As you probably already know genocide is a mass killing of a specific group of people done by another group. Normally the groups are in conflict with the group they are killing--in this case Tutsi and Hutu.The Rwanda Genocide happened in 1994 from about April-June and, in this time period close to 1 million Tutsi's were killed by the Hutu. You probably have no clue who these people are; they are 2 ethnic groups in Rwanda,Uganda. In 1994 there were around 7 million people consisting of 3 ethnic groups Hutu-85%, Tutsi-14%, and Twa-1% living in Rwanda(United Human Rights Council). Looking at the picture to the left you can see Rwanda is not a very large place and, before this genocide happened there was already tension between the Hutu and Tutsi. At the time of the genocide the president of Rwanda was Juvenal Habyarimana he was Hutu; his plane was shot down on April 6, 1994 supposedly by a Tutsi rebel group(BBC News). This is not the only tension between the two ethnic groups. For around 80 years Belgians considered the Tutsi superior to the Hutu--as you all know superiority in a already crumbling government is never good especially with the less superior in rule. In Rwanda 63% of people were catholic before the genocide and afterwards most people converted to independently owned and protestant churches. In order to recover survivors looked to there new churches for hope and recovery(Newhouse, Catherine). Today children are taught by their parents that Hutu and Tutsi are all one and they don't know much about the genocide. When asked to separate Hutu on one side and Tutsi on another at school they refused to and said we are all one--Rwandese. Other efforts that have been taken are things such as creating memorials for the bones even though Rwandans believe it is necessary to bury the dead they don't want the genocide to go forgotten and it become a tale. They want visitors to know that it really did happen and how many people were killed. This affected all of Rwanda and surrounding parts of Africa although it didn't affect America it is still a huge problem that will have a long impact.
Critical Thinking Question: The Rwandan Genocide clearly did not have as big an impact as the Holocaust to us but, do you think that it impacted the Rwandans as much as the Europeans? Explain your argument.
Critical Thinking Question: The Rwandan Genocide clearly did not have as big an impact as the Holocaust to us but, do you think that it impacted the Rwandans as much as the Europeans? Explain your argument.