Kigeli V Ndahindurwa

Who is Kigeli V Ndahindurwa?

Kigeli V Ndahindurwa was born Ndahindurwa on 29 June 1936 in Kamembe, Rwanda, the son of the deposed King Yuhi V Musinga and Queen Mukashema. Baptized in the Catholic Church in his teens under the name Jean-Baptiste, he became the last reigning Mwami of Rwanda, ascending the throne on 28 July 1959 following the death of his half-brother, Mutara III Rudahigwa. His brief reign coincided with the turbulent "Rwandan Revolution" of 1959 to 1961, which ended centuries of Tutsi monarchy; he was effectively dethroned in January 1961 and the monarchy was formally abolished when Rwanda became an independent republic in 1962. Kigeli V spent the remainder of his life in exile, eventually settling in the United States, where he headed the King Kigeli V Foundation, an organization supporting Rwandan refugees, and remained a devout Catholic. He died of a heart ailment at age 81 on 16 October 2016 in Washington, D.C., having lived to see more than half a century in exile as the monarchy's final symbolic figure.

Sources: BBC News, obituary of Kigeli V Ndahindurwa (2016) · The EastAfrican, "Kigeli V: The last monarch of Rwanda" · King Kigeli V Foundation, official biography