ABSTRACT

Data collected in Rwanda in 1959-1960 show cannabis in its social and cultural context. Cannabis use has its place in a socio-cultural system that determines its character and extent and that is in turn affected by the nature of cannabis use.
The use of cannabis was virtually confined to the men of a miniscule, despised and backward social group, the Twa, constituting less than one percent of the population. The expectation of strong effects causing violent behavior, methods of smoking cannabis designed to produce such effects, and the connection of Twa cannabis use with the social status, role, and culturally assigned "character" of the Twa, all combined to restrict use to the Twa and to prevent its spread to the non-Twa, 99 percent of the population of Rwanda.

THE TWA IN RWANDA

The basic fact of Rwanda social and political structure before the 1959-60 revolution was the dominance of the Tutsi minority caste over the Hutu majority. The Tutsi made up 16 percent of the population, the Hutu 83 percent, and the third caste, the Twa, who were attached to the Tutsi by bonds of loyalty and economic and political advantage, less than one percent. The traditional society had been an oppressive Tutsi state (Codere 1962; De Laeger 1939; d'Hertefelt 1962,1965 ; Maquet 1954; Pages 1933). Under the League of Nations mandate and later United Nations Trusteeship the abuses of Tutsi domination had largely been eliminated, but as the traditional ruling caste and the one to have been given a head start in attaining European educational qualifications, the Tutsi before 1959-60 still held the vast majority of all governmental positions and well-paid European jobs. The economic and educational situation of the Hutu majority had improved to the point of enabling them to mount what proved to be a thoroughly effective challenge to the altered and weakened form of Tutsi domination, as subsequent events leading to the Hutu Republic of Rwanda were to prove, but the condition of the Twa remained much the same as it had been traditionally. Few Twa had received any schooling whatsoever. They were parasitically attached to the royal court and the households of rich Tutsi of the traditional nobility; some still hunted in the forests sporadically, and others still made clay pipes and pots. Their services were mostly rewarded in kind and the goods they produced were bartered, so they had almost no cash income and had least to do of any Rwandans with the developing money economy. Their role as courtiers no longer required the tasks of torturer and executioner, as it had in the days of Musinga, who was deposed in 1931, but it still included those of dancer, musician, body-guard, buffoon, messenger, and in the 1959-60 revolution, they were once again involved in armed raids and political assassinations.

A myth embodying a stereotype of the character and capacities of the three castes justified their roles and relations in traditional Rwanda society. It stated that the Tutsi, Hutu and Twa were each descended from one of Kaynarwanda's three sons, Gatutsi, Gahutu, and Gatwa and that the character of each of these three eponymous ancestors was perpetuated in their lineages. Accordingly, from the beginning, the Tutsi supposedly had the qualities of rulers: intelligence, aristocratic sensibilities, political sagacity, and the capacity for cruelty. Their physique, tall and willowy, was thought to suit them well enough for ruling and warfare, but not for heavy unremitting physical work which was the appropriate lot of the sturdier Hutu. The Hutu were supposedly born serfs, dull of mind and in need of rule and direction for their horticultural labors and other heavy, rough and steady work. The Twa, though as a pygmoid people they were the smallest in stature of the Rwandans, were considered to have fantastic physical strength. The other qualities assigned them were also exaggerated and more animal-like than human: the capacity of utter loyalty and devotion, great courage, and lack of any self control in their gluttony and inordinate drinking whenever the opportunity arose, and in an unruly spontaneity in talk and manners.

Social facts supported much of the stereotypic picture. It would be difficult, for example, to deny the qualities of rulers to those who always ruled, or the capacity for unremitting service at hard labor to those who regularly performed it. Only the Tutsi, however, would seem to have accepted the version that has been presented. In Tutsi eyes the qualities of the Twa were those of quasi-domesticated pets who could perform some valued special services for them as their masters and afford them amusement. The Twa did not see themselves as tolerated in an essentially contemptuous way, but as socially elevated far above the Hutu because of their association with the Tutsi who valued their special qualities and capacities. They despised the Hutu for what they considered their cloddishness compared to their own cleverness and knowledge of the ways of the aristocracy and would have nothing to do with them. In their turn, the Hutu despised and avoided them, principally for their parasitism. They saw them as non-workers who mostly lived off the food and goods the Tutsi gave them, but which they, the admirably hard-working Hutu, had actually produced.

