Precolonial Paragraph

Kathleen Matthews
Humanities
3/25/10

Looking at Africa’s pre-colonial history some societies have similarities, but looking at Rwanda’s Hutu and Tutsi people and an Ibo village located in Nigeria, their pre-colonial past shows that the two societies political systems were very different from each other. In the Ibo society their government was a group of elders and high society men who came together to make important decisions for their tribe. Unlike the Rwanda government, the lords of the clan made decision together with the men of the society. In the Ibo society, success was not limited to a certain group of people. In the book Things Fall Apart, the narrator talks about a man named Okonkwo whose father was considered a failure and because of that Okonkwo was scared to be a failure too. In a conversation between two men, they talk about how Okonkwo impresses them because he “…has risen so suddenly from great poverty and misfortune to be one of the lords of the clan” (Achebe 26). Although, men who had more power or were an elder had more respect, Ibo’s government was not set up like a hierarchy system. While in Rwanda, their government was set up as a hierarchy. There would be a king, who then had official who were in charge of the clans around Rwanda, these officials were in charge of administration of agricultural lands, supervision of grazing lands/cattle, and recruitments for army (“Rwanda”). Rwanda’s society is made of up mainly of Tutsi, and Hutu people. From the Tutsi having a better diet, physical difference, and from being more developed they acquire all of the powerful and diplomatic position in Rwanda society while the Hutu were the common citizens and farmers of the state. As time went on someone with distinction of features of how one looks or if their occupation was raising cattle or in politics someone could be a Tutsi, while a farmer or lower class men would be Hutu (“Rwanda”). Being Hutu or Tutsi became a name instead of an ethnic group, "...the state in Rwanda defined rulers and subjects as belonging to two distinct social groups, pastoralist and agriculturalist, one noble, the other commoner" ("Ethnicity in Rwanda: An Interpretation"). Being Tutsi meant that you had the opportunity to be in politics and have power, while in Nigeria in the Ibo tribe someone who was a leader of the tribe that was respected would have multiple wives, barns full of yams, and a high title. In the Ibo tribe in Things Fall Apart, members of the tribe can take titles through expensive ceremonies, and by taking more titles, the higher up someone is in the tribes’ social and political system. In the book, it tells of a man named Okeye who is “not a failure like Unoka. He had a large barn full of yams and he had three wives. And now he was going to take the Idemili title, the third highest in the land. It was very expensive ceremony and he was gathering all his resources together” (Achebe 7). This man is admired and respected, and someone who has a high title in the Ibo society is a leader of the clan. Therefore, unlike Rwanda political system in the Ibo tribe people would buy and work there way to politics, while in Rwanda it depended on which ethnic group you were born into so if you were Hutu you could be stuck with no power or voice for the rest of your life.