanda (XV-XX centuries)

Pierre Claver Mupendana

PhD in Jurisprudence, Professor of Congolese Universities (DRC), President and Director General of the University Institute for Peace and African Development (IUPDA), Natitingou - BENIN

Abstract

Some people wonder why Rwanda experienced an atrocious genocide in 1994. The main reason is that Rwanda is traditionally a destructive, destructive and violent society prone to the tradition of exterminator. It constitutes a society dominated by physical, psychological and structural violence. The specter of conflicting relationships runs through Rwandan culture and anyone who does not understand its nuances commits errors in value judgments believing that they are operating according to Western logic. The culmination of this violence is the practice of extermination (gutsembatsemba). The latter is tightly tied around a politico-legal architecture carefully designed by the ruling class. Thus the esoteric code, traditional criminal law, traditional military law, war poetry, dynastic poetry and the panegyric system are the basis of the genocidal tradition in pre-colonial Rwanda. This study therefore constitutes an analysis of the legal basis of the practice of genocide in pre-colonial and modern Rwanda.

Keywords: genocidal practice, exterminating, esoteric code, war of domination, code of political institutions, structural violence, emasculating, traditional penal law; traditional military law, war poetry, dynastic poetry, trophies, armed incursion, official expedition.

Аннотация

Некоторые люди задаются вопросом, почему Руанда пережила ужасный геноцид в 1994 году. Основная причина заключается в том, что Руанда традиционно является деструктивным, деструктивным и жестоким обществом, склонным к традициям истребителей. Это общество, в котором преобладает физическое, психологическое и структурное насилие. Призрак конфликтных отношений пронизывает руандийскую культуру, и любой, кто не понимает ее нюансов, совершает ошибки в оценочных суждениях, полагая, что они действуют в соответствии с западной логикой. Кульминацией этого насилия является практика истребления (гуцембацемба). Последнее тесно связано с политико-правовой архитектурой, тщательно разработанной правящим классом. Таким образом, эзотерический кодекс, традиционное уголовное право, традиционное военное право, военная поэзия, династическая поэзия и система панегириков являются основой традиции геноцида в доколониальной Руанде. Данное исследование представляет собой анализ правовой основы практики геноцида в доколониальной и современной Руанде.

Ключевые слова: практика геноцида, истребление, эзотерический кодекс, война за господство, кодекс политических институтов, структурное насилие, выхолащивание, традиционный уголовный закон; традиционное военное право, военная поэзия, династическая поэзия, трофеи, вооруженное вторжение, официальная экспедиция.

Introduction

Since the end of the 20th century, Rwanda has hit the international legal and political headlines. Not everyone speaks, rightly or wrongly, of the “Rwandan genocide” or the “Tutsi genocide”. Yet no one has yet succeeded in finding the socio-legal basis. Invocations of colonial policy are wrongly argued to justify the dismal events endured by the Rwandan populations. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda - ICTR - ended its work without trial before realizing that it was necessary to look for the undeniable roots in the history of the Rwandan people and not elsewhere. His efforts were crowned with dismal failure, for the simple reason that he failed to understand that the roots of these pearly genocides lay only in the political and legal history of Rwanda. It is with this in mind that this research was initiated.

The fundamental objective of this study is to research the socio-legal foundations of the practice of genocide in Rwandan society from the 15th century until today.

About recent documentation: it must be recognized that this theme has never been addressed by legal scientists, neither in political science nor even in sociological research. Without claiming to be the pioneers, we must emphasize that the data on this genocidal fact could only be collected in historical texts, transmitted orally from generation to generation by the holders of the Esoteric Code, and transcribed by the first intellectual holder of this Code, Mgr Alexis KAGAME (Kagame: 1943; Kagame: 1952) Later, some expatriates followed suit, translating these texts into French M. d'Hertefelt and A. Coupez: 1964; J. Vansina: 1962, J.J. Maquet: 1954; M. d'Hertefelt, A.A Trouwborst, and Scherer: 1965). It is in these historical documents that we will find the answers to the above questions that we will discuss. The additional information had to be sought in numerous historical, poetic, literary documents and in surveys carried out among elderly people still alive.

