The Hutu Emancipation Movement Party (, Parmehutu), also known as the Republican Democratic Movement – Parmehutu (''Mouvement démocratique républicain – Parmehutu'', MDR-Parmehutu), was a political party in

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

. The movement emphasised the right of the majority ethnicity to rule and asserted the supremacy of

Hutu The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic group native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda where they form one of the principal ethnic groups alongside the Tutsi and the Great L ...

s over

Tutsi The Tutsi ( ), also called Watusi, Watutsi or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu languages, Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi ( ...

s. It was the most important party of the " Hutu Revolution" of 1959–61 that led to Rwanda becoming an independent republic and Hutus superseding Tutsis as the ruling group.

History

The party was founded by Grégoire Kayibanda in June 1957 as the Hutu Social Movement, a party of

nationalists who fought for the emancipation of the "oppressed" Hutu majority. It was renamed on 25 September 1959, and dominated the local elections in 1960, winning 2,390 of 3,125 elected communal council seats and 160 of 229 ''

burgomaster Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, ) is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief magistrate or executive of a city or town. The name in English was derived from the Dutch . In so ...

s''. In 1961,

parliamentary elections A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

were held alongside a

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

on the Tutsi monarchy of

Mwami ''Mwami'' () is an honorific title common in parts of Central and East Africa. The title means ''chief'' or ''tribal chief'' in several Bantu languages. It was historically used by kings in several African nations, and is still used for traditi ...

Kigeri V. MDR-Parmehutu won 35 of the 44 seats in the Legislative Assembly, whilst the referendum saw the end of the monarchy. Kayibanda appointed a government of Hutus, and became president after independence in July 1962. By 1965, it was the only legal party in the country, and the 1965 elections saw Kayibanda run unopposed for the presidency and the party win all 47 National Assembly seats. Under the Parmehutu rule, Tutsis were severely discriminated against, persecuted, and repeatedly massacred, leading to hundreds of thousands of Tutsi fleeing the country. The 1963 Tutsi massacres were described by

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...

as "the worst since the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

"; in 1967 another 20,000 Tutsi were killed. In the July 1973 coup, Kayibanda was ousted by his cousin Major-General

Juvénal Habyarimana Juvénal Habyarimana (; ; 8 March 19376 April 1994) was a Rwandan politician and military officer who was the second president of Rwanda, from 1973 until Assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, his assassination in 1994. H ...

who, like other leaders from Rwanda's north (''abakonde'') felt marginalised by the Southern-dominated Parmehutu regime.Somerville, p.167 The Parmehutu party was suspended and was officially banned two years later when Rwanda became a

one-party state A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system. In a one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or en ...

under Habyarimana's new National Revolutionary Movement for Development (MRND), which was dominated by Hutu from the northern and northwestern parts of the country.

History

Electoral history

Presidential Elections

Chamber of Deputies elections

See also

References

Further reading