Editing Hutu

{{Short description|Ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region}}
{{About|the African ethnic group|the New Zealand native tree|Ascarina lucida|the [[Romania]]n village of Huțu|Găiceana}}
{{Distinguish|Houthi tribe}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
 | group = Hutu<br><small>Abahutu</small>
 | pop =
 | popplace =
 | region1          = {{Flaglist|Rwanda}}
 | pop1             = 11.1–12 million (84%–90% of the total population)
 | ref1             = <ref>Since the Rwandan massacre, no ethnic census has been conducted; an estimated 84 to 90 percent of the population is Hutu.</ref>
 | region2          = {{Flaglist|Burundi}}
 | pop2             = 10.4 million (85% of the total population)
 | ref2             = 
 | region3          =  [[Christianity]],<br>minority [[Islam]]
 | langs = [[Kinyarwanda]],<!-- Note: Hutus speak and learn English, French and Swahili as second languages for interethnic communication and in formal education rather than as native languages which this section is supposed to emphasize --> [[Kirundi]]
 | related = Other [[Rwanda-Rundi]] peoples
}}
<!-- Note: this page focuses more on Rwanda than it does on Burundi, because that is what the sources do. Anyone who would like to provide more information on Burundian Hutus should feel free to add as much as they can find. -->

The '''Hutu''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|uː|t|uː}}), also known as the '''Abahutu''', are a [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]] [[ethnic group]] native to the [[African Great Lakes]] region. They mainly live in [[Rwanda]], [[Burundi]], and [[Uganda]] where they form one of the principal ethnic groups alongside the [[Tutsi]] and the [[Great Lakes Twa]]. The Hutus were also the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

==Demographics==

{{main|Demographics of Rwanda|Demographics of Burundi}}

The Hutu is the largest of the three main population divisions in [[Burundi]] and [[Rwanda]]. Prior to 2017, the [[CIA World Factbook]] stated that 84% of Rwandans and 85% of Burundians are Hutu, with [[Tutsi people|Tutsis]] being the second largest ethnic group at 15% and 14% of residents of Rwanda and Burundi, respectively. However, these figures were omitted in 2017 and no new figures have been published since then.<ref name="ciarw">
{{cite web
| url = https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/rwanda/
| title = Rwanda: People| access-date = 2006-10-31
| publisher = [[The World Factbook|CIA World Factbook]]}}
</ref><ref name="ciabi">
{{cite web
| url = https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/burundi/
| title = Burundi: People| access-date = 2006-10-31
| publisher = CIA World Factbook}}
</ref>

The [[Great Lakes Twa|Twa]] [[pygmy|pygmies]], the smallest of the two countries' principal populations, share language and culture with the Hutu and Tutsi. They are distinguished by a considerably shorter stature.<ref name="britannicatwa">
{{cite encyclopedia
| url = https://www.britannica.com/topic/Twa
| title = Twa
| date = 11 October 2019
| encyclopedia = [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]}}
</ref><ref name="HRW-1">
{{cite book |first=Alison |last=Des Forges |chapter-url= https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/Geno1-3-09.htm#P200_83746
| year= 1999
| chapter= The Meaning of "Hutu," "Tutsi," and "Twa"
| title=Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda
| publisher = [[Human Rights Watch]] | access-date=2006-10-31 |url=https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2020/12/rwanda-leave-none-to-tell-the-story.pdf |isbn=1-56432-171-1}}</ref>

==Etymology==
The idea that Hutu is etymologically derived from a word that signifies slave was advanced by Ernest Viaene (1910, p.1047) and contradicted by {{ill|René Bourgeois|fr|René Bourgeois}}, who suggested that it originally meant "lords" in relation to the subordinate Twa pygmies. René Bourgeois reported that among the [[Mongo people]] of the [[DRC]], Bantu people governing on the local Twa were called "Bahoto" or "Bawoto", terms cognate to the “Bahutu” of Rwanda and Burundi, and which meant “lords” in the local language (not serfs) because they governed over the Pygmies.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Banyarwanda_et_Barundi.html?id=IV6izwEACAAJ&redir_esc=y|title=Banyarwanda et Barundi. Tome I. Ethnographie|page=35}}</ref>

