Belgian Colonization Of The Rwandan Genocide

To classify the Rwandan genocide as a genocide caused by ancient hatred of two tribes would be beyond incorrect. Hatred between the two tribes, the Tutsi and the Hutu, was present for even a century. Before Belgian colonization, both tribes in Rwanda lived in relative peace. There was no civil war, ethnic hatred, or genocide ever recorded before they were colonized. When the Belgians colonized Rwanda (1914-1962), they created division immediately. They categorized the Rwandans into two groups - Hutu and Tutsi. They gave Tutsis identification cards as well as more political authority, economic opportunity, and social hierarchy over the Hutus. They measured people from both tribes and came up with the theory that the Tutsi are more elite since
The Belgians took advantage of a very submissive people, “‘In Rwandan history, everyone obeys authority. People revere power, and there isn’t enough education” (Gourevitch 23). The Belgians couldn’t of done anything to create even more hatred between the two tribes. It seems as if they did this deliberately by how much they the favored one group and oppressed the other. Tensions even increased towards the end of Belgian rule. During the end, they started favoring Hutu more and gradually gave them more power. The shift in power gave Hutus more reason to hate the Tutsi since they can finally rule over the people that oppressed them as well when the Belgians left. The Rwandan genocide could never be classified as a genocide caused by ancient hatred. The hatred between the Tutsi and Hutus all derived from Belgian colonization in the 1900s when they classified the two tribes and gave more power to one group, while oppressing the other. This hatred is very recent, and if it weren’t for Belgian colonization, the Rwandan genocide would of most likely not happen. To label the genocide as something that stemmed from ancient hatred, would just be a lame excuse not to get
Both governments and press from all over the world decided to do nothing about Rwanda. Even the UN, which was the last hope, withdrew most of their troops. The main reason for the world’s neglect of a genocide this horrific was because it was taken place in a “third world country” in Africa by black Africans. Most people saw this genocide as something unimportant because it was in Africa and by black Africans, however, if the script was flipped and it was between white Europeans in Europe, something would of been done. Governments and press did the most to not get involved. They even downplayed the genocide by labelling it as a civil war and stated that it stemmed from ancient hatred between the two tribes. Both statements are wildly incorrect and far from the truth. In fact, most government officials didn’t even know what was going on, Representative Maxine Waters, California Democrat stated, “I don’t know whether the Hutus or the Tutsis were correct… A lot of people were like me; they didn’t know from crap.” (Powers 376). Rwanda wasn’t a priority in many major powers’ eyes, especially the United