What Caused The Ethnic Turmoil in Rwanda - Assignment Example

What could have gone wrong to make them hate each other so much as to result in a genocide that almost destroyed the country? There are a number of reasons that can be given for the ethnic turmoil that made the Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda turn against each other. Hutu and Tutsi practiced different economic activities. The Hutus were farmers while the Tutsis were herders. Before the mid-nineteenth century, both communities had plenty of land for farming and grazing, however, the land became scarce as the population of the Rwandese increased (7).

At one time, the country was the most densely populated in the whole of Africa. This overpopulation put a strain on the scarce land resources available in the country. The two communities started competing for the little land, with Tutsi wanting it for herding while the Hutus wanted to use it to grow crops. This competition escalated to tribal tensions which resulted in the 1994 genocide (9).Another reason given for the genocide was the way in which the Tutsi aristocracy treated the Hutu. This became a problem when the country’s Belgian colonizers treated the Tutsis with favoritism making the Hutus more like second class citizens (14).

However, at the time of independence, the Belgians reversed their favoritism and now started supporting the Hutus in administration positions. This caused a lot of tensions between the two communities (15). The tensions were escalated by economic turmoil and food shortages in the early 90s. In April 1994, the Rwandese president died after his plane was shot down and this was the catalyst that prompted the unfortunate bloodbath that left hundreds of thousands dead (17).