Rwanda: From Gorillas to Guerillas Part 1 of 4

In this first of four section we look back at the history of Rwanda from colonialism to the genocide of 1994. This section contains images which some people may find upsetting.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• history
• rwanda
• genocide
• africa
• safari
• mountain
• gorilla
• humanities

[sabizeze]

The images and music are great. The story line..questionable..one major thing that is incredibly questionable: White people did not invent the words Hutu Tutsi and Twa.

I 100% believe that these words were used and had all their meaning away before White people reached the country. Based on numerous historical materials, the 1st known white person to have reached Rwanda came around 1800 smth. And Rwanda existed away before that.

[m1chaelewins]

I'm sorry you got the message you did. I did not intend that to be the message. When the Germans and Belgians arrived in Rwanda they found three distinct ethnic groups living there, as you rightly pointed out. It was later, when the identity cards were issued, that the meaning of these identities became blurry.

That was what I intended to say in the film and am sorry that was not made clear.

[ajd0727]

Hi - great video. Well put together. I weas in Rwanda in 1994 and again in 1997, and heading back there in a couple of months. Tell, me - do you know where the church is at the beginning of the video? Would like to go see it. Keep up the great work.

[m1chaelewins]

I'm sorry I did not respond earlier to this. There are several churches depicted in the movie. The one which is by the lake is in Kibuye. It is the only one which has been restored. There are then two more which are near to Kigali, in Nyamata and Ntarama. These two are disturbing in that when I was there they had bones, clothes, and bullet holes everywhere. I believe they have now been cleaned up and placed on display in their respective churches.

[Leonce62]

The Churches, the pope and the UN did nothing to stop it. This is annihilation and not a genocide. Talk about the genocide of the red man, that was a genocide which the world never heard of. The Catholic church and the military divided the ethnic groups, the belgians gave Habyarimana the power and the americans supporting what is happening in the Congo. We never heard about the machetes used by the belgians in the Congo, and how the missionaries forced the people to become Christians.