Main research results: Towards the end of the 20th century, we all witnessed a monstrous event that swallowed up thousands of human life. We have all called it "genocide'". Rwandans traditionally call it since the 15th century "ITSEMBATSEMBA" which translates in English by the word "extermination". Why was it so easy to find a name for these acts of extermination? The answer is clear. Because Rwanda is a politically organized society experienced in the practice of exterminator. These practices are not founded in a vacuum. Formal texts that were transmitted from generation to generation the institutions cleverly designed in the UBWIRU (Esoteric Code) form a legal architecture that governed all forms of violence, including the negation of the lives of thousands of Rwandans by the policy of extermination. Briefly, what about this inclination to the practice of extermination? In other words, why is Rwandan society inclined to this practice of extermination, "Itsembatsemba"? What are the legal instruments on which this hideous genocidal practice was based?

1. Rwanda: a society inclined to the exterminating

The exterminating practices that have always taken place in the world have always been committed against a background of permanent violence that reigned in societies. Germany, for example, was traditionally aggressive and still involved in expansionist wars; he was a militarist and was a product of Nazism (Angrand Beatrice: 2006; J. Snyder: 1984; Dale C. Copeland: 2000; Jack Levy, Joseph Gochal: 2001-2002) The Amerindians were decimated by the Spanish, English and French peoples who were always busy waging wars of domination over other peoples (Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart et Lemyra M. DeBruyn, «The American Indian Holocaust: Healing Historical Unresolved Grief » [archive], sur le site de I'universite du Colorado, p. 60-82; Bachman, R., 1992). The Chinese were exterminated by Mongols considered to be violent, savages, invaders, conquerors (J.L Margolin: 2007; J.P. Roux: 2002; D. Farale: 2003). It is therefore not surprising that Rwanda has championed the genocides in Africa of the Great Lakes, if we know that traditionally, precolonial Rwanda pursued an expansionist and hegemonic policy in the African Great Lakes region. Article 121 of the Code of Political Institutions of pre-colonial Rwanda, litera (a), clearly states by stipulating that "the essential principle of Rwandan society being to unify all countries under the King of the Banyiginya, could never have the final peace with neighboring countries” (A.Kagame: 1952). During the colonial period and under the governance of the Hutu, from 1959 to 1990, no genocidal act had been committed in Rwanda. The latter resumed with its pre-colonial practice since 1990 by implementing and remaining faithful to its exterminating, expansionist and hegemonic policy in the Great Lakes region.

Traditional Rwandan society has inherited violence in all its forms in contemporary Rwanda. There is violence, because men are influenced in such a way that their current somatic and spiritual development is less than their potential development. To use Johan Galtung's words, "therefore anything violent which enlarges the distance between the potential and the actual or makes it difficult to shorten that distance (Galtung: 1995)" This violence is physical and psychological depending on whether the individual or a group of individuals were made to suffer physically to the point of killing them or exterminating an entire group of people (family, clan, etc.) as an extreme form of this violence. The violence in this Rwanda is psychic, because it is directed against the psyche. To this type of violence belong lies, brainwashing, and various forms of indoctrination, manipulation, and threats etc ... which aim to diminish spiritual capacities. Kagame A., describing his ethnic brothers, points out that Rwandans have "a lying language, that lies and cunning are the virtues of the monarch and therefore of his subjects (A.Kagame: 1949; A. Kagame: 1951). Father Pages noted that the Tutsi are inclined to lack frankness (P. Pages: 1927). H. Meyer, when he was known as one of the best friends of the Tutsi, writes in this regard: "Laziness and cowardice are their two unpleasant traits, in addition to their tendency to lie (H. Meyer: 1984) ". And to continue that "the mututsi never says what he thinks, or very rarely. You have to guess. It goes further: lying is not just a habit in the face of strangers, it is a deeply ingrained bad habit that is practiced against everyone (H. Meyer: 1984). «And this is manifested today in all the information riddled with subjectivism and lies that is served to us.

