In the popular local consciousness Rwandan history is divided into two periods: before and after, with the dividing even being, of course, the genocide. The before time started about 10,000 years ago, when the land was first settled by pygmy (Twa) hunter-gatherers. The origins and order of immigration of the Hutus and Tutsi are not universally agreed upon, but it is generally thought that the Hutus, who were mainly farmers of Bantu descent from the west, joined the Twa approximately 2,000 years ago. Later the Tutsis, cattle-herders of Nilotic or Cushitic origin, migrated to the region from the north.
Eventually the Hutus and Tutsis came to dominate the area, driving the Twa into the forests. Over time the Hutus and Tutsis came to share a language (Kinyarwanda), religion, legal system, and land. They intermarried and lived side by side, and the ethnic distinctions between the groups soon became blurred. Most ethnographers and historians now agree that 'Hutu' and 'Tutsi' do not constitute distinct ethnic groups.
However, the names stuck and became associated with different positions in society, with Tutsis (who constituted the minority of the population) being considered the elite, thanks to their cattle, which was a more valuable asset than any crop produced by the Hutu farmers. Already a fiercely hierarchal society, the stratification accelerated in the 1860s during a military campaign led by a Tutsi king to consolidate the area now known as Rwanda. In the new, even more feudal society, Tutsis were nobility and Hutus vassals, but these categories were by no means binding. Yet each group developed its own culture and sense of identity, largely based on diet and physical characteristics. Eventually European colonizers would come to embrace these categorizations as well.
At the 1885 "Berlin Conference to Divide Africa", Rwanda (and its equal small southern neighbor, Burundi) was designated a province of German East Africa. After WWI, the League of Nations turned the colony over to Belguim as "a spoil of war." The Belgians took a "divide and conquer" approach to the population, who despite their differences had an unusual level of national cohesion, sharing "one language, one faith, one law." (Really, how many countries can claim that?) The Belgians, upon setting foot in the country, started running around measuring cranial capacities, protuberance of noses, forehead width, anything they could use to prove that a substantial distinction existed in the stature, intelligence and moral character of Hutus and Tutsis. Naturally, the found what they wanted to find-- that Tutsis were the "nobler" group (read: having physical characteristics that more closely resembled their own). In 1933 they used this "information" to issue ethnic identity cards, labeling 85% of Rwandans as Hutus, 14% as Tutsis, and 1% as Twa. No longer were the lines between groups porous.
In the new apartheid system, Tutsis enjoyed educational, political, economic and social perks, while Hutus fell even further into poverty. In 1957, fed up with being marginalized in the ethnically bipolar state, a group of nine Hutu intellectuals published the "Hutu Manifesto," which spurred a violent uprising by Hutus, and subsequent retaliation by Tutsis. Desperate to be relieved of the burden of managing a colony in chaos, in 1960 the Belgians announced they were splitting Rwanda and Burundi into to countries and would administer democratic elections in each, as preparation for independence. On July 1, 1962, independence was finally granted and Gregoire Kayibanda, one of the authors of the Hutu Manifesto, was inaugurated as the first President of Rwanda.
Over the next 30 years Rwanda's progress was hindered not only by its own Hutu (French-supported) dictatorship, but by violent events in next door Burundi between Hutus and Tutsis. And to the north, in Uganda, young, disenfranchised Tutsi men were joining the Uganda military in droves in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1986, Paul Kagame, a Rwandan Tutsi who was formerly the head of military intelligence for the Ugandan army (and who had also received military training in the US), co-founded the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a rebel guerrilla group. After years of intensive training, the RPF launched an invasion into Rwanda in 1990, which led to three years of civil war. The war ended in 1993 with the signing of the Arusha Accords and the establishment of a power-sharing government, and for a short while there was relative peace.
On the evening of April 6, 1994, that peace was shattered. The plane carrying the (Hutu) presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down as it prepared to land in Kigali. The assassins are unknown, although rumors abound. Some think it was members of the RPF seeking revenge, while others believe it was Hutu extremists who were either a) frustrated with the president for negotiating with the Tutsis or b) looking for an excuse to unleash extreme violence on Tutsis.
That April night members of the Rwandan presidential guard and the Interahamwe (a Hutu youth extremist paramilitary group) began killing Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the capital. The violence quickly spread, as the military, in preparation for such violence, had installed 30,000 militia representatives around the country, or one militia member for every ten families. Some had AK-47 and others grenades, but the majority had only machetes, and most of the killing was conducted in a low-tech, brutal manner. The radio was filled night and day with songs and speeches urging the young Hutu men of the country to violence, a call they heeded.
