In the previous article, we saw how Belgium replaced Chief Karera, a native Tutsi of the Byahi chiefdom, with Mukunja, who was given the name Gahembe—meaning “horn” in Kinyarwanda—referring to a small horn he carried over his shoulder in which he kept various personal items. After his anointment as Paul Kabungunda Kahembe, he was given Byahi, renamed Bukumu after his ethnic group, to erase Tutsi leadership in the area and, consequently, their claim to Congolese citizenship. What the Belgians did to the chiefdom of Byahi is exactly what they later replicated in Rutshuru territory, where there were two chiefdoms belonging to the Tutsi people: the chiefdom of Jomba and the chiefdom of Bwishya. As mentioned before, we have no intention of discussing the Congolese citizenship of the Banyabwisha here, as there is no question about it. Rather, our objective is to correct a history distorted by Belgium—one that rendered the Tutsi foreigners on the land of their ancestors. The truth is that the Bagunga and the Bakumu who replaced them, as well as the Bajomba and the Banyabwisha, are all Congolese. No one should question their citizenship. Let us examine how the scenario used to remove Karera from the leadership of Byahi and transform it into Bukumu was replicated six years later in what we know today as Rutshuru. We already know that the first European to arrive in the Kivu region of the DR Congo was Adolf von Götzen. Upon his arrival, there were two chiefdoms led by Tutsi chiefs in the territory of Rutshuru. In 1922, Jomba and Bwishya were still chiefdoms led by Tutsi chiefs, Nshizirungu and Kabango. Belgium deposed both chiefs, accusing them of reporting to the King of Rwanda. Their chiefdoms were abolished, and the Belgians merged them into a single chiefdom called Bwisha, which they handed to Daniel Ndeze, a young Hutu—as the Belgians referred to him—brought from Ruhengeri in Rwanda. Both Jomba and Bwishya chiefdoms were under the authority of Prince Nyindo, son of King Kigeli IV Rwabugiri of Rwanda. Prince Nyindo’s residence was located in Bufumbira, in Gisoro, on the other side of the current border with Uganda. The chiefdoms were administered by Chiefs Nshizirungu and Kabango on his behalf. It is important for any historian to recognize that before the arrival of von Götzen in Kivu, no one in Jomba or Bwishya knew that their chiefdoms had been assigned in Berlin to the Congo Free State. At that time, no one in Kivu even knew that a country called the “Congo Free State” existed. In 1922, Chiefs Nshizirungu and Kabango were deposed by the Belgians, along with their deputies—Ntamuhanga and Bikamiro—whom the Belgians categorized as belonging to the Hutu ethnic group. They were accused of remaining loyal to the King of Rwanda and of resisting Belgian orders. Kabango’s family was sent into exile in Bas-Congo prior to the enthronement of Daniel Ndeze and never returned, leaving no trace. According to Mwami Daniel Ndeze Rugabo II’s official version of history, he was born in 1885 in Mushoro (Gisigari), Rutshuru. However, according to trusted sources, Daniel Ndeze Rugabo II was born in Ruhengeri, Rwanda. After handing Byahi to Kahembe and renaming it Bukumu, the Belgians turned again to Rwanda to find someone to whom they could give the chiefdoms of Nshizirungu and Kabango. Daniel Ndeze, son of Mburano and originally from Ruhengeri, became their choice. The Belgians deposed Chiefs Nshizirungu and Kabango, abolished their chiefdoms, and created a new entity called the Kingdom of Bwisha—entirely from scratch. This new kingdom was handed to Ndeze, a pure creation of the colonial regime, with the clear aim of denying the Tutsi any chiefdom in the DR Congo. The kingdom we know today as the Kingdom of the Banyabwisha never existed before. It was created in 1923, when Ndeze was enthroned—not as a chief of a chiefdom, but as Mwami Daniel Ndeze Rugabo II, King of the Belgian-created Kingdom of Banyabwisha. This was done to erase the existence of Chiefs Nshizirungu and Kabango, and therefore the existence of Tutsi chiefdoms in Rutshuru.