== Origins ==

{{main|Origins of Hutu, Tutsi and Twa}}
 
The Hutu are believed to have first emigrated to the Great Lake region from [[Central Africa]] in the great [[Bantu expansion]].<ref name="Luis">{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1086/382286 | pmc = 1182266 | title = The Levant versus the Horn of Africa: Evidence for Bidirectional Corridors of Human Migrations | pmid = 14973781 | year = 2004 | last1 = Luis | first1 = J | last2 = Rowold | first2 = D | last3 = Regueiro | first3 = M | last4 = Caeiro | first4 = B | last5 = Cinnioglu | first5 = C | last6 = Roseman | first6 = C | last7 = Underhill | first7 = P | last8 = Cavallisforza | first8 = L | last9 = Herrera | first9 = R |display-authors=3 |journal = [[American Journal of Human Genetics]] | volume = 74 | issue = 3 | pages = 532–44 }}</ref> Various theories have emerged to explain the purported physical differences between them and their fellow [[Bantu languages|Bantu]]-speaking neighbors, the Tutsi. The Tutsi were pastoralists and are believed to have established aristocratic control over the sedentary Hutu and Twa. Through intermarriage with the Hutu, the Tutsi were gradually assimilated, culturally, linguistically, and racially.<ref>International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, Africa, Volume 76, (Oxford University Press., 2006), pg 135.</ref>

Others suggest that the two groups are related but not identical, and they also suggest that the differences between them were exacerbated by Europeans,<ref name="udayton">{{cite web |url=http://academic.udayton.edu/race/06hrights/GeoRegions/Africa/Rwanda01.htm |title=Sexual Violence and Genocide Against Tutsi Women |access-date = 2007-01-03 |editor-last=Vernellia R. |editor-first=Randall |date=2006-02-16 |publisher =[[University of Dayton]] }} excerpt from {{cite journal |last=Green |first=Llezlie L. |title=Gender Hate Propaganda and Sexual Violence in the Rwandan Genocide: An Argument for Intersectionality in International Law |journal=[[Columbia Human Rights Law Review]] |date=Summer 2002 |volume=33 |issue=733 |ssrn=2272193 |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2272193}}</ref> or they were exacerbated by a gradual, natural split, as those who owned cattle became known as the Tutsi and those who did not own cattle became known as the Hutu.<ref name="HRW-1"/> [[Mahmood Mamdani]] states that the [[Belgian colonial empire|Belgian colonial power]] designated people as Tutsi or Hutu on the basis of cattle ownership, physical measurements and church records.<ref>{{cite book |first=Mahmood |last=Mamdani |date=2001 |title=When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=0691102805 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S2KYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1}}</ref>

The debate over the ethnic origins of the Hutu and Tutsi within Rwandan politics predates the [[Rwandan genocide]], and it continues to the present day,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Newbury |first=Catharine |title=Ethnicity and the Politics of History in Rwanda |journal=[[Africa Today]] |volume=45 |issue=1 |date=1998 |pages=7–24 |jstor=4187200}}</ref> with the government of Rwanda no longer using the distinction.

==Genetics==
===Y-DNA (paternal lineages)===
Modern-day genetic studies of the [[Y chromosome|Y-chromosome]] suggest that the Hutu, like the Tutsi, are largely of [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]] extraction (83% [[Haplogroup E1b1a (Y-DNA)|E1b1a]], 8% [[Haplogroup E2 (Y-DNA)|E2]]). Paternal genetic influences associated with the [[Horn of Africa]] and [[North Africa]] are few (3% [[Haplogroup E1b1b (Y-DNA)|E1b1b]] and 1% [[Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA)|R1b]]), and are ascribed to much earlier inhabitants who were assimilated. However, the Hutu have considerably fewer [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan]] paternal lineages (4.3% B) than the Tutsi (14.9% B).<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Luis | first1 = J. R. | display-authors = etal | year = 2004 | title = The Levant versus the Horn of Africa: Evidence for Bidirectional Corridors of Human Migrations | journal = American Journal of Human Genetics | volume = 74 | issue = 3| pages = 532–544 | doi = 10.1086/382286 | pmid = 14973781 | pmc = 1182266 }}</ref>

=== Autosomal DNA (overall ancestry) ===

In general, the Hutu appear to share a close genetic kinship with neighboring Bantu populations, particularly the Tutsi. However, it is unclear whether this similarity is primarily due to extensive genetic exchanges between these communities through intermarriage or whether it ultimately stems from common origins:

