Hutu Power
Hutu Power is
Hassan Ngeze in 1990 created the Hutu Ten Commandments, a document that served as the basis of Hutu Power ideology.[2] The Commandments called for the supremacy of Hutus in Rwanda, calling for exclusive Hutu leadership over Rwanda's public institutions and public life, complete segregation of Hutus from Tutsis, and complete exclusion of Tutsis from public institutions and public life.[3] Hutu Power ideology reviled Tutsis as outsiders bent on restoring a Tutsi-dominated monarchy, and idealized Hutu culture.
History
Background
The Rwandan kingdom was traditionally ruled by a Tutsi
The society created conceptions of social status based on the groups' traditional pursuits: the Twa, working most directly with the earth (through pottery), were considered impure; the Hutu, still working with the ground but less so than the Twa, were in turn considered less pure than the above-ground Tutsi.
European authors such as
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Shift in Belgian colonial rule
Toward the end of Belgian rule, the government began to favor the Hutu, who were organizing for more influence. More significantly, the Belgian administration feared the rise of
Formation
The first elected president Grégoire Kayibanda, an ethnic Hutu, used ethnic tensions to preserve his own power. Hutu radicals, working with his group (and later against it), adopted the Hamitic hypothesis, portraying the Tutsi as outsiders, invaders, and oppressors of Rwanda. Some Hutu radicals called for the Tutsi to be "sent back to Abyssinia", a reference to their supposed homeland. This early concept of Hutu Power idealized a "pre-invasion" Rwanda: an ethnically pure territory dominated by the Hutu.
Under Habyarimana
In 1973, general and defense minister Juvénal Habyarimana, an ethnic Hutu supported by more radical northern Rwandans, overthrew Kayibanda and had him and his wife apparently killed under house arrest. Many of his supporters were from his district in the north, descendants of Hutu kingdoms that had been semi-autonomous before the colonial period.[citation needed] The resulting administration proved better for Tutsis, as government-sponsored violence was more sporadic than under Kayibanda.[citation needed]
With economic conditions difficult, and threatened by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invasion, Habyarimana turned to inflaming ethnic tensions.
Spokespersons
Hutu Power acquired a variety of spokesmen. Hassan Ngeze, an entrepreneur recruited by the government to combat the Tutsi publication Kanguka, created and edited Kangura, a radical Hutu Power newsletter. He published the "Hutu Ten Commandments", which included the following:
- Hutu and Tutsi should not intermarry;
- the education system must be composed of a Hutu majority (reflecting the population); and
- the Rwandan armed forces should be exclusively Hutu.
Opposition to miscegenation
The Commandments declared that any form of relationship between Hutus and Tutsi women was forbidden; and that any Hutu who "marries a Tutsi woman", "befriends a Tutsi woman", or "employs a Tutsi woman as a secretary or a concubine" was a traitor to the Hutu people.
Mobilization for genocide
During the attempted negotiations (
Aftermath
The defeat of the government by the RPF ended the genocide, and the Hutu Power movement was defeated and suppressed. Many Hutu Power spokesmen were arrested after the genocide, charged and put on trial. Ngeze was convicted and sentenced to 35 years' imprisonment. In 2005, Mugesera was deported from Canada to Rwanda to stand trial for his role in the killings.[12]
See also
- Ethnic nationalism
- Hutu Power Radio
- Interahamwe
- Rwandan Civil War
- Rwandan genocide
References
- ^ Becker, Heike. "Auschwitz to Rwanda: the link between science, colonialism and genocide". The Conversation. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
- ^ Ethnicity and sociopolitcal change in Africa and other developing countries: a constructive discourse in state building. Lexington Books, 2008. Pp. 92.
- ^ a b c d John A. Berry and Carol Pott Berry (eds.) (1999). Genocide in Rwanda: A Collective Memory (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press) pp. 113–115.
- ^ Taylor, Christopher (2001). Sacrifice as Terror. Berg Publishers.
- ^ Gourevitch 1998.
- ^ "Belgian residents", Rwanda, World Statesmen, accessed 15 Sep 2010
- ^ Joan and Dixon Kamukama (2000). "Kakwenzire", in The Path of a Genocide: The Rwanda Crisis from Uganda to Zaire, Howard Adelman and Astri Suhrke (eds). London: Transaction Publishers, p. 75
- ^ Chalk, Frank (2002). "Hate Radio in Rwanda", in The Path of a Genocide: The Rwanda Crisis from Uganda to Zaire, Howard Adelman and Astri Suhrke (eds). London: Transaction Publishers.
- ^ Supreme Court of Canada - Decisions - Mugesera v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ In Rwanda, ex-Quebecker’s genocide trial stokes ethnic tensions
- ^ Jones, Bruce (2000). "The Arusha Peace Process", in The Path of a Genocide: The Rwanda Crisis from Uganda to Zaire, Howard Adelman and Astri Suhrke (eds). London: Transaction Publishers. Page 146
- ^ CTV.ca | "Top court upholds Mugesera deportation order", CTV Canada
Bibliography
- ISBN 0-312-24335-9.
External links
- RwandaFile: Primary sources from the Rwandan genocide, including articles from Kangura and transcripts of broadcasts by RTLM