Quoted in the Genocide Memorial Center, 11 year old Donata described her feelings toward the Rwandan genocide. “I’ll never see my parents again, and yet I’ll see the people who killed them, and those people’s children, for the rest of my life. I can’t bear the thought of it.” The Rwandan genocide began in April of 1994. During the genocide over 800,000 Rwandans were murdered in the masses. Neighbors killed neighbors and friends killed friends. There are two major ethnicities within Rwanda. The majority of Rwanda consists of Hutus who were believed to be from sub-Saharan Africa. The second group in Rwanda are the Tutsis. They are possible descendants from Europeans and came from Ethiopia. In the Rwandan genocide, Hutu extremists murdered
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It created two major problems in Rwanda, lack of food, and dispute over land. Rwanda was very mountainous leaving little room for farmland. Farmers over farmed the land which destroyed the soil and made it harder to produce crops. The need for more farmlands forced Rwandans to level forests and drain bodies of water. This made it easier for the land to erode. Crops could be washed away in a night. Most families went to bed hungry every night. Overpopulation also created dispute over land. Rwandans fought over the farmland. More farmland brought a greater chance of having enough food. Brothers argued over who received the most land as inheritance. Families were torn apart. Rwanda’s food and land could no longer support its population. Rwandans needed a way of reducing population so they would have more food. Hutus, being the majority turned on the Tutsi minority and killed them. However, even without population pressure, the genocide still would have happened due to Belgian definitions of Hutu and Tutsi. In 1990, the Hutu 10 commandments were published. They reveal the hate that the Hutu’s harbored for the Tutsis. Quoting from the first point, “Every Hutu must know that the Tutsi woman, wherever she may be, is working for the Tutsi ethnic cause. In consequence, any Hutu is a traitor who: - Acquires a Tutsi wife; - Acquires a Tutsi concubine; - Acquires a Tutsi secretary or protégée.” 4 years before the actual genocide, there was already talk about eliminating the Tutsi ethnicity. The first point disallows Hutus from helping Tutsi genes to be passed down. The commandments say nothing about lack of food or overpopulation. They only require that no Hutu associates with Tutsis or helps to continue their lineage. The Hutus acknowledged their differences to the Tutsis and wanted no affiliation with them. While overpopulation was a contributing factor because it created a need for a smaller population, the
It created two major problems in Rwanda, lack of food, and dispute over land. Rwanda was very mountainous leaving little room for farmland. Farmers over farmed the land which destroyed the soil and made it harder to produce crops. The need for more farmlands forced Rwandans to level forests and drain bodies of water. This made it easier for the land to erode. Crops could be washed away in a night. Most families went to bed hungry every night. Overpopulation also created dispute over land. Rwandans fought over the farmland. More farmland brought a greater chance of having enough food. Brothers argued over who received the most land as inheritance. Families were torn apart. Rwanda’s food and land could no longer support its population. Rwandans needed a way of reducing population so they would have more food. Hutus, being the majority turned on the Tutsi minority and killed them. However, even without population pressure, the genocide still would have happened due to Belgian definitions of Hutu and Tutsi. In 1990, the Hutu 10 commandments were published. They reveal the hate that the Hutu’s harbored for the Tutsis. Quoting from the first point, “Every Hutu must know that the Tutsi woman, wherever she may be, is working for the Tutsi ethnic cause. In consequence, any Hutu is a traitor who: - Acquires a Tutsi wife; - Acquires a Tutsi concubine; - Acquires a Tutsi secretary or protégée.” 4 years before the actual genocide, there was already talk about eliminating the Tutsi ethnicity. The first point disallows Hutus from helping Tutsi genes to be passed down. The commandments say nothing about lack of food or overpopulation. They only require that no Hutu associates with Tutsis or helps to continue their lineage. The Hutus acknowledged their differences to the Tutsis and wanted no affiliation with them. While overpopulation was a contributing factor because it created a need for a smaller population, the