Divinity and destiny in the religion of Ruanda-Urundi

Authors

• Olof Pettersson

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67015

Keywords:

Fate and fatalism -- Religious aspects -- African religion, Africa, Ruanda-Urundi, Gods and goddesses, African, Spirits, Mythology, African

Abstract

Ruanda and Urundi belong to the Ruanda cluster of the interlactustrine Bantu in the regions surrounded by a great ring of lakes—Tanganyika, Kivu, Edward Albert, Kioga and Victoria. Pygmoid hunters and gatherers still survive among some tribes of the Ruanda cluster, and in both Ruanda and Urundi, people of "Hamitic" (Nilotic) origin live side by side with the original tribes. Most of the societies today reveal a sharp stratification into endogamous castes with a ruling aristocracy of herders called Tutsi, a subject agricultural peasanty called Hutu, and often also a depressed caste of Pygmy hunters, called Twa. Even if the beliefs in Ruanda and in Urundi differ in detail, the general religious system is the same among the both peoples. The influences—good or evil—on the life of mankind, on the social orders etc. come from what can be determined as the ultrahuman or superhuman' part of the world.