1912 to 1981 Abbé Alexis Kagame was a Rwandese historian,
ethnologist, and philosopher, who became the intellectual leader
of the Tutsi people by articulating their cosmology in
contemporary terms. Kagame was born into a family of court
historians and soon became intimately familiar with the oral
traditions of the Tutsi. His family converted to Catholicism
after World War I, and Kagame attended both a missionary school
as well as one for the sons of chiefs. He entered a seminary in
1929 and was ordained in 1941. By 1938, while still a
seminarian, he was an editor of a Catholic newspaper. He also
taught at the novitiate of the Brothers of St. Joseph
(Bayozefiti), which he continued to do for five years after his
ordination. During this time Kagame became a close friend of
King MUTARA III and rose to prominence in the country. Kagame's
abilities would have been apparent under any conditions, but he
had the good fortune of achieving public attention as
Catholicism became a pervasive force in the country. In 1943