The Tutsi (/ˈtʊtsi/;[2] Rwanda-Rundi pronunciation: [ɑ.βɑ.tuː.t͡si]), or Abatutsi, are a Bantu speaking social class or ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. Historically, they were often referred to as the Watutsi,[3] Watusi,[3] Wahuma, Wahima or the Wahinda. The Tutsi form a subgroup of the Banyarwanda and the Barundi people, who reside primarily in Rwanda and Burundi, but with significant populations also found in DR Congo, Tanzania and Uganda.

Tutsis are the second largest population division among the three largest groups in Rwanda and Burundi; the other two being the Hutu (largest) and the Twa (smallest). Small numbers of Hema and Kiga people also live near the Tutsi in Rwanda. The Northern Tutsi who reside in Rwanda are called Ruguru (Banyaruguru),[5] while southern Tutsi who live in Burundi are known as Hima, the Banyamulenge who live in mulenge mountains.

The definitions of “Hutu” and “Tutsi” people may have changed through time and location. Social structures were not stable throughout Rwanda, even during colonial times under the Belgian rule. The Tutsi aristocracy or elite was distinguished from Tutsi commoners, and wealthy Hutu were often indistinguishable from upper-class Tutsi.

When the Belgian colonists conducted censuses, they wanted to identify the people throughout Rwanda-Burundi according to a simple classification scheme. They defined “Tutsi” as anyone owning more than ten cows (a sign of wealth) or with the physical feature of a longer nose, or longer neck, commonly associated with the Tutsi.

Tutsis usually were said to have arrived in the Great Lakes region from the Horn of Africa.[7][8]

Tutsis are considered to be of Cushitic origin by some researchers, although they do not speak a Cushitic language , and have lived in the areas where they are for at least 400 years, leading to considerable intermarriage with the Hutu in the area. Due to the history of intermingling and intermarrying of Hutus and Tutsis, ethnographers and historians have lately come to agree that Hutu and Tutsis cannot be properly called distinct ethnic groups.

Many analysts and also inhabitants of the Great Lakes Region oppose the Tutsi – as “Cushitics” – to Bantu people like the Hutu and several ethnic groups in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and e.g. in Uganda. However, Bantu is a linguistic classification (see the Bantu lemma as well as the lemma on “Bantu people – the latter says: Bantu people are the speakers of Bantu languages”). As the Tutsi speak the same Bantu language as the Hutu, they are Bantu (speaking) people.

Modern-day genetic studies of the Y-chromosome generally indicate that the Tutsi, like the Hutu, are largely of Bantu extraction (60% E1b1a, 20% B, 4% E-P2(xE1b1a)). Paternal genetic influences associated with the Horn of Africa and North Africa are few (under 3% E1b1b-M35), and are ascribed to much earlier inhabitants who were assimilated. However, the Tutsi have considerably more haplogroup B paternal lineages (14.9% B) than do the Hutu (4.3% B).

Trombetta et al. (2015) found 22.2% of E1b1b in a small sample of Tutsis from Burundi, but no bearers of the haplogroup among the local Hutu and Twa populations. The subclade was of the 4,000-year-old migrant M293 variety, which suggests that the ancestors of Tutsis in this area may have assimilated some Southern Cushitic-speaking pastoralists. Its parental marker E-V1515 is thought to have originated in the northern part of the Horn of Africa around 12,000 to 14,000 years ago.

There are no peer-reviewed genetic studies of the Tutsi’s mtDNA or maternal lineages. However, Fornarino et al. (2009) report that unpublished data indicates that one Tutsi individual from Rwanda carries the India-associated mtDNA haplogroup R7. Further individual 23andme DNA tests suggest that Tutsi mtDNA lineages are associated with local East African Hunter-gatherer maternal haplogroups, particularly haplogroup L0, with very few associated with West African mtDNA lineages. A good number also carry West-Eurasian mtDNA lineages, particularly M1a, K1a; but also J1 and R0

In general, the Tutsi appear to share a close genetic kinship with neighboring Bantu populations, particularly the Hutus. 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:

[…]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.

Tishkoff et al. (2009) found their mixed Hutu and Tutsi samples from Rwanda to be predominantly of Bantu origin, with minor gene flow from Afro-Asiatic communities (17.7% Afro-Asiatic genes found in the mixed Hutu/Tutsi population).

Their average height is 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm), although individuals have been recorded as being taller than 7 feet (213 cm).

Tutsi Author Prize Winner, 2020

Originally posted 2020-09-20 00:08:00.