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Rwanda Genocide Essay

864 Words4 Pages

tend to distort historical records in order to create a positive image of their own ethnicity and blame the others, such groups can find themselves trapped in the cycle of violence.
What can be observed from the analysis of Rwandan history and all the instances of political violence that erupted between Hutus and Tutsis is that the underlying causes of these conflicts included all the above mentioned factors.
Social Revolution, Civil War and Genocide
The history of Rwanda can be briefly summarized as the constant competition for power between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis that was accompanied with severe acts of political violence. In this struggle for power ethnicity was used as a tool of mobilization of ordinary citizens. The elites …show more content…

Before Belgian colonization Tutsi kings enjoyed an absolute power over their subjects. It was believed that the king’s right to rule was directly derived from the will of God. Moreover, according to the narratives Tutsi rule was natural since they had intellectual supremacy over Hutu and Twa. This belief was based on the myth in which Kigwa, the son of the heavenly king Nkuba, ordered his three sons –Gatutsi, Gahutu, and Gatwa- to guard a bottle of milk during the night. The next morning it was found that only Gatutsi succeeded to fulfill the order, while other two either drunk the milk or spilled …show more content…

In 1933 as a result of census the population of Rwanda was officially divided into three as Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. Each citizen was given an identity card in which the ethnic group was specified. Mainly, these citizens were classified according to such features as height (tall vs. short), shape of nose (pointy vs. broad) and the number of owned cattle. After almost sixty years this official classification became the main factor that made the mass slaughtering of almost 800 000 Tutsis possible.
Meanwhile, the social gap between these groups continued to grow. However, what created the opportunity for the Social revolution of 1959 to succeed is the fact that Tutsi elites started demanding independence from colonial rule. This gave the Belgian officials incentives to support Hutu opposition and assist them in overthrowing the Tutsi

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