Taking a Look at the Rwandan Genocide

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.

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.

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.

Tutsis were tall and well educated. Not only did they have better social status, but there also appeared to be more entitled, whereas, the Hutus were those who worked for Tutsis. During the pre- World War I, Rwanda was colonized by Germany, but later when Germany had lost the war, Rwanda came under Belgium’s administration. Under the ruling of Belgium, Tutsis were more favored to be educated, which had made Hutus felt under appreciated, as if they were really treated like servants. (Rwanda Genocide) However, the population of Hutus has always outnumbered the Tutsis, where it accounts 80 percent of the Hutus, 19 percent of Tutsis, and only 1 percent of Twa and Pygmy, the original inhabitants of Rwanda. (Rwanda genocide: 100 days of slaughter, 2014) Towards the end of Belgium’s ruling, the Hutus were given more authority from the Belgians. Since the majority is the Hutus, the group had seeked influence to subdue the minorities, specifically the Tutsis. Even before independence in 1959, the Hutus had ultimately sparked revolution, causing around 300,000 of Tutsis to escape to the neighboring country, Uganda, where they settled down for nearly 30 years. In 1961, the Hutus had victoriously overthrown Tutsi’s power, advocated the country a republic, and within that same year, Rwanda gained its independence. After the Tutsis had fled the country, in 1973, Major General Juvenal Habyarimana,

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.

The Belgians also decreed that Tutsis should be the only ones in power and thus removed Hutus from positions of power and excluded them from higher education (Arraras). “By assuring the Tutsis’ monopoly of power the Belgians set the stage for future conflict in Rwanda” (Arraras). The Tutsis were enjoying their status as being superior to the Hutus but all that changed in 1959 with the Hutu revolution and so in 1960 and 1961 the Hutus won the elections. Since then, ethnic tensions had always been brewing between the Hutus and the Tutsis. However the tensions escalated when Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down above Kigali airport on April 6, 1994. I consider this to be a form of political violence because someone or a group that opposed this President which represented only the political interests as well as the viability of the Hutus had to be killed in order for another group possibly the Tutsis to fill the vacuum of power left by the Hutu president. The Hutus blamed the assassination of their president on the Tutsis and in turn sparked an all out massacre waged on to the Tutsi people.

The country of Rwanda has had a short and tragic history. Rwanda was heavily colonized by Europeans. Belgium was primarily in control of Rwanda for a long time. At around 1958-1959, decolonization of Europeans occurred. The large waves of decolonization led to the independence of Rwanda in 1962. This was the start of a long and brutal resentment of two groups known as the Hutu’s and Tutsi’s. The Hutu people were peasants for a long time, while the Tutsi people were worked in farms. Tutsi’s were more wealthy, had more power, and were the majority until mid-late 1959. A sudden uprising with Hutu people resulted in thousands of Tutsi’s forced into exile in the neighboring country, Uganda. The everlasting struggle for power in Rwanda seemed to be leaning toward the once poor, Hutu people. For years the

Because of ethnic oppression and inequality, authoritarian Rwandan Hutu rulers were able to easily consolidate their power through the less-privileged Hutu majority. From 1962 to 1994, Hutu leaders were able to easily strengthen their control when unresolved ethnic tensions surged violently. Historic, ongoing ethnical unfairness created aggression between the Hutu and Tutsis for decades. Since no resolution between groups occurred, ethnic hatred increased with time. Rwanda’s leaders were able to easily snatch power through an oppressive single-party system and an ever-growing majority. The gradual and increasing build-up of ethnic animosity between groups further guaranteed the authoritarian rule. Through the circumstances and ethnic divides in Rwanda, Hutu leaders subjugated political control.

In 1894 German colonization resulted in Tutsis being put into roles of responsibility over Hutus due to the Tutsis more closely resembling Europeans. After Germany lost its colonies after World War One Belgium took over control in Rwanda. The Belgians distributed identification cards throughout the population, unknowingly beginning the genocide process. They also gave all the leadership roles to the Tutsi, upsetting the Hutus. When Rwanda fought for independence the Belgians were forced to switch out the Tutsis with the Hutus, giving them the leadership roles over the Tutsis. This is turn upset the Tutsis, creating a rift between the 2 groups which lasted until after the Rwandan Genocide.

