Edwin Kraber

African World Exam 2

Dr. Hesse
March 13th, 2017
For 100 days from April 6th, 1994 until the middle of July of 1994, Rwanda was

the location of the bloodiest and cruelest genocides in the history of humanity.

There are numerous events historically, socially, economically, and politically to be

blamed for the outrage that occurred in 1994 in Rwanda. The genocide of Rwanda

was between to major ethnic groups within Rwanda, the Hutus and the Tutsis. The

Hutu people are responsible for nearly annihilating the entire Tutsi ethnic group with

the mass murdering of over 800,000 Tutsis. The tension between the two ethnic

groups began in the early 1900s, nearly 90 years before the Rwanda genocide took

place.
Tension and controversy started to arise in the early 1900s when Belgium

forces invaded the country of Ruanda-Urundi, today it is known as Rwanda. The

Belgians took control of this land and quickly realized that they were uninterested in

this landlocked country. After this, they dispersed the power of the country to

current inhabitants of the land. They gave complete power to one ethnic group, the

Tutsis. The Tutsis had absolute power and the Hutus did not agree with this which

would bring fourth jealousy and hatred amongst the two ethnic groups. Also, the

lack of equality the Belgians created through different policies created allowed the

two groups to be divided more than ever before (Reader, 1997, pp. 620-621).
Not only did the Tutsis hold a political advantage over the Hutus, they also

held an economic advantage. The Tutsis are seen as tall and handsome and were

allowed all of the opportunities economically whereas the short and stocky Hutus

were left with little to no opportunities. The Tutsis held complete economic power

because they owned all of the cattle and the land in Rwanda. The Tutsis had all of

the assets needed to be successful along with the know-how on how to manage the
money in order to obtain and maintain wealth. The Tutsis and Hutus shared a

similar culture but were vastly different in many ways. Not only did their

appearance differ from one and another, the economic status differed as well. As

time went on, the difference in appearance between the Tutsis and Hutus become

more similar to each other due to intermarriages between the two ethnic groups.

Since appearance could not be used to determine who belonged to which group,

economic status was used. People who owned 10 or more cows were labeled as

Tutsi, and those who did not own 10 cows were the Hutus (Reader, 1997, pp. 620-

621).
In 1931, a policy was put into place within Rwanda that forced each member

of the Hutu and Tutsi group to carry an identification card which specified which

group they belonged to (Machete Season The Killers in Rwanda Speak, 2003, p. xi).

This policy set the standard for the rest of the century for the separation of the two

different ethnic groups. With all the Tutsis and Hutus having identification cards,

everyone knew the status of everyone in their own village. This caused social

problems amongst everyone within the village to go along with the problems that

were already there with the economic and political problems.

The political advantages that the Tutsis held over the Hutus would soon come

to an end in 1959 when King Mutara Rudahigwa, the last great Tutsi king, would

pass away. With political power up for grabs, the Hutus would try to seize the

opportunity. An opportunity that had not been there in roughly 50 years. After King

Rudahigwa dies, revolts and massacres start to occur which caused 130,000 Tutsis

to migrate Uganda, Congo, Burundi, and Tanzania to avoid being murdered. This all

occurred in 1960, only a year after the last Tutsi king died. The mass migration of

Tutsi refugees allowed the Hutus to gain political power. Shortly after 130,000 Tutsis

migrated out of Rwanda, on January 28th, 1961 and emergency meeting was called
in order to declare themselves an independent country that would take control away

from the Belgians. The United Nations accepted the request of the Rwandan people

to become independent and Rwanda officially became an independent country on

July 1st, 1962 (Reader, 1997, p. 672).

With Rwanda being an independent country, they formed a republican

government and officially elected Grgoire Kayibanda as the first Rwanda president.

President Kayibanda was a Hutu man with complete interest in gaining complete

Hutu authority. At the time of the election, Tutsis made up roughly 9 percent of the

country with Hutus making up almost the rest of the 91 percent. With Hutus holding

political power now, they sought revenge from the years past where they felt as if

they were mistreated. The new Hutu president began to put new policy such as the

ethnic quotas which made it where no more than nine percent of school students or

the workforce could be Tutsi. With new policies being put into place, the Hutu elite

was succeeding in their plan to eliminate the Tutsi population from Rwanda (Reader,

1997, p. 673).
Throughout the rest of the 1970s and 1980s, there were small massacres

occurring by the Hutus of the Tutsi people. Due to the killings and the Tutsis

migrating out of Rwanda, a militia began to form made up of Tutsis. The militia was

called the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and their main goal was to restore the

damage that was being done by the Hutu elites. The RPF numbers started to rise in

hurry with over 12,000 militia men by 1992 and by April 1994, start of the Rwanda

genocide, 13,000 more militia men joined to have more the 25,000 total men in the

RPF. The Rwanda Patriotic Front gained the attention of the Hutu elites that were

taking complete control of Rwanda and eliminating all of the Tutsi people (Reader,

1997, p. 675).
Even with the RPF threatening, the Hutu elites still went on with their ultimate

plan which began to take place in April of 1994 when the current president of
Rwanda, a Hutu man named Juvnal Habyarimma was killed during a plane crash

that was shot down. The plane was said to be shot down by an unknown missile

and the Hutu elites blamed the Tutsis for the assassination of President

Habyarimma. The Hutu elites used the assassination to their own advantage and

made it known to all Rwanda that the Tutsis were behind the killing of their

president. The Hutus finally had the perfect reason to get every single Hutu

inhabitant of Rwanda to join the fight against the Tutsis.

The Hutus were finally in complete control with an advantage in all aspects

such as political, economically, and politically. They started Rwandan genocide

after the recent events that occurred and attempted to mass murder every single

Tutsi in Rwanda. After decades under Tutsi power, the Hutus sought revenge so they

went through with the plan of the Rwandan genocide. As the Rwandan genocide

kept sweeping through the country, Hutu killers such as Jean-Baptiste was not fully

willing to participate in the killings but was forced to so he could keep his Tutsi wife

alive (Machete Season The Killers in Rwanda Speak, 2003, p. 250). This was one of

many ways the Hutu elites was able to force all Hutu men to participate in the

killings. Other Hutus were fully willing to participate in the killings such as one of the

leaders of the Hutus, Adalbert Munzigura. He mentions that the first time he was

handed a gun, he was able to shoot two little Tutsi children and then just walked

right past them (Machete Season The Killers in Rwanda Speak, 2003, pp. 24-25).

Men like Adalbert needed zero force to pursue in the killings and did it because he

believed in the cause.

After the Hutus went on to kill 800,000 Tutsi within 100 days, the RPF was

finally able to make a push into Rwanda and push out the Hutu elites. Right as the

Hutu elites began to gain every advantage needed to have complete power, the

Tutsi began to regain certain benefits back from the Hutus. After the RPF stopped
the Rwandan genocide, the Hutu elites fled the country in a hurry and the Tutsi

began to rebuild. They started to hold gacaca courts as seen in the movie

Sometimes in April and these courts were held by the people of Rwanda and dealt

with the Hutu men who were responsible for the killings of Tutsis. The people of

Rwanda have now gone away with referring to others as either Hutus or Tutsis.

Instead of being categorized by the ethnic groups they belong to, they are referred

to by the country they come from, Rwandans.

Bibliography
Machete Season The Killers in Rwanda Speak. (2003). In J. Hatzfeld. New York:
Picador.
Reader, J. (1997). Africa. New York: Vintage Books.