The Rwandan Genocide of 1994

The socio/cultural cause of the genocide in Rwanda came from the German and Belgian colonization, bringing along with them an idea of social science. Both colonial powers reinforced the Tutsi’s political power, which further oppressed the Hutus. This reinforcement caused the Hutus to envy the Tutsi’s aristocracy because they were privileged to all things, while the Hutus were privileged to nothing (Kapuscinski). This oppression led to many Hutu revolutions that the Hutus were successful in over the unprepared Tutsis. These victories of the Tutsis incidentally reversed the Rwandan apartheid system. The reversion of the system then gave

When Belgium took control of Rwanda in 1916 the Hutu’s and the Tutsi’s had a slight differentiation of the ethnic groups, the Hutu’s were farmers and the Tutsi’s were cattle herders. Though they both spoke the same language and had similar traditions. The Tutsi were seen as a higher class of people, only because it took more money to buy cattle, but it was possible to have upward movement in society through changes in jobs or through intermarriage (Jones).

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.

In between 1930 and 1945, an event took place that changed the world in many ways. The Holocaust was a genocide that consisted of the decimation of one single race, the Jews. This solemn event is very similar (and also quite different) to another event that took place only four thousand miles away. Like the Holocaust, this event is was a genocide and it took place at Rwanda in 1994. This genocide was between the Hutus and Tutsis. These two groups have a long background with each other that consisted of civil wars, switches in power and superiority, and tension. It began when the Europeans put the Tutsis in a superior position because they were the ones that closely resembled them, the Europeans, in physical appearance. It was the death of

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

In 1885, European superpowers got together to divide up the continent of Africa for the colonization of the countries. Among them, Belgium had received the country of Rwanda. The practice of colonialism was common during the time period as European nations feigned to extract natural resources from African countries which were seen as gold mines. Being outnumbered, the Belgians knew they would have to find ways to maintain power in Rwanda. In doing so, they implemented this by dividing the indigenous people of Rwanda through the means of hegemonic racism. Those with dark skin, wide noses, and short were labeled as Hutus, while those who fit the European ideal of beauty with a lighter skin tone, tall, and smaller noses were labeled as Tutsis. While Belgium held power over Rwanda, they deemed the Tutsis as the superior race despite them being the minority race and gave them positions of power over the Hutus. However, on November 1959 the Hutus formed a rebellion and gained independence from Belgium. The dynamics of the hierarchy of privilege quickly changed as the Hutus were on the top and the Tutsis became the oppressed and many fled the country. Although the dreadful reign of colonialism was over, it’s everlasting effects still haunted the country of Rwanda, which is prevalent in the film Hotel Rwanda that depicts the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. In the film Hotel Rwanda, social stratification, racism, and gift giving are heavily prevalent.

After they had gained control of Rwanda, colonizers sought to clearly draw the line between ethnic groups that co-existed in the country; the Hutu and Tutsi. As Reader discussed on page 621, European colonizers issued identification cards to distinguish between the two groups; however, it was a difficult task considering the many “generations of intermarriage, migration and changes in occupation and economic standing...” Understanding the outright labeling of each ethnic group, Reader’s knowledge allows individuals to better understand the chapter called “A Neighborhood Genocide” in Machete Season. In this chapter, Hatzfeld claims that “the government had been recording the ethnic background of all its citizens…since 1931” (Hatzfeld, J). From this knowledge alone, it is easy to see how the murderers knew the “identity” of their neighbors, their friends and co-workers, seen in both the text

During the Rwandan genocide, it didn’t matter whether or not you have known someone for five years or fifteen years, in the end, you would be killed. In this time, many people who married Tutsis were targeted as well due to the fact that they were married or engaged. Even having a relationship even if it was not exclusive you were targeted for being interested in a Tutsi, who at the time were called cockroaches. Tutsis were identified by having lighter skin, lighter eyes, and thinner noses. They were also typically taller and thinner. Yet that doesn't make someone Tutsi or Hutu, yet back then if you had any of these traits you were considered a Tutsi even if you were really a Hutu. This racial segregation that was created led to many