Rwanda is a small country in Africa, made up of three ethnic groups: the Hutus, who held the majority of the population; the Tutsis were only a small portion of the population; and there were also very few Twa. All three groups spoke Kinyarwanda. There were differences in the appearances of the Hutus and Tutsis, so that made it easy to identify their ethnicity. Tutsis were identified as light-skinned and tall, while Hutus were darker-skinned and short. Although there were more Hutus, the Tutsis were in control. (“Rwanda genocide of 1994”)

Before the genocide of 1994, Rwanda had been a country of great political and social turmoil. Deep seeded ethnic tensions which had plagued Rwanda since its colonization, first by Germany and then Belgium, came to a devastating and bloody genocide in April 1994 in which, over a period of approximately 100 days, between 800,000 and one million Tutsi and Hutu people were left dead. Today scholars believe that there is no actual ethnic distinction between the two people groups aside from those assigned in

In order to understand what happened in the Rwanda genocide I must talk about Burundi and the Belgian rule. Hutu and Tutsi have lived in the same area for centuries and share the same language, religions, and even clan systems. Hutu and Tutsi have also intermarried for years before these genocides even occurred. For 60 years Burundi was under colonial rule of Germany until WWI when Belgium took control Ruanda-Urundi. This caused the Hutu and Tutsi people great separation because the Belgians created this division between them by choosing which ones would be Hutu and which ones would be Tutsi. Hutu were normally short and stocky, while Tutsi were tall and skinny; Dr. Hadidja Nyiransekuye pointed it out to me that there really is no difference between the Hutu and the Tutsi, you could find some Tusti that were short and stocky and you could find Hutu that were tall and skinny, also they intermarried and had children together so how couldn’t you really tell them apart. The Belgians just placed identification cards stating who people were based on what they thought was “correct” in order to separate an already established country.

Tutsis have always been known for being superior to the Hutus. They have been noted for having greater wealth, social status, and even because they are taller and thinner. This is because the Belgians embraced this idea of superiority. Since then, up to the next 20 years, the Tutsis have enjoyed a better life quality in terms of jobs, opportunities, and educational possibilities. Bitterness between the Hutus and Tutsis started to build up around 1959. This is when the source of ethnic tension began in Rwanda. It all started to develop when the president of Rwanda, Juvenal Habyarimana, was killed on April 6 1994 when his plane got shot down above Kigali International Airport. The Hutu president, Cyprien Ntaryamira, was also killed during this attack. During this period, more than 20,000 Tutsis were killed and many others were seen forced to move to their neighbour countries such as Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda (BBC, 2011). The Hutus took back their place around 1962. Which is when Belgium gave up their power and handed over the Independence to Rwanda. Because of this tragedy, the Tutsis have been blamed for all the crisis that have occurred since then.

The Rwandan Genocide, in which nearly one million individuals are estimated to have been murdered, took place over the course of one-hundred days, from April 1994 to July 1994 (United Nations, n.d.). After Rwanda obtained independence from Belguim in 1961, a Hutu-dominated government was formed in which Tutsis (the minority ethnic group) were viewed as lesser than Hutus (Walker, 2017). Years of systematic ethnic discrimination against Tutsis allowed for the notion that Tutsis are inherently lesser than Hutus to be ingrained in Rwandan society. The genocide was further sparked by the death of Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, as Hutu extremists called for the mass-killing of Tutsis and individuals with Tutsi connections (British Broadcasting

The primary cause of conflict in Rwanda was the political aspect of the two groups. “Ethnically motivated violence continued in the years following independence. In 1973, a military group installed Major General Juvenal Habyarimana, a moderate Hutu, in power. [...] This power sharing agreement angered Hutu extremists, who would soon take swift and horrible action to prevent it.” This shows that in Rwanda the two groups (Hutus and Tutsis) have been figting for power for a very long time. They want to have the land, resources and wealth. To get this they had to fight each other and push each other out of their country so that they get all of the land, resources and wealth from the group that fled. This violence continued from 1973 to the genocide in 1994. “The early organisers included military officials, politicians and businessmen, but soon many others joined in the mayhem. Organised gangs of government soldiers and militias hacked their way through the