Prince Louis Rwagasore (Kirundi: Ludoviko Rwagasore; 10 January 1932 – 13 October 1961) was a Burundian prince and politician, who was the second prime minister of Burundi for two weeks, from 28 September 1961 until his assassination on 13 October.
Born to the Ganwa family of Burundian Mwami (king) Mwambutsa IV in Belgian-administered Ruanda-Urundi in 1932, Rwagasore was educated in Burundian Catholic schools before attending university in Belgium. After he returned to Burundi in the mid-1950s he founded a series of cooperatives to economically empower native Burundians and build up his base of political support. The Belgian administration took over the venture, and as a result of the affair his national profile increased and he became a leading figure of the anti-colonial movement.
He soon thereafter became involved with a nationalist political party, the Union for National Progress (UPRONA). He pushed for Burundian independence from Belgian control, national unity, and the institution of a constitutional monarchy. Rwagasore sought to bring UPRONA mass appeal across different regions, ethnicities, and castes, and under him the party maintained a leadership balanced between ethnic Hutus and Tutsis, though the latter were usually favoured for more important positions. The Belgian administration disliked UPRONA and initially attempted to stifle Rwagasore's activities, placing him under house arrest in 1960 during municipal elections.
International pressure led the administration to back down, and the following year UPRONA won an overwhelming majority in the legislative elections. As a result, Rwagasore became prime minister of Burundi on 28 September 1961. Two weeks later, he was shot by a Greek national at the direction of leaders of a rival political party with the probable support of the Belgian Resident in Burundi. Rwagasore's death derailed his attempts to build national ethnic cohesion and facilitated the growth of Hutu–Tutsi tensions in the country. It also fractured UPRONA, as his former lieutenants engaged in a power struggle to succeed him as the party's leader. Within Burundi, Rwagasore enjoys nearly universal acclaim, and his assassination is commemorated annually with large ceremonies. He remains relatively unknown internationally in comparison to other leaders of independence movements in the African Great Lakes region.
Prince Louis Rwagasore was born on 10 January 1932 in Gitega, Ruanda-Urundi, to Mwami (king) Urundi Mwambutsa IV and Thérèse Kanyonga. Ethnically, he was a member of the Bezi clan of the Ganwa, a group of people of aristocratic status often associated with the Tutsis. The frequency of matrimonial alliances among the Ganwa gave Rwagasore familial links to numerous chiefs in Urundi. Mwambutsa and Kanyonga, after giving birth to Louis, birthed two daughters, Rosa Paula Iribagiza and Régine Kanyange, before divorcing in 1940. Mwambutsa remarried in 1946 and fathered a second son, Charles Ndizeye. Rwagasore began attending school at the age of seven, going to Catholic institutions in Bukeye, Kanyinya, and Gitega. In 1945 Rwagasore enrolled in the Groupe Scolaire d'Astrida. He studied there for six years, and in 1951, he went to Antwerp to study at the University Institute of Overseas Territories (Institut universitaire des Territoires d'Outre-Mer). He was a poor student, but after one year at the institute he enrolled at the Catholic University of Leuven, where after three years of study he earned a degree in political economy. Rwagasore returned to Urundi in December 1956. In April 1957 he was hired by the Belgian administration to oversee studies of economic, agricultural, and administrative concerns. On 12 September 1959 he married a Hutu woman, Marie-Rose Ntamikevyo, in Usumbura. They had two daughters, both of whom died in infancy.
In June 1957, Rwagasore founded a series of cooperatives, known as the Traders' Cooperatives of Burundi (Coopératives des Commerçants du Burundi, CCB), with the goal of empowering native Urundians to control their own commerce and thus building his personal support among Swahili traders of Usumbura. In its first public meeting, the CCB drew a crowd of 200 merchants, and it secured several favourable contracts with exporters. It facilitated the creation of links between rural farmers and urban traders, and, at the same time, Urundians began protesting fees and taxes levied by the Belgians. The colonial administration was irritated by the CCB, but reasoned that it could not take direct action against Rwagasore, with Governor of Ruanda-Urundi Jean-Paul Harroy writing to the Minister of Colonies that detaining or deporting the eldest son of the Mwami would be poorly received by peasants and lead to civil disorder.
Despite its early successes, the CCB ran into financial trouble, in part due to mismanagement. Rwagasore attributed the cooperatives' problems to Belgian sabotage, while the colonial administration accused Rwagasore of embezzling its money to fund a lavish lifestyle. To what extent either of these factors was true and how heavily they affected the project remains unclear. Rwagasore spent three months at the Expo 58 in Brussels seeking new investors and asked for help from President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, but these appeals were unsuccessful. He then requested credit for the cooperatives from the Supreme Land Council (Conseil Supérieur du Pays), an advisory body presided over by the Mwami that had some competence over budgetary and administrative affairs in Urundi. Though the Belgian administration informed the council that it disapproved of the cooperative, Rwagasore convinced the body to support him. The Belgian administration formally vetoed the loan in June, and intervened to take over the CCB. In the ensuing struggle, Rwagasore's national profile dramatically increased and he became a leading figure of the anti-colonial activists. The CCB was ultimately merged with an administration cooperative. As a result of the affair he forged connections with Tanganyikan nationalist Julius Nyerere, who provided him with advice and financial assistance.
Some time thereafter, Rwagasore became involved with a nascent political party, the Union for National Progress (Union pour le Progres National, UPRONA), though sources differ on the circumstances of UPRONA's founding and Rwagasore's role in its early days. He took virtual control over the movement, though his familial connection to the Mwami disqualified him from holding any party offices and he officially served UPRONA only as an advisor. UPRONA was able to secure the early financial support of the Swahili population in Bujumbura and Lake Tanganyika coastline. The party initially was strongly identified with the interests of the Bezi lineage of Ganwa and support for traditional institutions, but this alignment fell apart after Rwagasore came into conflict with his father. Mwambutsa had been quietly supportive of his son's attempts to build a political career in the late 1950s, but encouraged other Ganwa to compete with Rwagasore to ensure his own authority remained unchallenged. Mwambutsa cared little for UPRONA and his son was not among his close confidants. At the centre of their political differences was Rwagasore's anti-colonial rhetoric, which frustrated Mwambutsa, as he felt it strained the monarchy's relationship with the Belgians. In an attempt to distract Rwagasore from politics, the Belgian administration designated him head of the Butanyerera chiefdom (an area in Ngozi Province) in February 1959. He resigned from the post to focus on his political career.
Under Rwagasore, UPRONA pushed a program of modernisation, committing neither to a return to the feudal system nor a complete societal transformation. He used symbols of the monarchy to communicate his message and often emphasised his princely status at public appearances, but he stressed that UPRONA would support the monarchy "only insofar as this regime and its dynasty favoured the genuine emancipation of the Murundi people". He believed that only a constitutional monarchy could maintain legitimacy and that the Mwami should cede most authority to a civilian government. While conscious of socioeconomic problems, he primarily focused on issues relating to Urundian independence, popular legitimacy of the monarchy, and national unity. He advocated a foreign policy of nonalignment in the ongoing Cold War. Rwagasore sought to transform UPRONA into a mass party with broad-base appeal across different regions, ethnicities, and castes.