The Rwandan Genocide

For years, Rwanda has been a hotbed of racial tension. The majority of the Rwandan population is made up of Hutu's, with Tutsi's making up the rest of it. Ever since European colonial powers entered the country and favoured the Tutsi ethnic group over the Hutu by putting Tutsi people in all important positions in society, there has been a decisive political divide between the two groups. This favouring of the Tutsi over the Hutu, and the Hutu subjugation as an ethnic lower class resulted in the civil war and revolution of 1959, where the Hutu overthrew the Tutsi dominated government, and resulted in Rwanda gaining their independence in 1962.

After the atrocities of the Rwandan Genocide and the lack on international intervention, Rwandan was forced to rebuild itself from scratch. Rwanda is a small country located in central Africa. Its population is divided between two ethnic groups: the hutus and the tutsis. The roots of the Rwandan genocide date back to 1924 when Belgium first took over Rwanda, formally a part of Tanzania. The Belgians viewed Tutsi superior to the hutus. Many referred to this as Hamitic hypothesis. It was motivated mainly by the fact that Tutsi were taller and thinner than hutus. This lead to a major boost in Tutsi egos and mistreatment of the Hutus for decades. This angered the Hutus leading to a major conflict between the two ethnic groups.

Rwanda is a country located in Central Eastern Africa, with an extensive history of colonization, after Belgium attained control in 1924. Belgium’s rule however also marked the beginning of a lengthy ethnic rivalry between the Hutu and the Tutsi people. Belgium favored the Tutsi the minority at 14 percent of the population over the Hutu, the majority at 85 percent, simply because the Tutsis were more resembling of the Europeans. “Colonial policy helped to intensify bipolar differentiation between Tutsi and Hutu, by inscribing “ethnic” identification on identity cards, by relegating the vast majority of Hutu to particularly onerous forms of forced cultivation and corvee, and by actively favoring Tutsi in access to administrative posts, education, and jobs in the modern sector,” (Newbury, 12). Belgium’s control fueled the Hutu’s resentment towards the Tutsis because the Tutsis received superior treatment for decades. Thus, when Rwanda finally acquired independence in 1962, the Hutus fought for control over the government, highlighting the first warning sign of the genocide to come. Many Tutsis were killed afterwards, while many others fled to neighboring countries to escape the violence.

Rwanda is a country located in the middle of the African continent. The two ethnic groups present in the country lived in peace under their monarch until the arrival of Europeans. The Belgians arrival into Rwandan is what split the two ethnic groups of the Tutsi and Hutus, making them identify themselves with ID cards. This caused tension between the two groups as the Belgians favored the ethnic Tutsi, and made them the head of the government. Decade’s later Hutu extremists would take over the government and have revenge on the Tutsi. The new government would send out broadcasts calling on Hutus to kill their friends and neighbors. The Rwandan genocide would become the worst genocide to ever happen in Africa and one of the worst in the world. Today Rwanda’s recovery is surprisingly fast with the help of multiple nations and organizations. Rwanda’s recovery is nothing short of a miracle and is an amazing story of a war between two peoples.

In 1994, over the course of 100 days, a genocide in Rwanda took the lives of 800,000 innocent men, women, and children and displaced 2 million more. The genocide was a result of tension that had been building since the Belgium colonization of Rwanda in 1916 between two ethnic group, the Hutus and the Tutsis. When Belgium colonized Rwanda, power was given to the Tutsis (an ethnic group in Rwanda that was 15% of the population) who became the privileged minority, whereas the Hutus (another ethnic group in Rwanda that was 85% of the population) became the working class majority. As the years progressed, the signs of inequality intensified. Tutsis were given priority in terms of education, jobs and power. There was even an identity card system created to differentiate between Hutus and Tutsis. The inequality and unfair treatment came to a boiling point and spilled over into a revolution in Rwanda in 1959. The result was a transition from Tutsi controlled Rwanda to a Hutu elected government. 70% of the Tutsi population was killed and the majority fled to neighbouring countries. For the next 5 years the displaced Tutsis’ made unsuccessful attempts to re-take the country, the result of which was the killing of roughly 10 000 Tutsi 's in Rwanda by the Hutu government as an act of revenge. For the next 30 years a negative peace ensued, but below the surface tensions continued to rise, finally erupting in the spring of 1994 with

Rwanda Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungo stated, “We have the same language, the same religions. There is no song or dance or drum-beat that is peculiar to one or the other of our people. We had disputed before the colonial period over things like land-ownership, and sometimes there were little fights, but the chiefs dealt with it in the traditional way and never did we suffer destruction like we have just experienced” (1). The racist theories of earlier colonizers tried to differentiate the two groups based on physical appearances. Belgians considered Tutsi to be more European and were given educational advantages. Hutu were excluded from all levels of power and left as a minority position. These disadvantages along with the nations poverty, over population from refugees, land pressures, and ecological degradation would rage the extremists and fuel their hatred. Rebels (interahamwe) and Hutu extremists hunted Tutsi. The propaganda was fed through the Radio stations giving Hutu ideas of how to find, capture, and kill Tutsi. Hutu rebels called the Tutsi minority cockroaches and felt it was

April to July 1994 is stamped by the “darkest and most brutal tragedy of our time.” During this 100-day mass genocide, the world watched as 800,000 Tutsi men, women, and children were slaughtered at the forefront of history. It is hard to believe that yet another mass genocide was justified by ethnic differences. The conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes of Rwanda was deep seeded in the period long before Rwandan independence. The tension between these two groups can be traced back to the 14th century when the Tutsi arrived in Rwanda and dominated the area as an elite class, oppressing the Hutu population. Although their relations “remained relatively civil,” tensions were heightened with colonialism and Belgian rule of Rwanda following World War I.

