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Summary Of Return To Rwanda By Will Ferguson

863 Words4 Pages

Geography Assignment #1
Lucas Gwartz

Both William B Wood’s “Geographic Aspects of Genocide: A Comparison of Bosnia and Rwanda” and Will Ferguson’s “Return to Rwanda” are about the long-term effects that genocides have on society. Ferguson’s “Return to Rwanda” gives a first-hand take of what it was like to live in Rwanda during the 1994 Genocide. The article examines Jean-Claude Munyezamu, a Rwandan Tutsi, returning to his homeland 20 years after fleeing the country so that he could have a better life in Canada. Over the course of 3 months in 1994, around 1 million citizens, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus opposed to genocide, were brutally murdered by the more dominant Rwandan Tribe, The Hutus. There were two tribes in Rwanda: Hutus and …show more content…

The Belgians were one of the many countries that moved into the area. They wanted to start a class system. But they were unsure which tribe they wanted to be ranked higher in society: The Hutus or Tutsis.1 At the end, The Belgians decided to make the Tutsis the higher-ranking tribe in the country because of their lighter skin compared to the Hutus darker skin. This remained the way until the Hutus took over the country in 1960. Tutsis now became second-class citizens to the Hutus. Tutsis were restricted and dehumanized in many ways. Tensions between the two castes were very high. After Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana’s plane got shot down, in April 1994, the executions really began. Hutus were basically hunting Tutsis and killing them. It didn’t matter if they were men, women, or even infants; no Tutsis were exempt from the slaughters taking place. Just like the Holocaust, each citizen in Rwanda had a card indicating what tribe they belonged to. The genocide ended 3 months later when the Rwanda Patriotic Front took control of the Kigali, Rwanda’s capital. The article examines how the country has changed so much since the genocide occurred. Jean-Claude starts to remember what life had

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