<blockquote>[...] generations of [[gene flow]] obliterated whatever clear-cut physical distinctions may have once existed between these two Bantu peoples – renowned to be height, body build, and facial features. With a spectrum of physical variation in the peoples, Belgian authorities legally mandated ethnic affiliation in the 1920s, based on economic criteria. Formal and discrete social divisions were consequently imposed upon ambiguous biological distinctions. To some extent, the permeability of these categories in the intervening decades helped to reify the biological distinctions, generating a taller elite and a shorter underclass, but with little relation to the gene pools that had existed a few centuries ago. The social categories are thus real, but there is little if any detectable genetic differentiation between Hutu and Tutsi.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Miller |editor-first=Joseph C. |editor-link=Joseph C. Miller |title=New Encyclopedia of Africa |volume=2, Dakar-Hydrology |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons}}</ref></blockquote>

Tishkoff et al. (2009) found their mixed Hutu and Tutsi samples from Rwanda to be predominately of Bantu origin, with minor gene flow from [[Afro-Asiatic languages|Afro-Asiatic]] communities (17.7% Afro-Asiatic genes found in the mixed Hutu&ndash;Tutsi population).<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Michael C. |last1=Campbell |first2=Sarah A. |last2=Tishkoff |title=African Genetic Diversity: Implications for Human Demographic History, Modern Human Origins, and Complex Disease Mapping |journal=[[Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics]] |volume=9 |date=September 2008 |pages=403–433 |doi=10.1146/annurev.genom.9.081307.164258 |pmid=18593304 |pmc=2953791 }}</ref>

==Language==
{{unreferenced section|date=November 2021}}
[[File:Hutu.jpg|thumb|right|50px|A traditional Hutu [[throwing knife]].]]
Hutus speak [[Rwanda-Rundi]] as their native tongue, which is a member of the [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] subgroup of the [[Niger–Congo languages|Niger–Congo]] language family. Rwanda-Rundi is subdivided into the [[Kinyarwanda]] and [[Kirundi]] dialects, which have been standardized as [[official languages]] of Rwanda and Burundi, respectively. It is also spoken as a mother tongue by the Tutsi and Twa.{{cn|date=November 2021}}

Additionally, a small portion of Hutu speak [[French language|French]], the other official language of Rwanda and Burundi, as a [[lingua franca]], although the population is dwindling given the poor relations between Rwanda and France.{{cn|date=November 2021}}

==Post-colonial history==
[[File:Juvénal Habyarimana (1980).jpg|thumb|[[Juvénal Habyarimana]], Hutu president of Rwanda from 1973 to 1994]]
{{Hutu militants}}
The Belgian-sponsored [[Rwandan monarchy|Tutsi monarchy]] survived until 1959 when [[Kigeli V of Rwanda|Kigeli V]] was exiled from the colony (then called [[Ruanda-Urundi]]). In Burundi, Tutsis, who are the minority, maintained control of the government and military. In Rwanda, the political power was transferred from the minority Tutsi to the majority Hutu.<ref>{{cite book |last=Adekunle |first=Julius |date=2007 |title=Culture and Customs of Rwanda |publisher=Greenwood |isbn=978-0-3133-3177-0 |page=17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G8ByAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP1}}</ref>

In Rwanda, this led [[Wind of destruction|to the "Social revolution"]] and Hutu and Tutsis conflicts. Tens of thousands of Tutsis were killed, and many others fled to neighboring countries, such as Burundi, [[Uganda]], and forming the [[Banyamulenge]] Tutsi ethnic group in the South Kivu region of the [[Belgian Congo]]. Later, exiled Tutsis from Burundi invaded Rwanda, prompting Rwanda to close its border to Burundi.

