In the 1970s, the Congolese Banyarwanda in eastern Zaire—now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo)—had built significant economic standing through hard work, trade, cattle breeding, and agricultural production, particularly across North and South Kivu provinces. ALSO READ : In Kinshasa incitement to hatred is indiscipline Facing no real external threat from Uganda, former President Juvénal Habyarimana turned his attention to this influential Banyarwanda community and moved to weaken it. His government exploited ethnic divisions, turning Congolese Hutu against Tutsi. ALSO READ : Jean‑Luc Habyarimana and the Genocidal nostalgia He funded the creation of an association called la Mutuelle des Agriculteurs de Virunga (MAGRIVI), whose stated goals included unifying Bantu ethnic groups against the Tutsi and actively damaging their image. The roots of this tension, however, run deeper. From 1885 to 1908, the Congolese people were considered the personal property of King Leopold II. From 1908 to 1960, under Belgian Congo administration, identity cards were issued to all residents, including Kinyarwanda-speaking communities. In 1958, when Belgium allowed local elections in the colony, the Kinyarwanda-speaking community won 80 percent of the vote. This alarmed elites among the Banande, Bahunde, and Banyanga, who then began a sustained effort to strip the Kinyarwanda-speaking population of their citizenship. The legal situation remained unresolved until 1972. The law of January 5, 1972, in Article 15, specifies that persons originating from Ruanda-Urundi who were established in Kivu Province before January 1, 1960, and who continued to reside in the Republic of Zaire from that time until the entry into force of the law, acquired Zairian nationality on June 30, 1960. READ ALSO: Habyarimana's role in planning, implementing 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi However, an earlier framework—the Luluabourg Constitution of 1964—traced nationality eligibility back to before October 18, 1908. Later, the law of June 29, 1981, in its Article 22, stated that a foreigner who becomes Zairian by virtue of the option cannot hold political office. It was this injustice that led to the formation of UMOJA, a cooperative association advocating for full Congolese citizenship rights. Ugandan academic Mahmood Mamdani documented that UMOJA united Congolese Hutu and Tutsi across Goma, Rutshuru, and Masisi. He further noted that the organization was dismantled in 1988 through direct financial support from Habyarimana and political backing from Mobutu. MAGRIVI’s rhetoric left no room for ambiguity. Its public call declared: “We issue a cry of alarm to any authentic Zairian worthy of this nationality, to rally with us to fight against these Nyenzi, these very venomous snakes that are the Tutsi of Rwanda, immigrants in Zaire.” The politics of hatred triumphed over the politics of unity. Other Congolese ethnic groups joined forces against the Tutsi, and UMOJA was buried. Speaking at the International Conference on Learning from the Past, Shaping the Future in Vienna, Rwanda’s minister of foreign affairs, Olivier Nduhungirehe, stated plainly: “We are living in a time when genocide ideology, denial, and distortion are not only persisting, but evolving.” The world tolerated the genocidal ideology of MAGRIVI. It refused to support the unity that UMOJA stood for. Today, that same silence persists around the Congolese-backed FDLR ideology, while the AFC/M23 movement—which promotes the unity of all Congolese—receives no support. Having witnessed how the genocidal Habyarimana government was backed internationally, and how the Rwandan Patriotic Front stood largely alone, my only remaining conviction is that good must—and will—eventually overcome evil in DR Congo. Amani Athar is a media specialist, historian, and playwright.
