Analysis Of Jessica Posner 's `` And Kennedy Odede 's Find Me Unafraid ``

Straus classifies questions that until now still remain unanswered. He also summarizes and test hypothesis. Straus mostly focuses on evaluating four main controversial literatures. He begins with theories other authors have created to rationalize genocide in Rwanda. Secondly, he examines theories that other writers have shaped to elucidate the extermination of Tutsis, either in a contrastive, or research framework. Thirdly, Straus also evaluates theories that explicate an ethnic clash; and lastly, theories that explain the people’s degree of participation in the violent events.

It is important to study the immediate and gradual causes of the genocide. A good understanding of the devastating Rwandan genocide can help prevent a repeat of such violent events. There were numerous situations that led to the murders, but some could have had a greater impact than others. Two of the biggest causes of the genocide were the assassination of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and the hostility between the Hutus and Tutsis. The animosity between the two groups was built up over hundreds of years, while Habyarimana’s assassination was an incident that took place within hours of the beginning of the genocide. Habyarimana’s death seemed to be a trigger for the genocide, but the conflicts between the Hutus and Tutsis could have played an even larger role in the mass murders of thousands of Rwandans. The past relationship between the two groups must be studied in order to understand how they were able to reach a genocide.

Due to increasing inter-ethnic violence combined with a long history of political violence, Kenya has been described as a “volatile political and social environment”(QUOTE). Furthermore, high youth unemployment and widespread poverty motivate and entice individuals to seek out terrorist groups to join. These elements intertwined with the institutionalisation of political violence, have been identified as the specific causes of political violence in Kenya. To avoid the recurrence of political violence, the strategy was to re-examine the legal measures available and focus especially on humans rights and democratisation. As Kenneth Roth, an executive director of Human Rights Watch, states, “For Kenya to overcome the legacies of political violence, it has only two choices: justice or impunity”(QUOTE). Moreover, in order for citizens to have a better future, victims and the socioeconomic causes of political violence must be addressed. In other words, there has to be an emphasis placed on rehabilitation and “tackling poverty and inequality . . . particularly among youth”(QUOTE). With the adoption of these preventive elements in political violence and counter-terrorism strategies, Kenya has an opportunity to confront past injustices and bring about substantial

In 1994, a tragedy occurred in Rwanda where millions of Tutsis’, the minority, were brutally murdered by the Hutu, the majority. This event is known as the Rwandan genocide and left many people wondering what could have caused this devastating event to occur. Over the years, many theories have surfaced and among those were the theories of Peter Uving. In both Why Did People Participate in Genocide? A Theoretically Informed Synthesis and The Condition of Structural Violence Peter Uvin seeks to explain why violence occurs in society. Nevertheless, the two articles are different in the sense that Why Did People Participate in Genocide? A Theoretically Informed Synthesis is primarily focused on the other theories which include political scientists,

William Hogan Research Paper Help Received: Group Understanding Genocide And Factors That Contribute To It Genocide is important to understand so we can help prevent future violence on humanity. Political, cultural, economic, and ethnicity differences led to terrible modern day genocides in Rwanda and during the Holocaust. Parallels between the Holocaust and Rwandan genocides can be drawn from the role the state played in mobilizing and organizing genocide. “Genocide is a sustained purposeful action by a perpetrator to physically destroy a collectivity directly or indirectly, through interdiction of the biological and social reproduction or group members, sustained regardless of the surrender or lack of threat offered by the victim” (Fein,

Throughout the 1600s to the mid 1990s, the Tutsi tribe in Rwanda, and the Hutu tribe of Rwanda have always been arch enemies. Although the Hutus have had a prolonged hate for the Tutsi tribe, this hate was not physically expressed, until 1994. From April to July of 1994, over 80,000 Tutsi people were murdered and tortured for their African heritage. The Rwanda genocide is considered to be one of the worst massacres the world has ever seen since the Holocaust. This paper will touch a few things that occurred after the massacre, and will also answer the questions of why this massacre started, what occurred during this genocide. The Rwandan genocide was a massacre based off of discrimination and hatred for a specific tribal group. This

Twenty-three years ago, in a small, central African country identified as Rwanda, approximately 1,000,000 individuals belonging to the Tutsi tribe were massacred by a rival tribe, known as the Hutus. The hatred that resulted in the Hutus slaughtering the Tutsis originated from a rivalry that was created centuries before the infamous massacre. Living in an agricultural community, the Hutus were traditionally peasant cultivators, while the Tutsis were cattle lopers. Through their work, the Tutsis gained wealth and, consequently, political power. The divide between the Hutus and the Tutsis was only made more dangerous as Europeans traveled to Rwanda, favoring the Tutsis. As the inferior race, the Hutus were denied government positions, higher education, and were forced into slave labor. In retaliation, the Hutus gained political power through a democratic vote put on by Belgian missionaries from the Tutsis through the 8:1 majority ratio. The Tutsi power was completely reversed into total Hutu power, as “the oppressed became the oppressor.”

