Rwandan Genocide

The Rwandan Genocide was the slaughter of an estimated 937,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus by a group of Hutu extremists known as Interahamwe during a period of 100 days in 1994.

Background

Rwanda is one of the few states in Africa to closely follow its ancestral borders. The Kingdom of Rwanda, controlled by a Tutsi royal family, ruled the region throughout recorded history. While the upper echelons of this society were largely Tutsi, racial divisions were not stark. Many Hutu were among the nobility and significant intermingling took place. The majority of the Tutsi, who made up 15-18% of the population, were poor peasants, as were most of the Hutu.

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Colonial history

In 1890 the country was given to the Germans at a conference in Brussels, but there was virtually no German presence in the area until the end of the century. The Belgians were awarded some German spoils after the First World War, including Rwanda. They tended to simplify matters; transforming the majority Tutsi elite into a solely Tutsi elite, with position in society determined by ethnicity. Colonial identity cards even used ethnic affiliation as a classification despite the fact that Tutsis and Hutus shared many cultural characteristics including geography, language and traditional practices. Tutsis enjoyed privileged status under Belgian rule and were able to secure better jobs and better education than Hutus for the next two decades.

Related Topics:
Belgians - First World War

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Belgium controlled both Rwanda and neighbouring Burundi from the end of the First World War until independence in 1962. Belgian colonialism, in Rwanda and Burundi as well as the Belgian Congo, was marked by brutality and incompetence. Many have accused the Belgian system of leaving its colonies utterly unprepared for independence, and all three countries have had violent and unhappy histories since their independence. The portion of the Great Lakes region controlled by Britain in western Tanzania and Uganda has not been marked by the same violence.

Related Topics:
Burundi - 1962 - Colonialism - Belgian Congo - Great Lakes - Britain - Tanzania - Uganda

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Self-government

After World War II the Belgian colonial administration in Rwanda was placed under United Nations trusteeship and was therefore expected to prepare Rwanda for independence. Preceding the Belgian pull out, elections brought the Hutu nationalist Party of the Hutu Emancipation Movement (PARMEHUTU) to power in 1959. They launched a program of advancing the power of the Hutu majority, largely condoned in the West. While the Tutsi had been the favourites of the colonial powers, perception shifted as the Tutsi became viewed as feudal overlords. It was thus seen as proper that the Tutsi leadership was ousted in favour of rule by the Hutu majority. This also led to a downplaying of the violence that was associated with this process. Some 20,000 Tutsi were killed and an additional 200,000 fled to neighbouring countries.

Related Topics:
Party of the Hutu Emancipation Movement - 1959

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After independence, PARMEHUTU established a one-party rule based upon Hutu nationalism. In 1964 and again in 1974, pogroms were initiated in which large numbers of Tutsi were killed and more were forced into exile.

Related Topics:
1964 - 1974 - Pogrom

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In 1973 the Hutu Juvénal Habyarimana seized power in a military coup, ousting PARMEHUTU, but continuing to rely on Hutu nationalism to stay in power.

Related Topics:
1973 - Juvénal Habyarimana

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Other causes of the violence

Another school of thought argues that the violence in the region is a result of the same European theories of race that led to the Holocaust. These ideas were propagated by John Hanning Speke. Unlike the other mixed states of Africa, Rwandans were considered by Europeans to be on the border between Blacks and the "more noble" Hamites. Tutsis were viewed as Hamites and Hutus as inferior Bantus. This ingrained racism was reversed upon independence when the majority Hutus took to viewing the Tutsis as foreign invaders and not true Rwandans. Similar divisions have led to violence in other parts of northeast Africa, most notably in Sudan.

Related Topics:
Holocaust - John Hanning Speke - Hamites - Tutsi - Hutu - Bantu - Sudan

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Others see an economic explanation for the violence. The Great Lakes region, with rich soil and a more temperate climate because of its altitude, is one of the most densely populated parts of Africa. This has led to a great deal of competition for scarce land and resources.

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Jared Diamond, in his book Collapse, argues that this overpopulation was a contributing factor to the violence, as in one area where only a single Tutsi lived, 5% of the 2000 Hutu inhabitants were also killed. Diamond claims that the mayhem of the genocide provided a pretext for some Rwandans to kill their wealthier neighbours and seize their land.

Related Topics:
Jared Diamond - Collapse

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Many Rwandans claim that there was little inter-ethnic rivalry until it was deliberately encouraged by the Juvénal Habyarimana government as a ploy to counter Paul Kagame and the Rwandese Patriotic Front's (RPF) largely Tutsi invasion on October 1, 1990.

Related Topics:
Juvénal Habyarimana - Paul Kagame - Rwandese Patriotic Front - October 1 - 1990

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Finally, another analysis locates the conflict in the wider regional context of a transfer of power from Francophone to Anglophone spheres of influence. By this account http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CA4BD.htm the instability in the region was (and remains) due to the end of the Cold War and a realignment of central Africa away from France and Belgium, towards Uganda and its Western sponsors, the USA and the UK.

Related Topics:
Francophone - Anglophone - Cold War - France - Belgium - Uganda - USA - UK

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