Post by Tukuler al~Takruri on Mar 25, 2019 10:34:21 GMT -5
Inganji Karinga was the first book written in Runyarwanda about the history of Rwanda.The first volume was published in 1943 and the second in 1947. The author was Alexis Kagame who was trained as a priest. King Mutara Rudahigwa who was impressed by the young seminarian’s enthusiasm in the studies of Rwandan history, agreed to provide him with whatever he needed to put Rwandan history in a written form.
Rwanda as an ancient kingdom had a very long history that was carefully memorized by Rwandan oral historians for centuries, therefore, Kagame had an easy time recording it from those historians who had memorized it word by word from generations to generations. Belgians who had colonized Rwanda were not happy about the book, because in their colonies the history was supposed to be written by the colonizer not the colonized. Therefore for Kagame to tell Rwandans that they lived in a great nation that their ancestors had established and turned into the largest nation in the sub Saharan Africa, it made Belgians quite uneasy and began to censor his publications and at one point he was placed under house arrest. Belgians’ policies in their African colonies were to “Faire l’home noir oublier ses ancetres (make the black man forget his ancestors),” and here comes Kagame telling Rwandans who their great ancestors were. It was a sacrilege in the eyes of Belgians,who did everything they could to discredit him and his work.
After independence Kagame continued his research and published about a dozen books and articles that are the basis for Rwandan History as we know it. Recent archeological studies have supported his work and concluded that indeed Rwandans
• set up their nation
• around three thousand years ago,
• when they raised cattle,
• grew large quantities of sorghum & millet
• and soon afterwards they were making good iron tools.
With good climate, high altitude, good weather free of mosquitoes and tsetse flies, and sophisticated political institutions in place, Rwandans were able to stand up to foreign enemies and were even able to stop slave traders.
Rwanda as an ancient kingdom had a very long history that was carefully memorized by Rwandan oral historians for centuries, therefore, Kagame had an easy time recording it from those historians who had memorized it word by word from generations to generations. Belgians who had colonized Rwanda were not happy about the book, because in their colonies the history was supposed to be written by the colonizer not the colonized. Therefore for Kagame to tell Rwandans that they lived in a great nation that their ancestors had established and turned into the largest nation in the sub Saharan Africa, it made Belgians quite uneasy and began to censor his publications and at one point he was placed under house arrest. Belgians’ policies in their African colonies were to “Faire l’home noir oublier ses ancetres (make the black man forget his ancestors),” and here comes Kagame telling Rwandans who their great ancestors were. It was a sacrilege in the eyes of Belgians,who did everything they could to discredit him and his work.
After independence Kagame continued his research and published about a dozen books and articles that are the basis for Rwandan History as we know it. Recent archeological studies have supported his work and concluded that indeed Rwandans
• set up their nation
• around three thousand years ago,
• when they raised cattle,
• grew large quantities of sorghum & millet
• and soon afterwards they were making good iron tools.
With good climate, high altitude, good weather free of mosquitoes and tsetse flies, and sophisticated political institutions in place, Rwandans were able to stand up to foreign enemies and were even able to stop slave traders.
A wild stab in the darkness but, is he in anyway connected to the current leader Paul Kagame,??
And the Kingdom of Rwanda was it a fact that it was the largest nation in Africa.. Keep in mind I know virtually nothing of that nation beyond what the Coloniza wrote.