The Hutu
Hutu /ˈhuːtuː/, also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic group native to African Great Lakes
African Great Lakes region of Africa, primarily area now under Burundi
Burundi and Rwanda. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi, and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they form one of the principal population divisions alongside the Tutsi
Tutsi and the Twa.

Contents

1 Demographics 2 Origins 3 Genetics

3.1 Y-DNA (paternal lineages) 3.2 Autosomal DNA (overall ancestry)

4 Language 5 Post-colonial history 6 See also 7 References

Demographics[edit] Main articles: Demographics of Rwanda
Rwanda and Demographics of Burundi The Hutu
Hutu is the largest of the four main population divisions in Burundi
Burundi and Rwanda. According to the Central Intelligence Agency, 84% of Rwandans and 85% of Burundians are Hutu, with Tutsis the next largest ethnic group at 15% and 14% of residents in Rwanda
Rwanda and Burundi, respectively.[1][2] The Twa pygmies, the smallest of the two countries' principal populations, also share language and culture with the Hutu
Hutu and Tutsi. However, they are distinguished by a considerably shorter stature.[3][4] Origins[edit] Main article: Origins of Tutsi
Tutsi and Hutu The Hutu
Hutu are believed to have first emigrated to the Great Lake region from West Africa
West Africa in the great Bantu expansion.[5] Various theories have emerged to explain the purported physical differences between them and their fellow Bantu-speaking neighbors, the Tutsi. One such thesis, largely based on oral tradition, posits that the Tutsi experienced some admixture with or were partially descended from migrants of Caucasoid stock, who usually were said to have arrived in the Great Lakes region from the Horn of Africa
Horn of Africa and/or North Africa. These pastoralists were then reckoned to have established aristocracies over the sedentary Hutu
Hutu and Twa. Through intermarriage with the local Bantus, the herders were gradually assimilated culturally, linguistically and racially.[6] An alternate theory is that the Hutu
Hutu and Tutsi
Tutsi originally belonged to the same Bantu population, but were artificially divided by German and then Belgian colonists so that the Tutsi
Tutsi minority could serve as local overseers for Berlin
Berlin and Brussels. The latter view has received support among proponents of Rwandan national unity, but has been criticized as an attempt at historical revisionism.[7][8] Still others suggest that the two groups are related but not identical, and that differences between them were exacerbated by Europeans,[9] or by a gradual, natural split, as those who owned cattle became known as Tutsi
Tutsi and those who did not became Hutu.[4] Mahmood Mamdani
Mahmood Mamdani states that the Belgian colonial power designated people as Tutsi
Tutsi or Hutu
Hutu on the basis of cattle ownership, physical measurements and church records.[10] There is an ongoing debate as to whether the Hutu
Hutu and Tutsi
Tutsi are really separate groups or not; the government of Rwanda
Rwanda seems to no longer use any such distinction. Genetics[edit] Y-DNA (paternal lineages)[edit] Modern-day genetic studies of the Y-chromosome suggest that the Hutu, like the Tutsi, are largely of Bantu extraction (83% E1b1a, 8% E2). Paternal genetic influences associated with the Horn of Africa
Horn of Africa and North Africa
North Africa are few (3% E1b1b and 1% R1b), and are ascribed to much earlier inhabitants who were assimilated. However, the Hutu
Hutu have considerably fewer Nilo-Saharan paternal lineages (4.3% B) than the Tutsi
Tutsi (14.9% B).[11] Autosomal DNA (overall ancestry)[edit] In general, the Hutu
Hutu appear to share a close genetic kinship with neighboring Bantu populations, particularly the Tutsi. However, it is unclear whether this similarity is primarily due to extensive genetic exchanges between these communities through intermarriage or whether it ultimately stems from common origins:

[...]generations of gene flow obliterated whatever clear-cut physical distinctions may have once existed between these two Bantu peoples
Bantu peoples – renowned to be height, body build, and facial features. With a spectrum of physical variation in the peoples, Belgian authorities legally mandated ethnic affiliation in the 1920s, based on economic criteria. Formal and discrete social divisions were consequently imposed upon ambiguous biological distinctions. To some extent, the permeability of these categories in the intervening decades helped to reify the biological distinctions, generating a taller elite and a shorter underclass, but with little relation to the gene pools that had existed a few centuries ago. The social categories are thus real, but there is little if any detectable genetic differentiation between Hutu
Hutu and Tutsi.[12]

Tishkoff et al. (2009) found their mixed Hutu
Hutu and Tutsi
Tutsi samples from Rwanda
Rwanda to be predominately of Bantu origin, with minor gene flow from Afro-Asiatic communities (17.7% Afro-Asiatic genes found in the mixed Hutu/ Tutsi
Tutsi population).[13] Language[edit]

A traditional Hutu
Hutu throwing knife.

