Rwanda

Rwanda, a landlocked country in east-central Africa located south of the Equator. Rwanda is also referred to as le pays des mille collines (French: ' land of a thousand hills '), known for its stunning scenery. The capital is Kigali, which is situated on the Ruganwa River in the country center. Unlike its southern neighbor Burundi, Rwanda is a geographically small country with one of the largest densities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Rwanda shares a long tradition of monarchical rule with Burundi too. However, contrary to what happened in Burundi, the collapse of the Rwandan kingship was triggered by a grassroots Hutu-led uprising before the country became independent in 1962. As in Burundi, the major ethnic groups in Rwanda are Hutu and Tutsi, respectively accounting for more than four fifths and about one seventh of the total population. The Twa ad hunter gatherer groups, constitute less than one percent of the population. Other minorities include a small group of Europeans mostly missionaries, employees of relief and development programs and entrepreneurs, a small number of Asian merchants, and Africans from Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Social differences between the Hutu and Tutsi traditionally were profound, as shown by the system of patron client ties through which the Tutsi with a strong pastoralist tradition, gained social, economic, and political ascendancy over the Hutu, who were primarily agriculturalists. The formerly more distinct pastoral and agricultural systems have become well integrated and nearly all farm households now engage simultaneously in crop and livestock production. During the Hutu revolution that began in late 1959, some 150,000 too 300,000 Tutsi were forced out of the country, which reduced the former ruling aristocracy to an even smaller minority. Since the end of the 1994 genocide, many Tutsi have returned to Rwanda to reclaim their heritage image result for Rwanda.