Navigating the Dark Waters of Evil: the Roles of Colonial Interference, Propaganda, and Obedience in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide

Abstract

In April 1994, the Rwandan Genocide erupted. The Hutu people, an ethnic group in Rwanda, endeavored to annihilate the Tutsi, an ethnic group that had coexisted with the Hutu for hundreds of years in the Rwandan region. Neighbors killed neighbors, friends killed friends, preachers killed church members, and family killed family; the question is “why”? How could churches open their doors to the innocents only to hold them for the coming slaughter? How could adults lead children to water to drown? This research shows that because of the European colonial interference after World War I, the propaganda of the Hutu-controlled government, the Rwandan’s idea of obedience, and the feeling of ethnic pride that surged through the Hutu and Tutsi people, the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 had been in the making for over thirty years.