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Most of the dead were Tutsis and most of those who perpetrated the violence were Hutus. The genocide started after the death of the Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, in the shooting down of his plane above Kigali airport on 6 April 1994. The full details of that specific incident remain unclear but the death of the President was ...
The Belgians concluded that the Tutsis and Hutus composed two fundamentally different ethno-racial groups. Thus, the Belgians viewed the Tutsis as more civilized, superior, but most importantly, more European than the Hutus. This perspective justified placing societal control in the hands of the Tutsis at the expense of the Hutus.
The origins of the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa peoples is a major issue of controversy in the histories of Rwanda and Burundi, as well as the Great Lakes region of Africa.The relationship among the three modern populations is thus, in many ways, derived from the perceived origins and claim to "Rwandan-ness".
[13] [17] Under this theory, the Hutu and Tutsi distinction arose later and was not a racial one, but principally a class or caste distinction in which the Tutsi herded cattle while the Hutu farmed the land. [18] [19] The Hutu, Tutsi and Twa of Rwanda share a common language and are collectively known as the Banyarwanda. [20]
Muslims in Rwanda have only been accorded the same rights and freedoms as Christians since 2003, with the signing of the Rwanda Constitution, protecting freedom of religion and prohibiting religious discrimination. [2] Estimates show that there are equal numbers of Muslims among the Hutus as there are among the Tutsis. [3]
The double genocide theory posits that, during the Rwandan genocide, the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) engaged in a "counter-genocide" against the Hutus. [1] Most scholars of Rwanda, such as Scott Straus and Gerald Caplan, say that RPF violence against Hutus does not fully match the definition of "genocide", considering that it instead consisted of war crimes [2] or crimes against ...
Certainly some Hutus were nobility and, equally, considerable intermingling took place. Before the 19th century, it was believed that the Tutsis held military leadership power while the Hutus possessed agricultural skills. The position of Queen Mother was an important one, managing the royal household and being heavily involved in court ...
Given the association between Tutsis and Europeans, majority Hutus and Twa increasingly blamed the worsening situation of Burundi on the Tutsis themselves. [11] Despite such views on the solidified hierarchy, it has been noted that colonial rule in general, still subjugated even the Tutsi elites in comparison with their European rulers, thus ...