# Rwanda of Gasabo (c. 1300)

URL: https://allhistories.com/rwanda/timeline/1300-rwanda-of-gasabo
Location: Gasabo, Kigali, Rwanda
Themes: main-event

The historical kingdom of Rwanda appears to have begun as a modest chiefdom in the east-central highlands. Historians refer to this early polity as 'Rwanda of Gasabo', after Gasabo hill on the shores of Lake Muhazi, north-east of present-day Kigali. According to the traditions of the Nyiginya court, the dynasty's early kings ruled from the region of Gasabo, Buganza and Bwanacyambwe, the area where Kigali now lies. From there the chiefdom gradually expanded, absorbing neighbouring chiefdoms around Lake Muhazi and conquering central Rwanda by the sixteenth century, according to the traditional chronology. The names of the earliest kings in the royal genealogy are partly legendary, and the traditional reign dates, worked out by Alexis Kagame from generation counts, are regarded by Jan Vansina as far too early. Vansina's revised chronology, set out in Antecedents to Modern Rwanda (2004), argues that the Nyiginya kingdom proper was founded only in the seventeenth century by Ruganzu Ndori, and that earlier Gasabo traditions represent separate, smaller polities. Either way, the Lake Muhazi region remained central to royal memory, and Gasabo is today the name of one of Kigali's three districts. At this point in the timeline (c. 14th–15th centuries), no dated ruler of Rwanda is recorded in this dataset for this date (the king lists name only legendary rulers here, or the reigns leave a gap); the royal chronology of the Nyiginya kings before the 19th century is uncertain.

## Why it matters
Gasabo near Lake Muhazi was remembered as the cradle of the Rwandan kingdom.

Ruler at the Time: [Nyarume](https://allhistories.com/rwanda/rulers/nyarume)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Gasabo District](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasabo_District)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Rwanda kingdom](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Rwanda+kingdom)
- [Wikipedia — Lake Muhazi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Muhazi)
- [Wikipedia — Kingdom of Rwanda](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Rwanda)