The clans of Rwanda: an historical hypothesis

Abstract

Opening ParagraphOnly recently have precolonial African historical studies broken away from their fixation on dynastic histories and trade. In reassessing the dynastic traditions, historians of the African past have increasingly drawn on oral traditions from non-royal sources. In particular they have placed a great deal of emphasis on ‘clan traditions’ and the clan group has consequently served as an important building block in reconstructing the African past. But in Rwandan studies this has often been undertaken in a rather uncritical manner; in fact, historians may have been building on a foundation which is less enduring than they realize. For their new construct is often based on the assumption of ‘primordial’ clan units reaching far back into the past, antedating the dynastic political units of which they came to form a part. It is usually argued that these enduring clan units could absorb individuals from other clans or experience geographical expansion through migration; but the basic structure of clan identities is seen as unchanging.