The Banyamulenge are a community that lives mainly in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and trace their ancestral origins to what is now Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and Uganda. Their main language is Kinyamulenge.
The Banyamulenge played a role in Mobutu's war against and victory over the Simba Rebellion, which was not supported by the majority of other tribes in South Kivu. They supported him to be naturalised in what was then Zaire. Their role during the First Congo War and subsequent regional conflicts (Rally for Congolese Democracy–Goma, Movement for the Liberation of the Congo, National Congress for the Defence of the People, and more importantly for the fact that two of the most influential presidents of their country declared them as enemies of the state in both 1996 (Mobutu Sese Seko) and 1998 (Laurent-Désiré Kabila).
The Banyamulenge have been a point of controversy in the country since they played a key role in tensions against the Simba Rebellion (1963–1965), First Congo War (1996–1997), Second Congo War (1998–2003), and Joseph Kabila's regime (2001–2019). The wars in the DRC have affected more than 10 million lives, with casualties continuing in Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, and Tanganyika provinces.
In the late 1990s, the political scientist René Lemarchand stated the main ethnic groups' claim that the Banyamulenge numbered around 50,000 to 70,000.Lemarchand, 2006 Gérard Prunier quotes around 60,000–80,000, a figure of about 3% to 4% of the total provincial population. Lemarchand states the figure of 400,000 given by Joseph Mutambo Mutambo, Joseph. Les Banyamulenge. Limete, Kinshasa: Imprimerie Saint Paul, 1997, p. 26 "is grossly inflated". Lemarchand also noted that the group represents "a rather unique case of ethnogenesis".
Etymology Mulenge is a term historically referring to mountains concentrated on the High Plateau of South Kivu, in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, close to the Burundi-Congo-Rwanda border. The term translates literally as "people of Mulenge", a groupement on the Itombwe plateau.Mamdani, 248–249 The name was chosen in the early 1950s to avoid being called "Banyarwanda" and being seen as foreigners in what was then Zaire. In 1976, the word "Banyamulenge" first came into wide usage after Gisaro Muhazo, a South Kivutian deputy, began an initiative to reclassify the Banyamulenge of Mwenga, Fizi and Uvira into a single administrative entity. Muhazo's attempt failed, but the term that he introduced remained. Over the decades, it became a catchall label including the Rwandans living in the eastern parts.Lemarchand, 10
Origins and early political status
While the RPF claims that Banyamulenge were brought in the 18th century from Rwanda, Burundi and the Karagwa area of Tanzania,The historian Alexis Kagame claims that soldiers under Mwami Kigeli II of Rwanda (1648–1672) settled across the Ruzizi River Evidence indicates that is not true their migration began in the 20th century. Prunier asserts, "Kagame has a tendency to exaggerate the power of the old Rwanda kingdom." Prunier, 51 & 381 records and historical data show Banyamulenge came to the area in the 20th century and were used by the Belgian king.Gerard Prunier. Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe. p. 51
A Rwandan narrative claims that the migration took place because Tutsis tried to avoid the increasingly high taxes imposed by Mwami Rwabugiri of the Kingdom of Rwanda. That, however, is grossly false as there are no known conflicts to have existed to the point of migration into the Congo. Also, Rwandan Tutsis fled the violent war of succession that erupted in 1895, after the death of Rwabugiri.Mamdani, 250 The group was mostly Tutsi and their Hutu abagaragu (clients), who had been icyihuture (turned Tutsi), which negated interethnic tensions. They settled above the Ruzizi Plain, on the Itombwe Plateau. The plateau, which reached an altitude of 3000 meters, could not support large-scale agriculture, but allowed cattle grazing.Prunier, 51 That version is grossly disputed because various tribes had been in conflict over where the newcomers would stay to herd their sheep. They were thus given the Mulenge Mountain to herd.
Banyarwanda migrants continued to arrive, particularly as labourers, during the colonial period. The Union Minière du Haut Katanga recruited more than 7000 workers from 1925 to 1929. From the 1930s, Congolese Banyarwanda immigrants continued coming in search of work, with a major influx of Tutsi refugees in 1959–1960, after the "Social Revolution", led by the Hutu Grégoire Kayibanda. While the early migrants lived primarily as pastoralists in the high plains, colonial labour migrants moved to urban areas. Refugees were placed in refugee camps.Mamdani, 247–248 In 1924, the pastoralists received permission from colonial authorities to occupy a high plateau further south.
The groups received further immigrants during the overthrow of the Tutsi monarchy and the colonial clashes between 1959 and 1973.Prunier, 51–52 Many Banyamulenge initially joined the Simba Rebellion of 1964 and 1965 but switched sides when the rebels, fleeing both Jean Schramme's mercenaries and government troops, came onto the plateau and began to end the rebellion. The Tutsi rose, accepted weapons from the pro-Mobutu forces and assisted in defeating the remaining rebels. Because many of the rebels who were killed were from the neighbouring Bembe people, the existing tensions were worsened. The Bembe felt that the Bayamulenge were overstaying their welcome and discriminating against their neighbours, who had allowed them to graze their cattle. Also, they had been brought predominantly by colonialists and forced onto their lands. The government rewarded the Banyamulenge's efforts by appointing individuals to high positions in the capital Bukavu, and their children were increasingly sent to missionary schools. Lemarchand asserts: "From a primarily rural, isolated, backward community, the Banyamulenge would soon become increasingly aware of themselves as a political force".
