Tutsi and Hutu History – The Rwandan Genocide

The brutal history of the Hutu and Tutsi war tarnished the 20th century, from the massacre of over 120,000 Hutus in Burundi in 1972 by the Tutsi army to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, where Hutu militias targeted Tutsis and slaughtered about 800,000 people in under 100 days.

However, many observers would be surprised to learn that the ongoing conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis has nothing to do with language or religion.

They speak the same Bantu language in addition to French, and they both typically practice Christianity—and many geneticists have struggled to find significant ethnic differences between the two.

Though the Tutsis have typically been noted to be taller. Many individuals think that in order to more accurately classify indigenous peoples in their censuses, German and Belgian conquerors endeavored to distinguish between Hutu and Tutsi.

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History of the hutu and tutsi

The “Tutsis” looked after cattle, and the “Hutus” maintained crops. Hutus made up the majority of the population of Rwanda.

After the Hutus arrived from Chad, it is believed that the Tutsis traveled from Ethiopia. The Hutu acquired control of Rwanda by force after the Tutsi monarchy, which had existed since the fifteenth century, was ousted at the encouragement of Belgian colonists in the early 1960s.

But in Burundi, a Hutu revolt was crushed, and the Tutsis took power.

Long before the 19th-century European colonialism, the Hutu and Tutsi people intermingled. Some accounts claim that the Hutu people were the original inhabitants of the area, whereas the Tutsi came from the area around the Nile.

The Tutsi were able to quickly establish themselves as the local leaders once they arrived. There was a significant amount of intermarrying when the Tutsi people rose to “aristocracy.”

Belgian colonists established Ruanda-Urundi in the region in 1925. However, the Belgians, with the help of the Europeans, installed the Tutsi in power rather than forming a government from Brussels.

This choice allowed the Tutsis to take advantage of the Hutu people. The Hutus started to revolt against their treatment in 1957 by publishing a manifesto and carrying out violent acts against the Tutsis.

Belgium departed the region in 1962, and two new countries, Rwanda and Burundi, were established.

The Hutu and Tutsi engaged in a number of violent skirmishes between 1962 and 1994, which collectively contributed to the genocide of 1994.

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What is the difference between a Hutu and Tutsis?

Hutu and Tutsi were merely social and economic strata prior to colonialism. Tutsi referred to riches. Hutu was a slur for middle class.

Your material wealth and the quantity of cows you owned were used in the analysis. Your economic prosperity allowed you to travel up and down.

In colonial times, things started to go south. Belgians used their magic and cut up the Rwandans like meat at the dinner table. Your heritage as a Hutu and a Tutsi was passed on to you.

Tutsi

The general perception of Tutsis is that they have lighter complexion than those of Hutu ancestry.

Tutsis are frequently described as having light brown complexion, similar to that of Ethiopians, Eritreans, and other ethnic groups from further north in Africa.

Numerous academics hold the view that Tutsis are a distinct ethnic group that moved to Rwanda, probably from the North.

However, once they arrived in Rwanda, Hutus and Tutsis frequently intermarried, and the terms “Hutu” and “Tutsi” evolved to signify social position as much as ethnicity.

Tutsis who settled down to farm were seen as Hutus, and Hutus who rose to positions of power in society (positions often held by the Tutsi elite) were regarded as Tutsis.

Racist colonial teachings that attempted to defend the Tutsi supremacy of Rwanda on the grounds of their higher “whiteness” have had a significant influence on current perceptions of Tutsis as exclusively having light complexion.

In contemporary Rwanda, a person’s skin tone alone cannot consistently indicate whether they are a Tutsi or not.

Hutu

The Hutu are typically seen as having darker complexion, with tones approximating the very dark browns of other Central Africans.

They were an established ethnic group in Rwanda prior to the advent of the Tutsi.

Similar to Tutsis, this trait is not a reliable indicator of an individual Rwandan’s ethnic background, however it could point to some genetic remnants from a period before the Tutsi settled in the region.

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The Rwandan Genocide Between Hutu and Tutsi

Juvénal Habyarimana, the Hutu president of Rwanda, was killed on April 6, 1994, when his jet was shot down close to Kigali International Airport.

Cyprien Ntaryamira, the president of Hutu-majority Burundi, was also murdered in the assault. Even though responsibility for the plane strike has never been determined, this led to the horrifyingly well-planned genocide of Tutsis by Hutu militias.

There was also a lot of sexual assault against Tutsi women, and the UN didn’t admit there had been “acts of genocide” until two months after the slaughter started.

About 1.3 million Hutus escaped the genocide and the Tutsis’ regaining power, going to Burundi, Tanzania (where more than 10,000 people were later driven out by the government), Uganda, and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is now the main site of Tutsi-Hutu violence.

The government is allegedly giving the Hutu militias protection, according to 5 Tutsi rebels in the DRC.

After 1994, the new administration was able to expel ethnic groups. By the year 2000, however, some Rwandans had been persuaded.

It has become quite forbidden to discuss your Hutuness or Tutsiness. In any case, very few Rwandans desired to identify with these ethnic groupings.

Between 1995 and 2000, efforts were made to inform Rwandans of the reasons ethnic groupings were forced to disband in order for Rwandans and Rwanda to survive.

Once, the significance of the terms “Hutu” and “Tusi” was eliminated. Only then was genuine unification, peace, and reconciliation possible.

Conclusion

The Tutsi and Hutu appear to have no cultural differences and speak the same Bantu language. There have been unions between Tutsis and Hutus.

The infant was raised in accordance with the father’s culture. Tutsi is perceived as a class rather than an ethnic identity. But there are a number of differences between the two social groupings.