REFLECTIONS

n REFLECTIONS n REFLECTIONS REFLECTIONS n REFLECTIONS n REFLECTIONS n REFLECTIONS REFLEC Reconciliation after GENOCIDE

By Corneille Gato Munyamasoko S

ince 1959, the history of Rwanda has been characterized by politics of separation, division and hatred whereby a particular group of people were excluded from the community. The climax of such an ideology led to the genocide of 1994, which culminated in more than one million people dead, many hundreds of thousands being vulnerable and many others displaced and obliged to leave their country and go into exile. An obvious consequence of such a situation was the destruction

of social groups characterized by increased suspicion, lack of trust among citizens, and the promotion of a culture of impunity. Genocide came from a long history. Before the arrival of colonialists from Belgium, Rwandans lived together in their kingdom.They shared the same Bantu language and they lived side by side with each other without any claiming Hutu land or Tutsi land. They often intermarried. There were differences between the various groups. The Twa, who were very few, about one percent or less of the population, lived as hunter-gatherers in the forested areas, or else served the high-ranking personalities and the king in a variety of menial tasks. The Hutu, who made up the majority of the population, were peasants who cultivated the soil. The Tutsi were tall and thin, and often had sharp, angular facial features. These cattle herders were believed to be of a different racial stock than the local peasants.

48 youth from Baptist churches and schools attending the first peace camp in Nyange, Rwanda, in November 2010

Based on their physical features, Belgian colonialists

considered the Tutsi superior to other groups. This brought division and hatred among Rwandans.The Tutsi helped the Belgians in administration of the colony. More than the other groups, they attended Western-style schools. In 1959, Belgian colonialists, in a change of tactics, helped the

Hutu to inaugurate a revolution. The Tutsi were dethroned. Many Tutsi, among whom were my parents, left the country and many others were massacred. This led to deeper hatred. The Tutsi who remained in Rwanda

faced various forms of oppression and exclusion, while those who went into exile as refugees were denied some basic rights in the neighboring countries where they took refuge. The Tutsi in exile wanted to return but the government was not willing for the refugees to do so. The Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), the armed wing of

the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), started a war in 1990. The April 1994 plane crash carrying then Rwanda president Juvénal Habyarimana was blamed on the Tutsi. This however, was a pretext for genocide that was planned for a long time, and thus the genocide started. It is estimated that between 800,000 and one million Tutsi were killed during the genocide.

JULY/SEPTEMBER 2015

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