Genocide
Project Reflection
During this project we studied on the Rwandan Genocide for the first two months really understanding and examining the background of the culture and tribes in Rwanda. We learned a lot about the two main tribes in Rwanda, the Hutu and the Tutsis. After studying how the European influenced their country, we learned all about Political Ideology, Foreign Policy, and Social Psychology. For our project we were instructed to do an independent research on a 20th century genocide of our choice. The final product was an opinion editorial on a specific part of the genocide and a political cartoon that related back to your thesis statement.
My project was based off of the Bosnia Genocide. This genocide was labeled as one of the bloodiest massacres in history. In order for Bosnia to get over their traumatizing past, is important to support the society in order to deal with the lasting implications of such ethnic tension and tragedies. My Opinion Editorial, "MY HEART IS ROTTEN" goes in-depth in Bosnia's past, and covers the idea to support and holding people account for their actions so that is country will be able to restore and find peace again. In my cartoon I drew a picture of a Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Serb shaking hands and forgiving each other for what they have done in order to find justice.
I enjoyed writing an Opinion Editorial because it was a different style of writing than what I am used to. The Opinion Editorials are based off of short, concise sentences that draw the reader in as apposed to a normal essay or your own style of writing. The goal of this project was to provide a strong opinionated view of your topic with evidence to back it up. I believe that writing the Op- Ed will most likely help me in the future with fact based writing because it provides good evidence and is presented to the reader in a good way. This project definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone and overall I think it made me a better writer because it was really challenging.
Although Mass Murder and political responsibility are tough concepts to stay focused in on for a whole semester, it exposes us to reality. We are all very fortunate enough to not have experienced these things first hand, but it is important to understand these things to help prevent them. Throughout this project it has taught me to be more thankful for the life I have grown up in. Genocide has taught me a new sense of appreciation for things that I would normally just expect to happen. Overall I am grateful that I got to learn and get a deep overview on genocide.
My project was based off of the Bosnia Genocide. This genocide was labeled as one of the bloodiest massacres in history. In order for Bosnia to get over their traumatizing past, is important to support the society in order to deal with the lasting implications of such ethnic tension and tragedies. My Opinion Editorial, "MY HEART IS ROTTEN" goes in-depth in Bosnia's past, and covers the idea to support and holding people account for their actions so that is country will be able to restore and find peace again. In my cartoon I drew a picture of a Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Serb shaking hands and forgiving each other for what they have done in order to find justice.
I enjoyed writing an Opinion Editorial because it was a different style of writing than what I am used to. The Opinion Editorials are based off of short, concise sentences that draw the reader in as apposed to a normal essay or your own style of writing. The goal of this project was to provide a strong opinionated view of your topic with evidence to back it up. I believe that writing the Op- Ed will most likely help me in the future with fact based writing because it provides good evidence and is presented to the reader in a good way. This project definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone and overall I think it made me a better writer because it was really challenging.
Although Mass Murder and political responsibility are tough concepts to stay focused in on for a whole semester, it exposes us to reality. We are all very fortunate enough to not have experienced these things first hand, but it is important to understand these things to help prevent them. Throughout this project it has taught me to be more thankful for the life I have grown up in. Genocide has taught me a new sense of appreciation for things that I would normally just expect to happen. Overall I am grateful that I got to learn and get a deep overview on genocide.
Project Overview
Throughout history, the most memorable and tragic killings are happening over and over again. The most complex question people try and grasp on every day is why do people discriminate and have such hatred towards another group based off differences in religion, physical traits, ethnicity, and culture. During this project I will learn the causes for genocide and what we can do to help prevent genocide.
