rwanda class online

7/31/2019 Rwanda Class Online

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Rwanda

A Case Study in Subcultural

Conflict


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Rwanda


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Introduction

Rwanda is a small nation of approx. 8

million people

In size, it is slightly smaller than Maryland


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Climate

Rwanda is a tropical nation, with two distinct

rainy seasons. The large storms have given it

the designation of the lightning capital of the

world


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Geography

Rwanda is bordered on one side by the

great rift valley that extends from the

ridgeline of the Congo/Nile drainage

system to the Ruzizi river valley.

East of this rift the majority of the nation is

covered by gently rolling hills. This is

where the nations nickname comes from,the Land of a thousand hills (Pays des

milles collines)


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Gorillas in the Mist Before simmering ethnic tensions exploded,

Rwanda was mostly known as a tourist stop forthose interested in the endangered Mountain

Gorillas that live in the highlands.


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Genocide: Overview

1959, overthrow of ruling Tutsi king by Hutu.

Over the next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed,

150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries.

The children of these exiles later formed a rebel group, the

Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and began a civil war in 1990.

The war, along with political and economic upheavals,

exacerbated ethnic tensions, culminating in April 1994 in thegenocide of roughly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 100

days.

(Cia World Factbook: www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook)


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Background: Hutu and Tutsi as Politically

Contructed Identities

Belgians settling the Congo in the era of Europeancolonization (late 1800s) found two groups:

Hutu, who were mostly farmers, and

Tutsi, who were, in the majority, herdsmen and ranchers.

Making use of the economic differences, and perceivedphysical differences (height, nose width, skin color) the

Belgian colonialist state began the process ofdifferentiation.

WHY?

(The following 10 slides are a summary of the ideas of Mamdani in When


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There were two schemes of

differentiation created:

Racial

Ethnic


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Racial Differentiation was a vertical scheme that ranked different

races in hierarchical order of their supposed level of civilization

White (Non-Native)

Indian/Asian/Arab

Black (Non-Native)

Black (Native)


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Racial Scheme Cont.

The law assumed that the term native only applied tothose present in the area at the time of colonization.

Black non-native groups became part of the hierarchy just

below the Indian/Asian/Arab groups- and were allowed tobecome acculturated, or civilized by white society.

Black native groups were then further subdivided into

ethnic groups and were organized and governed by aseparate set of Customary laws that includedfundamental right to land ownership, but precludedcivilization by acculturation. This is the process ofplacement on homelands, similar to reservations.


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Hutu vs. Tutsi

While some see the Hutu and Tutsi as one

large cultural and linguistic group, the

Banyarwanda, the Colonial powers

constructed the two not just as economicgroups but as separate races:

Hutu = Indigenous Bantu

Tutsi = a Hamitic Race (more civilized)


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Mechanisms of differentiation

and enculturation Separate educational streams

Hutu were educated in Kiswahili

Tutsi were educated in French

LandHutu were forced to live on reservations

Tutsi were allowed to live in Cities

EconomicsHutu generally poorer

Tutsi generally more affluent

-How would this affect the indigenous peoples process of

adding value to difference?


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White (Non-Native)

Indian/Asian/Arab

Black (Non-Native)= Tutsi

Black (Native)= Hutu


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Post-Colonial Rwanda

Many other nations (such as Tanzania) rejected Colonial

figurations of race and ethnicity and promoted simple,single citizenship

In Rwanda, the differentiation was so deeply entrenched,and then exacerbated by drift in economic status, that it

had become fossilized. Black citizens self-identified as Hutu or Tutsi, always

one or the other, no middle ground possible.

The State continued this othering by marking everyonesidentity card with Hutu or Tutsi.

The modern Rwandan state (Hutu-controlled) forged

strong ties with the contemporary French governmentreceiving military and economic assistance.


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So are the Hutu and Tutsi really different

Races?

Evidence for Difference:

Genetics (Phenotype)

Height (Tutsi are tall)

Tutsi do not carry genes for sickle cellanemia, Hutu do


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Evidence for Sameness:

Language (Kinyarwanda)

Cultural Identity (Banyarwanda)

Intermarriage: More than one hundredyears of it- Racial affiliation is connectedto the husband/father. A Tutsi womanwho marries a Hutu automatically

becomes Hutu and all their children willbe HutuTheres been so much inter-marriage over the years that you often cannot tell

whos who, said a presidential aide from Burundi to a Western reporter, andthen added but everybody knows anyway (Mamdani p. 54)


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One of these people is Hutu and one is Tutsi.


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Consequences of Fragmentation

Lets speculate. How would each group

see the other?

BR


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Events Leading to War

In 1959, the majority Hutu organized an uprisingthat overthrew the Belgian-placed Tutsi King

After this revolution, as many as 150,000 Tutsi

fled to neighboring countries. At first, the Tutsiwere welcomed in countries such as Uganda.Later, however, change in government led totheir status as illegal immigrants in thosenations.

Many of these well-educated and organizedTutsi in Uganda formed the RPF (RawandanPatriotic Front) designed to retake Rwanda


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The Civil War

In 1990, the RPF invaded Rwanda and began

the process of liberating pieces of territory

Most of the citizens who lived in the territory

were Hutu, and unenthusiastic about beingliberated. Many of these Hutu fled the

liberated areas for Kigali.

