Many innocent lives were taken during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Philip Gourevitch’s “We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families,” explains why the genocide that occurred in Rwanda should not be written off in history as just another tribal disagreement. This book entails the stories of Gourevitch and the people he interviewed when he went to Rwanda. These stories express what people went through during the genocide, the loss they saw, the mass killings they tried to hide from, and the history of what led to the Rwandan genocide. Rwanda’s colonial past did influence the development of the genocide in Rwanda. The hatred between the Hutus and the Tutsis had been going on for many years before the genocide.
Gourevitch explains the history of Rwanda and how it impacted its people throughout time. He states,
“So Rwandan history is dangerous. Like all of history, it is a record of successive struggles for power, and to a very large extent power consists in the ability to make others inhabit your story of their reality—even, as is so often the case, when that story is written in their blood.”(p.48).
Essentially, what Gourevitch is trying to convey is that most of the events that have occurred throughout history share something in common; those who have wanted power achieved it by the blood shed of others throughout its course. His words are accurate because many have died or have lost loved ones as a result of someone trying to attain power. The Rwandan genocide is a great example of this. According to Gourevitch, Rwanda’s history began with the settlement of “cave-dwelling pygmies” known as the Twa people today (p.47). The Twa people make up one percent of the population in Rwanda.
The Hutus and t...
... middle of paper ...
...n, colonialism did impact Rwanda in a massive way. Since the beginning of Rwandan history, the division and class system between the Hutus and Tutsis was something unavoidable, especially during that time period. The class division, who had superior power in Rwanda, and the totalitarian system after their independence from the Belgians, is what led to the genocide in 1994. Through history there are always parts of the world that have been migrated by many different people which can lead to these different groups of people to fight for power and land in order to justify who got there first or who were there more of. Issues like the one between the Hutus and Tutsis is something that will keep repeating itself no matter where it occurs.
Works Cited
Gourevitch, Philip. We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with our Families. New York: Picador, 1998.
As the news reported that Islamic State committed genocide against Christians and other minorities had suffered serious defeats from recent battles against the allied forces, the images of piles of dead bodies shown to the world in Rwanda about a couple decades ago emerge once again and triggers an interesting puzzle: why did the Rwandan Genocide happen in one of the smallest nations in the African Continent? The documentary film, Rwanda-Do Scars Ever Fade?, upon which this film analysis is based provides an answer to the puzzle.
Though the event occurred almost twenty-one years ago, the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has prompted much discussion about what truly caused the deaths of an estimated 800,000 civilians. Scott Straus, a political scientist and author of The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda, makes the claim that it is very difficult to precisely identify what began the genocide in Rwanda for a number of reasons, and also comments that many of the beliefs in regards to the causes and evolution of genocide in Rwanda are incomplete. In his book, Straus focuses on three main aspects: to look closely at the local dynamics of the genocide, to produce an assessment of explanations, and finally to develop a theory that would explain the genocide in Rwanda.
"Rwanda Genocide 20 Years On: 'We Live with Those Who Killed Our Families. We Are Told They're Sorry, but Are They?'" The Guardian. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2013.
The irony involved in Gourevitch’s words of “...and the world sent blankets, beans, and bandages to camps controlled by the killers, apparently hoping that everybody would behave nicely in the future” (Gourevitch 170), further explains the complete naivety that people had and how absurd they were in their thinking. His diction in this conveys a very sarcastic tone which demonstrates a point that this was not the way to go about things especially with how controlled the Rwandans had become by the Hutus and how out of control everything was. This piece of irony does help further explain the next rhetorical choices that weren’t used by him but by someone he had interviewed and spoken with. An American soldier states that “‘Genocide is a cheese sandwich. I asked him how we figured that. ‘What does anyone care about a cheese sandwich?’” (170). This analogy given in the novel leaves a great impact on how this really was seen by people and exemplifies the overall theme of how little this affected people out of Rwanda and how little it meant to anyone at all. To further grasp of how horrible this event was, Gourevitch in this passage gives allusions along the lines of Hitler and the Holocaust. He references the Rwandan genocide as “the most unambiguous case of genocide since Hitler’s war against the Jews”
The genocides of the 20th century which occurred in Rwanda and Germany had striking similarities, something that should have alerted the world to stop them. At the core of these two massacres, patterns existed that outlined how similar thinking and reasoning could lead to something as horrible as these two events. One can see how both groups used their command of knowledge as a way to control the people, how the rest of the world refused to step up to stop the killings, and how the people were thought of as less than humans to provide a just cause for such terrible acts.
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.
When the Rwandan Hutu majority betrayed the Tutsi minority, a destructive mass murdering broke out where neighbor turned on neighbor and teachers killed their students; this was the start of a genocide. In this paper I will tell you about the horrors the people of Rwanda had to face while genocide destroyed their homes, and I will also tell you about the mental trauma they still face today.
"Recovery after the Rwandan Genocide. Ideas and Events Which Are Shaping Rwanda's History and Its People." Recovery after the Rwandan Genocide. Ideas and Events Which Are Shaping Rwanda's History and Its People. N.p., Dec.-Jan. 2014. Web. 09 Apr. 2014
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.
“Beginning on April 6, 1994, Hutus began slaughtering the Tutsis in the African country of Rwanda. As the brutal killings continued, the world stood idly by and just watched the slaughter. Lasting 100 days, the Rwanda genocide left approximately 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers dead” (Rosenberg 1). When Rwanda’s President, Habyrimana, was killed in a plane crash, turmoil and massacres began. A series of events escalated violence until two ethic groups were engaged in bloody battle: The Hutus and the Tutsis. Throughout the Rwandan Genocide, the Tutsis were targeted because the death of President Habyrimana and problems in social and economic life was blamed in them, thus resulting in the 100-day genocide.
The history of Rwanda is very interesting. Rwanda is located in East Africa, in East africa people were not treated as equal. Today eastern africa is way different from how it is now. Back int the 1996s the africans faced many problems. Some of the problems include how the Tutsi people were treated and also how the Hutu people. Genocide was a big problem in Rwanda.
Many of us are familiar with the country of Rwanda. When the Rwandan country is brought up, the Rwandan genocides are the first thing that come to many people’s minds. However, the country had to start somewhere to lead up to this horrible event. The main reason why this was happening was due to poverty. Poverty is a significant issue in developing countries. Rwanda is a country that struggles with hunger and poverty.
Instead of watching from afar, Philip Gourevitch decided to investigate himself and visit Rwanda for more information. He mentions, “I wanted to know more” (Gourevitch 187). Gourevitch was engrossed in finding answers. He used sources such as Ndagijimana and many others to recall the horrifying events that took place in 1994. His sources brought validation to all of the horrors that occurred in Rwanda.
Middleton, John. "Rwanda." Africa: an Encyclopedia for Students. Vol. 3. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002. Print.