The Rwandan Genocide was one of the most horrific acts of genocide since the Holocaust during World War II.  Lasting only one hundred days it claimed the lives of over 800,000 people and had lasting effects on global civilization to this day. Even though the world had been consumed by many travesties before, the Rwandan Genocide exposed that violent human injustices on a grand scale could still happen regardless of the advancements made within “global society”. Decades of internal conflict within Rwanda because of colonialism, class, and clan played a great role in marring cultural identity and thusly created a foundation for the genocide.  The homogeny of cultures evolved, separating the population of Rwanda into three distinct groups: Hutu, Tutsi, and a marginal group of Twa that made up one percent of the population. Hutu ultimately came into power and with the help of the Interahamwe (a Hutu militia group) and the Rwandan Armed Forces committed atrocities towards Tutsi peoples under the ideal of 'social revolution ' and extermination of perceived 'enemies ' of the Hutu race. The planning and execution to erase and exterminate the culture and identity of Tutsi people is a classic and legal example of Genocide.

Similar to the Apartheid in South Africa, the genocide in Rwanda was not a random event. It was instead the result of generations of discrimination and abuse based on ethnic groups. In the early 19th century during Rwanda’s colonial period, there already existed a divide between the elite Tutsi cattle herders and the majority of the population who were peasant farmers, known as Hutu.[i] In 1918, Rwanda came under Belgian control, “during which the ruling Belgians favored the minority Tutsis over the Hutus, exacerbating the tendency of the few to oppress the many.”[ii] In 1933, the Belgians then proceeded to institutionalize this system of discrimination by mandating ethnic ID cards, while still favoring the Tutsi

The Rwandan genocide was a one hundred day slaughter of the Tutsi minority in the Hutu majority country of Rwanda. Over its course, the genocide left, “more than a million Rwandans dead” (Murigande, 2008) and forced droves more to flee. It is now viewed as one of the worst atrocities of the Twentieth Century.

The Rwandan Genocide took place in April 1994 to July 1994 in the African nation of Rwanda. It was the mass murder of the minority ethnic Tutsi group. The people responsible for the genocide was the majority ethnic Hutu group. The Hutu group murdered about 800,000 people, most of them the Tutsi group.About 500,000 Tutsi women were raped and killed immediately afterwards. The most used weapon for killing in the genocide was the machete. The Hutu militias were sent to kill Tutsis. Even Hutu men killed their Tutsi wives.(“The Rwandan Genocide”, n.d. Para 1) The cause of the Rwandan Genocide was the Belgian colonial rule that put the Tutsi minority group in control over Rwanda, the death of the Hutu president, and the ethnic tension that was already there.

In addition to the similarities and social differences between the Hutu and Tutsis, Belgium’s intervention in Africa led up to a series of innocent murders occurring between the Hutu and Tutsis. The Hutu and Tutsis were known to have “tribal hatred” towards each other, and Belgium later “assumed that ethnicity could be clearly distinguished by physical characteristics” (Britannica.com). This model that was used by Belgium, was later implemented into Rwanda “whereby the categories of Hutu and Tutsi were no longer fluid” (Britannica.com). This new system now led to believe that “Tutsis had migrated with their cattle from northern Africa at some earlier time and had come to dominate the more lowly Hutus”

Lindsey, great discussion post on the Rwanda Genocide. I too wrote my essay on the Rwanda Genocide. It is heartbreaking to read the reality of so many lives being lost. This civil war between the Hutus and the Tutsis was political in nature and directly related to struggles for dominance and supremacy. Lemarchand (n.d.) states, “Hutu and Tutsi shared the same language and culture; the same clan names, the same customs, and the symbols of kingship served as a powerful unifying bond between them” (p.484). As you mentioned, In the 1950s, the Belgian colonial state policies initiated the drastic changes to each ethnic identity, which was the turning point for the change in the society of Rwanda. Rwanda’s colonial period, the Belgians chose the

Hutus were perceived as short, stocky thus they had more African-based features compared to the Tutsis. Anthropologists later discovered that there were no morphological differences between the Hutus and Tutsis (Berry 32). Throughout colonization, Rwanda was heavily influenced by the ideologies and philosophies of early Europeans, which fabricated precolonial African culture.