by Ms Cecilia Nwabuoku

Created on: March 20, 2009   Last Updated: September 17, 2009

Rwanda is a little country in Africa. The original people or should we say the natives of this small African state were known as the TWA a pygmy people. But due to migration over hundred of years due to strife or looking for greener pastures in order to survive, people before colonization moved from one country to another. In so doing they now became natives of that land. It so happened before colonialism Rwanda known as a land of a thousand hills became inhabited by the Tutsi also known as the Watusi. The Tutsi came from Ethiopia and Uganda. The hutu came from Tc had and southern Africa. Differences were determined by social status and clans' membership. The Tutsi were known as breeders and they were richer, they owned lands and livestock. The Hutu were known as farmers but theses two tribes lived in harmony before colonization.But this changed with Belgian domination from 1916 to 1962.

The Belgians decided the Tutsi was superior to the Hutu. This superiority came about because the Belgians saw the Tutsi features were like their own. The Tutsi generally having a lighter complexion, tall and elegant with long straight noses. They now brought in a form of racism. Bringing in identity cards. The Tutsi were put in high places in the government. Given better jobs. The Tutsi was encouraged to beat the Hutu if they got out of place. This of course brought about hostility between the two tribes. From then on persecution and sporadic killings started taking place.

When the Belgians left they took the power from the Tutsi and handed it over to the Hutu. Rwanda got independence in 1962 and the Hutu Gregoire Kaybanda created a racist regime against the Tutsi. So persecutions and revenges against the Tutsi began, with thousands of killings and thousands of Tutsi going into exile in neighbouring countries and abroad. Persecution continued under General Habyarimana when he came to power in 1973. At this time the Tutsi founded the patriotic Rwandese Front to help in the return of Tutsi refugees, and when possible take power of the government.
It was at this time the Hutu government and a militia called the interhamwe were having rallies, spreading messages of hate through newspapers and radios that Tutsi were vermin, cockroaches and that they should all be killed. The hutu president now went to sign a peace agreement but his plane was shot down.

Up to now no one knows who shot down the plane. President Habyarimana's death prompted the frenized killings from April 7th to July 16th 1994. 800,000 to 1,000,000 people were killed including hutu traitors. At this time the Un presence was there.(Belgian,French,English)in the beginning they did nothing. Thy were led by General Romeo Dallaire who did his best to save a thousand people.

The interhamwe and hutu army were defeated by the PRF tutsi party known as the tutsi rebels . The interhamwe and hutu army fled across the border into neighbouring countries. Many of the killers are being hunted down tried and many have been executed for the these war crimes. The country is now governed by Paul Kagame

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