Rwanda Genocide Essay

Words: 483
Pages: 2

There are abounding amounts of motives for the conflict included in the Rwandan genocide. It was sparked by the death of the Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, when his plane was shot down above Kigali airport on April 6, 1994 (BBC). It is astonishing the outcome of conflict the Hutu and Tutsi had brought out due to how close they are being with same ethnicity and region (Kissi). While some believe it all started with the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana, a French judge blamed Paul Kagame, current Rwandan President, who at the time was the leader of a Tutsi rebel group, and some of this close associates for carrying out the rocket attack (BBC). A major change before the Rwandan genocide was considered political. Like most other African states, Rwanda was a single-party state for almost the post colonial period. With the fall of communism and African elites no longer accepting single party dictatorship, Rwanda’s power began to erode (Straus 24). All in all, there are …show more content…
Hutu are generally short and thick set with a big head, a jovial expression, a wide nose and enormous lips, while the Tutsi are very tall and thin. They have fine features including a high brow, thin nose, and fine lips framing beautiful shining teeth (Prunier 6). The Tutsi women are usually lighter-skinned than their husbands, very slender and pretty in their youth, however, they thicken with age (Prunier 6). The Tutsi had an “absolutely distinct origin from the negroes” which they considered as belonging to an absolutely inferior order” (Prunier 8). The Europeans were quite smitten with the Tutsi, whom they saw as definitely too fine to be “negroes.” Since they were not only physically different from the Hutu, but also socially superior (Prunier 6). Therefore, the Tutsi are highly superior compared to the Hutu and are known for “prettier”