Status Updates From We Wish to Inform You That ...

Since 1959, the diaspora of exiled Rwandan Tutsis and their children had grown to include about a million people; it was the largest and oldest unresolved African refugee problem.

Citing the country’s chronic overpopulation, exiles were forbidden to come back to Rwanda and Habyarimana outlawed contact with the refugees.

Despite the Hutu monopoly on power, the Hamitic myth remained the basis of the state ideology. So a deep almost mythical sense of inferiority persisted among Rwanda’s new Hutu elite.

In Genesis, the older brother, Cain, was a cultivator, and Abel, the younger, was a herdsman. They made their offerings to God-Cain from his crops, Abel from his herds. Abel’s portion won God’s regard; Cain’s did not. So Cain killed Abel.

Hutus were cultivators and Tutsis were herdsmen. This was the original inequality: cattle are more valuable than produce.

In 1860, when Mwami Kigeri Rwabugiri, a Tutsi, ascended to the throne of Rwanda, Tutsis were favored for top political and military offices, and enjoyed greater financial power as well. The regime was essentially feudal: Tutsis were aristocrats; Hutus were vassals.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.