* The long term preparation.
Prior to the country’s independence, the colonial power installed divisions among Rwandans, in order to weaken their unity and rule them. Little by little, Hutus begun to consider their fellow country mates as their enemies to discriminate and kill whenever it was necessary for their own safety. Still little by little, Tutsis understood that they were disturbing elements in their own country and can be killed anytime it would praise to Hutus. They chose to keep a low profile in order to stay safe. The Hutu ruled regimes which took the country after the King was stepped down and the Belgian colonisers were gone, continued to use the ethnical division card as a tool to sustain or strengthen their power or justify their actions. Whenever it was necessary, people on power have set Hutus against Tutsis through fear and frustration tools and every time it worked. This happened more often in the first Republic, under President Kayibanda; where at different occasions Tutsis were killed, their houses burned down and their cattle slaughtered. And every time massacres of Tutsis occurred, the hate for each other was instilled and increased day after day.
By the time the hate sowed by the colonialists in the heart of Hutus was growing slowly, another process was taking place among Tutsis. With many under silent persecution and discrimination, their contained anger and revolt resulted in a state of general submission. The resignation of Tutsis as they faced death became as deadly as the desire of the extremists Hutus to wipe them off. And it was the result of a long term process initiated well ahead in time.
When I was young I used to think that my mother was obsessed by death. A week could not pass before she made she mentioned imminent death. Every occasion was an opportunity to remind everyone that she will not live long. And yet she was health, the strongest of all of us. As the rest of the family, including our father was often down with crisis of malaria, she was never sick. She was always the only one to stay healthy and take care of us. To hear her mentioning her death all the times stressed me a lot and one day I asked her why she thought she will die soon. She looked at me and said: “I grew up without my grandparents, I lost my aunts and uncles very early and my mother died when I was a teenager, how can I pretend to live longer?” I didn’t understand what she meant then and I never asked her what the deaths of her family had to do with her own life, instead I continued to live in fear to see her die one day. Later after the genocide I understood that she was referring to her family lost between 1959- 1964, slain or fled abroad and her mother who died in Bugesera after she was deported.
Helen her best friend and Vincent her husband were worst cases, I always found their comments almost moribund. Not only they were convinced that death was waiting for them at every corner, but they were even reading death in everyone they met. With my sister we used to visit them on Sunday afternoons. Every time we reached their house, Vincent was looking at my younger sister who was growing faster and was very tall and he could say: “How can you grow this fast, what puts you in hurry?” and he would whisper to himself: “These children growing for a machete...” Every summer Rwandan families who could afford it used to give thanksgiving parties after the harvest of sorghum. Sorghum and banana beers were prepared and neighbours and friends were invited to share and celebrate after a full year of labour. When Helen was drying her darkened sorghum getting ready for the party, sometimes you would hear her say after a deep sigh: “Let me do my best, and hope that on the day of the machetes they will remember it....” She was saying that because she knew that the majority of her invitees who will her beers were their Hutu neighbours. Even though she could not tell when, but Helen was sure that there will be a “day of machetes” and was hoping to find rescue among Hutus with whom her family was sharing everything.
My mother, Helene, Vincent and so many other people I knew and I lost were all prepared to die as well as their Hutus neighbours and friends were prepared to kill whenever it would be need. The process went on slowly, smoothly, but surely.
The seed of hate was sowed into Rwandans in the beginning of the 20th century. When Belgian replaced Germany colonisers in Rwanda after they were defeated in the First World War, they thought that they would earn the submission of King Yuhi IV Musinga by flattering him. They started by praising him, the royal family and the Tutsis ethnic group in general. They hammered to whoever was ready to listen that Tutsis were intelligent, classy with the most beautiful women, only second to the white people and that Hutus were the opposite category and should remain their slaves. They favoured Tutsis children to access education and limited these of Hutus. That way they convinced Tutsis and the King of their superiority over the rest of Rwandans, born to rule them. At the same time they tried everything to humiliate Hutus and convince them that they were inferior and born to serve. In that line, colonisers helped The King to install in the country a system of hard labour where they forced Hutus to work into kingdom fields where they were even using physical punishments to whoever was not working hard and that was new to Rwandans. After the World War I, the kingdom went through a long period of hunger called Ruzayugara and needed a lot of food supplies to feed people and renew the kingdom’s food stores which were left empty. Cassava and sweet potatoes were grown for consumption but also coffee to initiate an export business. The intention was not bad, as it was set to bring back the Rwandan community to their times of prosperity. But the way the works were conducted frustrated Rwandans, especially Hutus who made the majority of these who were forced to work.
Later when Belgians realized that the King was not going to be as submissive as they have once expected, they turned to Hutus and stalked them against the Kingdom. They brought down the frustrations Hutus endured under the hand of the monarchy to prove to them how much they were bullied by Tutsis. Belgians turned the reality upside down, telling Hutus that the former hard labour system was a form of slavery created by Tutsis to exploit them. That was not true, the same colonisers have instigated and supervised the works and the harvest was distributed to everyone. With all these frustrations, Hutus stood up in masses in 1959, overthrew the King and set ablaze properties of Tutsis. Tutsis had no other choice other than to flee abroad or stay and face death. These who manage to flee came back later in 1994 under a rebellion attack.
When Habyaliman took power in 1973 in a military coup, he declared Rwanda a state of peace and unity for all the citizens. It’s true that since then and up to October 1990 no Tutsi was hunted or killed. They could move freely in the whole country and everyone could take care of his own business without any political interference. But the discrimination through various State’s institutions prevailed. Hutus knew they had all the rights in the country and Tutsis knew they had none at all and could only wait for what the government was willing to allow them.
Habyalimana’s slogan of peace and unity was only an empty political statement. He stopped killings of Tutsis but he did not do anything to heal the society which was undermined by ethnical divisions. His government let Rwandans, both Hutus and Tutsis to deal themselves with the aftermath of a tormented period. And everyone dealt with it his own way. Hutus buried the hate inside them and Tutsis their anger, frustrations and resignation. Both feelings smouldered and exploded in 1994 with the consequences the whole world witnessed.
It would have been useful and extremely helpful to all Rwandans if Habyalimana has set a campaign of reconciliation and national dialogue, and has abolished all kinds of discrimination against Tutsis by his government. It would have helped Hutus and Tutsis to heal the wounds left by the deadly events of the first Republic and find an even ground to pave a more united future. The Catholic Church which was very influential since the times of the King, the same church who formed the Hutu elites who conducted the social revolution should have helped rebuilding the nation as well. The catholic clergy knew very well the nature of the massacres against Tutsis from 1959 to 1964. The church should have convinced President Habyalimana to act for the healing of Rwandans if they only have cared. They were very w
ell aware of what have happened and they knew it would be very hard for Rwandans to overcome the consequences without a specialized help.
It would have been as easy to achieve as the country’s motto was Peace and Unity. And it would have prevented the genocide of 1994. But instead, people on power at that time preferred to have the ethnical threat hang in the air to be used when it would be necessary again. President Habyalimana was aware of the problem of Tutsis who refugees in the neighbouring countries since the revolution of 1959. And yet he had turned down all their requests to come back home peacefully. He might have expected a violent reaction and decided to use again Rwandans, both Hutus and Tutsis under the ethnic divisions, to put pressure and threats to whoever would dare to attack him. That is the only reason why Him and his government never found a final solution to the Hutus-Tutsis problem and preferred instead to pretend that it never existed, but waiting to use as a backup plan in case of a threat to their regime.
Where Are my People? A Question for Genocide Deniers Page 6