Watusi

Watusi (Swahili: Watutsi), Tutsi people of Burundi and Rwanda in central Africa (formerly Ruanda-Urundi). The Watusi, probably originally from Ethiopia, differ ethnically from other African peoples, and many attain a height of over 7 ft (2.13 m). In the 1400s and 1500s the invading Watusi imposed a feudal system on the native Hutu, who revolted in 1959 and drove their cattle-raising rulers to what is now Burundi (the 2 parts became independent nations in 1962). The Tutsi king of Burundi was deposed in 1966. An unsuccessful Hutu rebellion in Burundi in 1972–73 left 10,000 Tutsi and 150,000 Hutu dead. With the outbreak of violence in 1993 and 1994, some 500,000 Hutu and Tutsi were killed in Rwanda.