Table Of ContentPrejudice in the Modern
World
Almanac
VOLUME 2
Prejudice in the Modern
World
Almanac
VOLUME 2
Richard C. Hanes, Sharon M. Hanes, Kelly Rudd
Sarah Hermsen, Project Editor
Prejudice in the Modern
World
Almanac
VOLUME 2
12
Genocide in Rwanda
Genocide is an end result of extreme prejudice (a negative attitude
towards others based on a prejudgment about those individuals
based on little prior knowledge or experience). Genocide is a planned,
systematicattempttoeliminateanentiretargetedpopulationbymurder-
ingallmembersofthatgroup.Inthelate1930sandduringWorldWarII
(1939–45), the Nazi army, under Germany’s dictator, or ruler, Adolf
Hitler (1889–1945), methodically rounded up and murdered over six
million European Jews. This horrific episode in world history was a
genocideknownastheHolocaust.Nazisalsotargetedtwoothergroups,
gypsiesandhomosexuals,forelimination.
Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin (1900–1959) coined the term ‘‘geno-
cide’’intheearly1940s.GenosisaGreekwordmeaningraceortribe.The
endingcidemeans‘‘tokill.’’Lemkin,aJew,fledtheNazioccupationofhis
homelandPolandinWorldWarIIbutlostfamilymembersinthegenocide.
Each genocide that occurs in the world results from issues and
difficulties specific to the country where it takes place. However, all
genocides have several characteristics in common: (1) racial hatred or
long-standing prejudice against a particular group; (2) scapegoating,
which means blaming a minority faction, or section, in a society for all
of that society’s problems; (3) characterization of a minority people as
subhuman, unworthy of living; (4) an organized killing plan developed
by officials within the country; (5) the means to carry out massive kill-
ings, usually involving the country’s military; and (6) in the twentieth
and twenty-first centuries, an international community that turns away
anddoesnotintervene.
BeginningonApril6,1994,andcontinuingthroughJuneofthatyear,
agenocidetookplaceinasmallcountryincentralAfricacalledRwanda.
Bestestimatesplacethenumberofpeoplemurderedduringthatperiodat
800,000to850,000.ThetotalpopulationofRwandain1994wasbetween
7.5 and 8 million people. The Rwandan genocide was aimed at the
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GenocideinRwanda
WORDS TO KNOW
colonizer:Acountrythatestablishespolitical prejudice:A negative attitude towards others
andeconomiccontroloveranothercountryand based on a prejudgment about those individ-
sendscitizenstosettleinthenewcountry. uals based on little prior knowledge or
experience.
extremist:Onewhotakesapositiononanissue
thatisbeyondordinaryormoderatepositions.
race:Agroupofpeoplewhoshareadistinctive
genocide:Thedeliberatedestructionofaracial, physicaltrait.
religious,orculturalgroup.
refugee:Apersonwhofleesinsearchofprotection
ingrained:Adeep-rootedquality. orshelter.
eliminationofagroupofpeopleknownasTutsi,whomadeupabout14
percent of the country’s population. Organized by factions within the
Rwandan government, the attempted extermination of the Tutsi was
carriedoutbyagroupofpeoplecalledHutu.Hutucomprised85percent
ofRwanda’spopulationandcontrolledthegovernment.IndividualTutsi
werenotkilledbecausetheywerepoororwealthy,criminalorlawabiding,
politicalornonpolitical,lazyorhardworking,man,woman,orchild,but
becausetheywereTutsi.Theinternationalcommunitylabeledtheturmoil
acivilwarandchosenottostepinuntilitwastoolate.
ForcenturiesinRwanda,TutsiandHutuhadlivedsidebyside,often
intermarrying.Yetin1994onegroupofordinarypoorpeople,theHutu,
werewillingtoexterminatetheirinnocentneighborsandfamilymembers
merely because they were Tutsi. Neighbors killed neighbors, teachers
killed their students, and husbands killed their wives. The Rwandan
genocide is partly traceable to issues of poverty, land scarcity, and over-
population.Mostimportantly,deeplyingrainedideasofracialdifferences
basedonphysicalcharacteristicsandlong-standingbitterprejudiceleda
frustrated and desperate Hutu people, manipulated by their Hutu lead-
ers, to murder hundreds of thousands of their Tutsi neighbors. This
chapterdescribeshowsuchprejudicetookrootandgrew.
Rwanda: land of a thousand hills
Known as the land of a thousand hills,Rwanda is neither a desert nor a
teeming jungle, but a hilly country that lies entirely above 3,280 feet
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BodiesofRwandangenocidevictimslieonamound,whileafront-endloaderpreparestoburytheminamassgraveinJuly1994.
APIMAGES.
(1,000 meters). For centuries it had been protected from hostile tribes
and slave traders by mountains, lakes, and marshes. Its temperature,
rainfall, and soil were favorable to human habitation and farming.
Rwanda resembled a giant garden. The fertile land supported high
densitiesofpeople.HutuandTutsilivedsidebysideonthesame hills.
