This photo by Salgado shows the conditions of the Rwandan refugee camp of Benako, Tanzania. Believe it or not these are the lucky minority of the Tutsi people who were hunted and killed by the rival Hutu’s. The mass genocide took place in 1994 and over twenty percent of the country’s population was eliminated (Wikipedia). The attack was aimed at the Tutsi people and the Hutu moderates. They were considered a blemish on the nation by the radical Hutu’s who decided a national cleansing was necessary. In all between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people were killed in 100 days. Often we talk about the genocide itself, but I have been recently wondering the history between the Hutu’s and Tutsi’s and what specifically led to the Hutu annihilation of the Tutsi’s. The Hutu Manifesto was published in 1957 which gave the minority Tutsi’s a monopoly of power (Wikipedia). In the 1960’s the Hutu people overthrew the government and forced many Tutsi’s to flee. In neighboring Burundi the conflict between Hutu’s and Tutsi’s was even greater up until the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. There had been 2 genocides in Burundi, one by the Tutsi army against the Hutu’s and one by the Hutu people against the Tutsi’s (Wikipedia). In 1973 Juvénal Habyarimana took control with the hope of progress for these two conflicting ethnicities. On April 6, 1994 however, he was assassinated and the Hutu Radical’s took power. The blood bath began and the rest is history.
How can someone have that much hate? To be able to kill hundreds of thousands with no real reason. The government’s propaganda had so much influence on the people of Rwanda. The scary thing is that it is possible for it to happen again. This was only 15 years ago and somehow we feel removed from it. People are oppressed around the world and it is only a matter of time before another atrocity occurs. We need to remember the paths of history and stop the senseless killing before it begins.
“Rwandan Genocide.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 10 February 2010. Web. 10 February 2010.
Sebastiao Salgado. Photograph. "Migrations: Humanity in Transition [The Human Family Around the World]". Legends Online. PDN and Kodak Professional. Web. ND. 4 Feb. 2010.
It's terrifying to think that people can be wound up with enough hatred to commit genocide at simply the whims of propaganda and the media. It's scary how little people seem to think and just seem to follow what others are saying. I've wondered if Rwanda can ever recover from the genocide. Obviously there will always be new people, but this leaves a scar between the Hutu and Tutsis that may never recover.
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