Rwanda Imperialism

The world is constantly changing and so are the powers within many nations. People have pointed to religion to be the primary cause of ethnic violence within the global community (like the hostility between the Islamic people and the Christian church that has existed for centuries). Others blame racism for ethnic violence, such as the case in the holocaust. However, in the case of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, the conflict rooted itself in an economic disparity between two culturally constructed entities.

Previous to European colonization there existed three primary groups of people within Rwandan borders. The first were the Hutu who comprised the majority of the population and were primarily considered to be peasant farmers, tending to plows

and soil. The seconds were the Tutsi who could be considered aristocratic cattle owners. The third group of people were the Twa, who consisted of one-percent of the population and took very little part in the eventual genocide.
Before the influence of imperialism on Africa, it is believed that the people of Rwanda coexisted in relatively stable conditions.

In 1894 when Belgium colonists appeared the previously unimportant economic definitions of Hutu and Tutsi transformed. The Belgians believed that the Tutsi had facial features more similar to that of a European. The Tutsi tended to be taller and were considered to be superior by the European colonists. Despite the Belgian interest in the anthropometry of the Hutus and the Tutsi, their observations are dismissed today. Modern anthropologists have determined that the differences between the two classes are virtually indistinguishable.

Due to the European preference for the Tutsi, they were often considered to be the most appropriate governors of Rwandan society. Tutsi people were often helped by Belgians in securing leadership roles. In the late 1920s the Rwandan government began to require that all citizens carry around an identification card. On this card was listed the kind of person the Rwandan citizen was, Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa. It began to become the case that only Tutsi people could get government jobs and they were generally treated better than the Hutu. The Hutu began to become an oppressed class and this fueled animosity between the

two.
Eventually, in the later 1950s and the early 1960s, a series of upheavals forced the Tutsi out of leadership positions. The Hutu majority seized control of the government and banished various Tutsi to the outskirts of Rwanda. Among those exiled were those that would eventually establish a rebel group known as the Rwandan Patriotic Front. The RPF sought to recapture Rwanda for Tutsi control, but functioned under the tagline of uniting all Rwandans as one people. The RPF blamed imperialism, and the white man for the conflicts between the Hutus and the Tutsi specifically.
Hutu leadership remained the norm for Rwanda. Animosity and hatred between the classes brewed and eventually a United Nations peace treaty was drafted in order to alleviate the conflicts between the Rwandan government and the RPF. Concurrently within Rwanda were Hutu extremists who plotted mass killings of Tutsi, believing that the elimination of the Tutsi would resolve all of their nation’s problems. Thousands of machetes and grenades were hoarded in secrecy to serve as weapons for an eventual massacre.
On April 6, 1994 the president of Hutu controlled Rwanda was shot down in his private plane over the capital city of Kigali. The origin of the missile remains a mystery, though many theories exist. One such theory is that the RPF Tutsi were responsible, looking to seize an opportune moment to recapture Rwanda for their control. Another theory is that Hutu extremists, angered by the president’s concession in signing a peace treaty, murdered the president in order to ignite mass chaos and spark an organized killing of the Tutsi. It should be noted, however, that both sides blame the other for the assassination.
The killing of the Hutu President did indeed create for a mass scene of chaos. This event started what could only be defined as a genocide. According to the reports from the United Nations, “Victims were murdered with machetes, clubs or grenades and often by neighbors, friends, even by relatives.” Those victims typically being Tutsi and Hutu who remained moderate towards or sympathized with the Tutsi.
There had been previous warning messages sent to UN officials that a plan for organized killing of the Tutsi was brewing, but not action was taken to prevent the acts of violence that engulfed the country of Rwanda in the next months. It is reported that in the year of 1994 alone, an estimated 800,000 to 1,000,000 Rwandans had been murdered due to ethnic violence.
The RPF eventually managed to stop the genocide by military force and a new installment of government. The new government did not seek to establish Tutsi rule, though that is essentially what it did, as the RPF was a Tutsi founded organization. The conflict stopped on July 19th, just one-hundred days after the genocidal explosion occurred.
Throughout the entirety of the conflict, a range of about 50 years, it is estimated that 6,000,000 people were murdered due to the intense class dichotomy between the Hutu and the Tutsi. Though the reigning opinion in Rwanda, brought on by the RPF’s influence, is that the European imperialists are to blame, it is impossible to deny the great influence that radical hate-fueled propaganda from within the country had on its occupants.
Extremists on both sides of the conflict sought to enculturate their children with an understanding of separation from the other side.

Just before the UN peace treaty and the death of the Hutu president, the Hutus would broadcast passionate radio sermons expressing hate for Tutsi government officials, and suggesting that their murder may be a fantastically positive thing.

After reading into this topic, I find it hard to believe that the Hutus and the Tutsi were actually ever two distinct people. Instead it seems more likely that their class system is the product of a cultural construction. The stories the Rwandans tell about how the two peoples came to Rwanda are vastly difference from one another. I believe that the Hutus and the Tutsi say that they are separate people so that they can feign responsibility for killing their own kind.

The animosity comes from a very basic place- jealousy. The Tutsi were born into aristocratic families and were well off, whereas the Hutus were made to work as peasants. This dichotomy is enough to bother any working majority. In fact, the relationship between the poor working class standing up against the rich is very much reminiscing of communist uprisings, or even American protests against the rich 1% on Wall

Street.
I do not think that the Wall Street protestors will take up machetes and grenades to incite genocide though. It seems that the reason Rwanda’s political climate became so out of hand was due to their lack of involvement in the global community. Many UN affiliates only say that they were not aware of the seriousness and levity of the 1994 Rwanda genocide. President Clinton said that the USA would not participate in helping Rwanda, as Rwanda did have anything to gain for Americans. To this day, many Rwandans hold contempt for the United Nations, who refused to send help while innocent lives were lost.