Rwanda
RWANDA
A. THE COUNTRY
The Republic of Rwanda, member of the British Commonwealth, is a
landlocked country of eastern-central Africa and Africa’s most densely
populated country. Over half the elected parliament are female, and is
seen as one of the more efficient and honest governments in Africa.
Rwanda abolished ethnicity as a means of identification due to
ethnically motivated genocides in the past. The economy is based on
agriculture, mainly coffee and tea, with a few other natural resources.
The government plans to wean the nation off the foreign aid, upon which
it is so dependent, by developing a centre of information technology and
economics for East Africa. Rapid urbanization has seen a rise in
unemployment and crime. Most people survive on subsistence farming on
tiny parcels of land. While much has been done in the battle against
HIV/AIDS, this is still a massive challenge in Rwanda.
B. THE PEOPLE
The population is ~10,278,000. The official languages are French,
English and Kinyarwanda. There was a 23% population loss in 1994-95
through massacres, genocide and flight of refugees (most of the over 1
million refugees have returned). Using terms Hutu and Tutsi to refer to
ethnicity is no longer allowed; the following description of the Rwandan
peoples are estimates.
~97.7% Bantu (6 peoples), 2.3% Other (including Twa, Asian, Arab and
Western peoples).
C. RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY/PENTECOSTALISM
The religious scene has been reshaped by the 1990’s. Many left the
Catholic Church due to its failure to adequately oppose the evils.
Evangelicals and Muslims increased as they addressed needs such as aid
and education programmes.
~89.12% claim to be Christian, ~5.2% Muslim, ~3.8% Ethnoreligionist,
~1.7% Non-religious, ~0.18% Baha’i.
Those claiming the Christian category:
~45.25% are Catholic, ~24.68% Protestant, ~9.73% Anglican, ~7.44%
Unaffiliated, ~1.46% Independent, ~0.02% Orthodox.
Evangelicals represent ~26.9% and of those, ~6.7% are Pentecostals.
Donna Siemens
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org
Operation World, Jason Mandryk. Colorado Springs: Biblica Publishing, 2010.