Hutus speak Rwanda-Rundi as their native tongue, which is a member of the Bantu subgroup of the Niger–Congo language family. Rwanda-Rundi is subdivided into the Kinyarwanda and Kirundi dialects, which have been standardized as official languages of Rwanda
Rwanda and Burundi respectively. It is also spoken as a mother tongue by the Tutsi
Tutsi and Twa. Additionally, many Hutu
Hutu speak French, the other official language of Rwanda
Rwanda and Burundi, as a lingua franca. Post-colonial history[edit]

Hutu
Hutu and other Rwandan children in Virunga National Park.

Hutu
Hutu militants

Rwandan genocide
Rwandan genocide (1994)

Impuzamugambi

Interahamwe

Rwandan Armed Forces

Refugee crisis

RDR (1995–1996)

1st and 2nd Congo War

ALiR (1996–2001)

FDLR (2000–present)

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The Belgian-sponsored Tutsi
Tutsi monarchy survived until 1959, when Kigeli V was exiled from the colony (then called Ruanda-Urundi). In Burundi, Tutsis, who are the minority, maintained control of the government and military. In Rwanda, the political power was transferred from the minority Tutsi
Tutsi to the majority Hutu.[14] In Rwanda, this led to the "Social revolution" and Hutu
Hutu violence against Tutsis. Tens of thousands of Tutsis were killed and many others fled to neighboring countries, such as Burundi, Uganda
Uganda and expanding the Banyamulenge
Banyamulenge Tutsi
Tutsi ethnic group in the South Kivu region of the Belgian Congo. Later, exiled Tutsis from Burundi
Burundi invaded Rwanda, prompting Rwanda
Rwanda to close its border with Burundi. In Burundi, a campaign of genocide was conducted against Hutu population in 1972,[15][16][17][18][19] and an estimated 100,000 Hutus died.[20][20] In 1993, Burundi's first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, who was Hutu, was believed to be assassinated by Tutsi
Tutsi officers, as was the person constitutionally entitled to succeed him.[21] This sparked a genocide in Burundi
Burundi between Hutu
Hutu political structures and the Tutsi
Tutsi military, in which an estimated 500,000 Burundians died.[citation needed] There were many mass killings of Tutsis and moderate Hutus; these events were deemed genocide by the United Nations International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi.[22] While Tutsi
Tutsi remained in control of Burundi, the conflict resulted in genocide in Rwanda
Rwanda as well.[23] A Tutsi
Tutsi rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, invaded Rwanda
Rwanda from Uganda, which started a civil war against Rwanda's Hutu
Hutu government in 1990. A peace agreement was signed, but violence erupted again, culminating in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, when Hutu
Hutu extremists killed[24] an estimated 800,000 Rwandans, mostly Tutsis.[25] About 30% of the Twa pygmy population of Rwanda
Rwanda were also killed by the Hutus.[26] At the same time, the Rwandan Patriotic Front
Rwandan Patriotic Front took control of the country and is still the ruling party as of 2015[update]. Burundi
Burundi is also currently governed by a former rebel group, the Hutu
Hutu CNDD-FDD. As of 2006, violence between the Hutu
Hutu and Tutsi
Tutsi had subsided, but the situation in both Rwanda
Rwanda and Burundi
Burundi was still tense, and tens of thousands of Rwandans were still living outside the country (see Great Lakes refugee crisis).[1] See also[edit]

Burundi
Burundi Civil War History of Burundi Rwanda
Rwanda Civil War History of Rwanda

References[edit]

^ a b CIA World Factbook writers. "Rwanda: People". CIA World Factbook. Retrieved 2006-10-31.  ^ CIA World Factbook writers. "Burundi: People". CIA World Factbook. Retrieved 2006-10-31.  ^ Encyclopædia Britannica writers. "Twa". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2006-11-01.  ^ a b "The Meaning of "Hutu," "Tutsi," and "Twa"". Human Rights Watch. 1999. Retrieved 2006-10-31.  ^ Luis, J; Rowold, D; Regueiro, M; Caeiro, B; Cinnioglu, C; Roseman, C; Underhill, P; Cavallisforza, L; Herrera, R (2004). "The Levant versus the Horn of Africa: Evidence for Bidirectional Corridors of Human Migrations". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 74 (3): 532–44. doi:10.1086/382286. PMC 1182266 . PMID 14973781.  ^ International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, Africa, Volume 76, (Oxford University Press., 2006), pg 135. ^ Joseph Mutaboba. "I am Rwandese (at bottom of page)". New Internationalist. Archived from the original on 2008-06-12. Retrieved 2006-10-31.  ^ Saumitra Sen (2006-01-30). "Invasion Theories" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-05-17.  ^ Vernellia R., Randall (2006-02-16). "Sexual Violence and Genocide Against Tutsi
Tutsi Women". University of Dayton. Retrieved 2007-01-03.  ^ Mahmood Mamdani
Mahmood Mamdani (2001) When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press ^ Luis, J. R.; et al. (2004). "The Levant versus the Horn of Africa: Evidence for Bidirectional Corridors of Human Migrations". American Journal of Human Genetics 74 (3): 532–544. doi:10.1086/382286. PMC 1182266. PMID 14973781. (Errata) ^ Joseph C. Miller (ed.), New Encyclopedia of Africa, Volume 2, Dakar-Hydrology, Charles Scribner's Sons (publisher). ^ Michael C. Campbell, Sarah A. Tishkoff, African Genetic Diversity: Implications for Human Demographic History, Modern Human Origins, and Complex Disease Mapping, Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics Vol. 9 (Volume publication date September 2008)(doi:10.1146/annurev.genom.9.081307.164258)http://www.sciencemag.org/content/suppl/2009/04/30/1172257.DC1/Tishkoff.SOM.pdf ^ Adekunle, Julius. 2007. Culture and Customs of Rwanda. P.17 ^ Michael Bowen, Passing by;: The United States and genocide in Burundi, 1972, (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1973), 49 pp ^ René Lemarchand, Selective genocide in Burundi
Burundi (Report - Minority Rights Group; no. 20, 1974), 36 pp. ^ Rene Lemarchand, Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide (New York: Woodrow Wilson Center and Cambridge University Press, 1996), 232 pp.

