History Presentation for program on behalf of Building a Culture of Peace, Concord NH 6/7/2020

1. "RESILIENCE AND RENEWAL:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF RWANDA."
BY DR. WHITNEY HOWARTH
PLYMOUTH STATE UNIVERSITY
JUNE 7, 2020
NH BUILDING A CULTURE OF PEACE FORUM

8. WHAT HAPPENED INRWANDA?
Summer 1994, April – July
100 days of GENOCIDE
Systematic slaughter of the Tutsis perpetrated by the
Hutu government, its army and police force, state sponsored civilian
Hutu militias and many hundreds of thousands of Hutu civilians
800,000+ slaughtered 2+ million refugees

10. Rwandan Population in 1990’s =
7.5 million

11. Hutus make up the majority of
the population – 85%
Tutsis make up about 14%
During the genocide, the Hutu
massacred close to 75% of the
population of Tutsi.
Moderate Hutus and opponents
to the Hutu power structure
were also slaughtered.

12. In 1863,
English
explorer John
Speke claims to
“discover” the
source of the
Nile River,
names it Lake
Victoria.

13. EUROPEANS BELIEVED…
 Colonialism would save
the “negro races”
 Science could prove
white man’s superiority
 The Bible provided proof
that the Tutsi people
were racially superior to
the Hutu. Hamitic Curse.
Page from one of the key scientific
texts on race of its day: Josiah Clark
Nott and George Robert Gliddon,
Indigenous races of the earth (First
published 1857).

14. Hutu and Tutsi -- any difference?
Both are Bantu peoples, with
shared physical characteristics,
language, customs and history.
Intermarriage and social mixing
was common for thousands of
years between these groups.
There is little if any detectable
genetic differentiation between
Hutu and Tutsi.

15. BELGIANS CREATE SYSTEMS OF DISCRIMINATION

17. FROM NEARBY COUNTRY OF
BURUNDI, SMALL GROUPS OF TUTSI
REFUGEES WHO HAD FLED
RWANDA BECAUSE OF THE
VIOLENCE IN THE EARLY 1960’S
RAID RWANDA BORDER.
1963 “Cockroach” invasion.
Hutu “self-defense” units
respond
Massacre of Tutsi civilians…
over next 2 months
14,000 Tutsi dead… this is
just the beginning…

18. 1990-1994 CIVIL WAR
MASSACRES

19. 1973: HABYARIMANA BECOMES
PRESIDENT IN BLOODY
COUP.
•Prez. outlaws Tutsi citizens contact with refugee
Tutsis (over 1 million refugees outside Rwanda)
•Prez. Declares ‘RWANDA IS FULL!’ (no more
resources)
•Prez. Denies Tutsi refugees Right of Return.
•Prez. Revived renewed colonial regime of
mandatory work programs.
•Corrupt govt., political discontent, poverty…
Prez. H and his
friends got rich
while the rest of
the country
starved. Ethnic
tensions rose and
Rwanda received
massive quantities
of aid. Hutu
power system
need a way to
distract citizens…

20. INTERAHAMWE
Those who “work” together

21. CIVIL WAR BEGINS…
• Govt sponsored HATE SPEECH
denouncing all tutsi as
enemies intensifies:
• HATE RADIO propaganda
• HATE NEWSPAPERS: Kangura!
• Political Cartoons
dehumanizing Tutsi

23. PLEASE NOTE THE NEXT THREE SLIDES ARE GRAPHIC
IN NATURE AND PORTRAY VICTIMS AND THE DEAD.

24. http://www.exileimages.co.uk/HowardD/Howard_D.html