I'm not sure where I should post this but I just found out something really interesting about the Watusi cattle, (the cows with large horns that we often see in zoos) and I wanted to share it with you. Watusi is another word for Tutsi. As in the Tutsis, the ethnicity that was the target of mass executions during the Rwanda genocide of 1994. Traditionally, the Tutsis were cattle herders, while the Hutus were crops farmers. A Hutu that acquired catttle became a Tutsi, and a Tutsi that lost their cattle became a Hutu. This changed with colonization, and Hutus and Tutsis became understood more as ethnicities, rather than social categories. The Hutus strongly resented the Tutsis (for reasons that remain quite vague), and this eventually led to the mass murder of Tutsis in 1994, where an estimated two thirds of the Tutsi population perished in the span of a few months. The king of Rwanda (before and during colonization) was Tutsi and the cow was associated symbolically with the monarchy. The king had a special herd of cows with large horns that were called "inyambo", but the breed became known internationally as "Watusi".
