[]thisisntnamman 1080 points 3 months ago*

Edit - Grammars Edit II - Shit this is blowing up. I encourage everyone to check this stuff out, a lot of history to learn, there still is some historian disagreement over the pre-colonial stuff and there are always some conflicting accounts of any conflict. Tried to be as unbiased and stick to the uncontroversial parts. Oh man this is going to be a long one, no TL.DR for this.Strap yourself in. We have to get historical first. Part I - Pre-European context The indigenous tribes that inhabited the areas now called Rwanda used the terms Hutu and Tutsi, but they weren't classes. Not like you think at least. No one was really born a hutu or a tutsi. They weren't ethnic groups or clan names. Rather it was a economic/political thing. Hutus were more or less (oversimplifying here) the lower class, more manual agricultural labor (this being one of the few areas in africa were agriculture actually worked). Tutsis were more upper class, tribal leaders, traders, religious folk. Naturally there were far more hutus than tutsis. Here is the critical point, the distinctions between hutu and tutsi were NOT permanent, one could be a hutu, become a tutsi, and go back to being a hutu. Similar to how economic class in America is not permanent, there is movements up and down the social ladder (again an admitted simplification, but this is ELI5, if you didn't want simplifications, go somewhere else). Remember this point, because this is all about to change. Part II - Ze Germans and Le Belgians Rwanda was first colonized by the German empire. When the Germans moved in and asserted control they wanted to create a small force of natives to help run the colony and oversee the labor of the rest of the natives. (remember from history class that a colony is a glorified machine to strip an area of all valuable resources at as little cost as possible, so using natives to run it was a common strategy). What? Thought all the racial bigotry and race separation began with Hitler? Ha. No the Germans created two NEW classes, one to be entrusted to run the colony and serve as enforcers and one to be the manual labor and work the agriculture. The called these classes Tutsi and Hutu, using the names of the societal groups they observes. See the Germans misinterpreted what Hutu and Tutsi meant, especially the part about not being born into that class and that it was a more fluid system. Mainly because the Germans, like the rest of Europe at this time were racist as fuck. The Germans (and later Belgians) would use all sorts of completely made up criteria to separate a 'hutu'

from a 'tutsi', selecting more European features, like height, nose size, speech, to be tutsi and the more 'primitive' to be Hutu. Though the distinction between them is arbitrary and remember, these are NOT separate ethnic groups or tribes, you cannot tell the difference between one or another by looking at them. German colonial power was replaced by Belgian power, but the separation continued. So much so that ID cards were issued to every Rwandan and Burundian native to mark them into the two groups. During this time you wanted to be a tutsi, they got privileges, could live in better houses, more food and luxuries, and were trusted to run many aspects of the colony. Hutus, the larger of the groups, were equivalent to slaves, expected to work long hours for almost no benefit only to see the riches of their country shipped off to a foreign land with no profit to them. And to have their countrymen in the tutsi group benefit from it. Here are the seeds of resentment, created by a made up system of European domination that completely disrupted societal norms and practices. Each group had begun to see themselves and their kids as members of a permanent group, forever branded to one side, and blamed the other group for all of the problems (this kind of divide and conquer strategy was encouraged by the colonial powers to keep the natives from uniting against their rule). PTO...

Part III - Post Colonialism The region was in chaos following the growth of the independence movement in the late 1950s. The tutsi's tried to maintain their former colonial power under a monarchy and the hutus formed political parties and pushed for elections, knowing that their larger numbers would placed them in power. There were attacks on political leaders on both sides, assassinations and killings were common. In 1961 the Belgians announced there were ending their colonial hold and held an election, the choice: A monarchy (Tutsi backed) or a republic (Hutu backed). The people voted overwhelmingly for a republic. Guess who decided to flee, tens of thousands of tutsis fled the country into exile, thousands were killed in clashes between armed groups on both sides. Eventually Rwanda would stabilize somewhat under the rule of a military dictatorship in the 1970s and 80s. The government was hutu, but a vast majority of the professional class (doctors, lawyers, college educated, and people who spoke French/English and could do business with Europe) were still tutsi, and there was a large tutsi exile population that continued to launch sporadic attacks against the military government. Part IV - Prelude to genocide The stability Rwanda enjoyed in the 70s and 80s was gone by the late 80s and early 90s. Tutsi rebels living outside the nation launched a full scale invasion into Rwanda, plunging the country into civil war. It should be noted emphatically that a vast majority of both 'hutu' and 'tutsi' couldn't have cared less about these groups. Like most of us they were just trying to live their lives, and the distinction was mostly a tool of politicians and militants (think of how in America around election time politicians are always trying to talk about 'the other side' and how hateful this can even get, that the other side is 'bad', a cause for problems. Imagine this, but x100.) Yet the Rwandan government still printed ID cards with the hutu/tutsi label. The war spread to neighboring countries, like Burundi which also had problems with the 'ethnic' strife. BY 1994 the UN had negotiated a peace accord between the two sides and sent a peacekeeping force to the country to ensure the cease fire held. But there were those in Rwanda who didn't want peace, peace meant things would continue like normal, peace meant hutus and tutsis could go back to normal lives, could start liking each other. There were those who didn't want any more tutsis, and they had a plan...
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