Deepening Rifts:
As it is a well known fact, the treaty of Versailles did not do many favors for Germany after the First World War. With this Germany was incapable of maintaining control over the colony of Rwanda and so by 1918 the Belgians came to have the territory containing Rwanda, but also included Burundi, as part of their acquisition of German East African soils.
The Belgians were not tolerant of the Tutsi King and preferred the more impressionable personality of his 18 year old son. Seeking to develop a class of African suitable for being an administrative delegation a greater sense of segregation and social disparity was introduced under the Belgians.
The Belgians were not tolerant of the Tutsi King and preferred the more impressionable personality of his 18 year old son. Seeking to develop a class of African suitable for being an administrative delegation a greater sense of segregation and social disparity was introduced under the Belgians.
Motivated by the Hamitic Theory the Belgians believed that the genetic characteristics "observed" in Tutsi implied that they were closer to European decent than the Hutus and thus more capable of governance. With the Tutsi preference clear under Belgian Rule, the Hutu, though making up 75 % of the population. Sociologists point to the Belgians as primarily responsible for the digression of Tutsi and Hutu relations going into independence. Essentially, the distinguishing of Tutsi alongside the oppression of Hutu lead to then the Hutu uproar of 1959 in the Rwandan Revolution, where the massed (The Hutu) turned against the artificially created elite. When Hutu leaders began retaliating to the Belgian propped up monarchy, independence was then achieved leaving more then 100,000 Tutsi left to fell the country.
The Belgium rulers, “Exploited the historic division of labor between the Hutu and Tutsi and incorporated the Tutsi into a ruling elite.”
In turning domestic population of Rwanda further against itself,
legitimate critiques against the colonial power were of no concern and
wider stability in the interest of Belgium could be achieved.
Not unlike Hitler's Germany, Belgians assigned ethnic classification card to Hutu and Tutsi to make this fallacious distinction all the more entrenched.
Not unlike Hitler's Germany, Belgians assigned ethnic classification card to Hutu and Tutsi to make this fallacious distinction all the more entrenched.
During Belgian rule, the wave of decolonization in the 1950’s hit Africa, which sparked a huge rise among the competing indigenous Rwandan clans. As self-governance became a possibility, Tutsi were at risk of losing their political centeredness and economic stature as the Hutu were clearly advantaged with their majority.
Tensions mounted during the transitions to self-governance resulting in a the deaths of many Tutsi as they were removed from governmental power and influence. Many Tutsi ended up fleeing the country during this period as the Hutu had taken control of the government. Power oscillations occurred then with greater severity in the ensuing years as Tutsi refugees, mainly in Uganda coordinated an army which attacked the Hutu government in 1990. As the Hutu government was challenged by the threat of the Tutsi opposition, all Tutsi citizens within the country were labeled as cooperators with the opposition.
Tensions mounted during the transitions to self-governance resulting in a the deaths of many Tutsi as they were removed from governmental power and influence. Many Tutsi ended up fleeing the country during this period as the Hutu had taken control of the government. Power oscillations occurred then with greater severity in the ensuing years as Tutsi refugees, mainly in Uganda coordinated an army which attacked the Hutu government in 1990. As the Hutu government was challenged by the threat of the Tutsi opposition, all Tutsi citizens within the country were labeled as cooperators with the opposition.
The Belgians, having left Rwanda in the early 1960's left the country totally enshrined in a completely manufactured ethnic divide that had come to be cherished as integral to one identity for the Hutu and Tutsi people of Rwanda. Subsequently then, as the Hutu held political power, the Tutsi identity was then used as rhetoric and as a scapegoat for all negatives the country may have been facing.