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Abstract
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Belgian Colonization of Rwanda: Racism, Division and Exploitation
In commemorating the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi, we affirm the integrity of Rwanda and the Rwandan people. They were torn asunder by the German and Belgian governments and the Belgian White Fathers for whom a morally perverted form of religion and destructive colonialism went hand in hand. They worked together in arrogance and wilful ignorance of Rwandan culture and civilization--with their bigoted, racist ideologies--when they forced themselves upon Rwanda during colonization.
The Belgian government ruled Rwanda particularly catastrophically and ruthlessly. They built upon Germany's racist policies in Rwanda, and, by cultivating division and hate in Rwandan society; employing a divide and conquer strategy of invasion, conquest, discrimination and persecution, helped lay the groundwork for mass murder and genocide.2 They destroyed Rwanda's
physical and spiritual integrity, freedom and independence--politically,
religiously, culturally and socially. They exploited Rwandans to fight in their wars only to betray Rwandans following their ultimate sacrifice with ingratitude and malice.
They destroyed an indigenous culture and form of governance that integrated Hutus and Tutsis into diverse clans.3 Instead, they cultivated artificial and foreign notions of essentialized and racialized Hutus and Tutsis. Rwandans know the horrific consequences of this coercive and racist Belgian reconstruction of Rwandan social and political identities in the service of dividing Rwandans and alienating them from one another to advance Belgian colonization and its pernicious aims. Rwanda neither asked for nor needed Europeans to meddle in its affairs and offer false promises. But the Germans and Belgians did not ask--they felt entitled--they invaded, attacked and plundered. Rwanda lives with the murderous consequences of their colonization and racism and the mass resentment, jealousy and violence it begot every day...
Language: en |