Historical Roots of The Rwandan Genocide

While it is often hard to dictate one single culprit and factor in any historical event, one of the more prominent roots of Rwanda’s problems and challenges is usually traced to 1916 when Belgium began governing Rwanda after the end of World War I. It is still important to remember, however, that it was under Germany’s rule that the theory of Tutsis being the superior race originated. This clear race preference would, like a domino effect, eventually lead to the Rwandan Genocide.

As with many colonized nations, Rwanda was meant to be profitable for Belgium and was seen as a means to a very wealthy end. Tensions grew between Tutsis, Hutus and Belgium, with the Tutsi even attempting to revolt against their colonizers. Nevertheless, their race would soon be official, being put on their identification paper to separate the weak from the superior. A glimmer of hope came with Mutara III Rudahigwa, the King of Rwanda from 1931 until 1959, who sought to decrease the differences between Hutu and Tutsi.

Mutara died in 1959. Rumors instantly flew towards the Hutus as the culprits, with some believing that it was the Hutu way of diminishing Tutsi control over Rwanda. Following an assassination attempt on Mutara’s younger brother, and the death of a Hutu politician at the hands of the Tutsi, the “wind of destruction”, otherwise known as the Rwandan revolution, took place in the form of violent attacks by the Hutu. The amount of deceased Tutsi ranged from 20,000 to possibly even 100,000, which further fueled the hate between the two groups. The consequences of this were the 1960s municipal elections held by the Belgians, where Hutu representatives were elected by the large majority of Rwanda (namely Hutus) – this meant that the Hutus were now in power and that the social statuses had completely flipped around.

When Rwanda finally became its own republic in 1962, tensions hadn’t stopped growing between the two groups, and violence broke out in the nation. Juvénal Habyarimana, through a military coup, took power in 1973. By 1989, the population of Rwanda had increased to 7.1 million. Despite a better economic situation, Rwanda failed to tackle the immense refugee problem concerning the Tutsis, which later lead to the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front (composed of 500,000 Tutsis) initiating the Rwandan Civil War in 1990. A brief period of cease-fire followed in 1993 but ended in 1994 when Habyarimana died in a shot down plane crash. The Hutu blamed this on the Tutsi, and the Rwandan Genocide began, spanning over 100 days and brutally murdering approximatively 800,000 Tutsi (and the Hutu that helped and were sympathetic towards the Tutsi). The UN sent peacekeeping forces, but the pacifist nature on which the forces are built on proved little to no aid when the Hutu realized that the soldiers were not allowed to shoot. The people of Rwanda got little to no help from countries around the world, with the USA and Belgium only saving their own nationals.

The RPF eventually took over once more and soon, the nation went back to a somewhat peaceful period, with the ICTR being established. The consequences of the genocide were unfortunately that approximatively two million Hutus fled the country and caused refugee problems in bordering nations. Still, the economy has bettered in Rwanda since then, and the ethnic tensions have been solved, erasing the barrier between the two main sides of the Rwandan population. They are now a Presidential Republic and have ranked one of the three least corrupt countries of Africa. Overall, the beginning of their independence caused mass death that is now a major part of their history, but they have developed greatly since then and have successfully managed to better the situation between Hutu and Tutsi, ensuring that a genocide like that of 1994 will never happen again. While Rwanda definitely did not deal well with the majority of the events brought on by gaining independence, that came be blamed on the fact that it was always divided into two – Hutu and Tutsi. Once they set their differences aside and the RPF took over, erasing the differences between Hutu and Tutsi, Rwanda began to thrive. In that way, they dealt well at the end of the trouble, but struggled to find solutions during the majority of their history.