Re [lbo-talk] Rwandan massacres not racist?

Joseph Wanzala jwanzala at hotmail.com
Sun Feb 22 11:45:33 PST 2004


The main historical distinction between Hutu's and Tutsi's were that the Tutsis were pastoralists whereas the Hutu were cultivators, there are also physiologogal diferences - but they speak the same language - Kinyarwanda. Out of several Tutsi chiefdoms , a leading Tutusi clan gradually created a small compact state in the 17th century centered around a divine kingship - the 'Mwami' and a feudal system of complete domination over the Hutu developed reminscent of aristocratic societies of antiquity and of European feudalism. The Tutsi aristocracy regarded manual labor other than herding cattle as below their dignity and many 'racist' stereoypes about Hutu's and Tutsi parallel those about say the English and Irish, or Northern Europeans and Slavic people. Tutsi society was one of the most hierarchical and feudal social systems that developed in sub-Saharan Africa. In fact,the Tutis society could be considered an African Herrenvolk society. Under Belgian colonial rule this heirarchy was maintaned (as with the British vis the Baganda Kingdom in neighboring Uganda - from where I hail) for the most part - but as part of the shift towards independence there was a sort of Hutu civil rights movement which found its most brutal expression in the Hutu revolts in the 1960s (during which many Tutsis, including current President Paul Kagame fled to Uganda). This account of an African conquest society illustrates that racism has no color, it is simply a function of patterns of domination arising from conquest or different modes of production.

Fast forward to 1994 and Rwanda was reaping the cruel harvest of World Bank structural adjustment strictures, and Tutsis, in Uganda, led by the then former Commander of the Ugandan Armed Forces Paul Kagame and with logistical support from American special forces troops were launching violent incursions into Rwanda providing grist to the Hutu dominated government's 'scapegoating of the Tutsis' mill. (So the notion that the US 'stood by and did nothing' is a myth) In other words the tension caused by the acute economic crisis in Rwanda was being channelled into old hatreds towards the minorty ethnic group - the Tutsis - who had a history of racist subjugation of the Hutus. This scapegoating was legitimated by Tutsi revanchism from Uganda that was itself a subtext for a geo-political battle between France and the United States for control of the region - specialy Zaire - AKA, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its vast mineral wealth. The mass killings in Rwanda by Hutu extremists against Hutu moderates and Tutsi was also part of this larger geopolitical conflagration. The Rwandan Patriotic Front, led by Fort-Leavenworth, Kansas trained Paul Kagame, with the assistance of the US against the French backed Hutu militias, after gaining control of Rwanda, then pursued their and the American's ultimate goal - the removal of erstwhile US ally Mobutu Sese Seko from power in Zaire and the installation of the corrupt ne'er-do-well Laurent Kabila under the control of Rwandan Tutsis. Kabila failed to go along with the plan and declared war against the Tutsi outsiders resulting in an African 'world war' duting which upwads of 4 million people perished - and the war continues apace................

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