Hutu Power is anethnic supremacist ideology that asserts the ethnic superiority ofHutu, often in the context of being superior toTutsi andTwa, and therefore, they are entitled to dominate and murder these two groups and other minorities. Espoused by Hutu extremists, widespread support for the ideology led to the 1994Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi and the members of their families, the moderate Hutu who opposed the killings, and the Twa, who were considered traitors. Hutu Power political parties and movements included theAkazu, theParmehutu, theCoalition for the Defence of the Republic and itsImpuzamugambi paramilitary militia, and the governingNational Republican Movement for Democracy and Development and itsInterahamwe paramilitary militia. The belief in the theory that Hutu people are superior is most common inRwanda andBurundi, where they make up the majority of the population. Due to its sheer destructiveness, the ideology has been compared toNazism in theWestern world.[1]
In 1990,Hassan Ngeze wrote theHutu Ten Commandments, a document that served as the basis of the Hutu Power ideology.[2] TheCommandments called for the supremacy of Hutus in Rwanda, calling for exclusive Hutu leadership over Rwanda's public institutions and public life, completesegregation of Hutus from Tutsis, and complete exclusion of Tutsis from public institutions and public life.[3] Hutu Power ideology reviled Tutsis asoutsiders bent on restoring aTutsi-dominated monarchy, and idealized Hutu culture.
TheRwandan kingdom was traditionally ruled by a Tutsimwami, or a Tutsi king; Historical evidence suggests that Hutu andTwa were included in the government, but the Twa were included in it significantly less so than the Hutu, who were more numerous. The Tutsi/Hutu divide has been referred to as acaste system. A Hutu could gain Tutsi status through marriage or through success. Tutsis, being primarilypastoralists, had a more valuable place in Rwandan society than the agriculturalist Hutu, and thehunter-gatherer andpotter Twa.
The society created conceptions of social status which were based on the groups' traditional pursuits: the Twa, working most directly with the earth (through pottery), were considered impure; the Hutu, still working with the ground but less so than the Twa, were in turn considered less pure than the above-ground Tutsi.[4] When Germany, and later Belgium, colonized the kingdom, they interpreted the local division of races or ethnicity through theHamitic hypothesis.
European authors such asJohn Hanning Speke wrote of the Tutsi as being ofHamitic origin, having originated from modern-dayEthiopia and migrating southwards, and having brought "civilization" to theNegroid races of Sub-Saharan Africa.[5] As a result, the colonial administration favored the Tutsi at the expense of Hutu and Twa. In addition, they imposed a system of identity cards andethnic classification in censuses, which reinforced an artificial ethnic division and contributed to tensions between groups. In reality, the Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa possessed little cultural or genetic distinction.[citation needed]
 Human skulls at the Nyamata Genocide Memorial Centre |
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Toward the end of Belgian rule, the government began to favor the Hutu, who were organizing for more influence. More significantly, the Belgian administration feared the rise ofcommunism and apan-Africansocialist regime led byCongo-Léopoldville'sPatrice Lumumba. Then-Belgian High ResidentGuy Logiest set up the first democratic elections in Rwanda to avoid more radical politics.[6] As the majority population, the Hutu elected their candidates to most positions in the new government.
The first elected presidentGrégoire Kayibanda, an ethnic Hutu, used ethnic tensions to preserve his own power. Hutu radicals, working with his group (and later against it), adopted the Hamitic hypothesis, portraying the Tutsi as outsiders, invaders, and oppressors of Rwanda. Some Hutu radicals called for the Tutsi to be "sent back toAbyssinia", a reference to their supposed homeland. This early concept of Hutu Power idealized a "pre-invasion" Rwanda: an ethnically pure territory dominated by the Hutu.
In 1973, general and defense ministerJuvénal Habyarimana, an ethnic Hutu supported by more radical northern Rwandans, overthrew Kayibanda and had him and his wife apparently killed under house arrest. Many of his supporters were from his district in the north, descendants of Hutu kingdoms that had been semi-autonomous before the colonial period.[citation needed] The resulting administration proved better for Tutsis, as government-sponsored violence was more sporadic than under Kayibanda.[citation needed]
With economic conditions difficult, and threatened by theRwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invasion, Habyarimana turned to inflaming ethnic tensions.
Hutu Power acquired a variety of spokesmen.Hassan Ngeze, an entrepreneur recruited by the government to combat the Tutsi publicationKanguka, created and editedKangura, a radical Hutu Power newsletter. He published the "Hutu Ten Commandments", which included the following:
Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines broadcast radio shows suggesting the end to toleration of the Tutsi, repeating the Hutu Ten Commandments, and building support for the Hutu Power ideology. Two main voices of RTLM were announcersValérie Bemeriki andGeorges Ruggiu. The repetition of Hutu Ten Commandments was an attempt to incite and mobilize the population to commit genocide against the Tutsi, who were portrayed as threatening the social and political order achieved since independence, and as envisioned by theAkazu.[7][8] PoliticianLéon Mugesera gave a speech in November, 1992, allegedly stating, "Do not be afraid, know that anyone whose neck you do not cut is the one who will cut your neck...Let them pack their bags, let them get going, so that no one will return here to talk and no one will bring scraps claiming to be flags!"[9] The radio programs frequently referred to the Tutsi asinyenzi, aKinyarwanda word meaning 'cockroach', though the term had also been a self-description by members of the TutsiRwanda Patriotic Front.[10]
The Commandments declared that any form of relationship between Hutus and Tutsi women was forbidden; and that any Hutu who "marries a Tutsi woman", "befriends a Tutsi woman", or "employs a Tutsi woman as a secretary or a concubine" was a traitor to the Hutu people.[3] It denounced Tutsis as dishonest in business whose "only aim is the supremacy of hisethnic group"; and declared that any Hutu who did business with a Tutsi was a traitor to the Hutu people.[3] The Commandments declared that "The Hutu should stop having mercy on the Tutsi" and referred to the Tutsis as "common Tutsi enemy".[3]
During the attempted negotiations (Arusha Accords) between the Rwandan government and theRPF, radical Hutus began alleging that Habyarimana was being manipulated by Tutsis and non-radical Hutus. They maligned then-Prime MinisterAgathe Uwilingiyimana.[11] FollowingHabyarimana's assassination, an act that at the time people speculated was done by Tutsi extremists, Hutu Power forces mobilized militia, most notablyInterahamwe, and mobs to carry out the mass killings of theRwandan genocide. The Presidential Guard of the army killed Prime Minister Uwilingiyimana and several other leading moderate government officials.
The defeat of the government by the RPF ended the genocide, and the Hutu Power movement was defeated and suppressed.Many Hutu Power spokesmen were arrested after the genocide, charged and put on trial. Ngeze was convicted and sentenced to 35 years' imprisonment. In 2005, Mugesera was deported fromCanada to Rwanda to stand trial for his role in the killings.[12]
