RWANDA GENOCIDE@20: OH GOD, WHEN SHALL WE LEARN?

Last week, Rwandans and the world at large bowed to remember 20yrs after things had fallen apart-Rwanda genocide. During the genocide, 300 people died mostly Tutsi died per hour. In 100 days between 800,000 people to 1,000,000 were butchered like wild animals.

According to history, the Hutus came to Rwanda before the Tutsis. The Hutu are dark and shorter while the Tutsi are lighter and lighter complexioned.

The Germans and Belgians who were stealing natural resources from Rwanda in the colonial period favoured the Tutsi for their looks. It was a classic divide and rule tactics. In 1935, Belgians for example created identity cards that listed Rwandans as Tutsi, Hutu or Twa.

The Hutus who were the majority tribe felt irate at the Belgians policy of championing with the Tutsi, it is the reason why in 1959 carried out a brief Tutsi ethnic cleansing- they killed a few Tutsi and sent hundreds to exile packing.

Apart from Belgians, Rwandans still feel that France did more harm than good in perpetuating the genocide. President Kagame recently retaliated Rwanda’s frustration about France’s invisible hand in the genocide.

Some blame USA which was and still always quickly poke its long nose in other conflicts but stayed away from the genocide.  

However for the case of USA, at the time, they had just been humiliated by street boys in Somalia in the famous Black Hawk Down incident, not to forget the fact that Rwanda had nothing to offer to USA especially after fall of USSR.

Others blame the Catholic Church whose leaders are said to have participated in the genocide itself and that the Vatican knew about it.

Media too has been noted among leading organs that fuelled the genocide. The list is endless.

However, Rwandans seems to have forgotten that Rwandans were killing Rwandans and nobody from outside Rwanda lifted a machete.

 It’s also important to note that Rwanda got independence in 1962 and it was supposed to steer its own ship, thus colonialists’ role should not be exaggerated since they are out of the blame vane diagram.

Rwanda made international headlines and much of the hype about this genocide owes to Hollywood, internet, CNN, etc. In reality Africa and Africans have always been genocidal.

Are they genocides?

During the Biafran War of 1970 in Nigeria, over a million Nigerians died as the Igbo unsuccessfully tried to separate and some Igbo claimed that genocide against them was attempted.

Nobody seems to care about the ‘Burundian Genocide’ of 1972 in which the Tutsi dominated army iced about 210,000 Hutus. Some analysts claim that the Hutus in Rwanda had this in mind and were ravaging.

Signs of genocide are everywhere in Africa, in Kenya for example, when Mwai Kibaki of Kikuyu tribe was hurriedly sworn as president in 2008. Lou and Kalenjin tribe’s men went on the rampage killing kikuyu tribesmen.

Or what about the current unequivocal political conflicts in CAR and South Sudan?. Like Rwanda genocides nationals are killing fellow nationals and the world is slow to react.

Unlike the Rwanda genocide where about a million Hutus were massacred in 100 days, we are still facing silent genocides.