King Mutara III Rudahigwa

Charles Rudahigwa was born in March 1911 in Nyanza, ascending the drum throne of Rwanda in November 1931 as Mwami Mutara III following the deposition of his father Yuhi V Musinga by Belgian authorities. Baptized in 1943, he dedicated Rwanda to Christ the King in 1946.

Rudahigwa was a visionary social reformer: in 1954, he abolished the centuries-old feudal cattle-clientage system known as Ubuhake and redistributed agricultural pasture land directly to peasant families. In the late 1950s, he formed the national independence movement, demanding an end to Belgian trusteeship before the UN Trusteeship Council. On July 25, 1959, he died mysteriously in Bujumbura following a routine injection by a Belgian physician, triggering political upheaval.