Rwanda has lived both upside and downs, it a country that is trying to overcome a lot struggles and wounds. Rwanda experience a change of power in 1994 which begin with genocide and since these past 22 years Rwanda has been trying to overcome the sad time that the genocide brought. Most of the Rwandan population died at that time and the others migrated to other countries such as France and USA, some didn’t survive, other are still in the forest where they either stayed, got lost or are afraid to get back to the country and other were able to start a new life. CIA claims that “The 1994 genocide decimated Rwanda's fragile economic base, severely impoverished the population, particularly women, and temporarily stalled the country's ability to

Rwanda is a country that has a rich, but bloody history. Rwanda was originally inhabited by the Twa, a pygmy tribe who hunted and gathered for survival. Between the 5th and 11th century, the Hutu tribe migrated to Rwanda, followed by the Tutsi tribe during the 14th century. The Hutus were farmers, while the Tutsis owned cattle and by the 15th century, the Tutsis had established power. In 1916, the Belgian colonists arrived. The Belgian’s favored the Tutsis and began segregating the two tribes by issuing identification cards which included ethnicity. They supported the Tutsi political power and replaced the Hutu chiefs with Tutsi chiefs, reinforcing the ethnic divide between the two tribes. The Tutsis followed the command of the Belgium for

Rwanda Throughout Rwanda’s history, power struggles have prevailed, and with this arose conflicts within the nation. Prior to European invasion, Rwanda lived in harmony for the most part, and in the 1800’s European powers heightened these divides between the ethnic people, and it affected how the modern day institutions and power structures are set up. These conflicts then led to a large-scale genocide which tore the nation and its people apart. Thesis Statement: Throughout Rwanda’s history of existence power struggles and ethnic issues have arose, many of which being caused by foreign European powers, this affected the country for years in aspects such as ethnic division, internal conflicts, power distribution, politics, and genocide.

In the African nation of Rwanda, two tribes started a genocide which took the lives of more than 800,000 people. The Hutus and the Tutsis were enemies for generations; however the everyday bickering and blank threats snowballed into a catastrophe. The genocide spread throughout the country with overwhelming speed and violence. Everyone, from average citizens to high standing priests, took part in murdering their neighbors and friends. After years of murders and torture, the Tutsis took control of Rwanda in July of 1994 and ended the genocide. Afterwards, citizens started to seek revenge and closure for their loved ones who had been taken from them.

The violent events of 1994 were not something that occurred by surprise or without warning. Ethnic tensions and political unrest have fueled a hostile environment within Rwanda as well as within other countries in the surrounding Great Lakes region for many years, the roots of which date back to well before the conflict in 1994 began. In order to truly understand the genocide that occurred, events dating back to 1959 and even before must be briefly examined. A majority of the ethnic tensions throughout the tumultuous history of Rwanda lies within the two major groups known as the Hutu and the Tutsi. As Tony Waters points out “There

The country of Rwanda is a small, land-locked country in Eastern Africa. By the early 1990s, Rwanda’s population of 7 million people was composed of three ethnic groups. Approximately 85% was Hutu, 14% was Tutsi, and the remaining 1% was Twa (United Nations, 2015). Animosity between the Hutu and Tutsi groups had grown substantially since the European colonialization period in the 1800s. During the colonialization period, European colonists considered the slimmer, taller, lighter-skinned Tutsis to be superior to the shorter, stockier, darker-skinned Hutus (Putterbaugh, 2010). As the Tutsis were more like the Europeans, they were treated better than the Hutus. The Tutsis were given positions of power as the existing Hutu kings and chiefs were

Prior to colonial era, Rwanda had larger population of Hutus compared to Tutsis and Twa. Rwanda as a country was divided into three ethnic groups i.e. Hutu (approximately about 85%), Tutsi (14%) and Twa (1%) (United Nations). Although, Tutsis were the minorities, they belonged to the higher strata compared to the other ethnic groups; Tutsis were privileged and had power and control over the Hutus and Twas. “Hutus were formerly bound to their Tutsi patrons via client ship” (Sinema, 2012). When Rwanda was colonized by Germany followed by Belgium, they favored Tutsis as they represented the upper class prior to the colonization. These created a social system like feudal system where there was a power difference between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Tutsis were considered as lord and the Hutus on the other hand, were considered as peasants. As a consequence, this created an ethic tension between the Hutus and the Tutsis and created a system more like apartheid. Nonetheless, they managed to co exist in Rwanda until they were decolonized. Although there is no social distinction between the Hutus and the Tutsis, the conflict between these tribes increased tremendously after the independence from Belgian that led to mass murder and ethnic cleansing of the Tutsi by the Hutu.

In the Rwandan genocide, 800,000 people were killed over the span of three months. In the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, the atrocities that the extremist Hutus committed can never be forgotten because the victims, the government, and the perpetrators were all affected. In Rwanda, the people have been scarred by the horrors they saw and the family members they lost. The government and economy of Rwanda were non-existent immediately after the genocide but, they have made strides to rebuild themselves to a state better than before the genocide. Justice in Rwanda was obtained by the establishing of Gacaca courts and help from the ICC. The Rwandan genocide’s aftermath left the country in rubble as today it is still trying to rebuild.