Rwanda

Geography of Rwanda

What happened in Rwanda?

Most of the Rwandan population had been always Hutus. In the last decades the Tutsis arrived from the North of Africa. They had been always sharing business, language, culture, etc. Despite this, they weren’t so similar due to their appearance. The Tutsis were taller and had a more sophisticated appearance. They tended to be the landowners, while the Hutus were the ones that work in these lands. The problems started when the European colonies moved in, and decide to choose a group to be privilege and educated and for that they choose the Tutsis because they had an aristocratic look. Some of the Tutsis began to behave like aristocrats, making the Hutus feel like peasants.

After little time, Missionaries from Europe arrived to Rwanda and somehow they convinced the Hutus that they were oppressed by this unequal society and inspired them to make a revolution. In 1956 the rebellion began, the Tutsis find themselves defend less, so they created the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and created an army. In 1962 Rwanda became independed from these European colonies, and Hutu government take control of Rwanda, making that the Tutsis don’t received a full education, like secondary school and university. Beside this the Tutsis continued making the resistance and don’t doing anything at all.

After 28 years in 1990, the Tutsis were tired of this resistance and they attacked making that the civil war began.  On April 6 of 1994, the plane of the Hutu president was shot down, and the Hutus blame the Tutsis for that. That fact made that the Hutus make a decision that was to eliminate all Tutsis. Even Hutus that don’t support this idea so much were killed. The Genocide had begun.  

About 1 million people were killed, including some Hutus. This genocide was carried mostly without guns because they killed these people with machetes or clubs. They killed children in school, people in church, families, etc. They aim was to created fear in the Tutsis and they achieved it. The Hutus don’t allow that the Tutsis corpses were buried; they just left them there with no compassion at all.

After few months, the RPF start to take control over the country very slowly, and in July of 1994, the genocide stopped. 

( Catalina Zegarra-Ballon)

Brief History

1860- There was a Tutsi King, Kigeri Rwabugiri. He was the one who remodeled the country making the Tutsi superior and dominant towards the Hutus.

1924- The Belgians arrive to Rwanda and the colonization begins. They supported the Tutsis strengthening their dominance.

1933- The Ethnic identity cards were introduced, in these ones it could be known if the Rwandans were Tutsi, Hutu or Twa.

1959- Tutsi King and many thousands of Tutsis were sent to exile by the Hutus which wanted independence. All this was made with violence between the ethnic groups.

1962- Rwanda becomes independent and a Hutu comes to power, Gregoire Kayibanda. Lots of Tutsis left the country.

1990- The Civil war started.

1994- The President of Rwanda was killed and the massacre of the Tutsis began.

(Alessandra Roncal)

Rol of media Rwanda 1994:

The news media played a crucial role in 1994  murders in Rwanda this was because the local media led many murders while the international media completely ignored what was happening in Rwanda. The radio alone made more and more Hutus hate Tutsis. They used the radio as a tool for hate. Hutu neighbors had to turn against Tutsi neighbors even if they were friends. This was very sad because the media is supposed to provide information not to encourage hate for anyone, in this case the media only provides more murders and more hatred for this big problem.
(Camila Maurtua)