Kangura
Political, Propaganda | |
Frequency | Bimonthly[1] |
---|---|
First issue | 1990 |
Final issue | 6 April 1994 |
Country | Rwanda |
Based in | Gisenyi |
Language | French and Kinyarwanda |
Kangura was a Kinyarwanda and French-language magazine in Rwanda that served to stoke ethnic hatred in the run-up to the Rwandan genocide. The magazine was established in 1990, following the invasion of the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and continued publishing up to the genocide. Edited by Hassan Ngeze, the magazine was a response to the RPF-sponsored Kanguka, adopting a similar informal style. "Kangura" was a Rwandan word meaning "wake others up", as opposed to "Kanguka", which meant "wake up".[2] The journal was based in Gisenyi.
The magazine was the print equivalent to the later-established Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), publishing articles harshly critical of the RPF and of Tutsis generally. Its sensationalist news was passed by word-of-mouth through the largely illiterate population. Copies of Kangura were read in public meetings and, as the genocide approached, during Interahamwe militia rallies.[2]
Support and connections
Part of a series on the |
Rwandan genocide |
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The journal was financed by military officers,
Kangura was key in fomenting extremism and, in turn, became the mouthpiece of the
The extensive connections of Kangura to the ruling elite appeared to give the magazine inside knowledge. "People who might otherwise have ignored [the magazine] paid attention, because Kangura seemed to know what was going to happen before it did," stated Kenyan journalist Mary Kimani.[5]
Content
An article in the sixth issue, published December 1990, was the first publication of the "Hutu Ten Commandments", which decreed that Hutus who interacted with Tutsis were traitors.[2][6] The propaganda of Kangura targeted women in particular, accusing Tutsi women of seducing Hutu in order to spy on them and mollify them, but only bearing the children of other Tutsi.[7] Another article of December 1990 claimed that the Tutsi were prepared for a war. The back of issue six was a picture of French president François Mitterrand with the caption, "It is during hard times that one comes to know one's true friends."[8]
An editorial in the 9 February 1991 issue stated: "Let us learn about the inkotanyi [RPF supporters] and let us exterminate every last one of them". In a November 1991 edition, Ngeze asked "What tools will we use to defeat the Inyenzi once and for all?" alongside an image of a
The writings of founder Ngeze in the journal regularly hinted at exterminations. In issue 54, of March 1994, Ngeze stated that the RPF had a list of 1600 people who they would kill if they ever took power and warned "the accomplices of the enemy are well known. Therefore the
Kangura also implied threats against Juvénal Habyarimana, especially after its funders moved from the MRND to the CDR. The December 1993 issue stated that a Hutu soldier enraged by the Arusha Accords would soon assassinate the president. The January 1994 issue predicted that Habyarimana would be killed in March.[11]
Aftermath
Kangura had stopped publishing by 6 April 1994, when the plane carrying Presidents
. Over 800,000 people were killed, mostly Tutsis but including Hutu moderates who refused to take part in the massacres or attempted to protect Tutsi from the militias.See also
References
- ^ The Prosecutor v. Ferdinand Nahimana, Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, Hassan Ngeze (Judgement and Sentence), ICTR-99-52-T, pg. 7, Nr. 2.7, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), 3 December 2003, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/404468bc2.html [Retrieved 19 March 2013]
- ^ ISBN 1-85984-588-6, p. 49
- ISBN 978-2-7011-4860-1.
- ISBN 0-7867-1510-3, pp. 133-183.
- ^ a b "Radio Hate", Dina Temple-Raston, Legal Affairs, September–October 2002.
- ^ "Hutu Ten Commandments" Archived 2006-05-12 at the Wayback Machine, hosted by trumanwebdesign.com
- ISBN 978-2-7011-4860-1.
- ^ a b Melvern, p. 50
- ISBN 978-0-74532-625-2. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
- ^ Melvern, p. 51
- ^ Melvern, p. 124
External links
- Complete collection
- Kanguka and Kangura magazines at the Wayback Machine (archived January 3, 2013)
- https://www.idrc.ca/en/book/media-and-rwanda-genocide "Kangura: the triumph of propaganda refined"] by Marcel Kabanda, in Allan Thompson, ed., The Media and the Rwanda Genocide, Pluto Press: London, 2007, ISBN 1-55250-338-0
- RwandaFile: Articles from Kangura, in English, French and Kinyarwanda