Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda by Timothy Longman discusses the roles of the churches in Rwanda and how their influence might have been able to alter the outcome of the genocide. He discusses the rise of Juvenal Habyarimana in politics with his Catholic background, church and state relations, and obedience to political authority. His slogan “Peace, Unity, and Development” were his political plans for Rwanda. On April 6, 1994, president Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane was shot down marking the beginning of the Rwandan genocide. His death was a pretext for government and military officials to begin their launch against opponents of their regime. The genocide lasted for 100 days and resulted in over a million deaths. During the genocide the Tutsi minority was targeted by Hutu extremists and ordinary Hutu citizens. Within the large number of perpetrators witnesses proclaim that church leaders and church members actively participated in murder and other genocidal activities during the genocide. “People came to mass each day to pray, then they went out to kill” (7). If churches were capable of heavily persuading its community members to commit acts of genocide, then their involvement in resisting against the genocide and other religious institutions could have had a pronoun affect in the failure of the genocidal movement against the Tutsi.
The Rwandan racism and hatred dates back to Rwanda’s colonial era when Belgian missionaries entered the country identifying Rwanda citizens by false ethnicities. The Christian missionaries mission were to convert chiefs and Kings to Catholicism. After converting authoritative figures, they would convert those who followed. Youth was a primary target because they were considered more open to persua...
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...onsible. We can also hold the Rwandan churches responsible for their political involvement with the state. The churches defined ethnicity, legitimized authoritative regimes, and encouraged public obedience to political authorities. The churches felt that the relationship with the state was important because they were given power. The relationship with the state eliminated competition, helped control the education system, health care, and financial development in the country. If the churches were not so concerned with preserving their status quo, and practiced what they preached in the churches, then maybe the hatred of ethnic differences would have been eliminated during the colonial era, and the country could have found peace instead of turmoil.
Works Cited
Longman, Timothy Paul. Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UP, 2010. Print.
Though the event occurred almost twenty-one years ago, the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has prompted much discussion about what truly caused the deaths of an estimated 800,000 civilians. Scott Straus, a political scientist and author of The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda, makes the claim that it is very difficult to precisely identify what began the genocide in Rwanda for a number of reasons, and also comments that many of the beliefs in regards to the causes and evolution of genocide in Rwanda are incomplete. In his book, Straus focuses on three main aspects: to look closely at the local dynamics of the genocide, to produce an assessment of explanations, and finally to develop a theory that would explain the genocide in Rwanda.
The state-sponsored massacres of Hutus by the Tutsi-dominated Burundian army in 1972 was one of the most significant post-Holocaust genocides and as such received appropriate levels of international attention due to a lack of political distractions within western nations. The genocide broke out as a Hutu-lead rebellion in which Hutu insurgents massacred Tutsis and resisting Hutus in the lakeside towns of Rumonge and Nyanza-Lac. As many as 1200 people killed in this initial incident, the Tutsi-dominated government responded by declaring martial law and systematically proceeded to slaughter Hutus (Totten 325). After hundreds of thousands of Hutus had been massacred by the Burundian government, the neighboring nation of Zaire aided the Hutus in a counteroffensive attack on the Tutsi-controlled army. Having succeeded in their effort, the genocide was quickly brought to international attention within a few days. The United Nations invested $25,000 from the World Disaster Relief Account’s fund...
Former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali once said, "We were not realizing that with just a machete, you can do a genocide." To be candid, nobody anticipated the Rwandan Genocide that occurred in 1994. The genocide in Rwanda was an infamous blood-red blur in modern history where almost a million innocent people were murdered in cold blood. Members of the Tutsi tribe were systematically hacked or beaten to death by members of the Interahamwe, a militia made up of Hutu tribe members. In just 100 days, from April 6, 1994 to mid-July, 20% of Rwanda's population was killed; about 10,000 people a day. Bodies literally were strewn over city streets. Genocide obviously violates almost all articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; however, the article I find most important is Article 3 - the right to life, liberty, and personal security. In just 100 days, one million people were denied the most basic privilege granted to every human – the right to live, simply because they were born to the wrong tribe.
The Rwandan Genocide was a terrible event in history, caused by a constantly weakening relationship between two groups of people. The country of Rwanda is located in Africa and consists of multiple groups of people. The majority of Rwandans are Hutu, while a smaller number of people are Tutsis. The genocide started due to multiple events that really stretched the relationship between the two groups to its end. One of the starting factors was at the end of World War 1.
To find the cause of the Rwandan genocide, many people had tried to follow the path of history from the colonialism of Rwanda to the Rwandan genocide. Belgium wanted to expand just like other powerful nations like Great Britain, Spain, and France due to the lack of space and resources provided to each nation in Europe. After the great discovery of Vasco de Gamma, many European ventured towards Africa to colonize territories. After the Berlin Conference of 1884, Belgium had colonized the territory of Rwanda. After colonization, they left the Tutsis in charge as opposed to Hutus because of the fact that the Belgians thought Tutsis had a Caucasian ancestry. After the Rwandan independence, power was given to the Hutus. After the power was given to the Hutus, the Hutus took revenge on the Tutsis which resulted in some killings. In the movie, Hotel Rwanda, President Habyarimana was killed. The killing was blamed on the Tutsis which caused the enraged Hutus to start the Rwandan Genocide. Although the initial cause of the genocide could be Belgian Imperialism, in the movie it was actually the killing...
Percival, Valerie, and Thomas Homer-Dixon. "Getting Rwanda wrong. (genocide in Rwanda)." Saturday Night. v110. n7 (Sept 1995): p47(3). Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. K12 Trial Site. 12 Apr. 2010 .
One half of the people in Rwanda are Christian, and most of the Christians are
The Rwandan genocide occurred due to the extreme divide between two main groups that were prevalent in Rwanda, the Hutu and the Tutsi. When Rwanda was first settled, the term Tutsi was used to describe those people who owned the most livestock. After the Germans lost control over their colonies after World War I, the Belgians took over and the terms Hutu and Tutsi took on a racial role (Desforges). It soon became mandatory to have an identification card that specified whether or not an individual was a Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa (a minority group in Rwanda). The Tutsi soon gained power through the grant of leadership positions by the Belgians. Later on when Rwanda was tying to gain indepe...
The Rwandan Genocide “It is our responsibility to empower the powerless while giving voice to the voiceless” -(Irwin Cotler “Six Lessons from the Rwandan Genocide”) When the Rwandan Hutu majority betrayed the Tutsi minority, a destructive mass murdering broke out where neighbor turned on neighbor and teachers killed their students; this was the start of a genocide. In this paper I will tell you about the horrors the people of Rwanda had to face while genocide destroyed their homes, and I will also tell you about the mental trauma they still face today. Hutu and Tutsi Origins When Rwanda was first settled, the people there raised cattle, the ones with the most cattle were considered “Tutsi” and everyone else was ‘Hutu”.