By 1959-60 the traditional situati9n and relation of the Hutu and Tutsi was quite changed and traditional stereotypes challenged by the new social and political facts of a democratic movement and revolution. However, little had occurred to alter the views the Twa held about themselves and those the Tutsi and Hutu held about them. The social position of the Twa in Rwanda had actually deteriorated. The traditional enclave in which, with few exceptions, they remained was sealed off from everything new that was affecting welfare and relative social status by making it in larger and larger part dependent upon the acquisition of European education and goods. In the field research in 1959-60 both some Tutsi and Hutu expressed sympathy for the unimproved and backward condition of the Twa, but, although this was far more humane and sophisticated than reiterating the old stereotype as many others still did, it amounted to about the same thing when it came down to a view of Twa social position.

1959-60 DATA ON CANNABIS USE IN RWANDA

Data on cannabis — called injaga in Kingarawanda — were not directly sought or elicited in 1959-60. They are to be found among the responses made by 252 Rwandans to one of six photographs showing Rwandans in traditional and modern scenes. The characteristics of the 252 respondents made up a matrix in which the key variations in Rwanda society were represented. There were men, women and children of the Tutsi, Hutu and Twa castes in a range of ages, levels of schooling and in traditional to modern occupations. (See Table 1.) The photograph that yielded commentary and information on the use of cannabis from 113 of the 252 respondents was that of a Twa man holding the gourd water-pipe that is special to cannabis-smoking. As in the case of the other five photographs,' the respondents were simply asked to say whatever they wanted about each picture. The purpose of the study, which was conducted during Rwanda's revolution under conditions of great social tension and the necessity for neutral and unalarming field procedures, was to get open-ended and freely expressed political views of the Rwanda, and especially the views of Tutsi, Hutu and Twa Rwanda, toward members of their own and the other castes.

These data specify the users of cannabis or injaga, as it was called by the Rwandans. They detail the methods of injaga growing and use, reported internal and external physical effects and reported behaviors following injaga smoking, along with attitudes toward the use of injaga held by the Rwanda men, women and children of all three castes who had something to say on the subject.

INJAGA USE AND THE TWA

With few exceptions the questionnaire respondents associated injaga use with Twa men and with them alone. A few responses state that the Congolese and the Bashi used it, but not Rwandans other than the Twa. There is one note that Twa women smoked it as well as Twa men, but that the women used a different method. There are several statements that, although they are the rare exceptions, there are injaga smokers among the Hutu and Tutsi, and there is also mention of its occasional medicinal use among the Hutu and Tutsi in ways differing, however, from the method of taking it used by Twa men.

INJAGA GROWING AND METHOD OF SMOKING

Injaga was grown concealed in the middle of patches of tall crops such as maize or sorghum. After harvesting it was dried and powdered. It was generally smoked in a special gourd water-pipe called urumogi (Plate 1). The tube of the pipe was filled first with injaga, often mixed with powdered charcoal, then little pebbles which were topped with glowing coals. The pipe was set into a gourd partly filled with water. (Twa dancers are said to sometimes use a small clay pipe like a tobacco pipe, and Twa women to smoke it by emptying out half the tobacco in a cigarette and refilling it with injaga.) It was smoked in the old days before fighting and hunting, especially elephant hunting, but its use was not restricted to such special occasions. Mornings and evenings were the times for smoking it. The Twa are reported as having a ritual to make the injaga as powerful as possible, and in smoking it they are reported as taking in deep frequent inhalations causing the water in the pipe to bubble with a loud noise and producing clouds of smoke.

The Physical Effects of Injaga Smoking. The physical effects reported by those who claimed to be eyewitnesses are that the smokers' faces poured with perspiration and that their eyes became very red soon after smoking. There is no data on the strength of the cannabis used, but it is clear that strength was desired and that the smoking method aimed at the taking of a heavy dose within a brief time-period. The reported internal effect of cannabis-smoking cannot be tied to individuals known to be talking of their own experience and may be merely hearsay, deductions from the character of the behaviors attendant on cannabis-smoking, or repetitions of stereotypic notions about the Twa who are thought to have great physical strength. It is said that injaga-smoking confers a feeling of remarkable courageousness and physical strength. It is said also that it banishes fatigue and physical pain when taken in much smaller amounts than what has been described in the method used by Twa men. "

THE BEHAVIORS FOLLOWING /NJAGA-SMOKING

A number of individuals who claim to have been eyewitnesses report that the usual outcome of injaga-smoking is that the smoker becomes physically violent toward others. Acts of violence are described as wild, mindlessly fearless of receiving any hurt in the fights that ensued, and wholly undiscriminating in their object which might be a wife, a friend, a Tutsi protector and patron, or whoever was about.