The dense population required a centralized, controlled social structure
in order to organize and carry out everyday activities, such as farming,
cattlegrazing,andkeepingorderforthebenefitofall.
Thehighlystructuredsocietyhadbeenheadedbyakingbeginningat
some point during the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. In the late
nineteenth century just before European colonizers settled in Rwanda,
the king was Tutsi leader Kigeri IV Rwabugiri (d. 1895). Although
Rwandan kings were of Tutsi lineage, they did not force Hutu into a
slave-like feudal system, a misconception commonly held in history.
Instead, they oversaw a complex arrangement where Tutsi and Hutu
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worked together to sustain a livelihood based on farming and cattle
grazing. The king appointed three chiefs for each hill. The chief of
landholdings oversaw distribution of land, food production, and taxa-
tion.Thechief ofpasturesoversawcattleandgrazing.Thechiefofmen
kept a watchful eye on relationships and recruited men for the king’s
army.MostchiefswereTutsibutHutuwerealsorepresentedamongthe
chiefs. Sometimes one chief might have certain responsibilities on more
than one hill. The end goal of the complex system was to sustain all
Rwandan families on each hill. Perhaps because it was the only way to
maintain order in the densely populated land, the people for centuries
hadunquestioninglyobeyedthekingandtheirchiefs.Thishabitofstrict
obediencewouldplayalargepartinthe1994genocide.
Three groups of people—the Hutu, Tutsi, and the Twa—lived in
Rwanda.Hutumadeupabout85percentofthepopulationandfarmed
the land. Tutsi made up about 14 percent of the population and were
predominantly cattle herders. In the twenty-first century, most think
Tutsi moved into the Rwanda hills sometime during the fifteenth cen-
tury, most likely to escape famine. Historians and anthropologists (sci-
entists who study human origins) have never reached agreement on the
Tutsi’s place of origin. The Twa, less than 1 percent of the population,
livedbyhuntingandgatheringnaturalfoodstuffssuchasroots,orworked
inservitudefortheking.Thethreewerenotseparatetribesbutsharedthe
samelanguage,worshippedthesamegods,andsharedthesameculture.
IntermarriagewascommonbetweentheHutuandTutsi.
Germans arrive in Rwanda
On May 4, 1894, the first European, German count Gustav Adolf von
Gotzen,cameintotheRwandankingdom.Rwandahadbeenpreviously
shut off from the outside world by its landlocked remoteness. At the
BerlinConferenceof1885,controloftheAfricancontinentwasdivided
among European powers so its natural resources could be developed to
bring increased wealth to the European countries. Tiny, beautiful
Rwanda was claimed by Germany to be part of its colonial empire.
GermansknewnothingofRwandaandsentvonGotzenonaninforma-
tion-gatheringmission.
When von Gotzen arrived he found the Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa. He
quicklyobservedthatthethreedifferedsignificantlyinphysicalcharacter-
istics.TheTwawerepygmies,verysmall,muscular,andhairy.TheHutu
were generally short, but not pygmies. They had thick bodies with big
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heads, wide noses, and prominent lips. But the
Tutsi were different. Tutsi were tall and thin
with fine facial features, thin noses and lips,
andstraight,whiteteeth.
Manufacturing the great myth
Prior to 1894 the only Europeans to have ven-
tured near Rwanda were British explorers John
Hanning Speke (1827–1864) and Sir Richard
Francis Burton (1821–1890). They were part-
ners in a 1857–58 expedition to explore the
lakesofcentralAfrica,hopefullyfindthesource
oftheRiverNile,andtostudylocaltribes.They
never entered Rwanda but located Lake
Tanganyika southwest of Rwanda in February
1858. Speke then ventured east of Rwanda to
Lake Victoria, which he believed was the source
oftheNile.WhiletrekkingtowardLakeVictoria,
Speke encountered black people that he noted
hadathingracefulstature.Theseweremostlikely
Tutsi.Inhis1863report,JournaloftheDiscovery
BritishexplorerJohnHanning
of the Source of the Nile, he presented his theory
Speke,whoencountered
that the people he encountered were a superior peoplewhowerelikelyTutsi
rulingracethathadconqueredotherinferiorraceslivinginthearea.Speke duringthe1857–58
merelymadeuphistheoryasithadnofactualbasis. expeditionhemadewithSir
RichardFrancisBurton.
Late-nineteenth-century European anthropologists—along with
#HULTON-DEUTSCH
most all Europeans—were very aware, even obsessed, with racial differ-
COLLECTION/CORBIS.
ences.TheyconsideredCaucasians(peopleoflightskincolor,commonly
fromEuropeanandMiddleEastancestry)superiortoanyblack-skinned
group. German colonists who arrived in Rwanda were amazed at the
kingdom’ssophisticatedorganization.Theybelievedblacksweresavages
andnevercouldhaveproducedsuchanorganizedsociety.