After the war, the group took advantage of a favourable political environment to expand their territory. Some moved south towards Moba Port and Kalemi, and others moved onto the Ruzizi Plain, where a few became chiefs among the Barundi through gifts of cattle. Still others went to work in the Bukavu, the provincial capital, or Uvira, a town experiencing a gold rush economic boom. The urban dwellers could make a fair living selling meat and milk from their herds to the gold diggers though the group lacked the political connections to Kinshasa or a large educated class, which was possessed by the North Kivu Banyarwanda.Prunier, 52
The pastoralists were located within three territories: Mwenga, inhabited by the Lega people; Fizi of the Bembe people, the Babwari people and the Banyindu people; and Uvira, inhabited by the Vira people, Bafuliro and Barundi.Mamdani, 248 Ethnic tensions against the Tutsi rose after the end of the colonial period, as well as during the mass killings in 1972 of Hutu in Burundi. In response, the Tutsi appear to have attempted to distance themselves from their ethnicity as Rwandans and lay claim to a territorial identity as residents of Mulenge. As they moved, they continued that practice. Some Tutsi Banyarwanda in South Kivu call themselves the Banya-tulambo and Banya-minembwe, after the places in which they were located.
Political tensions (1971–1992) After 1971, such practices became increasingly controversial. The 1971 Citizenship Decree by President Mobutu Sese Seko granted citizenship to the Banyarwanda who had arrived as refugees from 1959 to 1963. However, some leaders, such as Chief of Staff Barthélémy Bisengimana, were concerned that the change was an alarming sign of the growing influence of the Banyarwanda in the administration.Mamdani, 252
In reaction to the apparently growing influence of the Banyamulenge, the majority ethnicities, particularly the Nande and Hunde of North Kivu, focused on dominating the 1977 legislative elections. Once that had been accomplished, they passed the 1981 Citizenship Bill, stating that only people who could prove descent from someone resident in Congo in 1885 would qualify for citizenship. From the perspective of the so-called "indigenous ethnicities", such as the Babembe, Bafuliro, the name "Banyamulenge" was a claim to indigeneity in Mulenge.
However, the bill proved difficult to implement by the time of the 1985 provincial assembly elections and so the so-called "indigenous Kivutian majority" came up with an ad hoc measure: Banyarwanda (including Banyamulenge and Tutsi from North Kivu) were allowed to vote in elections but not to run for political office. That appeared to aggravate the situation, as the Banyarwanda who qualified as citizens under the 1981 law still found their political rights curtailed. Some so-called Banyarwanda, particularly Banyamulenge, smashed ballot boxes in protest.Mamdani, 243–245 Others formed Umoja, an organization of all Congolese Banyarwanda. However, in 1988, the increasing tensions in the Banyarwanda community of North Kivu led to the division of the organization into Tutsi and Hutu groups in North Kivu since the Hutus controlled Rwanda.
The 1991 (CNS) was a sign of the increasing coherence of the anti-Mobutu forces, and came as the Congolese Banyarwanda were in a state of heightened tension. After the beginning of the Rwandan Civil War in 1990, many young Tutsi men in Kivu crossed the border to join the Tutsi-dominated rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in its fight against the Hutu-dominated Rwandan government. In response, the Mobutu government implemented Mission d'Identification de Zaïrois au Kivu to identify non-Zairean Banyarwanda by using the 1885 end of the Berlin Conference as the cutoff. Many Banyarwanda whose families had come as colonial labourers were classified as aliens, which resulted in yet more youth joining the RPF. The overall effect of the CNS was to strengthen the tendency of "indigenous" Congolese to differentiate Tutsis from Hutus and thus lump together all Tutsi Banyarwanda as "Banyamulenge". It also underlined the fragility of their political position to the Banyamulenge. Within the Banyarwanda in the Kivus, the Hutu began defining themselves as "indigenous" compared to the Tutsis, who were increasingly seen as owing their allegiance to the foreign groups.Mamdani, 245–247
Conflict (1993–1998) In 1993, the issue of land and indigenous claims in the Kivus erupted into bloody conflict. Hutu and some Tutsi landlords began buying the lands of poor Hutu and Bahunde of the Wanyanga chiefdom in Masisi, North Kivu. After they had been displaced, 1000 people went to Walikale to demand the right to elect their own ethnic leaders. The Banyanga, insisting that only "indigenous people" could claim that customary right, began fighting the Hutu.
The 1000 people returned to Masisi, where the Hutu landlords and Banyarwanda in general supported the claim of Banyarwanda to "indigenous" rights. The government sent in the Division Spéciale Présidentielle (DSP) and the Guarde Civile to restore order. Ill-supplied, the security forces were forced to live off the local population: the DSP off the rich Hutu and the Guarde Civile off the Bahunde and ordinary Hutus. The DSP appeared to be protecting the rights of the "non-indigenous" (primarily Hutus) against the "indigenous" (primarily Bahunde), sparking outrage and increasing the scope of the conflict. One estimate is that between 10,000 and 20,000 people were killed; another 200,000 people were forced to flee their homes.Mamdani, pp. 252–253