About 400
years ago, the “once” nomadic Tutsi tribe moved into the area of East Africa,
where the Hutu tribe has already settled 100 years before (Admin 1999). They
integrated themselves with the Hutu people, adopting their culture. However,
the Tutsis still continued living off of cattle herding while the Hutus were subsistent
farmers. Economic differences divided the two groups living in the same
community, the Tutsi dominating the Hutu. According to historian, Congolese
Professor George, ‘“…the only differences between the two groups were economic
rather than ethnic,”’ (Admin 1999). Colonization of Rwanda-Urundi by Belgium only
allowed Tutsi’s to have power education, causing the country to split. The
class-conflict caused an outbreak in genocide between the two tribes, greatly
affecting the Tutsis. During the, Rwandan genocide in 1994 about 800,000
Rwandans were killed in 100 days, most were Tutsi (BBC 2011).
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| This picture represents class differences among the Tutsi and Hutu based on attire. |
Resources:
BBC News Africa
2011 Rwanda: How the genocide happened. BBC News, May 17. Electronic document, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13431486, accessed on February 24, 2014.
The Dark Corner
2011 Saving the world one daughter at a time. The DARK corner. Electronic document, http://thedarkcorner.com/?paged=2, accessed on February 24, 2014.
Admin
1999 The Heart of the Hutu-Tutsi Conflict. PBS News MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, October 8. Electronic document, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/africa-july-dec99-rwanda_10-08/, accessed on February 24, 2014.