It is therefore clear that contemporary Rwanda continues to perpetuate lies, brainwashing, various forms of indoctrination, threats, manipulation ... initiated, practiced and professed by the political leaders of former Rwanda.

We have to recognize one thing: "knowing how to disguise the truth, to give the change without arousing the slightest suspicion, is a science which the European lacks and which the Mututsi is proud to possess; the genius of intrigue, the art of lying are in his eyes arts in which they pride themselves on being very skillful: it is characteristic of all Mututsi and by contagion of all Munyarwanda (5. Bushayija: 1958)”, said a Tutsi priest in 1958.

The type of violence that has still predominated in Rwanda is structural violence. Indeed, there is structural violence, when violence is integrated into the system itself and is expressed in relations of inequalities in the sharing of power and hence in inequality of opportunity. The resources are then distributed unequally. Inequality in the distribution of income and in educational opportunities, illiteracy, the concentration of health services in some sectors to the detriment of others are examples. But it is above all the inequality in decision-making power over the distribution of resources that is the most serious. Social injustice is the very condition of structural violence (Balibutsa Maniragaba: 2000).

On the basis of what has just been mentioned, it must be recognized that Rwandan civilization is a civilization of violence. All you have to do is agree to look at the historical realities of Rwanda, and you will be convinced that violence runs through all of Rwandan culture. We discover with Michel Elias that their everyday language is the symbol of violence itself, notwithstanding their hypocrisy. Their proverbs reflect excessive violence and aggression. All this contributes to the commission of acts of genocide (itsembatsemba). Michel Alias clearly observes it in these terms:

“Rwandan [and Burundian] societies are overcome by a leprosy which eats away at them and gradually dissolves them. One of the most basic needs of any human society is not assured: collective security. It is the war of all against all. The forces of order have become agents of disorder, justice has lost all independence and participates in the conflict, the law is that of the strongest ... The coexistence of citizens is no longer managed, it is the savior - can individual generalized, the appropriation of wealth by raptors.Hundreds of thousands of dead, tides of displaced people and refugees, legions of orphans are characteristic of them. The whole productive apparatus is blocked, the state non-existent, the government without power, the moral forces discredited. Rarely in the history of mankind has we seen comparable chaos wiping an entire society off the map (M. Elias: 1994)."

In Rwandan literature, the foundations of genocidal politics can be found in three major poetic genres in Rwanda: the Pastoral, the Warrior and the Dynastic. The significance of the latter is that he devoted himself to exalting the King and the reigning house (A. Kagame: 1951). It reproduced all the events and information of the royal court. He celebrated the exploits of the monarch. Hence, Dynastic Poetry is an irreproachable and inexhaustible source of knowledge on the legal and political life of the Kingdom. It was therefore of great interest for a better understanding of the genocidal fact in the African Great Lakes region.

The specter of conflicting relationships runs through Rwandan culture and anyone who does not understand its nuances is very likely to make errors in value judgments believing that they are operating according to Western logic. It is important to regret that this continues through lies, brainwashing, various forms of indoctrination, manipulation, threats ... initiated, practiced and professed by political leaders.

In addition, to these two types of violence was added the cruelest: extermination, in the Rwandan language itsembatsemba. The contemporary fashioned vocabulary invented by Lemkin is genocide (R Lemkin: 1944; R Lemkin: 1947) He invented it in 1945 when the Rwandans wield it very easily in their exterminating practices, in their poems, in their music and in their legislation. EXTERMINATION is the action he uses in all circumstances. It has been narrated with pride and fervor in a multitude of poems since the 16th century (A. Kagame: 1949).