8 Stages of Genocide1. Classification: All cultures have categories to distinguish people into “us and them” by ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality
2.Symbolization: names or other symbols to the classifications 3. Dehumanization: One group denies the humanity of the other group. 4. Organization: Genocide is always organized, usually by the state, often using militias to provide deniability of state responsibility 5. Polarization: Extremists drive the groups apart. Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda. Laws may forbid intermarriage or social interaction. 6. Preparation: Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity. Death lists are drawn up. 7. Extermination: quickly becomes the mass killing legally called “genocide.” It is “extermination” to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human 8. Denial: is the eighth stage that always follows a genocide. It is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres. The perpetrators of genocide dig up the mass graves, burn the bodies, try to cover up the evidence and intimidate the witnesses. They deny that they committed any crimes, and often blame what happened on the victims |
Genocide VocabularyGenocide: The deliberate and systematic
Social Darwinism: an ideology of society that seeks to apply biological concepts of Darwinism or of evolutionary theory to sociology and politics, often with the assumption that conflict between groups in society leads to social progress as superior groups out compete inferior ones. Imperialism: The creation of unequal economic territorial, cultural relationships Arusha Accords: A peace agreement to end the three year civil war that declares a democraticelectorial government. Interhamwe: Youth militia of the Hutu extremists trained by organizers to carry out the genocide and kill Tutsi: Ethnic group in central Africa Hutu: Ethnic group in central Africa that mainly lives in Rwanda UNAMIR: The United Nations peacekeeping force brought in to support the Arusha Accords’ transition process. Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR): Army of the Hutu government led by President Habyarimana. The presidents plane was shot down, and the genocide started. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC): A global humanitarian aid organization, they saved a lot of Rwandan’s without force and weapons. |
In Class Essay:
Social Darwinism and Imperialism contributing as a leading factor of the Rwandan Genocide
In 1994, a program of massacres decimated the Republic of Rwanda. There was an estimated 800,000 people killed. Many Rwandans speak of millions of deaths, and they may be correct. The Rwandan genocide killed at more than three times the rate of Jews dead during the Holocaust. Pro-Tutsi people who were Hutu were killed as well. The conflict of this genocide was between two groups of people, the Hutu and the Tutsi. Although Rwanda was a peaceful place where it was believed that God would rest at night, Rwandans complex history lead up to such hatred between groups. Social Darwism had an impact upon this conflict when the Tutsi’s got the mindset from the French and Belgians that they were the superior and dominate ethnic group needing to utilize imperialism to rid Rwanda of the inferior group.
Hutus, the Bantu people settled in Rwanda first. They came from the west while Tutsi, the Nilotic people, migrated later from the north and east. The two groups share the same social and political culture. In the beginning chiefs were both Hutu and Tutsi. Hutus were the cultivators, while Tutsi were herdsmen. Identities took definition only in relationship to state power, as they did, two groups inevitably developed their own distinctive cultures with their own image and ideas of one another. Their feelings for each other were mainly negative. For example a Hutu is not a Tutsi and vice versa, therefore they looked upon each other as very different groups of people. The two groups are labeled by physical appearance. The Hutus are known as short, round-faced, dark-skinned, flat-nosed, thick-lipped, and square jawed, while the Tutsis are known as tall, lengthy, long-faced, not so dark-skinned, narrow-nosed, thin-lipped, and narrow-chinned. Though people know the groups apart for their physical traits, the differences of their appearances are touchy. In reality it is not easy to tell one from the other. Often times Rwandans cannot tell them apart from one another.
In 1930, Tutsi chiefs were the ruling of Rwanda. The first bishop of Rwanda was a great advocate that stated that any effort to replace Tutsi chiefs with “uncouth” Hutus would lead their entire state directly into anarchy and to bitter anti- European communism. He added, “ we have no chiefs who are better qualified, more intelligent, more active, more capable of appreciating progress, and more fully accepted by people than the Tutsi.” In the government Tutsis were given unlimited power to exploit Hutu taxes and labor against them. 1933-34 Belgians conducted a census in order to issue “ethnic identity cards” which labeled every Rwandan as Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa. This made it impossible for Hutus to become Tutsi. The Belgians had made “ethnicity.” Schools were practiced to discriminate in favor of the Tutsis. Tutsis were gaining power on administrative and political jobs, while Hutus watched their opportunities shrink. Many years later an elderly Tutsi made a statement to colonial order to a reporter with words, “you whip the Hutus or we will whip you.” This is an example of Social Darwinism because the Tutsi believed they were the superior and better ethic group, which caused violence between the groups.
