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Notorious for the 1994 gruesome genocide, Rwanda, the so-called "land of a thousand hills," is now a reasonably safe and increasingly popular travel destination. The country's main attraction, the mountain gorillas, have miraculously survived—even thrived—despite a devastating civil war that brought poachers, settlers and rebel soldiers into their rugged park refuge.

The ethnically motivated war, which attracted worldwide media attention and eventually was made into the movie Hotel Rwanda, resulted in the massacre of at least 1 million people between April and July 1994. Since then, however, the news out of Rwanda has mostly involved positive change and gradual reconciliation. Local and international tribunals have dealt with the perpetrators of the genocide, and the country held its first elections in 1999, paving the way for the unveiling of a democratic constitution and peaceful presidential election in 2003.

The Volcanoes National Park, home to the rare mountain gorillas, reopened in July 1999, and travelers can once again visit these gentle giants made famous by Dian Fossey.

Geography

Rwanda has always been one of the most physically beautiful countries on the African continent, with steep volcanic mountains, grassy plains and lush rain forests, as well as the source of the Nile, the world's longest river.

It is one of Africa's smallest countries, bordered by Uganda to the north, Burundi to the south (almost as small as Rwanda), Tanzania to the east, and the huge Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) to the west. But it is also Africa's most densely populated country, poor as well as heavily cultivated—even the mountainous areas are fully terraced with a patchwork of banana plants, sweet potatoes and coffee.

History

The precolonial kingdom of Rwanda—which had similar borders to the modern state—was a feudal society presided over by a pastoralist aristocracy known as the Tutsi. According to oral tradition, the ancestors of the Tutsi immigrated to Rwanda from Ethiopia at least 500 years ago, when they established social dominance over the resident Hutu agriculturists and the Batwa hunter-gatherers. Despite these castelike social divisions, all inhabitants of precolonial Rwanda spoke a common language (Kinyarwanda) and recognized the same Tutsi king.

When the region was colonized in the late 19th century—initially by Germany, and then as a Belgian mandate at the end of World War I—the Tutsis, still a small minority, remained in power and were backed by the colonists. A growing Hutu resistance movement overthrew the Tutsi monarchy in 1959, and thousands of Tutsis were killed or driven into exile over the next several years. Descendants of these exiles formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and tensions between Hutu and Tutsi increased over the years, leading to a civil war in the early 1990s.

Events came to a head in April 1994, following the death of President Ntaryamira in a mysterious plane crash. Within hours, bands of machete- and club-wielding Hutu extremists embarked on the mass slaughter of their Tutsi and moderate Hutu neighbors in a state-endorsed genocide that resulted in a million deaths within the span of three months. Another 2 million Rwandans were forced into exile as well. In July 1994, the RPF overthrew the Hutu government and drove them into exile in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as Zaire). Fearing reprisals, millions of other Hutus followed (including many responsible for the genocide) and ended up in refugee camps there. These refugees, along with Hutu extremists, later contributed to the fall of the Congolese government. A new government closed many of the camps by force, sending millions of Hutu refugees back to Rwanda.

Rwanda has made great strides forward since then, and it is now as harmonious and democratic as any country in Africa, as underscored by the 2003 presidential election in which incumbent Paul Kagame was returned to power with an astonishing 95% of the popular vote. Only nine years after the genocide, the prominent British politician Clare Short described Kagame's Rwanda as a "story of hope" and praised the government for restoring "peace and order across the whole country."

Snapshot

Potpourri

The Karisoke Research Center, the headquarters for the study of gorillas established by Dian Fossey in Volcanoes National Park, was heavily damaged during the civil war. But the staff has continued monitoring the safety of the gorillas when possible. In 1996, park guards were awarded the J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Award for their efforts to protect the gorillas.

The Batwa (singular Twa) Pygmies, the small indigenous people of Rwanda, were caught in the middle of the fighting between Hutus and Tutsis. Having served as musicians and workers for the Tutsis, the Batwa were targeted for death when the Hutus launched their genocidal campaign against the Tutsis. Only 9,000 of the Batwa people remain.

Gorillas actually do beat their chests. Young ones who haven't mastered the art of pounding while standing invariably tip over.

No zoo in the world has a mountain gorilla—the gorillas you see in captivity belong to the closely related and more populous lowland races of the Congolese Basin.

The existence of the West African lowland gorilla was first recorded by the Carthaginian navigator Hanno, who sailed a fleet of 60 ships past the mouth of the Gambia River and encountered a tribe of hairy, mute "savages" known locally as gorillas. By contrast, the mountain gorilla eluded western science until 1902, when Oscar Von Beringe shot a specimen on the Rwandan slopes of the Virungas.

Burundi was recognized as the most remote source of the Nile until March 2006, when the "Ascend the Nile" expedition located a more remote source in Rwanda's Nyungwe Forest, increasing the river's length by 66 mi/107 km and making Rwanda the ultimate source of the Nile.

In the early colonial era, Rwanda was part of German East Africa. Together with neighboring Burundi, it was mandated to Belgium after World War I as Ruanda-Urundi.