In the poem "Nothing consoles so much as to engender", the Rwandan poets declaimed: “O liberators, son of the Sovereign, descendant of Rumeza,

In those who shed their blood in his favor, the reign is perpetuated ...”

"... may those who shed blood always be my masters! (A.Kagame:1951)"

These lines are still significant in that they show the bloodthirsty character of the Nyiginya dynasty. If not, how can we rejoice that its leaders, its superiors are the people broken in shedding the blood of the innocent? Once again, this tradition is ingrained in the culture of the Rwandans, because that is how they have always ruled Rwanda.

In poem 138, "No one as much as the King can be the providence of the Land", the Ade asserts that the King "has exterminated the enemy in the Land (A.Kagame:1952) ". The traditional Rwandan military code did not prevent strengthening the practice of extermination (gutsembatsemba) and emasculation (guca ibinyita) (A.Kagame:1951). Articles 176 (A.Kagame:1952), 196 and 197a of the aforementioned Code explicitly refer to this. Thus,

genocide, in a society dominated by violence like Rwanda, is authorized and publicly supported because it is instituted by the governing power.

2. The Legal Architecture of Violence in Hamite Rwanda

The strong violence that so ruined Rwandan society was tightly tied around a politico-legal architecture carefully designed by its rulers. Thus the esoteric Code, traditional penal law, traditional military law, war poetry, dynastic poetry.

The Esoteric Code

A. Definition

Many authors and researchers on the history of Rwanda claim that the Esoteric Code - Ubwiru was actually the fundamental law whose origin is Imana y'i Rwanda - the God of Rwandans, that no one could disguise or contradict, change or modify without repressive action (M. d'Hertefelt, A. Coupez: 1964) Whatever the cost, such actions had to have harmful repercussions on the political, legal, social and economic life of the country. The Esoteric Code contained the various ways indicating how to manage the state in all situations.

The originality of the Rwandan royal rites is underlined in the Bibliographical Encyclopedia "Society, Culture and History of Rwanda", in a few words: "Rwanda is distinguished by the firmness of the traditions which relate to the royal rites. These were contained in a text, called "Ubwiru", both form and substance of which were to be transmitted from generation to generation by a body of specialists (abiru) (M. d'Hertefelt, D. de Lame: 1987) "

The meaning of the term Ubwiru is not obvious. According to A. Kagame, Ubwiru means "inviolable secret"; but it is an explanation of the secrecy of the royal rites and the texts which relate to them, rather than of a definition strictly speaking. The etymology of this term therefore remains uncertain (A. Kagame: 1943). We can suggest a relationship between ubwiru and ubwire, nightfall, understood as a dark veil covering the earth. Ubwiru would then mean what is hidden, "the veiled things". In other words, this Code was not known to everyone.

It is in fact a set of ceremonial magic rituals from ancient Rwanda. The functions of high priest were fulfilled by the king, assisted by Abiru priests in their various categories, including three main ones, called Abiru-Bami, Priest-Kings.

The texts of the rituals were entrusted to certain families, who ensured their memorization and transmission from generation to generation. It should be noted that this transmission was not necessarily made from father to son, because it was necessary, not only to show the required aptitudes, not only to learn the "profession" of priest, but also to be able to memorize texts, some of which are very important long, without ever modifying or forgetting the smallest detail - on pain of death, we are told. In practice, we identified, within the extended family, people who were not necessarily called to exercise properly priestly functions, but rather to serve as living archives: they learned by heart the texts including their families had charge. Control sessions were regularly convened by the king, in order to ensure that all the texts were in good condition.

By the very nature of the Rwandan Ceremonial, the functions were distributed according to the traditional code. For each ceremony, the King and the Queen Mother - the two poles of the same royalty - were the main officiants, assisted by the Abiru priests whose rites provided for by the texts pertained. Although he had female Abiru, none appear to have held any important priestly office. The three high priests, called priest-kings, abiru-bami, seem to have always been occupied by men.

