Rebuilding shattered lives toward a brighter future

From April to July of 1994 the people of Rwanda suffered the most horrible of human tragedies, a genocide which claimed the lives of approximately one million people.

For 100 days, Rwanda’s Extremist Hutus sought to systematically eliminate every Tutsi (and any moderate Hutu who supported Tutsi rights)….and they almost accomplished their despicable goal. Men, women and children were brutally murdered; women were violently raped and sexually tortured, children were forced to watch their parents killed in the most horrific of ways. Hundreds of thousands of Rwandese were forced to flee – going into hiding or trying to escape to a safe haven – leaving behind their homes or their families in the ensuing chaos.

Rwanda's genocide has left this tiny nation in need of great healing and restoration: of reconciling perpetrators and survivors, of caring for orphans and widows and rape victims left behind, of providing opportunities for all of Rwanda's 11 million citizens to find a way out of the devastation and poverty that impacts this nation.

While the world tends to define Rwanda only by the genocide of 1994, a new vision is unfolding. Rwanda's people are rebuilding their shattered lives and finding hope for a bright new future. Thousands of victims are finding the courage and strength to face another day – to move on and not believe that their lives are over because of what they have suffered.

History of Rwanda

Africa's Land of a Thousand Hills

The Republic of Rwanda, known as the Land of a Thousand Hills, is a landlocked country located in the Great Lakes region of eastern-central Africa.

1. The Land & Her People
The Republic of Rwanda, known as the Land of a Thousand Hills, is a landlocked country located in the Great Lakes region of eastern-central Africa, bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania.

The colonial era in Rwanda began in 1884 when the territory of Ruanda-Urundi was assigned to Germany by the Berlin Conference, being united with Tanganyika to form German East Africa. The Germans did not significantly alter the societal structure of the country, but exerted some influence by supporting the existing hierarchy. They also observed and perpetuated the ethnic divisions of the country, favoring the Tutsi as the ruling class.

After World War I, Germany lost control of Ruanda-Urundi to Belgian forces. The Belgian involvement was far more direct than the German, and extended the colonizer's interests into education, health, public works and agricultural supervision. Belgium also maintained the existing class system, promoting Tutsi supremacy and disenfranchising the Hutus.

The Belgian authorities considered the Hutus and Tutsis different races and in 1935 introduced identity cards labeling each individual as either Tutsi, Hutu or Twa (a pygmy group that was less than 1% of the population). This classification was often based arbitrarily on physical characteristics; borderline cases were decided on cattle ownership with those owning ten or more cattle labeled Tutsi and others as Hutu. This further cultivated ethnic and social prejudices, deepening the roots of divide and hate among the inhabitants of the territory.

Rwanda's establishment as a UN Trust Territory under Belgian administration, coupled with a wave of Pan-Africanism across the continent, started the colony's move towards independence in 1945. This prospect of independence led to a polarization of Tutsi and Hutu as they both sought to establish themselves as adopters of a country free from colonial influence.

In 1960, the Belgian government agreed to hold democratic municipal elections in Ruanda- Urundi, in which Hutu representatives were elected by the Hutu majorities. This precipitous change in the power structure threatened the centuries-old system by which Tutsi superiority had been maintained through monarchy. Belgium then split the territory into two countries; Rwanda and Burundi. On July 1, 1962, Belgium granted full independence to the two countries. Rwanda was created as a republic governed by the majority Party of the Hutu Emancipation Movement (Parmehutu), which had gained full control of national politics by this time.

In 1963, a Tutsi guerrilla invasion into Rwanda from Burundi unleashed an anti-Tutsi backlash by the Hutu government in Rwanda, and an estimated 14,000 people were killed. Rwanda now became a Hutu-dominated one-party state. Gregoire Kayibanda, founder of Parmehutu was the first president from 1962 to 1973, until Juvenal Habyarimana took power from Kayibanda in a 1973 coup, claiming the government to have been ineffective and riddled with favoritism.

2. Rwanda in Civil War
Rwanda's economic struggles through the late 70s and early 80s led to dissidence among the Hutu majority who were expecting more from their leader. At the same time, Tutsi refugees in Uganda - supported by some moderate Hutus - were forming the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Their aim was to secure their right to return to their homeland and they threatened to wage an armed struggle. President Habyarimana chose to exploit this threat as a way to bring dissident Hutus back to his side, and Tutsis inside Rwanda were accused of being RPF collaborators.

In 1990 the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel group composed mostly of the Tutsi refugees, invaded northern Rwanda from Uganda. Paul Kagame became the leader of the RPF after the death of the founding leader Fred Rwigema. The Rwandan Civil War, fought between the Hutu regime and the RPF vastly increased the ethnic tensions in the country and led to the rise of Hutu Power, an ideology that asserted that the Tutsi intended to enslave Hutus and thus must be resisted at all costs. Despite continuing ethnic strife, including the displacement of large numbers of Hutu in the north by the rebels and periodic localized extermination of Tutsi to the south, pressure on the government of President Habyarimana resulted in a cease-fire in 1993 and the preliminary implementation of the Arusha Accords.

3. The Rwandan Genocide
On April 6, 1994 Rwandan President Habyarimana and the Burundian President were killed when Habyarimana’s plane was shot down near Kigali Airport. Hutu extremists, suspecting that the Rwandan president was finally about to implement the Arusha Peace Accords, are believed to have been behind the attack.

The shooting down of the plane served as the trigger for the Genocide. In the course of the next few months the Hutu majority in Rwanda organized and implemented the mass slaughter of the Tutsi minority. Hundreds of thousands of Rwanda’s Tutsis were killed on the orders of the Hutu-dominated government under the Hutu Power ideology. Over the course of approximately 100 days, from April 6th through mid-July, at least 1,000,000 were killed. Once the genocide began, the Tutsi RPF restarted their offensive, eventually defeating the genocidal government army and seizing control of the country. After its military victory in July 1994, the RPF organized a coalition government called The Broad Based Government of National Unity. Pasteur Bizimungu, a deputy leader of the RPF, was instituted as president and Paul Kagame became the Vice President.

4. Post-Genocide Rwanda
Approximately two million Hutus, participants in the genocide and/or bystanders, with anticipation of Tutsi retaliation, fled from Rwanda, to Burundi, Tanzania, and Uganda, Paul Kagame was elected to a 7-year Presidential term in 2003.

5. Today
Rwanda has been on a upward trajectory for the last decade. Economic reform has led to a massive increase in GDP, and primary education is now fee-free (though students still need to pay for uniforms and books.). Despite these advances, 90% of the population still lives on less than $2 a day and only 2% of students ever make it to college. Furthermore, many of the cultural and social stress points of Rwanda's history still exist.

There is still a great need for social and economic investment in Rwanda.