The Hutus And The Tutsis Populations In Africa

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In the early 1990s, Rwanda had one of the highest population densities in Africa. The Rwandan population was comprised of Hutus, who made up 85% of the population while the Tutsis made up 14% of the population which “dominated the country,” (BBC , 2014). Before the Rwandan genocide the Hutus and the Tutsis ethnic groups got along with each other. They shared everything. They shared the same language, culture, and nationality. They were even intermarrying between the two groups. Most of the time they worked on farms together. The Hutus were usually in the field and the Tutsis were usually the landowners. When European colonists moved in they took the privileged and “educated intermediaries” and put them into two groups, governors and the governed. …show more content…

After the Europeans supported the Hutus, they began the revolt. By 1959 the Hutus had gained power and were taking land from the Tutsis. The Tutsis moved to neighboring countries and created the Front Patriotique Rwandais and were trained by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The Hutus finally gained independence for Rwanda in 1962. The new Hutus government, which was inexperienced, had problems. Tension between the people grew and in 1990 the civil war began and didn 't end till 1993. Then in 1994 the Hutus President’s plane was shot down, and the Hutus believe it was the Tutsi that did it, and the Tutsi believe the Hutus people did it to have a reason to start the genocide. The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 happened over a period of 100 days. The brutality perpetrated by the Hutus upon the Tutsis resulted in 800,000 deaths After the Genocide the government get rid of ethnicity cards that would be able to ethnically identify them. In today’s Rwandan society the Hutus and the Tutsis get along, because they have realized that they are similar to each other when it comes to everyday

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