A dominant group will often develop ideologies, which help justify their domination. The case of the Tutsi's and Hutu's is just such a case. It is also a case of European colonial ideology becoming part of African tribe's culture, in the post-colonial period. Today we have Hutu extremists in Rwanda who have a particular ideology called the Hamitic Theory, which is used to dominate the Tutsi's, and also to oppress Tutsi women. It is a strange racist ideology but has its roots in colonialism and early European anthropology.
            
             Before colonialism, the Tutsi's and Hutu's live alongside each other in Rwanda and Burundi. Roman Catholics colonized Rwanda, in particular by Belgium (after World War I). The connection to the Belgian Catholic church goes deep, even today.
             Before colonialism, the Hutua and Tutsu were not clearly separate ethnic groups like they are today. There was a central court with class of Tutsu nobles who also owned cattle. The Hutu were farmers, but there was some ability to change classes and some intermarriage and Hutu could sometime become part of the Tutsi ruling elite. Hutu chiefs had some power to balance that of the Tutsi nobles.
             It was European colonialism which made the situation bad. The Belgians made Tutsi the high class who they used to help control the country. The important point for our discussion here is that Europeans imposed their own ideology on the people-their own racist thinking. Europeans were racists and believed in higher and lower, nobles and inferior classes so when they came to Rwanda they simply projected this racist ideology onto the social system there.
             This is where the "Hamatic hypothesis" comes in. Europeans believed that black Africans where racially inferior and not capable of having any kind of real civilization. So when they saw that social institutions that the Tutsi and Hutu had were very high level, they had to invent some kind of exp...