Pre-Colonial Period: 1500 - 1800
Rwanda's population today comprises three main social groupings: the Hutus, the Tutsis and the small minority Twa. Before the arrival of the European colonialists in the 19th century, however, Rwanda's inhabitants lived under a feudal system and identified themselves according to social class rather than ethnic affiliation.
The first inhabitants of Rwanda were the Twa, who were mainly hunters. Later, Hutu cultivators and Tutsi cattle-keepers arrived. Rwanda consisted of small chiefdoms with groups living side by side. Twenty generations later one of the Tutsi clans, the Nyiginya, achieved political dominance in central Rwanda. Over several centuries, the Nyiginya formed the core of a state that expanded to cover most of the area occupied by modern-day Rwanda.
As the dominance of this Nyiginya Tutsi lineage expanded, the terms 'Tutsi' and 'Hutu' began to acquire a political significance. Those who achieved ruling class status became identified as Tutsi, while those who did not were assigned to the ranks of the Hutu. Some Twa managed to reach higher political status, but generally they were marginalized. Many Hutus chiefs were assimilated into the ruling class and were thereby given the status of Tutsi. Outside the Nyiginya clan, Tutsis as well as Hutus had their classification changed as their fortunes rose or fell. Hutus and Tutsis belonged to all nineteen of the main clans in Rwanda. At the same time, there was much intermarriage between members of the newly forming 'classes'. Thus the distinction between Hutu and Tutsi was not so much ethnic as political and class-based. The population shared the same Banyarwanda (Rwandan) language, culture and traditions, but people were differentiated according to their ability to acquire wealth and move from the less powerful Hutu to the ruling Tutsi class.
Until the middle of the 19th century, people's clan identity was more important than whether they were categorised as Hutu, Tutsi or Twa. The prevailing patronclient relationships bound most people together in a close-knit social hierarchy. It was customary for the patron to give the client a cow in return for services performed, and so over a long period of time individuals from both the Hutu and Tutsi groups acquired cattle. In the absence of currency, cattle became the medium of trade, and the more cows a person had, the higher was their social status.
Typically, it was the Tutsis, traditionally cattle-keepers by trade, who found themselves among the wealthy, while most Hutus, who were farmers, lacked the wealth associated with owning cows. In the 19th century King Rwabuguri established a unified state. His preference for the Tutsi in positions of power helped to cement their dominance.
By the time the first Europeans arrived in Rwanda, Hutu and Tutsi identities were defined partly by politics (i.e., being born in the Nyiginya clan or moving ranks), partly by occupational status (being traditional cattle-keepers, or acquiring cattle through the patron-client relationship or in exchange for agricultural products), and partly by ancestry (being born into a cattle-keeping family or by intermarriage). The distinctions between Hutu and Tutsi were thus not purely 'ethnic', let alone racial in nature.