Was ethnicity the cause of the Rwandan genocide Essay

Was ethnicity the cause of the Rwandan genocide - Essay Example This has not been possible owing to the fact that political stability has progressively been shaken by the shaky political regimes in many of the countries. Rwanda is a country that has deep marks of ethnic violence that was fuelled by political propaganda. The 1994 genocide was orchestrated by the rivalry of the country’s ethnic communities. The ‘Hutu’ and the ‘Tutsi’ ethnic rivalry, sparkled by the political regimes of that time flamed a historical genocide that is yet to heal, two decades down the line since it ended. The role of ruling any government in integrating a nation regardless of its diverse multi-ethnic groups is significant although this has hardly been witnessed in Africa’s political leadership. The leaders when elected are offered the power to construct or destroy and seemingly bringing down a state that has been built for years is quite a simple task. It only takes some propaganda from a ‘charismatic’ leader to provoke and incite one community against the other as seen in Rwanda (Burnell, Randall and Rakner, 2010: 100). One tactic that the colonisers used against their subjects was divide and rule. This involved disentangling and disintegrating the unity between the subjects so as to ensure they do not speak, act or respond in unison. Through this technique, the rulers would achieve a divided response that enabled them to enforce their regulations and command with relative ease. The same tactic, apparently, has been adopted by the commonly referred to as ‘post-colonisers’ who have used the diversity in ethnicity to their advantage. Self-gratification can best be achieved when citizens are incited against each other so that when they break into a fight, the leader’s interests are protected. Such selfish leaders would explore any division or crack in the society through which they can blackmail and sabotage just ways replacing them with deceptions and propagandas in a bid to