In [[Burundi]], [[Ikiza|a campaign of genocide]] was conducted against the Hutu population in 1972,<ref>{{cite book |first1=Michael |last1=Bowen |first2=Gary |last2=Freeman |first3=Kay |last3=Miller |title=Passing by; The United States and genocide in Burundi, 1972 |publisher=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |date=1973 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BKRGAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP1}}</ref><ref>René Lemarchand, ''Selective genocide in Burundi'' (Report - Minority Rights Group; no. 20, 1974), 36 pp.</ref><ref>Rene Lemarchand, ''Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide'' (New York: Woodrow Wilson Center and [[Cambridge University Press]], 1996), 232 pp.
*Edward L. Nyankanzi, ''Genocide: Rwanda and Burundi'' (Schenkman Books, 1998), 198 pp.</ref><ref>Christian P. Scherrer, ''Genocide and crisis in Central Africa: conflict roots, mass violence, and regional war''; foreword by [[Robert Melson (political scientist)|Robert Melson]]. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2002.</ref><ref>Weissman, Stephen R. "[http://www.usip.org/pubs/peaceworks/pwks22.html Preventing Genocide in Burundi Lessons from International Diplomacy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090311024548/http://www.usip.org/pubs/peaceworks/pwks22.html |date=2009-03-11 }}", [[United States Institute of Peace]]
</ref> and an estimated 100,000 Hutus died.<ref name="allan.stam.googlepages.com">{{Cite web |url=http://allan.stam.googlepages.com/Rwandaoped0405042.pdf |title=Rwanda 1994: Genocide + Politicide, Christian Davenport and Allan Stam |access-date=2007-10-22 |archive-date=2009-03-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325170615/http://allan.stam.googlepages.com/Rwandaoped0405042.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1993, Burundi's first democratically elected president, [[Melchior Ndadaye]], who was Hutu, was believed to be assassinated by Tutsi officers, as was the person constitutionally entitled to succeed him.<ref>International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi: Final Report. Part III: Investigation of the Assassination. Conclusions at [http://www.usip.org/library/tc/doc/reports/burundi_coi/burundi_coi1996pt3.html#VII USIP.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201132151/http://www.usip.org/library/tc/doc/reports/burundi_coi/burundi_coi1996pt3.html |date=2008-12-01 }}</ref> This sparked [[1993 ethnic violence in Burundi|a counter-genocide in Burundi]] between Hutu political structures and the Tutsi military, in which an estimated 500,000 Burundians died.{{Citation needed|date=July 2008}} There were many mass killings of Tutsis and moderate Hutus; these events were deemed to be a genocide by the United Nations International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi.<ref name="ICIBFR-496">International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi (2002)</ref>

While Tutsis remained in control of Burundi, the conflict resulted in [[genocide in Rwanda]] as well.<ref name="HRW-2">{{cite web |url= https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/Geno1-3-09.htm#P233_103259|year= 1999 |title= The Hutu Revolution| publisher = Human Rights Watch| access-date=2006-10-31}}</ref> A Tutsi rebel group, the [[Rwandan Patriotic Front]], came back in Rwanda (There country) from Uganda, which started hatred against the Tutsi people  in 1990. A peace agreement was signed, but violence erupted again, culminating in the [[Rwandan genocide]] of 1994, when Hutu extremists killed<ref name="PBS">{{cite web| url = https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/etc/slaughter.html| title = Timeline of the genocide| access-date = 2006-12-30| publisher = PBS}}</ref> an estimated 1M Rwandans, (Tutsis).<ref name="BBC">{{cite news | title = How the genocide happened | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1288230.stm | publisher = BBC| date = 2004-04-01| access-date = 2006-10-31 }}</ref>

About 30% of the Twa pygmy population of Rwanda were also killed by the Hutu extremists.<ref name="irin">{{cite news | title = Minorities Under Siege: Pygmies today in Africa | url = http://www.irinnews.org/webspecials/pygmy/52529.asp | publisher = UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs | year = 2006 | access-date = 2006-12-11 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061201053605/http://www.irinnews.org/webspecials/pygmy/52529.asp | archive-date = 2006-12-01 }}</ref> At the same time, the Rwandan Patriotic Front took control of the country and is still the ruling party {{as of|2020|lc=1}}. Burundi is also currently governed by a former rebel group, the Hutu [[National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy|CNDD–FDD]].

{{As of|2006}}, violence between the Hutu and Tutsi had subsided, but the situation in both Rwanda and Burundi was still tense, and tens of thousands of Rwandans were still living outside the country (see [[Great Lakes refugee crisis]]).<ref name="ciarw"/>

==See also==
*[[Burundi Civil War]]
*[[History of Burundi]]
*[[History of Rwanda]]
*[[Rwanda Civil War]]

==References==
{{Reflist|33em}}

{{Ethnic groups in Burundi}}
{{Ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo}}
{{Ethnic groups in Rwanda}}
{{Ethnic groups in Tanzania}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Hutu| ]]
[[Category:Bantu peoples]]