"First of all," said Adlai Stevenson not long ago, when asked about the United Nations' latest African problem, "I find very few people who even know where Ruanda-Urundi is or what it is."
Well, to begin with, Ruanda-Urundi is actually two countries, which the natives call Rwanda and Burundi. Once a part of German East Africa, they were mandated to Belgium after World War I and administered as a single trust territory. Slightly larger than Maine, they lie along the slopes of the Mountains of the Moon between Tanganyika, Uganda and the Congo. For 40 years, Belgium tampered little with the feudal tribal structure of either territory and ruled through the giant-sized Watutsi tribe (average height: 6 ft. 6 in.).
Although the Watutsi comprised only 14% of the population of 5,000,000, they kept the Bahutu majority and the Batwa Pygmies in a state of virtual serfdom. Cattle feudalism was the basis of the system. The hapless Bahutu were forbidden to own or kill cattle; they could get beef only when cattle died of natural causes. Each Watutsi's wealth, prestige, and political position were measured by the size of his herd, and every cow was regarded as a sister in his family.
Edsel & Friend. Two years ago, Belgium decided to set the territory free, and drew up a timetable for independence. Belgium hoped that the two territories would tie together in a single economic and political entity, but the hope was futile. Burundi's Watutsi ruler, Mwami (King) Mwambutsa IV, had made such a concentrated effort to dilute the caste system that in free elections the Bahutu majority overwhelmingly voted for a separate constitutional monarchy under his leadership. Genuinely popular with both the Watutsi and the Bahutu, Mwambutsa is an accomplished amateur magician who nightly performs his feats of prestidigitation as he tools around the hot spots of his capital city. Usumbura, in a white Edsel convertible, accompanied by his equally white Belgian girl friend.
In Rwanda, meanwhile, Belgium successfully threw its support behind the long suppressed Bahutu, who immediately rose up in bloody revolt against their Watutsi overlords. Although for centuries they had practiced a sort of subfeudal oppression, the Watutsi were openly backed by Russia, in and out of U.N., simply because they were vehemently anti-Belgian. But Bahutu numbers told. The Bahutu burned scores of Watutsi villages to the ground, cut scores of willowy Watutsi warriors literally down to size by slicing their legs off at the knees. Rwanda's Mwami Kigeri V fled into exile along with 142,000 supporters, and the Bahutu set up a republican parliamentary Belgium-backed government.