Kinyarwanda, Rwanda: Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda is a landlocked nation in Central Africa's Great Rift Valley, at the intersection of Southeast Africa and the African Great Lakes. Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is a few degrees south of the Equator. Because of its high altitude, it is known as the "land of a thousand hills." Its geography is dominated by mountains to the west and savanna to the southeast, and there are many lakes all over the country. There are two rainy seasons and two dry seasons each year, making the climate moderate to subtropical. Rwanda is the continent's most populous country, with a population of over 12.6 million people living on 26,338 km2 (10,169 sq mi) of land; It has the fifth highest population density of any country with a land area greater than 10,000 km2. Kigali, Rwanda's largest and capital city, is home to one million people.

The Stone and Iron Ages saw the arrival of hunter-gatherers, who were followed by Bantu people. Clans and kingdoms were formed as the population grew together first. The Kingdom of Rwanda was established in the 15th century when one kingdom, led by King Gihanga, was successful in incorporating several of its close neighboring territories. From the middle of the 18th century on, the Tutsi kings of the Kingdom of Rwanda ruled, establishing a centralized position of power, and implementing anti-Hutu policies. Both European nations ruled Rwanda through the Rwandan king and maintained a pro-Tutsi policy, and Belgium took control of the country in 1916 during World War I. Germany colonized Rwanda in 1897 as part of German East Africa. In 1959, the Hutu people revolted. They eventually established an independent, Hutu-dominated republic under President Grégoire Kayibanda in 1962 after killing many Tutsi. Kayibanda was overthrown in a military coup in 1973, bringing Juvénal Habyarimana to power, who continued to follow a pro-Hutu policy. In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which was led by Tutsis, started a civil war. In April 1994, Habyarimana was shot and killed. The subsequent Rwandan genocide, in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 500,000–1,000,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in one hundred days, sparked social unrest. In July 1994, the RPF won a military victory, putting an end to the genocide.