Expanding on Speke’s thinking, the Germans and other Europeans
wholearnedofRwandainthe1890sbeganbuildingavarietyofillogical
theories that the fine-featured Tutsi were a superior race that invaded
Rwanda in earlier times, conquered the Hutu and Twa, and were the
people responsible for Rwanda’s organized society. They spoke of the
Tutsi as a worthy race that, aside from being black, had none of the
NegroidfeaturesoftheHutuorTwa.VarioustheoriesclaimedtheTutsi
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descendedfromsuperiorstockinsouthernEthiopia,orfromtheancient
Egyptians, or even from Tibet. The made-up theories became more
bizarre, such as Tutsi came from the Garden of Eden (home of Adam
andEveintheBible),orthefabledlostcontinentofAtlantis,saidtohave
sunkbeneaththeseaduringanearthquake.
Such theories resulted in the myth of Tutsi superiority. German
colonizers stated that Tutsi were gifted with intelligence, boundless
energy, natural leadership abilities, refinement in speech manners, and
capableofself-controlandfeelingsofloveandgoodwill.HutuandTwa
werebothconsideredinferiorraces.
Due to intermarriage, not all Rwandans exhibited precise Tutsi or
Hutu physical characteristics, but a mixture of both. Therefore, the
German colonists set up physical standards to determine who was a
superior Tutsi and who was an inferior Hutu. Their standards were
based on nose width and length, height and weight, head width and
height,andtheshapeoftheireyes.Thecolonistsmanufacturedtworacial
groupsinacountrythathadneverbeforerecognizeddifferences.Fewin
numberandpygmies,Twawereignored.
German placement of Tutsi and Hutu into the mythical categories
was the first step, however unintentional, on the path to genocide one
hundred years later. The myth became accepted as scientific truth. It
greatlyinfluencedbothGermanandlaterBelgianviewstowardTutsiand
Hutu.
ThemythhadamajoreffectonRwandansociety.Forthenextsixty
years,theTutsibelievedthemselvesphysicallyandmentallysuperior,and
racialprejudiceagainsttheHutuwasextreme.Hutuweredeprivedofall
politicalandeconomicpowerandtoldtheydeservedtheirfatebecauseof
theirallegedinferiority.Thisservedtofrustrateandquietlyinfuriatethe
Hutu.Asocialtimebombhadbegunticking.
German colonizers instituted a system called indirect rule. The
minorityTutsiweregivenmostchiefpositions,educatedandtrainedto
privilegedpositions.GermansruledthroughtheTutsi.Anypunishment
to keep Hutu in line was carried out by Tutsi, not the white colonizers.
HuturesentedTutsi,nottheGermanswhoremainedinthebackground.
Belgian colonial domination
FollowingthedefeatofGermanybytheAlliedpowersofBritain,France,
Italy,Russia,andtheUnitedStatesinWorldWarI(1914–18),Germany’s
colonies in Africa were divided between Britain, France, and other
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countries. Control of Rwanda went to Belgium. The Belgians began to
further empower the Tutsi over the Hutu by putting only Tutsi into
government jobs. The remaining few Hutu chiefs were replaced with
Tutsichiefs.
The Belgians introduced a forced labor system where every man,
woman,andchildhadtovolunteeraspecificnumberofdayseachweek
to public projects. Public projects included building permanent struc-
tures, such as buildings and bridges, digging anti-erosion terraces, and
maintainingroads.TheHutudespisedthesystem;theywereoftenforced
to devote over 50 percent of their work time to public projects, taking
away from time to grow food for their family. Tutsi were in charge of
forcingHututocooperate.HutustronglyresentedTutsitreatment.
Becoming Christian
In thelate 1920s,Tutsi realizedthatto be on best termswith thewhite
men they had to become Christians, the main religion of the Belgians.
Tutsirejectedtheirnativeworshippracticescalledkubandwaandflocked
to the Catholic Church, newly established in Rwanda by missionary
European priests. Destruction of the native religion further destroyed
existingculturaltiesandconnectionswithHutu.
The Church immediately supported the Tutsi and from then on
played an important part of Rwandan society and politics. The Church
provided the only education in the country, and Tutsi were given
priority.
Deep-rooted racial prejudice
Racial prejudice had become firmly established in Rwandan society.
Most Tutsi were still poor peasants like their Hutu neighbors.
However, they too believed the Tutsi/Hutu myth. No matter what the
realcharacteristicsofeachandeveryindividual,ifapersonwasHutuhe
wasconsideredtobestupid,lazy,anddishonest.BymerelybeingTutsi,
anindividualwassmart,hardworking,andtrustworthy.
Aclearsocialorderofsuperiortoinferiordeveloped.Atthetopwere
thewhitecolonizers:BelgiumgovernmentofficialsandCatholicpriests.
NextinlineweretheTutsielite,thenpoorTutsi,andfinallyallHutusat
thebottom.FewTutsihadactuallybecomepartoftheTutsielite.Elites
areinfluentialandpowerfulmembersofthehighestsocialclass.Assuch,
theyreceivethebesteducationsandaccruethemostwealth.
PrejudiceintheModernWorld:Almanac 243