In addition to angry young men, priests, politicians, teachers, doctors and community elders were all responsible for killing, some murdering with their own hands and some more deceitfully, as in the cases of priests who promised Tutsis refuge in their churches, only to lead the militias to them for slaughtering.
In 100 days, from early April to mid July, hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were killed. Between 10% and 20% of those slaughtered were moderate Hutus. Official government documents put the figure at 1,174,000, which amounts to 10,000 murdered every day, 400 every hour, or 7 every minute. In just over 3 months nearly 20% of the country's population was wiped out, leaving only 300,000 Tutsis to survive the genocide. Over 400,000 children were made orphans and thousands of widows were raped by HIV+ men.
Throughout the genocide the international community stood by silently. Rwanda, by coincidence, was at the time a member of the UN Security Council, which hampered efforts to send in peacekeeping troops, although there was never a strong desire among the major international powers to do so. The US refused to send troops, and when the African Union offered to intervene as long as the US provided the armored personnel carriers, the US army charged them $6.5 million for transportation, which severely delayed deployment. The UN security force in Rwanda, UNAMIR, was cut down to just 260 men after 10 Belgian officers were killed in early April. Finally, in late June the UN sent a humanitarian mission to Goma, Zaire, on the western border of Rwanda to set up a refugee camp.
The genocide came to an end in July when the RPF, which had been engaged in intense fighting in Kigali and the north of the country for months, was able to overthrow the Hutu regime and seize power. This small force brought a halt to the violence will almost no help from the world's military powers.
In the aftermath of the genocide more than 2 million Rwandan Hutus, many of them perpetrators of violence fearing Tutsi retribution, fled the country, largely taking up shelter in the UN refugee camps of Zaire. Simultaneously, more than 1 million Tutsis in exile returned to the country and set about reestablishing their life in Rwanda.
Okay, so that was Rwanda in the "before" time. Now on to the "after" time, a much more cheery era.
In most countries, intense violence begets intense violence, but strong leadership prevented such a fate in Rwanda. (Violence continued in eastern Zaire, but that's a story for a different post.) A coalition government of "national unity" was established in 1994 by the RPF. Political organizing and "Hutu Power" political parties were banned, but so was any discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, race, or religion, a policy strictly enforced. Discussion of Hutu or Tutsi identity was discouraged. In 1998 President Clinton visited the country and formally apologized for the US's complacency during the genocide.
In 2000, Paul Kagame, former leader of the RPF and vice-president, ascended to the presidency. In 2003 he won the first fully democratic elections since the genocide. He remains in power today, and although is considered by many to be a (benevolent) dictator, he has instituted a huge number of reforms to improve the economic and social conditions in Rwanda. One year ago he decreed that the nation's school system (and the entire government administration) was shifting from French to English in a move to become a member of the East African Community. The policy also represents a break from Rwanda's colonial past and a desire to be a part of the global economy. Next month the country will be hooked into a high-speed, fibre-optic network so it can better compete in high-tech service industries.
Today Kigali, and Rwanda in general, shows few signs of its past trauma. Yet, no matter how hard it tries, it cannot escape its negative image in the West as a land of violence, chaos, and barbarianism. I can only hope that this mini-course in Rwandan history (and future posts on my life here) will give you a more complete picture of the complex, complicated country Rwanda is, and how it is so much more than what happened for 3 months in 1994.
If you want to learn more about Rwanda and/or the genocide, here is some recommended reading:
"We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families: Stories from Rwanda", Philip Gourevitch-- An outstanding, well-researched book on the genocide and how the country coped in the first few years that followed.
"A thousand hills: Rwanda's rebirth and the man who dreamed it", Stephen Kinzer-- Excellent book on Kagame, his ambitions for Rwanda, and the spirit of a country trying to get back on its feet.
"Shake hands with the devil: The failure of humanity in Rwanda", Romeo Dallaire and Samantha Power-- The man left to lead UNAMIR examines his experiences with help from Power, a prominent academic and member of the National Security Council
"Land of a thousand hills: My life in Rwanda", Rosamond Halsey Carr-- Story of an American woman who lived in Rwanda from the 1940 through the post-genocide period. Great long-term perspective on things.
