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Boniface Benzinge is the Rwandan chief of the Abiru, hereditary privy councillors to the Mwami of Rwanda.
A member of a family of royal historians, Benzinge was a courtier to King Kigeli V, who was the last reigning king of his country before being deposed in 1961.
Following that event, Benzinge and his fellow Abiru announced his nephew as Kigeli's titular successor. Although a faction of the royal family opposed this act, [1] the new king was nevertheless subsequently crowned as Yuhi VI in 2017.
Since this occurred, Benzinge has continued to serve as the head of the royal court.
Kigeli V Ndahindurwa was the last ruling King (Mwami) of Rwanda, from 28 July 1959 until the end of the UN-mandate with Belgian administration and the declaration of an independent Republic of Rwanda 1 July 1962. On 25 September 1961, a referendum voted for the abolition of the Rwandan monarchy following the Rwandan revolution.
Mutara II Rwogera was the King of Rwanda from 1830 to his death in June 1853. Under his rule and that of his successor Kigeli IV Rwabugiri, the kingdom reached its pinnacle of power.
Queen Dowager Rosalie Gicanda was the wife of Rwandan King Mutara III Rudahigwa. After her husband died in mysterious circumstances in 1959, the Rwandan monarchy lasted only two more years, under the leadership of King Kigeli V Ndahindurwa and then coming to an end with the Rwandan Revolution in 1961. However, the Queen continued to live in Butare in Butare Province, Rwanda, along with her mother and several ladies-in-waiting, where she was later murdered during the Rwandan genocide.
The Kingdom of Rwanda was a kingdom in East Africa which grew to be ruled by a Tutsi monarchy. It was later annexed under German and Belgian colonial rule while retaining some of its autonomy. The Tutsi monarchy was abolished in 1961 after ethnic violence between the Hutu and Tutsi during the Rwandan Revolution. After a 1961 referendum, Rwanda became a Hutu-dominated republic and received its independence from Belgium in 1962.
Yuhi Musinga was a king of Rwanda who came to power in 1896 and collaborated with the German government to strengthen his own kingship. In 1931 he was deposed by the Belgian administration because of his inability to work with subordinate chiefs and his refusal to be baptized a Roman Catholic. His eldest son, Mutara III Rwanda, succeeded him.
Kigeli IV Rwabugiri was the king (mwami) of the Kingdom of Rwanda in the mid-nineteenth century. He was among the last Nyiginya kings in a ruling dynasty that had traced their lineage back four centuries to Gihanga, the first 'historical' king of Rwanda whose exploits are celebrated in oral chronicles. He was a Tutsi with the birth name Sezisoni. He was the first king in Rwanda's history to come into contact with Europeans. He established an army equipped with guns he obtained from Germans and prohibited most foreigners, especially Arabs, from entering his kingdom.
Mibambwe IV Rutarindwa was Mwami of Rwanda between November 1895 and December 1896, having been made co-ruler by his father Kigeli IV Rwabugiri in 1889. Rutarindwa is sometime transcribed Rutalindwa.
Alexis Kagame was a Rwandan philosopher, linguist, historian, poet and Catholic priest. His main contributions were in the fields of ethnohistory and "ethnophilosophy".
The Rwandan Revolution, also known as the Hutu Revolution, Social Revolution, or Wind of Destruction, was a period of ethnic violence in Rwanda from 1959 to 1961 between the Hutu and the Tutsi, two of the three ethnic groups in Rwanda. The revolution saw the country transition from a Tutsi monarchy under Belgian colonial authority to an independent Hutu-dominated republic.
A referendum on the monarchy was held in Rwanda on 25 September 1961, concurrent with parliamentary elections. The referendum asked two questions: whether the monarchy should be retained after independence the following year, and whether the incumbent, Kigeli V, should remain King.
Ibitekerezo is a form of epic hero poetry that was performed at the royal court in precolonial Rwanda. This oral tradition serves to explain the history of Rwandan dynasties in poetic form. It is one of four major royal traditions of the Kingdom of Rwanda alongside ubwiru and the oral literature forms ubucurabwenge and ibisigo. Ethnographers Jean Hiernaux and Emma Maquet recorded several major ibitekerezo.
Kigeli II Nyamuheshera was Mwami (King) of the Kingdom of Rwanda from 1576-1609. He was a great warrior and expansionist. He had a strong army known as the "Inkingi" (pillar). One of his military camps, known as "Iziruguru", was attacked by a people called "Abanyabungo" from the western Kivu in the modern-day Congo. Kigeli II attacked chiefdoms in eastern Congo, including Bishugi, Kamuronsi, Gishali, Buhunde, Buzi, and Tongo (Masisi). He was stopped by thick rain forests from proceeding further into Congo. He redirected his expansionist attacks into western Uganda, around Lake Edward, and stopped at the "rock of Kabasha" and marked it as the then border between Rwanda and Busongora. Busongora was also known as the land of the Bacwezi. It was against Rwandan customary law to attack Busongora as it was believed to be the home of the god Ryangombe.
Kigeli I Mukobanya was Mwami of the Kingdom of Rwanda from 1378 C.E to 1418 C.E.
Gahima I (also known as Kanyarwanda I, Kayima I, Ghem, Khem, Kakama, Khm among East Africans is recited by the Rwandan "Abiru" as one of the primal Mwami, or King of Rwanda supposedly after Gihanga's long reign around the Nile source and beyond. Gahima I is believed to be the general ancestral patriarch of the Tutsi and helped unite them with the Twa and the Hutu groups that all form the indigenous Rwandan society. It is not clear whether his reign took place in the location of modern-day Rwanda as variants of his name exist in other parts of East Africa such as Uganda and Tanzania and Egypt as Kayima and Kham where they claim him as their ancient king. He is also believed to be the Biblical Ham commonly cited as of the sons of Noah. Just as he is believed to be the grandson of Gihanga a name that means creator, Gahima's maternal grandfather is orally cited in Rwandan theogony and mythology as Rurenge. A name that signifies an entity with a "Big foot".
The Order of Merit of the Portuguese Royal House is a dynastic order of knighthood for extraordinary services rendered to the Portuguese Royal House and for outstanding Merit in the Monarchist Cause.
Emmanuel Bushayija is the titular King of Rwanda. He was proclaimed the ceremonial successor to the royal title (Mwami) on 9 January 2017 under the reign name Yuhi VI. He succeeded his late uncle King Kigeli V and is a grandson of King Yuhi V.
The Abiru are the members of the privy council of the monarchy of Rwanda. They emanate from the earliest pre-colonial Rwandan traditions, and are tied to the monarchy's mythic origins. Due to the mythopoetic nature of accounts of the early history of the Abiru and the Rwandan monarchy, an accurate history of the Abiru is difficult to codify or study.
In the Rwandan Revolution, the coup of Gitarama was an event which occurred on 28 January 1961 in which the monarchy in Rwanda, then a part of the Belgian mandate of Ruanda-Urundi, was abolished and replaced with a republican political system. The traditional monarchy was led by a Mwami (king), who ruled through an administration of chiefs and subchiefs in the context of a feudal system of patron-client relations based on tribute. The Mwami and most of his chiefs were members of the Tutsi ethnic minority, a group which wielded considerable social, political economic power. Of subordinate status to the Tutsis was the Hutu ethnic majority. As part of their rule, the Belgians institutionalised a racial hierarchy which favoured the Tutsis at the expense of the Hutus.
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