People thought the Holocaust was the last case of serious genocide. How wrong they were. Many people would be shocked that such a devastating and violent incident happened in 1994, only 29 years ago. This was the Rwandan Genocide, a dark period in time when extremist Hutus unleashed a wave of terror, ending the lives of approximately 800,000 Tutsis in just about 100 days. However, it didn’t happen just by chance. In this article, we will explore how the Hutus were affected by propaganda, past affairs, and other factors to start the genocide against the Tutsi.
Since the two tribes settled, the Hutus and Tutsi were never at peace, as constant instances of power imbalance and hatred had been displayed. Ever since the Tutsi migrations, a small kingdom had begun its emergence, ruled by the Tutsi minority. They resisted well against it's power and control until the arrival of the Europeans in the 19th century. Both Germany and Belgium preferred the Tutsi because of their facial appearance, which was deemed to have 'white ancestry.' Tutsi were given more humane privileges than their Hutu counterparts. This heavily angered the Hutus, and something was brewing in the midst...violence.
Violence started with the Hutu Revolution, an act of brutality where Hutus rebelled against the state of government, as the Tutsi monarchy was abolished, and Rwanda became an all-Hutu national government. There were many instances of murder over the years, but mostly prominent during the Rwandan Civil War (1990-1993), which was a large scale war between the Rwandan Government and their rebels, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The RPF consisted of mainly Tutsi individuals who were forced to flee their home due to the rise of Hutu power. In the end, the war was ended by the Arusha Accords and the creation of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) after the RPF captured the last territory secured by the government captured. However, peace was not to last, as on April 6, 1994, the president's plane was shot down, and as both races blamed each other, the Rwandan Genocide became unavoidable. The killing had begun.
However, just a simple plane crash was not all that caused the war. Propaganda played a large role in this genocide, as it was how the message of hatred against the Tutsi spread. One such example is Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM); the ratio channel created by Hutu extremists in mid-1993. They used this channel to “incite hatred towards Tutsi by using propaganda and racist ideology… [and urged the] Hutus to ‘go to work’ and attack the Tutsi population. ” (University of Minnesota) In the wave of propaganda that fueled the Rwandan Genocide, the "Hutu Ten Commandments" was also another example of anti-Tutsi propaganda. These commandments explicitly called for the discrimination and segregation of the Tutsi. It showed the idea that the Tutsi were untrustworthy, as they were trying to subjugate the Hutus, and Hutus needed to stand up for their rights. The Tutsi were also presumed to “work [only] for the interest of [their] ethnic… group”, (“Hutu 10 Commandments”) which portrayed the Tutsi as the enemy and viewed them as dehumanized.
The Genocide ended after the mass murder of over 800,000 Tutsi, fueled by propaganda and past affairs. After the RPF defeated the military and civilian authorities, they took back the country and took control of the government, ending the genocide for good. This sense of violence was unexpected and shocked the world for years to come. Hopefully, the world can avoid such a cruel and savage genocide in the future.
Works Cited
Human Rights Watch. “The Rwandan Genocide: How It Was Prepared : Genocide: Ideology and Organization.” Hrw.org, 2019, www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/africa/rwanda0406/4.htm.
“Hutu 10 Commandments.” No Greater Love, 2019, www.rwanda-nogreaterlove.com/hutu-10-commandments.
Lower, Matthew, and Thomas Hauschildt. “The Media as a Tool of War: Propaganda in the Rwandan Genocide - Human Security Centre.” Human Security Centre, 15 Sept. 2014, www.hscentre.org/sub-saharan-africa/media-tool-war-propaganda-rwandan-genocide/.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Rwanda Genocide of 1994.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 5 Aug. 2016, www.britannica.com/event/Rwanda-genocide-of-1994.
University of Minnesota. “Rwanda.” College of Liberal Arts | University of Minnesota, University of Minnesota, 2023, cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/rwanda.
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