Life After the Throne

When reporters located the former king of Rwanda Kigeli Ndahindurwa V in 1994, he was applying for food stamps in Maryland. He had been deposed in 1960, after a coup supported by the Belgian government. Ndahindurwa had fled to Kenya before being granted asylum by the U.S. in 1992. After the massacres in Rwanda between the Hutus and Tutsis, the former king, a Tutsi, toured the U.S. and Canada to raise awareness for the plight of refugees. He told the BBC last year that he still wants to go back to Rwanda and regain his throne, but would only do so with the support of the Rwandan people.

Royal Factoid: He is seven feet tall and is never without his childhood friend and assistant Boniface Benzinge, who usually stands behind the king and often speaks for him.

"A king is like a father to the nation...All the tribes are like his children."
—Kigeli Ndahindurwa V