The Rwandan Genocide of the Early 1990’s
In the novel “Left to Tell” power and racism seem to be the number one causes of genocide. “Young hutus were taught from an early age that Tutsis were inferior and not to be trusted, and that they didn't belong in Rwanda.” Would you like to live your life not liking other people that weren't your own kind? Do you think that you could survive in a tiny bathroom with little food and seven other women for three months, well Immaculee Ilibagiza did and still survived, her and three other women. Immaculee is a very strong women and was strong threw the whole genocide think. How do you think the cause of genocide happened?
To start, What do I think about the book Left to Tell? I think that it is an amazing book. I feel like it’s really inspiring. It teached me about what racism and different religion can do to you. Propaganda plays a big part in the genocide. I think that propaganda was a thing that was in the book sometimes but not most of the time. Why propaganda plays a big part in this is because they didn't think of
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how everyone who lost their family and then lived about how they would feel. They were all just so drunk and high. They were so not themselves that they just did what everyone said. They called them cockroaches. Why did they deserve to be called that not all of them were the same. I’m not saying that some should have got killed and some have I’m just saying that they shouldn't have killed anyone. Furthermore, Is racism one of the reasons the genocide happened? Yes I think that racism and religion problems caused the genocide. I feel like it was because of their religions that they fault. They shouldn't have killed people because they are different but that is one of the reasons that the genocide happened. They say that the teacher kicked her out of class because she did not know what tribe she was. “Immaculee Ilibagiza you didn't stand up when I called any of the tribes…..get out of my class and don’t come back until you know what you are.” I think that is wrong for the teacher making her leave the class for not knowing what tribe she was. Immaculee’s parents didn't want her to know about this until she was older and now because of the teachers outbreak her parents have to tell her about it now. I think that the teacher should have been more understanding. He should have just called her mom or something. Immaculee had to sit alone because of the teacher being mean for not knowing her own tribe. Lastly, Does power have a part in the genocide?
Yes infact it does. Power is the biggest cause of the genocide. Power deals with the causes and effects of the genocide. People think that they are better than others and then that causes a fight and people get hurt. I think that they should have just thought of everyone being the same. They thought of themselves as different people and I think that that is wrong. People should be treat people like they want to be treated. If they kill your family and they don’t care they should think about you killing their family then tell you how they feel. People don’t think is why this all happened. They should have thought is this worth it. Is this doing the right thing because one of the people did something wrong? It’s not right they shouldn't have don’t that. Immaculee was strong enough to forgive the people who killed all of her family. But would they forgive
her? As was previously stated, So what do people think the cause of genocide was? Would anyone like to live like this? How would people try and stop this? The genocide wasn't an okay thing to do and I think how strong Immaculee was amazing. The book is just an amazing book and I loved it. I recommend it to anyone who says they want to read it but they aren't sure if they want to read it. Left to Tell isn't just a book, it's something that is amazing. The story, the way she tells it is great and I could picture everything. Immaculee is an amazing girl and forgave the killers after everything they did to her.
To start with, the movie and the book show a plethora of differences conveying the perspective of the genocide. First, while ethnic bloodlines were mixed in the country, Immaculée was a Tutsi girl that was raised in her parents’ love, which originally blinded her from the negativity of racism and prejudice. This was proven when Immaculée stated “…In our home, racism and prejudice were completely unknown”. Paul Rusesbagina on the other hand was a hotel manager and a successful businessman, not to mention he was of Hutu origin. Also the movie focuses primarily on him and his family while conveying the genocide from the events that were most relevant to the storyline. This is proven in the movie as he was one of the first and reoccurring characters we see within the conflicts throughout the movie from when Paul stated “…I’m sure you can take some money for your hard work”, to the Hutu commander when he was first asked for identification and within several other instances throughout the movie. In short, because the purpose of the film was to entertain the audience, the two hour movie cannot convey with detail the slaughter of 800,000 to 1,000,000 Tut...
He places a lot of his emphasis on fear and intimidation as the main drivers of the violence and says that no matter what reason perpetrators gave for their individual participation, there was one main rationale that drove genocidal violence. That one rationale was that the violence occurred in the following way: “the RPF killed President Habyarimana; RPF soldiers had invaded to kill Hutus; all Tutsis were RPF supporters or potential supporters; ergo, Hutus had to kill Tutsis to prevent being attacked by them” (Straus 153). The most common reason respondents stated was the cause of the genocide was the death of their president, but some said it was because elites desired power. As a reader, it is hard to understand why perpetrators chose to kill people who did not pose any immediate threats when the perpetrators themselves feared insecurity. The Hutus believed that the Tutsis wanted to take back their power so the Hutu extremists had a goal of terminating them, but it is still difficult to interpret the happenings of the genocide because there were so many dynamics. But regardless of all that went on, in sum, The Order of Genocide maintains that three dynamics lead to the killing: war, race, and power. Without a war in Rwanda, the genocide may have just been unable to take place. But the war resulted in “fear, insecurity, rage, revenge, and self-defense” and tensed up the country to perform violent acts of killing (Straus, 173-174). Race allowed all Tutsis to be labeled as the enemy. And finally, power gave hardliners an ability of control to issue the elimination of all Tutsis and authorize the
This genocide happened because Hitler was put into power with a plan to rule the world. He was smart, he could persuade people, get people on his side, but he was evil. Hitler’s first step at world domination was to attack Israel and the Jewish people. After Germany went into debt after WWI the German economy was garbage. Hitler seen this as an opportunity to gain followers. He told the citizens that all the blame was to go to
In the year of 1994 and estimated eight-hundred thousand Rwandans were killed between April and June. There was not a day were the Tutsis was not being killed by the Hutus. Imagine one-hundred days of straight killings of your friends and family. It would leave you in a never-ending nightmare and you would be scarred for the rest of your life. Imagine if you were stuck in a bathroom so small that it could barely fit two people in there but you had five or six more people in there. It would be hot, it would smell, and it would be uncomfortable. Immaculée Ilibagiza had to go through the entire Rwandan Genocide in this type of situation. She barely ate and barely went to the bathroom because if the Hutu heard Immaculée or any of the other girls
Matthaus, Shaw, Bartov, Bergen and Bloxham. (2011). Review Forum: Donald Bloxham, The Final Solution: A Genocide ( Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). Journal of Genocide Research. 13 (1-2), 107
In the case of genocides, there are many factors that motivate the perpetrators to kill. In the Rwandan genocide there are many reasons why the Hutus would be motivated to kill the Tutsis. There were reasons, of long standing hatred toward Tutsis, fear of authority and repercussion, economic and many other motivating factors. In the book, Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak, Jean Hatzfeld explores these many reasons for genocide through interviews with killers. Even though were many motivating factors for the Rwandan genocide, the main motivation for the perpetrators were for economic reasons.