In 1957, a group of nine intellectuals published a tract known as Hutu Manifesto, arguing for democracy. If Tutsis were foreign invaders, the argument went, then Rwanda was by rights a nation of the Hutu majority, and Hutus had the numbers. On November of 1959, Hutu political activist, Mbonyumutwa was beaten up by a group of men. Attackers were Tutsi political activists. Within twenty-four hours of the beating, Hutus were attacking Tutsi authorities and burning Tutsi homes. The “social revolution” had begun. Hutu leaders organized violence against Tutsis or simply arrested them randomly to assert their authority and to snatch Tutsi property. In 1992, the Hutu power ideologue Leon Mugesera delivered a famous speech, calling on Hutus to send the Tutsis back to Ethiopia by way of the Nyabarongo River, a tributary of the Nile that winds through Rwanda. This was very straight forward, in which he did not need to elaborate. As a result, April of 1994, the river was covered with dead Tutsi bodies with tens of thousands of bodies washed up on the shores of Lake Victory.
Through dense history, Rwanda was involved in a huge problem that caused many deaths. As a result, the world is left to learn from the stages that led to this genocide. Tutsis began to rule and control society. Convinced that they were the superior ethnic group, the Hutu began to attack because of the discriminating that was happening between the two ethnic groups. The Hutu had a goal to eliminate the Tutsi population. Social Darwinism helped contribute to the thought that it was the right to promote the slaughtering the Tutsi people, while imperialism led to making the Tutsi the inferior group.
Bibliography
Gourevitch, Philip. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998. Print.
Hutus, the Bantu people settled in Rwanda first. They came from the west while Tutsi, the Nilotic people, migrated later from the north and east. The two groups share the same social and political culture. In the beginning chiefs were both Hutu and Tutsi. Hutus were the cultivators, while Tutsi were herdsmen. Identities took definition only in relationship to state power, as they did, two groups inevitably developed their own distinctive cultures with their own image and ideas of one another. Their feelings for each other were mainly negative. For example a Hutu is not a Tutsi and vice versa, therefore they looked upon each other as very different groups of people. The two groups are labeled by physical appearance. The Hutus are known as short, round-faced, dark-skinned, flat-nosed, thick-lipped, and square jawed, while the Tutsis are known as tall, lengthy, long-faced, not so dark-skinned, narrow-nosed, thin-lipped, and narrow-chinned. Though people know the groups apart for their physical traits, the differences of their appearances are touchy. In reality it is not easy to tell one from the other. Often times Rwandans cannot tell them apart from one another.
In 1930, Tutsi chiefs were the ruling of Rwanda. The first bishop of Rwanda was a great advocate that stated that any effort to replace Tutsi chiefs with “uncouth” Hutus would lead their entire state directly into anarchy and to bitter anti- European communism. He added, “ we have no chiefs who are better qualified, more intelligent, more active, more capable of appreciating progress, and more fully accepted by people than the Tutsi.” In the government Tutsis were given unlimited power to exploit Hutu taxes and labor against them. 1933-34 Belgians conducted a census in order to issue “ethnic identity cards” which labeled every Rwandan as Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa. This made it impossible for Hutus to become Tutsi. The Belgians had made “ethnicity.” Schools were practiced to discriminate in favor of the Tutsis. Tutsis were gaining power on administrative and political jobs, while Hutus watched their opportunities shrink. Many years later an elderly Tutsi made a statement to colonial order to a reporter with words, “you whip the Hutus or we will whip you.” This is an example of Social Darwinism because the Tutsi believed they were the superior and better ethic group, which caused violence between the groups.
