A member of a family of royal historians, Benzinge was a courtier to King Kigeli V, who was the last reigning king of his country before being deposed in 1961.
Following that event, Benzinge and his fellow Abiru announced his nephew as Kigeli's titular successor. Although a faction of the royal family opposed this act,[1] the new king was nevertheless subsequently crowned as Yuhi VI in 2017.
Since this occurred, Benzinge has continued to serve as the head of the royal court.
Emmanuel Bushayija (born 20 December 1960) is the claimant to the historical Kingdom of Rwanda, which was abolished in 1961. He was proclaimed the ceremonial successor to the royal title (Mwami) on 9 January 2017 under the reign name Yuhi VI.[2] He succeeded his late uncle King Kigeli V and is a grandson of King Yuhi V.[3]
Biography
He grew up in exile in Uganda, where he studied at Iganga Secondary School and worked for Pepsi Cola in Kampala.
He also lived in Kenya, working in the tourism industry, before returning to Rwanda in July 1994 before moving to the United Kingdom six years later.
The accession of Yuhi VI was made by proclamation of the Royal Council of Abiru, who are a group of elders and privy to the king's wishes as advisors. According to custom, the Council of Abiru announces the king’s selection of successor from among his family members.[4] Bushayija, his nephew, was named as his successor. The announcement was made by Boniface Benzinge, chairman of the Abiru council.[5]
He is a naturalised British citizen and lives currently in Sale, near Manchester in northwest England.[2] His wife, Lilian, is a local mental health support worker.
Achievements as King
King Yuhi VI has been active in the Royal Commonwealth Society[6] and serves as the Chief Patron of The Crown Society.[7] The King is regularly seen in European royal and aristocratic circles, and has conducted visits to strengthen ties with the royal houses of Albania, Austria, Portugal and Spain.[8] A close relationship has developed with the House of Braganza, which was historically supportive of Kigeli V Ndahindurwa and played a key role in welcoming Yuhi VI into royal circles.[9]
In February 2025, King Yuhi VI became the first Rwandan monarch in history to set foot in Asia. The King's first stop was in Manila, where he was feted as one of the laureates of the 2025 Sino-Phil Asia International Peace Awards in the field of humanitarianism.[10] Subsequently, a visit to Macau followed where the King was the guest of honour at the signing ceremony for the Medical Simulation Training Centre Pilot Program, a partnership between the Faculty of Medicine at Macau University of Science and Technology, the Global Fair Pay Foundation, and The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University.[11] The Asia tour concluded in Hong Kong, where the King was hosted by the Royal Commonwealth Society Hong Kong Branch which convened a white tie dinner in His Majesty's honour.
Kigeli V Ndahindurwa (born Jean-Baptiste Ndahindurwa; 29 June 1936 – 16 October 2016) was the last ruling King (Mwami) of Rwanda, from 28 July 1959 until the end of the UN-mandate with Belgian administration and the declaration of an independent Republic of Rwanda 1 July 1962. On 25 September 1961, a referendum voted for the abolition of the Rwandan monarchy following the Rwandan Revolution.
After a brief period of moveabouts after leaving Rwanda, the titular King lived in exile during the final part of his life in the town of Oakton, Virginia, United States. In exile, he was known for heading the King Kigeli V Foundation, an organisation promoting humanitarian work for Rwandan refugees. He was also notable for his activities in maintaining the dynastic, cultural heritage of his formerly reigning royal house, including noble titles, dynastic orders of chivalry and other distinctions.
After the king's death, a successor was said to be shortly revealed. In January 2017, it was announced that Yuhi VI would succeed him. Yuhi VI is the nephew of both the late King Kigeli V and the previous King Mutara III, as well as a grandson of King Yuhi V.
