Rwanda, The Land of a Thousand Hills. Nestled deeply in Central Africa is a land of rolling hills, lush greenery and several tribes that lived in peace for centuries.
In 1916, after World War One, Belgium accepted the League of Nations Mandate to rule over Rwanda. During which time the Belgians, set up a system of government, culture and society, similar to that of Belgium. Their own personal slice of Europe in Central Africa. European culture, cuisine, farming techniques and society started taking form.
Then came the anthropologists and their eugenics mindset. Looking at the various tribes and giving them higher places in society based on physical appearance. Briefly, eugenics is the study of how to arrange reproduction within a population to increase certain inheritable traits or features. More about the perversion of eugenics in the page, The Horrible. Setting one tribe, the Tutsi's, in power based solely on physical stature, color (more fair, compared to most Africans) and perceived wealth of cattle. The Hutu tribe, shorter, darker and huskier in appearance, mostly farmers, were perceived to be in lesser power socially. Both tribes had existed in peace for centuries, intermarrying and sharing life together. However, the Belgium's upset this balance, by placing ethnic identity cards in the hands of the citizens. Now all Rwandans were labeled by tribe, or worse solely by appearance.
Belgium had set up a Tutsi lead government. This fell back to Hutu's some years later after a revolt. Back and forth, modern government clashed with tribal, clashed with military, clashed with a once held peace. Both, now distinct, tribes held power at various times. In 1962 Rwanda became a free nation, out from under the Belgium rule. The tribal/racial/ethnic tensions didn't stop, they got worse through the years.
April 6, 1994 the genocide of Tutsi's and Hutu sympathizers started. Racial tensions from decades of puppet string fueled ethnic cat and mouse rule exploded in the worse way. Please continue reading on the page, The Horrible.
Page Citations: I chose Wikipedia pages as a source, due to the high concentration of resources. The references of each link has many other sources available.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Rwanda
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations_mandate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics
Photo credit, Ian Dort