The political environment that existed in Rwanda is what lead to the eventual genocide in 1994. If ethnicity was never turned into such a political ideology, it would have never ended as violently as it did.
The term Hutu and Tutsi never resulted into an ethnic divide until the Belgian colonists came into the area, issuing identity cards. By issuing the identity cards, the Belgians created a superficial identity between the people in the country despite the fact that they were all Rwandans. Today, scholars continue to dis-believe the existence of an actual difference between the two groups. Issuing the identity cards created a divided country who constantly fought each other, and Belgian favoritism was what made the tensions even worse. The idea of imperialism, i believe does more harm than extend power to another country. Throughout all the stories of imperialists extending their power to other countries that iv'e read, they never have had a really long lifespan or stories of successes, but have instead ended more violently because of various political failures. Imperialism states that by extending its power to another country, it would help that country out economically, politically and ease ties between the two countries. Although the latter might seem true, its more to me a selfish idea of controlling another country. The true goal of imperialism to me is usually to rid a country dry of its resources, or use the area for their own strategic advantage without any gain to the country itself. I think that because Belgium had inherited the country from Germany after the war, they never really made themselves fully realize the ethnic violence that existed in the area or had any care for it in the first place, which is why the ethnic violence ended the way it did.
They say things don't end until they reach their perspective limits, and thats exactly what the Rwandan genocide was. It was the culmination of decades of hatred and fighting that caused the Hutu extremists to do what they did. At first the Tutsi's took power through the monarchy and took advantage of the Hutu people in the 1940's. Once the Hutu people felt downplayed in society, they took the initiative as soon as Rwanda gained independence and elected Hutu emancipation leader Gregoire Kayibanda as president. When Kayibanda took power, he led a ruthless dictatorship and hostility towards the Tutsi as a result of the years of dis-empowerment of the Hutu people. Once he was able to take full control in the government he removed any opposition and was unsympathetic to any Tutsi people, almost removing them entirely from the country in a way. Because the political environment was built on race, it resulted to the deaths of thousands of people during his regime. When Kayibanda was finally ousted from government, Juvenal Habyarimana was elected and for the first years of his power was able to ease the tension between the two groups. But because his advisees were mainly Hutu extremists, he later lead also a rule that was plagued with ethnic hatred towards the Tutsi people. Rwandan political history in the 20th century was packed full of power struggles between the Hutu and Tutsi people, which is why it ended the way it did. If racism did not exist, it would have been far more fruitful in the country.
The Tutsi's met their demise at the end of the of the power struggle because they ended up being the minority in the country. Imagine if our country was ruled by the Ku Klux Klan or a neo-nazi equivalent, the country would be in shambles because other ethnicities count for almost half of the entire country! But this was the exact political environment in Rwanda at the time, it was a country whose political ideologies were based on ethnic divide. By focusing on one group and less to the other, it created a rift in the balance of society because not everyone was satisfied. No country will ever survive if it bases itself on racism. Today luckily, the Rwandan Patriotic Fund continues to practice a zero tolerance policy on racism. The government is ruled by Hutu's and Tutsi's, but the classification no longer applies to anybody.
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