Historians do not lie when they say, “History always repeats itself”. Sadly for Rwanda, history did repeat itself with the Rwanda Genocide. Instead of one leader controlling the actions of a powerful military force, Rwanda was a complete chaotic mess, with mass killings of their own people. As Hintjens says it was “one of the highest casualty rates of any population in history from non-natural causes.” Explaining the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda and The Order of Genocide both discuss and write about the pre genocide, social friction, prime factors of the genocide, and the reasoning of killings from both sides.

Twenty years ago in the small east African country of Rwanda, eight hundred thousand people, mostly those of the Tutsi tribe, were slaughtered by their own government. The Hutu and the Tutsi tribes followed the same traditions and inhabited the same territory for over a thousand years. The rise of conflict between the Tutsi and the Hutu dates back to 1918, when the Germans lost their colonies following World War I, and the Belgians took control of Rwanda. In 1933, the Belgians establish the superiority of the "Tutsi" over the "Hutu" which lead to a great divide between these two groups (Admin of PBS.org). When the Belgians handed over power to the Hutu majority, a deep resentment of

The Rwandan Genocide was one that will never be forgotten. It occured from April 7, 1994 to July 1994. Rwanda was mainly separated into three different ethnic groups. The Hutus, the Tutsis, and the Twa. The population of the Hutus in Rwanda was about 84 percent of the country, the Tutsis group was 15 percent, and the Twa ethnicity was only a trivial 1 percent. The start of the country’s civil war was triggered by the killing of the Rwandan president. The country was having difficulties before the assassination, and the killing only initiated the anger. The Rwandan Genocide left the country struggling to reconstruct the relationships between its people.

Find me Unafriad is an autobiography novel that tells the story of Kenny Odede and Jessica Posner’s unexpected meeting and love story. Odede is a Kenyan who was inevitable in poverty all his life; but despite that, he still finds himself able to lead a well-known nonprofit organization to better his community. Posner is a privileged American student, who meets Odede while on a study abroad trip. Although these two come from completely different cultures, countries, and ethnicities, they still managed to positively show leadership and develop a long bond between each other. Both of the characters showed great strengths throughout the book and have taught many leadership lessons throughout the novel.

Genocide is “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, ethnic, political, or cultural group”. In Rwanda for example, the Hutu-led government embraced a new program that called for the country’s Hutu people to murder anyone that was a Tutsi (Gourevitch, 6). This new policy of one ethnic group (Hutu) that was called upon to murder another ethnic group (Tutsi) occurred during April through June of 1994 and resulted in the genocide of approximately 800,000 innocent people that even included women and children of all ages. In this paper I will first analyze the origins/historical context regarding the discontent amongst the Hutu and Tutsi people as well as the historical context as to why major players in the international

With this conceded class distinction came the fight for reigning ability, and amidst this power vacuum, Rwandans fell victim to conflicting groups and crime, the eventual building blocks that lead to the massacre of 800,000 civilians. The origins of this ethnic loathing and in turn ethnic genocide can be secured to European colonialism, where those who arrived to colonize and yield the wealth of western knowledge, instead carried racist beliefs. Through this haunting event in history, when foreign governments unfittingly place their ideologies in unknown territory, revealed is how uninvited nations can destabilize a state by stimulating ethnic warfare, causing it to collapse and crumble through conflict.

Is there a difference between genocide and war? The idea and concepts of conflict are often misunderstood. To many, any form of conflict is war. War can be defined as a direct violent encounter between two or more opposing parties with a view to gaining access to an object of their mutual interests. It is usually accompanied by the use of weapons such as guns, bows and arrows, machetes, sticks, biological weapons, and weapons of mass destruction. (Insert bibliography #1). Genocide has been described as a specific term, referring to violent crimes committed against particular groups, with the intent to destroy the existence of such groups (insert bibliography #1). Having said that, one common factor often exhibited by genocide perpetrators is to destroy a group perceived to be a threat to the ruling power. The purpose of this paper is to take a look at both the historic and political causes for the Rwanda Genocide, and to distinguish whether ethnicity was the cause or was it the aspect of the conflict.

Beginning April of 2004, the Rwandan Hutu started mass murders of Tutsi. This genocide is believed to have spawned from the civil war that was taking place at that time. This civil war was based on issues over power and resentment between the Tutsi and the Hutu. (Rwanda, 2008) Eventually the war escalated to the point where the Hutu began genocide of the Tutsi and anybody who opposed the ideas of the Hutu. The killing of the Tutsis became so common—in a very short amount of time—that it was practically acceptable amongst the Rwandans. (Hintjens, 1999) This was a very brutal and gruesome genocide. In just five weeks, approximately half a million Tutsi and innocent civilians had been murdered. (Hintjens, 1999) This is an astounding number of people, especially because the Hutu murdered the Tutsi at knife point—usually with a machete. (Snow, 2008)