Name Mibambwe of Parents Kigeli IV of Rwanda | ||
Assassinated 1896, Southern Province, Rwanda | ||
Mibambwe IV Rutarindwa was King (Mwami) of Rwanda between 1895 and 1896, having been made co-ruler by his father in 1889.
Contents
Name
Rutarindwa is sometime transcribed Rutalindwa.
Rule
His adopted father, Kigeli IV Rwabugiri, had proclaimed him co-ruler in 1889, effectively designating him his successor. On Rwabugiri's unexpected death in 1895 while on an expedition in modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo, he was proclaimed king.
Rwandan Queen Mothers were politically powerful. Rutarindwa's mother had died and, consequently, Rwabugiri appointed another of his wives, Kanjogera, as his surrogate mother. With the death of Rwabugiri, she and her brothers plotted to put her own young son Musinga, the future king Yuhi V Musinga, on the throne. This culminated in late 1896 in a battle between the King's and the Queen Mother's factions called the Rucunshu Coup, named for the hill that Rutarindwa had moved his court to. After the battle Rutarindwa committed suicide, and the royal drum was destroyed when his house was burnt down.