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            The genocide in Rwanda took place over the course of 100 days, beginning in April 1994, and is known as one of the most brutal acts of murder ever committed. An estimated one million, or possibly more, men women and children were brutally slaughtered. The conflict was “ethnic,” although the populace of Rwanda is biologically homogenous. The perpetrators were Hutu; an ethnic or tribal distinction for the historically oppressed majority group in Rwanda. The victims were Tutsi; the distinction for the “European looking,” historically privileged minority. The hostility was politically charged, and the violence was state-sponsored. Women were raped, children were orphaned, masses were displaced, and innocents were murdered by machete at an unprecedented pace. From a distance, humanity often asks “why,” expecting to hear a particular motive, such as incivility or racial hate. However, a solitary explanation for this horror does not exist. There was not a single pivotal person or key event that elicited this monstrosity. A closer look at the Rwandan genocide reveals how such occurrences inevitably have very specific historical, political, economic and cultural backgrounds. The incidence of genocide occurred because of over a hundred years of built up superficial conflict based on tribal distinctions and cycles of violence.

The roots of the genocide trace back to the period of colonization. Rwanda’s population problem relates back to its appealing and beneficial physical setting. These population problems went on to cause economic and political unrest. The tribal distinctions of Rwanda are cultural and historical. However, the stigma and division of these tribal distinctions were created by the white man during colonization. This is evident because the distinctions lived in peace prior to colonization. There are no recorded cycles of violence between distinctions until the arrival of the white man in Rwanda. But after their arrival, in less than a century, they created a state that was intensely pressured enough to plan and carry out the slaughter of millions. Historical social cohesion was gradually diminished. The superficial ethnic rivalry gradually intensified to create a power struggle that grew increasingly deep and concentrated with every encounter between Tutsi and Hutu. Propaganda, the church, poverty, social structure, cycles of violence, and intense economic and political situations all played significant roles in allowing the Hutu extremist movement to gain power and carry out the genocide. But the ethnic hatred is the underlying, common dynamic behind all these all these factors.