Early life and education
Kigeli was born Ndahindurwa on 29 June 1936 in Kamembe, Rwanda, to Yuhi Musinga (the deposed King Yuhi V Musinga), and Queen Mukashema (born Mukashema Bernadette), the seventh of his eleven wives.[5] He was ethnically Tutsi.[6] Kigeli had fourteen siblings, being one of the youngest of his father's many children.[7]
When Kigeli was 4 years old,[6][8] his father was exiled by the Belgian government to Moba, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.[8][9] Following the death of his father, in 1944 he returned to Rwanda.[10] Kigeli was baptised in the Catholic Church in his teens,[11] taking the Christian name Jean-Baptiste,[12] and remained a devout Catholic throughout his life.[6]
He received his education at the Groupe Scolaire Astrida (now Groupe Scolaire Officiel de Butare) in Rwanda,[5][13] and at the Nyangezi College in the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo.[5][14] After he finished school in 1956,[6] he worked in local government in Rwanda until 1959.[5]
Reign in Rwanda
After his half-brother, King Mutara III Rudahigwa, died under mysterious circumstances on 25 July 1959, it was announced on 28 July that Kigeli would succeed him as King Kigeli V Ndahindurwa.[6][15] "Kigeli" is sometimes transcribed as "Kigeri".[16][17] Though married, Kigeli's late half-brother had had no children; the abrupt, shocking nature of the death prompted widespread talk of some kind of assassination having occurred.[7]
Kigeli's appointment was a surprise to the Belgian administration, who were not involved in his selection, and who described the event as a coup d'état,[6][18] a view shared by the newly politically empowered Hutu elite.[19] Kigeli himself also felt shocked and overwhelmed at the news of his ascension.[7] The tense atmosphere and presence of armed Rwandans at the funeral prevented the Belgians from objecting,[11][20] as well as preventing Hutu interference.[21] Despite this, Kigeli was initially favoured by all sides: Tutsi traditionalists, Hutu nationalists, and the Catholic clergy all felt optimistic on his appointment.[11] However, the manner of his appointment led to a loss of prestige for the Belgian authorities, and gave both Hutu and Tutsi revolutionaries the impression that violence might further their goals. The fact that the Tutsi establishment had engineered the rise to power also compromised Kigeli's ability to act in the traditional role as a neutral arbiter of differing factions.[20]
Kigeli duly followed regal tradition by disregarding past ethnic and ideological affiliations, embracing the role of the 'father of all Rwandan people'. However, political instability and tribal conflict grew despite efforts by the monarchy and others. Only a month after Kigeli's November 1959 ascension, Hutu versus Tutsi militancy increased to the point that hundreds died. Many Tutsi went into exile. Issues with the increasingly restive Hutu population were encouraged by the Belgian military, promoting widespread revolt. Kigeli later wrote, "I am not clinging to power... I will always accept the people’s verdict; what I cannot accept is that the Belgian Administration should influence or distort this verdict."[7]
In July 1960, Kigeli sought safe haven in the newly independent nation of Congo.[7] In 1961, Kigeli was in Kinshasa to meet Secretary General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld when Dominique Mbonyumutwa, with the support of the Belgian government, led a coup d'état that took control of the Rwandan state.[7] The monarchy's rule was formally overthrown on 28 January 1961.[22] The coup resulted in the 1961 referendum about the fate of the nation's royal system.[7]
The election results showed that, with about 95% turnout, around 80% of voters opposed the continuation of the monarchy. Kigeli criticized the affair as rigged; soon after re-entering Rwanda prior to the election, Belgian officials put him under house arrest.[7]
The government officially deported Kigeli to what is now Tanzania on 2 October 1961. He subsequently lived in multiple other locations, leaving the region of Tanganyika (living in Dar es Salaam) for places such as Kampala, Uganda, and Nairobi, Kenya. He was granted political asylum in the United States in July 1992. He resided in the U.S. for the rest of his life.[7]
Exile activities
Granted political asylum by the United States, he settled near Washington, D.C., where he claimed welfare, and lived in subsidized housing.[6][23] He subsequently settled in the Oakton, Virginia, area.[citation needed]
He travelled internationally to speak on behalf of the Rwandan people and repeatedly called for peace and harmony between the different groups. Kigeli continued to remember the victims of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and attempted to reconcile all political, ethnic, and religious parties in Rwanda to use the democratic process to solve any disputes. Kigeli was a friend of former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela and the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Patrice Lumumba.[citation needed]
In 1995, while in Southern California, Kigeli met author and historian Charles A. Coulombe, an American representative of the International Monarchist League, a London-based organization that attempts to reinstate deposed royalty in various parts of the world.[24]
In an August 2007 BBC interview, Kigeli expressed an interest in returning to Rwanda if the Rwandan people were prepared to accept him as their constitutional monarch. He said that he had met President Paul Kagame and that Kagame had told him that he and his family were free to return, but Kigeli said that in order to do so, he needed to know if the people still wanted him to be king. According to Kigeli, Kagame said that he would consult the government about the issue.[25]
Charity
He was the head of the King Kigeli V Foundation,[26] whose mission is to bring humanitarian initiatives on behalf of Rwandan refugees.[citation needed]
Death and succession
Kigeli died of a heart ailment at the age of eighty on the morning of 16 October 2016 in a hospital in Washington, D.C.[1] His private secretary, Guye Pennington, said that an heir had been chosen and would be announced shortly.[27] Kigeli never married, in obedience to a rule banning marriage for kings while they were out of the country.[27]
Although Kigeli never married, on 9 January 2017, the Royal House announced that his nephew, Prince Emmanuel Bushayija (to reign as Yuhi VI of Rwanda), would succeed him as pretender to the Rwandan throne.[28] He is the son of the half-brother of Kigeli, Prince William Bushayija.
After Kigeli's death, it was revealed he had at least one daughter, Jacqueline Rwivanga, married to Andrew Rugasira 1998-2015 and a mother of five.[29]
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