Tutsi

Member of a minority ethnic group living in Rwanda and Burundi. They have politically dominated the Hutu majority and the Twa (or Pygmies) since their arrival in the area in the 14th century. In Burundi, positions of power were monopolized by the Tutsis, who carried out massacres in response to Hutu rebellions, notably 1972 and 1988. In Rwanda, where the balance of power is more even, Tutsis were massacred in their thousands by Hutu militia during the 1994 civil war.

The Tutsi are traditionally farmers and cattle herders. Cattle are a symbol of power and wealth, and have enabled the Tutsi to dominate the agricultural Hutu. They hold virtually all positions of importance in Burundi's government and army. Hutu rebellions were brutally suppressed in 1972 and 1988, and massacres followed the assassination of the first democratically elected Hutu president of Burundi 1993. In Rwanda, bloody ethnic violence erupted 1994 after the presidents of both Rwanda and Burundi were killed in an aircrash.

In addition to the Tutsi refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), hundreds of thousands of Tutsi, known as the Banyamulenge, have lived there since the 18th century.