From Colonial Division to Nationalist Violence: The Roots and Legacies of the Rwandan Genocide

Up to 2 million people fled Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, with 75,000 survivors being children who lost one or both parents (World Vision, 2023). This essay discusses the causes and consequences of the Rwandan Genocide and the key role that colonialism and nationalism played in driving the events that occurred between April 7 and July 15 in 1994 (Straus, 2020). Ethnic ID cards introduced by Belgian colonialists in 1926 racialized Hutu and Tutsi, fostering discrimination. Hutu nationalism, fueled by historical oppression and economic decline from the 1989 coffee crisis, led to violence triggered by the assassination of President Juvénal Habyarimana. Consequences include economic collapse, widespread PTSD, and stigmatization of children born from rape. Rwanda’s ban on ethnic identification aims to curb divisionism but limits monitoring of inequality, impacting recovery efforts.