Edward L. Nyankanzi, Genocide: Rwanda
Rwanda and Burundi
Burundi (Schenkman Books, 1998), 198 pp.

^ Christian P. Scherrer, Genocide and crisis in Central Africa: conflict roots, mass violence, and regional war; foreword by Robert Melson. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2002. ^ Weissman, Stephen R. "Preventing Genocide in Burundi
Burundi Lessons from International Diplomacy Archived 2009-03-11 at the Wayback Machine.", United States Institute of Peace ^ a b Rwanda
Rwanda 1994: Genocide + Politicide, Christian Davenport and Allan Stam ^ International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi: Final Report. Part III: Investigation of the Assassination. Conclusions at USIP.org Archived 2008-12-01 at the Wayback Machine. ^ International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi
Burundi (2002) ^ "The Hutu
Hutu Revolution". Human Rights Watch. 1999. Retrieved 2006-10-31.  ^ "Timeline of the genocide". PBS. Retrieved 2006-12-30.  ^ "How the genocide happened". BBC. 2004-04-01. Retrieved 2006-10-31.  ^ "Minorities Under Siege: Pygmies today in Africa". UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-12-01. Retrieved 2006-12-11. 

v t e

Ethnic groups in Burundi

Hutu Tutsi Great Lakes Twa

v t e

Ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Indigenous

Alur Amba Avukaya Baka Bakwa Dishi Banda Banyamulenge Bemba Bembe Boa Budu Bunda Bwile Chokwe Dengese Efé Furiiru Garanganze Gbaya Great Lakes Twa Hema Hemba Holoholo Hutu Iyaelima Kakwa Kango Kele Keliko Kongo Konjo Lega Lele Lendu Logo Luba Lugbara Lulua Lunda Lungu Makere Mayogo Mbaka Mangbetu Mbo Mbole Mbunda Mbuti Mongo Mongo Twa Mono Moru Mpama Ndaka Ngando Ngata Ngbandi Nyanga Pende Sanga Songora Songye Suku Tagbu Teke Tetela Topoke Tumbwe Turumbu Tutsi Vira Wochua Yaka Yakoma Yombe Yulu Zande Zyoba

Non-indigenous

Chinese Europeans

Greek

Jewish

v t e

Ethnic groups in Rwanda

Great Lakes Twa Hutu Kiga Tutsi Wahinda

v t e

Ethnic groups in Tanzania

Akie Akiek Alagwa Arusha Asa Barabaig Bembe Bena Bende Bondei Bungu Burunge Chaga Datooga Dhaiso Doe Fipa Gogo Gorowa Ha Hadza Hangaza Haya Hehe Hutu Ikizu Ikoma Iramba Iraqw Isanzu Jiji Jita Kabwa Kagura Kaguru Kami Kara Kerewe Kimbu Kinga Kisankasa Kisi Koningo Konongo Kuria Kutu Kw'adza Kwavi Kwaya Kwere Kwifa Lambya Luguru Lungu Luo Machinga Magoma Makonde Makua Makwe Malila Mambwe Manda Manyema Maasai Matengo Matumbi Maviha Mbugwe Mbunga Mpoto Mwanga Mwera Ndali Ndamba Ndendeule Ndengereko Ndonde Nena Ngasa Ngindo Ngoni Ngulu Ngurimi Nindi Nyakyusa Nyamwezi Nyanyembe Nyasa Nyiha Okiek Pare Rangi Rufiji Rungwa Rwa Safwa Sagara Sandawe Sangu Segeju Shambaa Shirazi Shubi Sizaki Sonjo Suba Sumbwa Sukuma Swahili Taveta Tongwe Tumbuka Turu Vidunda Vinza Wahinda Wameru Wanda Wanji Ware White Tanzanians Yao Zanaki Zaramo Zinza Zyoba

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