ATTITUDES TOWARD INJAGA-SMOKING
The photo-questionnaire responses are rich in judgments about injagasmoking which was quite overwhelmingly condemned. (See Table 1.) Most of the other data of an ethnographic character, data on injaga growing and smoking methods and so on, were presented to explain and justify the generally condemnatory opinions that were advanced. (Giving reasons and background for their opinions was a widespread Rwanda practice which not only deserves some general anthropological recognition but also the special blessing of the writer whose work in the Rwanda of 1959-60 required many informants drawn from every social category and group.)

One hundred and thirteen Rwandans gave an opinion about injagasmoking in commenting on the photograph of the Twa man. Of these responses 99 were wholly against it, only one, a Twa man, made an unqualifiedly favorable statement, and the remaining 13 gave mixed opinion (See Table 1.) Reasons given in favor, or partial favor of injaga were: that it gave great strength and courage, that it dispelled fatigue, was good for rheumatism, and that it was all right, if used in very small quantities. The mixed opinions pointed out, for instance that injaga conferred courage because its use deprived a man of the sense to know real danger when he faced it or that it was all right for the Twa but not for anyone else. Reasons against the smoking of injaga centered on the violent behavior it produced and labelled it as crazy and senseless. A sampling of these depositions follows, since it is from the words of the Rwandans themselves that it is possible to get the full impact and tone of their views :

Two man of 35 with no schooling. This man is smoking injaga. It is good to smoke injaga. Injaga is strengthening. The Twa are very strong, because they smoke it. (This is the only unqualifiedly favorable deposition.)

Two woman of 28 with no schooling. It is a man smoking injaga. I see it well. When the Twa men finish smoking injaga, they come to bother us and beat us. I would like once and for all to keep our husbands from smoking that terrible tobacco. It is very bad. Once my husband nearly died from a lance wound he received from a Iman he fought with after smoking injaga.

A Tutsi man of 36 with five years of schooling. It is a Twa smoking injaga. I know about the scenes injaga-smokers make. On my hill (which is to say neighborhood) after a ceremony connected with a new house the Twa smoked injaga when they were drunk, and then fought one another so viciously that they left two corpses there. Then, I know that at Nzega the Twa smoked injaga and attacked all the shops wanting to kill a Hindu named Merali and a Swahili. Chief R. intervened or they would have.

A Tutsi man of 29 with five years of schooling. This is a Twa smoking injaga. I have seen them smoke it many times, especially in these days recently when the Twa have to build up their strength by alcohol or injaga. They smoked and one of them in my neighborhood became half crazy and just missed killing us though all the while he was proclaiming "Defend the Tutsi!" When people smoke injaga they lose all power to reason.

A Tutsi woman of 28 with eight years of schooling. It is certainly a Twa smoking injaga. I have seen them at our place many times. Besides during the month of December the Twa of our neighborhood did nothing but smoke it in order to get courage and strength. After they smoked they ran about on the hillside saying they were going to kill all the enemies of the Mwami.

A Tutsi woman of 24 with four years of schooling. Here is a Twa smoking injaga. The Twa are the Tutsi's friends and the Hutu's enemies. The Twa are true courtiers. A Twa vassal is loyal and loves his Tutsi master. But when they smoke they no longer have the right spirit. So that is how injaga is bad.

A Hutu man of 38 with three years of schooling. A Twa man smoking injaga. After he has smoked it he will be seized with madness and he will begin fighting and doing all sorts of bad things. Near where! live there are no longer many Twa, but there are always some, and when one or more of them have been taking injaga, the whole neighborhood stays on guard.

A Hutu man of 39 with no schooling. It is a Twa smoking injaga. After they have smoked they become almost completely crazy and fight with one another. Others of them sing or cry. It is an evil tobacco that I have never tried. It makes a man irrational and an idiot.

A Hutu woman of 32 with no schooling. That is a Twa smoking injaga. Look at the pipe for injaga. Injaga is peculiar to the Twa. Anyone else who took it would die on the spot. Injaga is for a strong man. The Twa smoke injaga to be strong — so they say. I think injaga is very bad. The wives of injaga-smokers know very well what the effects of injaga are, for they are almost always beaten. The injaga addict will give everything he has to get that poison. You know a Twa who has smoked it is like a hyena. His acts are those of a cruel beast.

Alcohol in Rwanda. Cannabis use in Rwanda must be considefed in relation to the widespread and routine use of alcohol.