The Hutu-Rwandan government military fought

the RPF in an attempt to regain control of the

lost territory.


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Hutu Power

Only a few months after the RPF invasion,radical Hutu leadership began the processof organizing extra-military militia, called

ImpuzamugambiorInterahamwe. In 1991 the extremist Hutu solidified its

power by creating a radio/televisionstation: Radio-Television Libres des MillesCollines, a newspaper and an officialpolitical party: the CDR.


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Can the War be Stopped?

In 1992 the opposing sides (The Hutugovernment parties and the RPF) met in Parisand agreed to start peace negotiations at aformal and governmental level. These talkswere began and facilitated by the Tanzanian

President Ali Hassan Mwinyi

The Hutu Power leaders dismissed the talks astaking place between Tutsi and accomplice

governmental figures.

In 1993 the Arusha accords were signed, butwere useless:

If the hardliners werent brought into the tent, they


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UN Response

A 1000 member UN peacekeeping force

under the command of the Canadian

General Romeo Dallaire arrived in

November of 1993 to try to help in thetransition to a moderate government under

Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyamana.

They were there to protect governmentmembers and had no right to fire on any

Rwandan unless fired upon.


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Hutu Power Response

In January 1994 the Hutu newspaper publishedthe idea of genocide as a political solution:

We will begin by getting rid of the enemies inside the country. TheTutsi cockroaches should know what will happen, they willdisappear (qtd in Mamdani 212)

In April, RMC radio began also to call for thedeath of all Tutsi.

By February 1994, Interahamwe militia hadbegun to loot and burn Tutsi property throughKigali.


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The Last Straw

On April 6 1994, outgoing PresidentHabyarimanas plane was shot down.

On the same day, Prime Minister AgatheUwilingiyimana was murdered, along with her 10UN guards.

In the chaos, it is unproven who killed thesepeople. Most believe however, that the radicalHutu militia is responsible, viewing them both asTutsi collaborators.


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So How Do We Get to

Genocide? Elite Ideology

Local hate propaganda


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Open War

Both sides used the actions of the

Interhamwe resume active fighting. The

RPF continued to move toward Kigali, and

the still Hutu-controlled Rwandan militaryfought back, seeing any Tutsi as the

enemy and any Hutu that tried to protect a

Tutsi as a collaborator


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Genocide

In the hundred days following the death ofHabyarimana, a section of the army and thecivilian Interhamwe killed all the Tutsi they couldfind. They also targeted moderate Hutu andthose non-political Hutu who refused to kill Tutsi.

Estimates of the dead vary: between ten and fiftythousand Hutu, and between 500,000 and onemillion Tutsi. (The 800,000 number is acompromise total)

Most victims died horrible, personal deaths bymachete, even after seeking refuge in churches.


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World Response

The organized slaughter of Tutsi now underway,the UN security council met in late April todecide on a response.

The Secretary-General requested more troops to

be sent to Kigali. Dallaire begged for assistancedaily.

The Security Council, however, went theopposite way and pulled out all but 270 UN

soldiers. (They hoped to pressure the Hutuleaders into calming down-they thought bypulling out it would look more like the RPF couldwin). Expatriates, were, of course, evacuated.


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Aftermath

The Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu regime andended the killing in July 1994, but approximately2 million Hutu refugees - many fearing Tutsiretribution - fled to neighboring Burundi,

Tanzania, Uganda, and the former Zaire. Since then, most of the refugees have returnedto Rwanda, but about 10,000 that remain in theneighboring Democratic Republic of the Congohave formed an extremist insurgency bent onretaking Rwanda, much as the RPF tried in1990.

(Cia World Factbook:www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook)


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Aftermath, cont. Kigali is improving. The new government is

focussing on information technology as a way tofix the economy. Education and health carehave improved under the new Tutsi government.

Many fear, however, that it is only strict Tutsicontrol over speech and dialog that keeps theHutu from attacking again- open discussion ofethnic differences is punished.

The control is the Kagame adminstrationsattempt to promote Rwandan identity overHutu/Tutsi identity.

(Cia World Factbook: www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook


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Questioning World Response

Why did the UN pull troops out instead of

sending more?


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Globalization

Which paradigm of globalization describes

the events in Rwanda best?

Clash of Civilizations?

McDonaldization?

Hybridization?

(Consider Belgian-Rwanda, Hutu-Tutsi)


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Hotel Rwanda

The film we will watch tomorrow follows the true

story of Paul and Tatiana Rusesabagina. Mr.

Rusesabagina was the highly educated manager

of the four-star Belgian-owned Hotel MilleCollines.

Urged on by his self-described moral compass

(his wife Tatiana) Rusesabagina found himself

wheeling and dealing to save the lives of 1,200Tutsi and moderate Hutu in the hotel.


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Why the film

The Rusesabaginas assert that the film is 90%true.

The film was shot on location, where the action

actually ocurred

The story offers a ray of hope in the darkness ofthe tragedy.

We cant change anything. Inforgiving, if someone comes to you and they apologize, you canalways go ahead and forgive them. We will never forget, but weforgive. -Paul Rusesabagina

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