Genocide in Rwanda - Dissertation Example

The two groups had different economic roles and responsibilities, the Tutsis were pastoralist while the Hutus were farmers. These are the main economic activities between the two major groups. The Hutus arrived and settled in the region long before the Tutsis came later. The Tutsis are Nilotic and taller slender and having a paler skin with thin lips. On the other hand, the Hutus are shorter, darker and stalker, having a flat nose and thick lips. This means the two ethnic groups were very different both economically and physically.

The colonial powers considered Tutsis superior to Hutus in terms of their appearance and skin color; paler. The German and Belgian colonialists use the Tutsis in extending their colonial agenda. The colonial governments passed laws that required everybody to carry identity cards that classified ten as Hutu or Tutsi. This broadened the breach amid the two sets even further. Studies show that the nation`s populace concentration is one of the highest globally. The populace concentration tops that of the populous nations in Africa.

It then started by small violence a form of resistance by Hutus against Tutsis. This spirally escalated into a big problem as the struggle spread into other areas of society. In later years, the economic growth of Rwanda was hindered by the drought that affected the country and exposed the two communities to many environmental problems; fertility loss, soil erosion, and deforestation. All this forms the essential links to what created the problems and led to ethnic clashes. In the late 1990s, the then Tutsi activist Habyarimana took a Tutsi led attempted invasion on Rwanda.

This according to studies, this led to the first civil war that caused more than a million Rwandan to be physically displaced and they fled into settlement camps (Bloxham 45). The situation causes young and desperate Rwandan to join militia groups in readiness to avenge. The need for vengeance as a way of solving immediate problems meant that more blood had to be shade. From the previous fact that Rwandans population has since been bloated and it still grows, any unstable environmental factor brought with it.

The droughts caused social stress on the resources that were scarce because of an increased population; Hutus were fighting for the scarce farmland while the Tutsis thought they had bigger powers to control the pastoral lands in relation to their political dominance. This meant that ethnic clashes were inevitable reaction given to one problem resulted in another problem. For instance, the Hutus struggled and formed militia groups as a formidable force for battle.