The Hutus And The Tutsis Essay

Bang!Boom! The Hutus entered Tutsis homes and started to kill using machetes, guns and their hands. They killed the young, old, disabled, it didn’t matter. On the night of April 7th,1994 the elimination of the Tutsi race began.The Hutu and Tutsis did not live in perfect harmony before the invasion of Europeans. Major problems did not occur until after colonialism was over. When the Europeans settled down, they divided Hutus and Tutsis by their physical traits. Tutsis were favored by the Europeans causing hatred from Hutus. With their division amongst different races, European colonialism put Rwanda on the road to genocide.The mass murder of millions of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the Rwandan Genocide was driven by the imperialistic motives of the Belgian government.

Along with the Belgians support toward the Hutu came the Hutu Revolution in 1959. It all started with the Belgians getting the Hutu more political positions, getting them into secondary schools, and getting them to just participate in more public life. This scared the Tutsi. The Tutsi, feeling that there power was being jeopardized, decided they had to do something. Feeling that they were in a desperate situation they ended up killing a Hutu sub-chief. The vivid Hutu, feeling that it was time to take a stand, attacked Tutsi officials, who in return attacked the Hutu. This turned into one of many small

The two ethnic groups that were include in the Rwanda Genocide was the Tutsis and Hutus. The Tutsis were the minority population in Rwanda, but they held all the positions of authority. On the other hand, the Hutu made up around 85% of Rwanda’s population, but held no political power, they were denied higher education and land ownership. The size of the nose and the color of the eyes were the factors that determined whether a person was Hutu or Tutsi. The Tutsis disapprove of the colonial rule of the Belgians and demanded to become more independent. After World War II, the Tutsis felt impatient and that it was time they took matters in their own hands to pursuit their independence. In 1959, the tension and violence between the Tutsis and Hutus were greatly increased.

On April 6, 1994, the Rwandan president was returning from Tanzania when his plane was shot down and he was killed. The death of the president was the spark needed for a campaign of violence against the Tutsi and moderate Hutu civilians across the country. In hours, Hutu rebels surrounded the capital and took over the streets. As the weeks advanced, Tutsis and anyone suspected of having connections to a Tutsi member was killed.

At its roots, the Rwandan genocide was caused by colonization. Belgium had imperialized the nation after WWI and ruled through its kings, selecting the Tutsis ethnic group to lead. The decision to give the Tutsis power was based off the fact that they were more “white looking” with their lighter skin and long noses, which, in the eyes of the European string-pullers, meant they were better suited to ruling. It was also speculated that the Tutsis could be the descendants of a lost Christian tribe, and thus belonged to the “superior” bloodline. When the Belgian colonists settled in 1916, they assigned race cards to distinguish the Hutu from the Tutsis. Despite being the minority, comprising only 15% of the population, the Tutsis held most of the wealth. Tension between the two groups rose, with animosity becoming rampant. In 1962, Rwanda was granted independence from Belgium, and the Hutu regained

Until the late 19th century, which was to say until European Colonization, Tutsis people were represented as the aristocratic upper classes. (Hutus) people were represented as the peasant masses. The European people brought with them an idea of race science, and people took this tradition structure and made it more extreme and more polarized into a some sort of sytem. Identity cards were issued and (Tutsis) people were privileged for all things and Hutus people were made into a very oppressed mass.

The relations between the two main cultures, the Hutus and Tutsis historically has always been strained and riddled with examples of one culture trying to achieve and maintain power over the other. The imbalance of power has constantly been shifting between the two ethnic groups. The introduction of European monarchical government brought to the country by Britain at first did nothing to help ease the tension. The country was constantly being handed to other European powers before they finally gained independence. When the Europeans left the Hutus had more political power than the Tutsi creating an imbalance.

Hutus would be given terrible land to farm, while Tutsis were given good land for grazing cattle. From Hutus’ perspective, they felt discriminated against from Tutsis due to their ethnic counterpart receiving many rewards from the village leaders. Political disadvantage for Hutus continued when Germans enter the country in 1897.

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.”

According to the book Peacemaking in Rwanda, Hutus and Tutsis had prior hate towards one another due to “wealth, military prowess, family, and control over a precious commodity, or occupation of a prestigious social position.” (Jones, pg. 18) This meant at any time my children that Tutsis could become Hutus and Hutus could become Tutsis. Due to this my children, I come before to tell you never to hate your very own people. Clan lineage in Rwanda was were, power and status placed a role in the leading of the people as that determined who was a high authority amongst the different yet similar clans. While clan lineage played a role in who would lead the different clans, Rwanda before World War I was colonized by Germans. Sadly my kids, after World War I colonization moved on to the Belgium and this is was the day, when I saw my life flash before my eyes. The once peaceful Rwanda had changed within a day. When the Belgium came into power they “imposed on the contrary an intellectual and administrative simplification that equated “Tutsi’s” with “ruling class”.”(Jones, pg. 19) Throughout the Belgium ruling, Tutsis were the chosen ones to do all of the administrative work for the League of Nations Mandate. Due to this Belgium’s required for Tutsis to carry around cards that specifically showed and

This investigation studies two of the causes of the 1994 genocide of Rwanda. The two causes are examined in order to see to what extent each contributed to the genocide. The social and ethnic conflicts between two Rwandan groups called the Hutus and the Tutsis caused violent disputes and riots. The assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana is often thought of as the event that sparked the mass murders. Did the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana influence the Rwandan genocide of 1994 more than the ongoing social and ethnic conflicts?

In 1962 when Belgium left the hutu majority took power. They started to discriminate against the tutsis which turn the population against the minority tutsis which became brutal. When the violence began thousands of tutis left Rwanda but some tutsis remain in Rwanda. The tutsis were restricted to what kind of jobs they can hold, they were also excluded from higher educational and politics.

Before the genocide, Rwanda was a colony of Belgium. When the Belgian explorers arrived, they split the people by their physical features. These features include the size of your nose, your skin tone, and even your height. Being a Tutsi ment you closer resembled a European with a smaller nose and brighter skin color. This division later on showed that the Belgians favored the Tutsi more than the Hutu. The Hutu took up 90% of the population followed by the Tutsis 9% and the last 1% goes to erelevant groups of the genocide, such as the Twa. But how did the tensions rise between the groups?

On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying Habyarimana and Burundi’s president Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down over Kigali their were no survivors. They did not know who shot the plane down but they are blaming Hutu extremists and the leaders of the RPF. An hour after the plane went down the Rwandan armed forces and the Hutu militia groups had started setting up roadblocks and barricades, and started killing Tutsis and moderate Hutus. the first victims of the genocide were the moderate Hutu Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and her 10 Belgian bodyguards, with that happening it started more conflict and interim government of extremist Hutu Power leaders from the military high command had stepped in on april 9. The killing in Rwanda had spreaded to the rest of the country, up to 800,000 or more had been slaughtered within 3 months.

Eventually, the Hutus were angered by the control the Tutsis were given. The Hutus began killing all Tutsis, this lasted for over 2 months. Between 800,000 and 1,000,000 people were killed. According to Exploring Globalization over 99% of children witnessed violence. European involvement and imperialism caused the genocide due the favouring of the more “European,” like Tutsis.