Editing Tutsi (section)

==Culture==
[[File:Brooklyn Museum 22.1403 Wrist Guard Igitembe.jpg|thumb|right|A traditional Tutsi wrist guard (''igitembe'')]]
In the Rwanda territory, from the 15th century until 1961, the Tutsi were ruled by a king (the ''mwami''). Belgium abolished the monarchy, following the national [[referendum]] that led to independence. By contrast, in the northwestern part of the country (predominantly Hutu), large regional landholders shared power, similar to [[Buganda]] society (in what is now [[Uganda]]).

Under their holy king, Tutsi culture traditionally revolved around administering justice and government. They were the only proprietors of [[cattle]], and sustained themselves on their own products. Additionally, their lifestyle afforded them a lot of leisure time, which they spent cultivating the high arts of poetry, weaving and music. Due to the Tutsi's status as a [[dominant minority]] vis-a-vis the Hutu farmers and the other local inhabitants, this relationship has been likened to that between lords and serfs in feudal Europe.<ref name="Fage120">{{cite book|last1=Fage|first1=John|title=A History of Africa|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1317797272|page=120|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mXa4AQAAQBAJ|access-date=8 January 2015|date=23 October 2013}}</ref>[[File:Brooklyn Museum 1912a-b Basket and Lid.jpg|thumb|left|A traditional Tutsi [[basket]]]]
According to Fage (2013), the Tutsi are serologically related to Bantu and [[Nilotic peoples|Nilotic]] populations. This in turn rules out a possible [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]] origin for the founding Tutsi-Hima ruling class in the lacustrine kingdoms. However, the royal burial customs of the latter kingdoms are quite similar to those practiced by the former Cushitic Sidama states in the southern [[Gibe region]] of Ethiopia. By contrast, Bantu populations to the north of the Tutsi-Hima in the mount Kenya area such as the Agikuyu were until modern times essentially without a king (instead having a stateless age set system which they adopted from Cushitic peoples) while there were a number of Bantu kingdoms to the south of the Tutsi-Hima in Tanzania, all of which shared the Tutsi-Hima's chieftaincy pattern. Since the Cushitic Sidama kingdoms interacted with Nilotic groups, Fage thus proposes that the Tutsi may have descended from one such migrating Nilotic population. The Nilotic ancestors of the Tutsi would thereby in earlier times have served as cultural intermediaries, adopting some monarchical traditions from adjacent Cushitic kingdoms and subsequently taking those borrowed customs south with them when they first settled amongst Bantu autochthones in the Great Lakes area.<ref name="Fage120"/> However, little difference can be ascertained between the cultures today of the Tutsi and Hutu; both groups speak the same [[Bantu languages|Bantu language]].<ref>The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Tutsi". Encyclopedia Britannica, 6 May. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tutsi. Accessed 14 May 2025</ref> The rate of intermarriage between the two groups was traditionally very high, and relations were amicable until the 20th century. Many scholars have concluded that the determination of Tutsi was and is mainly an expression of class or caste, rather than ethnicity. Rwandans have their own language, [[Kinyarwanda]]. English, French and Swahili serve as additional official languages for different historic reasons, and are widely spoken by Rwandans as a second language.<ref name=BC>{{Cite web|url=https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/Euromonitor%20Report%20A4.pdf|title=The Benefits of the English Language for Individuals and Societies: Quantitative Indicators from Cameroon, Nigeria, Rwanda, Bangladesh and Pakistan}}</ref>