European colonialism had a drastic impact in Rwanda with consequences lasting long after its independence in 1962. Formal colonization of Rwanda began in 1884 when Germany took control of the region. In 1919, Belgium inherited the colony as part of a League of Nations mandate, which partitioned German territories after World War I. Belgian colonizers initiated more direct control in Rwanda maintaining an existing political system, which allowed native monarchs to rule over the local populous. This policy intensified ethnic divisions and fueled conflict that lasted into 1990s.
The population of Rwanda is primarily made up of two ethnic groups, the Tutsi and the Hutu. Prior to colonization, Hutu peoples were typically farmers, while Tutsis were cattle herders. According to Jean-Marie Kamatali, Ubuhake, a social system in which the Hutus worked in the service of Tutsis in exchange for cattle, characterized relations between the two peoples. Ubahake, not unlike European feudalism, led to a class-dominated system instilling the Tutsis as a privileged minority and Hutus as the working class majority. Upon first entering the region, German colonizers rationalized subjugation of Rwanda’s large Hutu population under the flawed assumption that the Tutsi were more Caucasian and thus more fit to rule.
Allowing the existing Tutsi monarchs to exhibit control over the Hutus proved immediately effective, allowing for colonization without a large force of European troops. The Belgians further exploited the Tutsi-Hutu division, lending military and political support to Tutsi leaders who maintained the policies of their colonial rulers. According to the University of Pennsylvania’s African Studies Center, Belgium instituted political and economic reforms in the 1920s and 1930s in hopes of integrating native Rwandans into the political process. However, these policies only served to consolidate power among the Tutsi elite, who controlled much of the country’s resources and intuitions.
Following World War II, opinions regarding colonization and racial-ethnic class divisions began to shift in Europe. This shift was felt in Rwanda with increasing political activism on the part of Hutus, and a distaste for the old systems of class and colonization in favor of democracy on the part of Belgians who became increasingly sympathetic to the Hutus. Amid violent clashes, the Tutsi government was overturned. Tutsi leaders were deposed and replaced by Belgian-backed Hutus. Thousands of Tutsi civilians were forced out of Rwanda into neighboring countries such as Uganda, Zaire and Burundi. In 1962, Rwanda became an independent nation. However, deep-seeded ethnic tensions remained between newly empowered Hutus and displaced Tutsis.
On Oct. 1, 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, made up of Tutsis living in neighboring Uganda, invaded Rwanda and began a civil war that lasted until Aug. 4, 1993. The war resulted in a joint government between the Tutsi RPF and Hutu President Juvénal Habyarimana. On April 6, 1994 Habyarimana’s plane was shot down, killing everyone on board, and Rwanda erupted in violence once again. This time the upheaval resulted in the systematic genocide of nearly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus by extremists seeking to cleanse the nation of opposing political factions and prevent a re-occurrence of Hutu subjugation characteristic of the Belgian colonial period. Soldiers and militia often distinguished Tutsis by government-issued identification cards, which stated their ethnicity. The process of formally identifying Hutus and Tutsis with identification papers began under Belgian rule in the 1930s.