In 1957, a group of nine intellectuals published a tract known as Hutu Manifesto, arguing for democracy. If Tutsis were foreign invaders, the argument went, then Rwanda was by rights a nation of the Hutu majority, and Hutus had the numbers. On November of 1959, Hutu political activist, Mbonyumutwa was beaten up by a group of men. Attackers were Tutsi political activists. Within twenty-four hours of the beating, Hutus were attacking Tutsi authorities and burning Tutsi homes. The “social revolution” had begun. Hutu leaders organized violence against Tutsis or simply arrested them randomly to assert their authority and to snatch Tutsi property. In 1992, the Hutu power ideologue Leon Mugesera delivered a famous speech, calling on Hutus to send the Tutsis back to Ethiopia by way of the Nyabarongo River, a tributary of the Nile that winds through Rwanda. This was very straight forward, in which he did not need to elaborate. As a result, April of 1994, the river was covered with dead Tutsi bodies with tens of thousands of bodies washed up on the shores of Lake Victory.
Through dense history, Rwanda was involved in a huge problem that caused many deaths. As a result, the world is left to learn from the stages that led to this genocide. Tutsis began to rule and control society. Convinced that they were the superior ethnic group, the Hutu began to attack because of the discriminating that was happening between the two ethnic groups. The Hutu had a goal to eliminate the Tutsi population. Social Darwinism helped contribute to the thought that it was the right to promote the slaughtering the Tutsi people, while imperialism led to making the Tutsi the inferior group.
Bibliography
Gourevitch, Philip. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998. Print.
Deogratias, A Tale Of Rwanda
In my class, we read this graphic book Deogratias, A Tale of Rwanda. This story takes place before, during and after the Rwandan Genocide. The story line is based off a Hutu teenager that never recovered from the loss of his Tutsi friends during the genocide. He was conflicted and forced to join in with the killing or be killed. Since he was a Hutu he was safe, however, any Hutu that was pro- Tutsi were to be killed as well. The story begins with the main character sitting at a bar after the genocide with friends. He begins to have memories and flashbacks of his life before the genocide, as well as his two Tutsi friends who were killed. In the book he has a crush on the Tutsi girls, he remembers trying to spend time with them, however his flashbacks of him were not of him being a good person all the time. His life after the genocide seemed to be depressing and hard to recover from all the memories without going crazy.
Seminar Pre-write
What makes Deogratias go crazy?
1. Deogratias went crazy when he was conflicted between groups of people. He was in love with Tutsi girls and he wished to keep them safe, while other Hutus were tormenting him for his love to Tutsis because he is Hutu. Deogratias seems as if he is poor and has no place to stay at night. He thinks he turns into a dog at night because he gets drunk and is constantly trying to blend in so the dogs wont attack him. He was forced to rape the mother of the two Tutsi girls that he was in love with. Than the mother was killed. He probably went crazy from raping and being a part in killing Tutsis. He was threatened that he would be killed if he didn’t show his side and participate in the killing. This probably caused him to go insane through what he went through.
What was the significance of Deogratias turning into a dog?
2. The significance of Deogratias turning into a dog reminded him of the memory that stuck to him the most from seeing the dogs eat the remains of dead humans. Deogratias was crazy thinking he was a dog after he saw the dogs eat dead humans. This was a very memorable event that happened to him. He couldn’t seem to get the awful memory out of his brain, and as a result he thought he was a dog.
1. Deogratias went crazy when he was conflicted between groups of people. He was in love with Tutsi girls and he wished to keep them safe, while other Hutus were tormenting him for his love to Tutsis because he is Hutu. Deogratias seems as if he is poor and has no place to stay at night. He thinks he turns into a dog at night because he gets drunk and is constantly trying to blend in so the dogs wont attack him. He was forced to rape the mother of the two Tutsi girls that he was in love with. Than the mother was killed. He probably went crazy from raping and being a part in killing Tutsis. He was threatened that he would be killed if he didn’t show his side and participate in the killing. This probably caused him to go insane through what he went through.
What was the significance of Deogratias turning into a dog?
2. The significance of Deogratias turning into a dog reminded him of the memory that stuck to him the most from seeing the dogs eat the remains of dead humans. Deogratias was crazy thinking he was a dog after he saw the dogs eat dead humans. This was a very memorable event that happened to him. He couldn’t seem to get the awful memory out of his brain, and as a result he thought he was a dog.