The texts of Ubwiru were dictated to Alexis Kagame in 1945. In 1964, they were edited, translated into French and published in bilingual version by M. d'Hertefelt and A. Coupez (M. d'Hertefelt, A. Coupez: 1964).

In his writing “Menya inzira z'Ubwiru mu Bwami bw'u Rwanda'” (Take note of the provisions of the Esoteric Code of the Kingship of Rwanda, NIZEYIMANA Jean Pierre quotes us the 18 ceremonial ways of the Esoteric Code of Rwanda (J.P Nizeyimana: 2014). These rituals were divided into three categories: a) rituals relating to the economic management of the country; b) rituals relating to the security and defense of the Nation; and finally the rituals relating to the political governance of the state. Of all the 18 rituals, as part of our research, we will basically retain the seven below:

1- : Inzira y'Urugomo = The Way of Riot or The way of competition

2- Inzira y'Inkiiko yabyaye umugaru = The Way of the Troubled Frontier

3- Inzira y'Urwihisho = The Way of Hideout - at the Death of the King Enemy

4- Inzira yo Kwasiira = The Way of Drum Repairing

5- Inzira yo Kwambika Ingoma= The Way of Dressing the Drums (Enemy's Trophies)

6- Inzira y'Inteeko = The Way of the Offensive War Council

7- Inzira y'Ubwimika = The Way of the Royal Enthronement

8- Inzira y'Ikirogoto = The Way of the Royal Funeral

We have chosen them because they deal with the sovereignty of the State, national defense and security, the High Command of the Armies, the treatment of captives during the war, the fate of foreign sovereigns captured or killed on the battlefields, the emasculation procedure, the decoration of the royal drum with the trophies or virility organs of enemy people fallen on the war field, the decoration and the gratification of war heroes....

B. Brief content

This esoteric code was both a constitution in the modern sense of the term, and a set of rules governing occult, mythical and magical (imitsindo) practices; and the application of its provisions required numerous appropriate divinatory consultations. This Esoteric Code of the Banyiginya dynasty was composed of poems covering all areas of interest to the dynasty. Each poem was entrusted to a family and passed from father to son through generations. All the bearers of these poems made up the college of abiru who were special advisers to power under the authority of a dean or great enthroned mwiru, necessarily from the Abatsobe clan. Matri-dynastic families (Abega for example) were excluded from knowledge of the esoteric code. The access to the Esoteric Code of Queen Mother Nyiramavugo II Nyiramongi of the Abega clan was the distant cause of the tragic events of Rucunshu. The Esoteric Code being the soul of the Banyiginya political system, the Rwandan conflict is its emanation. Indeed, this Code had placed power above everything, even life.

Under this Code, the exercise of power was the exclusive prerogative of King Munyiginya, a prerogative which was passed from father to son. King Munyiginya exercised an absolute right of life and death over his subjects; he therefore had to put to death anyone who could claim it without fulfilling the conditions of the Esoteric Code. It should be noted in passing that killing in order to maintain power was a sacred duty for the Munyiginya monarch. He was strictly forbidden to abdicate. If the case were to arise, he had to kill himself; and thus allow power to remain in its lineage (Kwitangira ingoma). This is why, when a Tutsi monarch killed a Hutu king who resisted him, he had to mutilate him and adorn the drum - emblem of the dynasty - with his genitals to signify that the Hutu kingdom in question was, mythically and definitively, off. The Hutu were, as we have seen, reduced to the condition of sub-man in the service of their lord. This is the meaning of the following verses, taken from an old dynastic poem:

"Harabaye ntihakabe

Hapfuye imbwa n'imbeba

Hasigara inka n'ingoma”;

This verse simply means, "that after a bitter struggle, the dogs and the rats finally gave way to the cow and the drum». In other words, the Hutu kingdoms were, ultimately, definitely conquered by the Tutsi. As we can see, it was the esoteric code that radicalized this situation forever (C. Nkurunziza: 2006).

Traditional criminal law