Le remodelage de la société par l'école missionnaire (1900-1931)

Mbonimana, Gamaliel

1995

19950101

Ethnies et Église catholique

Le remodelage de la société par l'école missionnaire (1900-1931)

n° 1

Cahiers Lumière et société no 1 : Les ethnies au Rwanda, pp. 35-46

MbonimanaRemodelageSocieteParEcolesMission.pdf

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Cahiers Lumière et société

Article de revue

FR

As soon as they arrived in Rwanda in 1900, the White Fathers opened schools in their missions. In 1903, the school in Save had 135 students. The first baptized were mainly Hutu but also some poor Tutsi. From 1907, the missionaries, led by Mgr Classe, created schools for Tutsi in order to train the future leaders of the country thus satisfying the recommendations of Mgr Lavigerie - to convert chiefs as a priority - and the requirements of the German government. Thus was created a school for noble children in Nyanza which was rather shunned. In 1914, schools "for the sons of chiefs" were opened in Kabgayi, Rwaza, Kigali. With the military occupation by the Belgians, such schools opened in Rwamagana, in Save. From 1922, Mgr Classe imposed Hutu-Tutsi discrimination in schools which had a few Hutus. While communicating to the Belgian Resident Mortehan his mistrust of Mwami Musinga, Bishop Classe saw in the "mututsi youth" an "incomparable element of progress". “If, in 1959, the Tutsi enjoyed political and administrative monopoly, cultural and economic predominance, it is partly because of the role played by the Church, especially with the Astrida school group, but also, and above all by the political will of the Government.