The Rwandan Genocide

Mushafau Ade Kukoyi
History 1382
Professor Sundberg
02-15-06

The Rwandan genocide
History has confirmed that the original inhabitant of the Rwanda lived in harmony amongst themselves before the arrival of the Europeans in 1894. According to the account of Linda Melvern - the author of the book “A People Betrayed, The Role of the West in Rwanda’s Genocide”, the kingdom of Rwanda had been entirely shut off from the world, and even the African world, until 4 May 1894 when the first European, a German count, Gustav Adolf von Gotzen, was received at court by a king called Rwabugiri, who claimed that his dynasty stretched back hundreds of years (pg. 7).

Since then the definition of "Hutu" and "Tutsi" has changed over time. Mostly it has rather been a term created to distinguish between those in commanding and subordinate social positions. However, the Belgian government continued to rely on the Tutsi power structure for administering the country and also consistently favored the Tutsis where education was concerned, leading to a situation where many Tutsis were literate, while the majority of Hutus were not. Belgians educated the Tutsis mainly in Catholic schools, which widened the ethnic rift between Hutu and Tutsi.

Some scholars argue that the Belgians did much to create the enmity between Hutu and Tutsi through their policies of indirect rule. As mentioned above, Hutus and Tutsis lived together as neighbors before the colonial period. However, Belgian rule solidified the racial divide. The Belgians then gave political power to the Tutsis. Due to the eugenics movement in Europe and the United States, the colonial government became concerned with the differences between Hutu and Tutsi. Scientists arrived to measure skull and thus, they believed, brain size. Tutsi's skulls were bigger, they were taller, and their skin was lighter. As a result of this, Europeans came to believe that Tutsis had caucasian ancestry, and were thus "superior" to Hutus. Each citizen was issued a racial identification card, which defined one as legally Hutu or Tutsi. The Belgians gave the majority of political control to the Tutsis. Tutsis began to believe the myth of their superior racial status, and exploited their power over the Hutu majority. Current academic thought is that the European emphasis on racial division led to many of the difficulties between Hutu and Tutsi in the latter part of the 20th century.

However, there came a major change in the 1950s, when the Belgians grew uncomfortable observing the sad plight of the Hutus, and began to suppress and then eventually came to outlaw the Ubuhake and to redistribute cattle. Even though the majority of pasture lands remained under the control of the Tutsi, a situation arose where the Hutus began to feel yet a deeper sense of liberation from Tutsi rule; the Tutsis no longer seemed to be in control of cattle, the long-standing measure of a person's wealth and social position.

In addition, the Hutus began to develop a group consciousness as the Belgians instituted ethnic identity cards. Yet a further step was Belgium's system of electoral representation for Rwandans. At first, the Tutsis retained total control, and then Belgium decided to make the electoral process function by means of secret ballots. Therefore, Hutus made enormous gains within the country. The Catholic Church, too, began to make a change. Suddenly they too were opposed to Tutsi mistreatment of Hutus, and began promoting Hutu equality. Tutsis were about to be removed from their traditional role as masters in Rwanda.

During the 1995 revolt and its aftermath, more than 160,000 Tutsis fled to neighboring countries. These Hutus knew that because of the small numbers of the Tutsi opposition, they had the advantage: both in terms of how the state would function if it adopted a purely democratic system, and in terms of the probable outcome of any violent conflict between the two unequally sized groups. This revolution of 1959 marked a major change in political life in Rwanda. Some 150,000 Tutsis were exiled to neighboring countries. What's more, those Tutsis that remained in Rwanda were excluded from having any political power in a state becoming more and more centralized under Hutu power.

Under President Kayibanda, a system of quotas was also established. Henceforth, the Tutsis would be allowed only ten percent of school and university seats. The quotas also extended to the civil service. In these posts too, the Tutsis would only be allotted a 10% take.

At the time, employment was bad, and competition for the available seats only exacerbated ethnic tensions. The Kayibanda government also continued the government policy of labeling people with ethnic identity cards, a practice first begun by the Belgian colonial government, and using this practice to attack mixed marriages.

Another bout of violence followed in 1964, and for years a system of inequality was instituted. In fact, a Hutu could freely murder a Tutsi and would never be prosecuted. The other political parties UNAR and RADER were banned and their Tutsi members executed. Tutsi were described as cockroaches. Hundreds of thousands fled as refugees into neighboring countries.

Although no one really knew the exact moment when the conspirators first conceived the genocide, it was noted that the Hutu power regime used every accounting trick in the book to get enough money to pay for weapons. In fact, an experts who studied the paper trail conclude that to arm and equip the people of Rwanda cost $112 million dollars.

On April 6, 1994, the airplane carrying President Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the President of Burundi was shot down as it prepared to land at Kigali. Both presidents were killed when the plane crashed. As though the shooting down was a signal, military and militia groups began rounding up and killing all Tutsis they could capture as well as political moderates irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds. Large numbers of opposition politicians were also murdered. Many nations evacuated all their nationals from Kigali and closed their embassies as violence escalated.

The prime minister and her ten Belgian bodyguards were among the first victims. The killing swiftly spread from Kigali to all corners of the country; between April 6 and the beginning of July, a genocide of unprecedented swiftness officially left 937,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead at the hands of organized bands of militia- Interahamwe. Even ordinary citizens were called on by local officials and government sponsored radio to kill their neighbors. This event accounted for the most horrible genocide ever recorded in the history of Africa.

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