Pre Colonial Rwanda Genocide Essay

Throughout life, major events that occur are often a result of a series of built up incidents and a single action taken place can cause immense devastation, yet reversible. Genocide is officially defined by the United Nations as committing an act with the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group...” the Rwandan Genocide exemplifies this perfectly. The tension between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis who are the two most common ethnic groups in Rwanda derived from the German and Belgian colonization. After colonization, the two groups were divided, and the Tutsis obtained more power. More importantly, the Hutus gained political influence and they felt Tutsis had wronged them for centuries.

Although still classified as two different groups, they spoke the same language, shared culture, ate the same food, and practiced the same religion. However, Belgium and Germany’s colonization of Rwanda brought conflict between the Tutsis and Hutus, eventually leading to the Genocide. Germany first established a colony in Rwanda in 1900 and they immediately distinguished the two major ethnic groups, “During the colonial era, Germany and later Belgium assumed that ethnicity could be clearly distinguished by physical characteristics and...pursued a policy of indirect rule that strengthened the hegemony of the Tutsi ruling class”(Rwanda Genocide of 1994). When colonists arrived in Rwanda they became consumed by physical appearance. Scientists from Europe proposed ideas and conducted studies on both ethnic groups trying to find differences between the two. While conducting these studies a Belgium doctor wrote, “ [The Tutsi] ... have a distant, reserved, courteous and elegant manner ... The rest of the population is [Hutu]. They are negroes with all the negroid characteristics ... they are childish in nature both timid and lazy, and as often as not, extremely dirty”(Rwandan Stories). These distinctions ultimately gave Tutsis more power and allowed them to exploit their Hutu companions. Although at first the imbalance in power seemed harmless it soon would matter more than ever