To start off with, what is genocide? Genocide is the killing of a massive number of people of in a group. Genocide has not only been practices in the present day, but it has been practiced for m...
In her book, Immaculée Ilibagiza shares the power of faith in God through her moving experience of the Rwandan genocide. God saved her life for a reason. “He left me to tell my story to others and show as many people as possible the leading power of his Love and Forgiveness” (208-09). Her book proves that “with God all things are possible”. Her objective is not to give a historical account of Rwanda and/or of the genocide. She gives her own story. She attests that through God’s help, forgiveness is possible – even to those who killed her parents. Her book is meant to help people to let go of the chains of hatred and anger, and be able to truly live in God who is love. Left to Tell is a breathtaking book that proves the fact that “the love of a single heart can make a world of difference” (210). The book is divided into three parts, and each part into eight chapters. The author recounts how God saved her from the shadows of death and helped her discover who He really Is.
Something that is common between all of these genocides is the bystander effect. In psychology, the bystander effect “occurs when the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation” (“Psychology”). From the German and Polish people not intervening in holocaust to the Indonesian gangsters rallying against the communists, without the mass number of psychosomatic people, none of this would have occurred like it
The Rwandan Genocide was a terrible event in history caused by a constantly weakening relationship between two groups of people. The country of Rwanda is located in Africa and consists of multiple groups of people. Majority of Rwanda is Hutu, while a smaller amount of people are Tutsis. The genocide started due to multiple events that really stretched the relationship between the two groups to its end. One of the starting factors was at the end of World War 1. Rwanda was a German colony but then was given to Belgium “who favored the minority Tutsis over the Hutus, exacerbated[exacerbating] the tendency of the few to oppress the many”(History.com). This created a feeling of anger towards the Tutsis, because they had much more power then Hutus.
Africa has been an interesting location of conflicts. From the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea to the revolutionary conflict in Libya and Egypt, one of the greatest conflicts is the Rwandan Genocide. The Rwandan Genocide included two tribes in Rwanda: Tutsis and Hutus. Upon revenge, the Hutus massacred many Tutsis and other Hutus that supported the Tutsis. This gruesome war lasted for a 100 days. Up to this date, there have been many devastating effects on Rwanda and the global community. In addition, many people have not had many acknowledgements for the genocide but from this genocide many lessons have been learned around the world.
In the years after the genocide, we as people had questioned our past decisions and our countries decision to stay out of the genocide until it was too late. I too have question my countries decision. Why didn’t the US interfere with the genocide and be the hero my favorite historical anime, Hetalia, made it out to be? I believe not helping the innocent people being murdered in Rwanda was wrong of all the countries of the world but now it is too late to change the past and we can only look to the future. We can look to the future and hope and pray that another genocide never occurs but it’s useless. As long as there are people, there will be hate and as long as there is hate there will be murder.
When the Belgian colonizers entered Rwanda in 1924, they created an ethnic classification between the Hutu and the Tutsi, two tribes who used to live together as one. After independence in 1962, there was a constant power struggle between the two tribes. Former Canadian Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Chrétien described the situation as “tribalism without tribes.” (Destexhe, 1995) There were many signs leading towards genocide, yet the nations in power chose to ignore them. From April 6, 1994 until mid-July, a time spanning approximately of 100 days, 800,000 people were murdered when the Hutu attacked the Tutsi. No foreign aid came to the rescue until it was too late. Ten years after the genocide the United Nations was still involved in Rwanda, cleaning up the mess that was left behind because of man’s sinful nature. Could the Rwandan Genocide have been prevented, or is it simply a fact of life? Even though the international community is monitoring every country and race, such an event as the Rwandan Genocide could occur again because the European colonizers introduced ethnic classification where it did not exist and the nations in power chose to ignore the blatant signs of genocide.
Taking as much as a simple action can really help prevent the future genocide, also it can help save so many lives. You don’t have to do anything big or dangerous but to take small courage and spread out the words, to teach others about the Holocaust is the simplest thing you can do and it gives affection to the world. The Holocaust is an overpowering example of this terrifying genocide and persecution and in the memory of the Jews; the memory of its horror must encourage our younger generations to engage against such heinous crimes today and in the future.
What is truly the meaning of Genocide? This paper will focus on the effects genocide has had on the world and what can be done to stop or at least decrease genocide. I will also focus where genocide is affecting today and different types of genocide.