Alcoholic beverages were of outstanding importance in Rwanda life as an indispensable accompaniment to all sociability, a necessity for all working-bees as well as all social occasions, and, formerly, before the use of money, the most acceptable of gifts and payments for all the lower range of exchanges in which cattle had too great a unit value to be useful.

The strongest native alcoholic beverage was a kind of mead, a drink made from honey, and it was rarely available to any but the wealthy, which is to say, the Tutsi. Beers of sorghum or millet and bananas made according to a variety of recipes were the staple beverages. Most were weakly alcoholic.

The low level of living of most Rwandans in 1959-60 as in traditional times guaranteed moderation, if not downright sobriety, much of the time. Frequent drunkenness was possible only for the wealthy, and the state of drunkenness was not disapproved of as was the state of cannabis intoxication, although the drunk or the man so fond of drink that he spent overmuch time going about trying to get it, was disapproved of.3

All the Rwandans liked and used alcohol in the form of the native beers. Even children were given some beer, especially sorghum beer which was held to be "the milk of the poor" who had no cows. The Twa, since they were often attached to the households of wealthy Tutsi, were better supplied with liquor than the Hutu and were considered to have a great liking and capacity for it. Some of the questionnaire depositions indicate that Twa behavior was particularly violent when injaga was smoked after drinking a good deal.

Cannabis use by the Twa, was then merely in addition to their use of alcohol, which, in the eyes of all Rwandans, was among the good things life had to offer.

The Social and Cultural Context of Cannabis Use in Rwanda. The data presented show that cannabis use and attitudes toward its use follow the lines of the caste social structure of traditional Rwanda. The nature of Twa cannabis use is wholly in accord with the place given the Twa in the traditional society and the character assigned them in the traditional culture.

Injaga smoking is on the list of Twa practices and behaviors that the Tutsi and the Hutu consider to be uncontrolled or excessive to the point of being more animal-like than human, although for the Twa, themselves, the same list consists of items relating to the particular talents and the stronger appetites and greater capacities, compared to the Tutsi and Hutu, that make them specially and distinctively Twa.

The reported details of the methods of Twa cannabis use indicating heavy dosage, the strong effects that are expected and sought after, and the violent behaviors attendant on its use are all consistent and mutually reinforcing.

The sociocultural system confines cannabis use almost exclusively to the Twa and insulates the remaining 99 percent plus of the population from its use. It is linked with all that sets the Twa apart as a social group, and the Twa obligingly — from the point of view of a working and nearly water-tight system — see cannabis in ways that could have little appeal to other Rwandans, who, whatever their other dissatisfactions, remain quite content with their beer and with not being Twa.

Cannabis use in Rwanda is, therefore, seen to have its specific definition and character because of the sociocultural system in which it is embedded and to which it contributes its, to be sure, not very large but, nevertheless, concordant share of all that determines the system's character, workings and continuity.

REFERENCES

CODERE, HELEN
1962 Power in Rwanda. Anthropologica. N.S. IV (1):45-85.

DE LAEGER, L.
1939 Ruanda. Kabgayi.

D'HERTEFELT, MARCEL
1962 "Le Rwanda," in Les anciens royaumes de la zone interlacastre méridionale. Rwanda, Burundi, Buha. Edited by M. d'Hertefelt, A. A. Trouwbirst, J. H. Scherer. Tervuren: Musée Royale de l'Afrique Centrale; London International African Institute (Ethnographic Survey of Africa).
1965 "The Rwanda," in Peoples of Africa. Edited by J. L. Gibbs, 405-440. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

MAQUET, J. J.
1954 Le système des relations sociales dans le Rwanda ancien. Annales du Musée Royale du Congo Belge. Science de l'Homme. Ethnologie I. Tervuren.

PAGES, A.
1933 Un royaume hamite au centre d'Afrique. Institut Royal Congo Belge. Brussels.

1 The other photographs were: 2) a Hutu mother giving beer to her child. 3) a Tutsi diviner receiving two Hutu clients. 4) a Tutsi chief with traditional clothing and hair-crests looking at laboratory equipment. 5) a group of Rwanda in front of a modern store, and 6) a Tutsi reading a book.

2 The 132 Rwanda who gave no deposition on injaga-smoking included many who had probably never seen it smoked and who did not recognize the photographic clue, the water-pipe. This was certainly the case for many of the children of whom only four had anything to say about injaga. Many adults as well clearly did not recognize the water-pipe, since they made some inaccurate identification of it. Many others simply talked about other things in the photograph or other subjects the photograph stimulated them to respond to and made no mention of injaga.

3 The photograph of a Hutu mother giving beer to her small child yielded many comments and opinions about beer and about drinking.