The Banyarwanda are itemised in the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution of Uganda as one of the indigenous communities or tribes in Uganda. So, they have the same level of citizenship as the Bakonzo or Baganda and Bafumbira. But there is more to the Banyarwanda in Uganda than meets the eye.
There is always a high sense of unease with their citizenship and they have been treated as the fall guys of national politics since 1980. The Banyarwanda are always accused of being foreigners (Rwandan). In normal circum[1]stances, it would be easy even with a low-end Ugandan citizen like me to appreciate the difference between a Rwandan (denoting a citizen of Rwanda) and the Banyarwanda (an indigenous community in Ugandans).
Yet, I know the material reality on the ground points to a different situation: Banyarwanda have issues in Uganda. Whereas the Banyarwanda have (and acknowledge to have) issues in Uganda, some of them have a tendency to unnecessarily court controversy.
Take the spat between Mr Joseph Ssewungu and Mr Frank Gashumba. Both are members of the Banyarwanda community with visible national profiles. Mr Ssewungu is an MP and Mr Gashumba is a social commentator and socialite.
Appearing on a Radio 4 talkshow, Gashumba said he stood with Ssewungu when he was little known. But Mr Ssewungu misunderstood that to mean that Gashumba was patronising him.
Mr Ssewungu is said to have requested to appear on the same radio to respond to what he mistook for Gashumba’s patronising attitude. And then mr. Ssewungu lost himself into an unnecessary rage disparaging Mr Gashumba. I was tempted to blame the radio for wasting a national resource to sibling rivalry. But no; I blame Mr Ssewungu.
Why? Boy, oh boy, because I decline to blame the radio for what I see as Mr Ssewungu’s manifestation of the Hutu-Tutsi dichotomy among the Banyarwanda Community in Uganda.
This divide has hitherto been limited to Rwanda. Otherwise most Banyarwanda (Kinyarwanda speakers) in Uganda, DRC and Tanzania don’t harbour these Hutu-Tutsi identities. In the DRC, they call themselves by the names of their locations or hills.
That’s why you hear of Banyamulenge (people of Mulenge), Banyamasisi (people of Masisi and Banyajomba (people of Jomba). There is no open classification of Hutu and Tutsi. Ndugu Ssewungu, it was not necessary to classify yourself as Tutsi. ‘We’ Banyarwanda know who among us is Hutu or Tutsi.
Becaause Ssewungu said he was Tutsi, Gashumba returned fire and said Ssewungu was Hutu. And that he eats pork. For those who don’t know, to associate eating pork with a bona fide Munyarwanda is, to say the least, a sin.
Banyarwanda in Uganda don’t have this Hutu-Tutsi divide. And one doesn’t have to identify him or herself as Tutsi or Hutu.
Neither should one identify another as Tutsi or Hutu. Why? Because the Banyarwanda in Uganda denote Tutsi. The Banyarwanda Hutu, I hear tend to melt (the word is integrate) among the Bantu communities in which they live.
That might be a small problem in Uganda. But the fear is that this could play into the hands of people known to have a real dichotomy of Hutu-Tutsi? Oh yes, what if.? That’s why I blame Mr Ssewungu for exposing Ugandans (particularly Banyarwanda) to this Hutu-Tutsi divide.
Dear reader, it is easy to tell a Ugandan (Munyarwanda) from a Rwandan Munyarwanda. The Ugandans are loud. I can bet my royal inheritance loud people like Gashumba would not survive in Rwanda where humility (kinyabufura?) is treated as a national value. Mr Ssewungu and Gashumba are basically Ugandans and it doesn’t matter from whence their parents or grandparents came. Please don’t teach us your Hutu-Tutsi things.