When talking about the origin of the ethnic conflict in eastern DR Congo – in the Kivus – many people fail to understand that it is a project born in Brussels. Most people don't realize, as Tom Ndahiro has written, that "the Belgian colonial state designed this conflict (ethnicity), packaged it, and distributed it.”

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A familiar narrative in DR Congo that the Tutsi are foreigners, or infiltrators, was well crafted in Brussels, by erasing them on the country’s ethnographic maps.

In his paper, La problématique de la nationalité sur le plan international. Cas des populations rwandophones vivant en République Démocraique du Congo - the issue of nationality at the international level. Case of Kinyarwanda-speaking populations living in DR Congo - Olivier Mpiana Kalombo of the University of Kinshasa wrote that the first ethnographic map of Belgian Congo was drawn in 1910 by Moeller de Laddersous. The map talks about hundred of ethnic groups, without mentioning the Hutu and the Tutsi, he wrote.

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In addition, he noted, in a 1939 edition, E.J. Vandewoode, a Belgian archivist, published documents related to the former Kivu, between 1870 and 1918, with a list of 15 tribes of the region without mentioning the Hutu and Tutsi.

What he forgot, or did not want to reveal, is that Moeller’s map was not the first one. Joseph Verloet, a prominent Belgian geographer and colonial administrator, drew detailed maps for the Belgian colonial administration as documented in the Bulletin de la Société Belge de Géographie IV & V in 1909, and mentioned the Tutsi.

Kalombo also said that among the chiefdoms in eastern DR Congo, there was no chiefdom belonging to Banyarwanda. But the truth is that there were chiefdoms belonging to Banyarwanda not only in North Kivu, but also in South Kivu, before the colonial era. In South Kivu, we had three; the chiefdoms of Gahutu, Badurege, and Kayira. These Banyarwanda are mostly the Banyamulenge, who settled in South Kivu between the 16th and 18th centuries.

There was also a chiefdom of the Barundi of DR Congo (Hutu and Tutsi) who settled in Rusizi plain with their first traditional chief, called Ntorogwe (1750-1800).

These chiefdoms were recognized by various colonial decrees including the one of 06/10/1891, the one of 03/06/1906, and the decree of 02/05/1910.

After the new maps without Tutsi were drawn, local chiefs of three Banyarwanda chiefdoms were imprisoned, while others were deported to other chiefdoms. The Belgians therefore played a direct role in destroying these three chiefdoms, distributing them to the Balega, Bavira and Bafurero.

However, due to a reason known only by the Belgian administration, the Barundi continued to have their chiefdom and their chiefs. On April 25, 2012, their chief Floribert Nsabimana Ndabagoye Kinyoni II was assassinated and succeeded by his son, Richard Nijimbere Kinyoni III.

In North Kivu, we had five chiefdoms of Banyarwanda: Jomba and Bwishya in Rutshuru, Byahi in Goma, as well as Gishari and Kamuronsi in Masisi.

In 1916, five years after the Tutsi were erased from North Kivu and South Kivu maps, the chiefdom of Byahi was still led by a Tutsi called Karera, of Abagunga clan. That year, Belgians accused him of supporting the Germans and deposed him. His chiefdom was given to Abakumu ethnic group. The chiefdom of Byahi is today known as the chiefdom of Bukumu, created by Belgium in 1916, and is led by Isaac Kahembe Butsitsi IV.

In 1922, Jomba and Bwishya were still chiefdoms led by Tutsi chiefs - Nshizirungu and Kabango. Both chiefs were deposed by Belgium, which accused them of reporting to the King of Rwanda. Their chiefdoms were abolished, and Belgians made them one chiefdom of Bwisha, and gave it to Daniel Ndeze, a young Hutu (as they called him) brought from Ruhengeri.

In 1923, the chiefdoms of Gishari and Kamuronsi in Masisi were also still under the leadership of Tutsi chiefs, Rwubusisi and Semugeshi. That year, the Belgians deposed them, and their chiefdoms were incorporated into the chiefdom of Bahunde, and given to André Kalinda. As it was a big chiefdom and impossible for Kalinda to govern, especially due to the fact that all its inhabitants were not Bahunde, in 1937, Belgians gave Gishari back to a Tutsi chief, Joseph Bideri, who was replaced by Wilfield Bucyana. In 1957, the Belgians deposed Bucyana, and gave the chiefdom again to the chief of the Bahunde.

Since 1910, Belgians attempted to erase and annihilate the Congolese Tutsi, when they drew the first map without mentioning them. But they forgot that you cannot erase a people from the world map. Even Hitler ultimately failed in his genocidal attempt to annihilate the Jewish people.