No. 10: What do the words that label people as non-human do

1)
Do you know about the genocide in Rwanda?
Let's dive into history together this time.

Last time, I explained a case where Japanese people believed a false rumour during the Great Kanto Earthquake, and as a result, they massacred Koreans. Today, I would like to think about "listening" together based on the genocide that occurred in Africa.

2)
I feel that I can hear the voices of genocide again.
At the same time, some people may wonder what genocide is.

The word genocide is not often used in everyday life.
I don't want to encounter a situation where I would use it.

But when it is used as a word, I think it conjures up images of killing brutally, or the word means killing a lot of people.
Usually, it is used intuitively without thinking about its exact meaning.

3)
Have you ever heard the word genocide?
It has a more precise definition than "killing a lot of people."

Under international law, it means mass murder with the intent to destroy a particular group of people, such as a race or ethnic group.
It can be said that what we will be looking at together this time is a classic example of this genocide.

4)
It happened in 1994 in a small country called Rwanda in Central Africa.
Eight hundred thousand people died in the genocide that took place in three months.

If you consider that cities with more than 500,000 people in Japan are called ordinance-designated cities or metropolises, you can see how significant the number 800,000 is.

Niigata City and Hamamatsu City have a population of around 800,000. There was a genocide in Rwanda that wiped out the entire population of these cities.

5)
Most of them are also from an ethnic group called the Tutsi. It can be called genocide, a mass murder of a particular race.
Also, ordinary people took axes and killed Tutsi after Tutsi.

So why did Tutsi people have to be killed just because they were Tutsi?

6)
There are two main ethnic groups in Rwanda.

The Tutsi and the Hutu. You may not know which is which because you are not used to the words, but I want you to remember the sounds of "Tutsi" and "Hutu".

Compared to the population, the number of Tutsis killed is overwhelmingly minor. Tutsis comprise about 10% to 20% of Rwanda's population, and Hutus 80% to 90%.

I see that the Tutsis who were killed were a minority in the country, and the people who killed them were the majority, which might make it easier to understand.

Tutsi = murdered people, ethnic minority
Hutu = murderers, majority ethnic group

The majority kills the minority. That's the general idea, but it's a bit more complicated.

7)
In reality, for some reason, the Tutsi minority was on the side of ruling the country as a privileged class, while the Hutu people, who were supposed to be the majority, were on the side of being discriminated against and dominated.

Why was class so clearly determined by ethnicity? This division deepened during the colonial period.

For more than 40 years, from 1918 to 1962, Rwanda was a colony of the European country of Belgium.
If you were a Belgian coloniser, how would you run the colony?

8)
Those who are colonised are not welcome. Of course, they come from nowhere and are dominated and exploited. That is not welcome.
If something is not done, people will become dissatisfied and even start a rebellion.

What happens to us when discontent and rebellion ignite?

9)
Belgium thought of a way to disperse this discontent and opposition.

The answer was to divide the Tutsis and Hutus. A small number of Tutsis were given preferential treatment and influential positions, while the majority of Hutus were excluded entirely and mistreated.

This created a system in which the Tutsis ruled the Hutus. From the Belgian point of view, as long as they control the Tutsis, they will control the Hutus.

10)
This method is called "divide and conquer" and was seen in other colonies, but in retrospect, Belgium prepared the ground for the genocide that was to follow.

But wait, why did Belgium make the Tutsi minority the ruling class? They would generally favour the Hutu people, who are the majority.

No, I can't help but wonder if it's because it becomes difficult for Belgium to control the ruling class if it has many people.

11)
There was indeed a sense of discrimination at the time.

The small number of Tutsis resembled whites in skin colour and nose shape. You might think I'm an idiot if I told you this alone was enough to qualify me as excellent. That's what I felt when I first heard it.

After all, there's no way that people who look more like white people are better.

12)
But that was the European view of race at that time. I realise now how arrogant it was, but at the time, European countries didn't think it was strange to colonise countries in Africa and Asia.

It was justified as an act of civilising a barbarian country. In that sense, I thought it was only natural that the Tutsis, who looked like white people and were superior, should rule over the inferior Hutus, who did not look like white people.

13)
However, since Tutsis are also black, not white, it was sometimes difficult to distinguish them from Hutus at first sight.
To clarify this, residents were required to register and carry identity cards indicating whether they were Tutsi or Hutu.

As a result, the division between the Tutsi, who have a sense of elitism, and the Hutu, who have an understanding of injustice and victimisation, is deepening.

14)
It won't be easy to light damp wood, but if you dry the wood and soak it in oil, it will easily catch fire.
By analogy, it can be said that Rwanda's foundation for ignition was laid during the colonial period.

15)
1962 Rwanda gained independence from Belgium, and the Hutu majority became the ruling class.
Some 30 years later, in 1994, genocide broke out.

The immediate trigger was the shooting down of a plane carrying a Hutu president.
In the 1990s, this Hutu president put his anti-Tutsi policies on the front burner, leading to heightened tensions between the two ethnic groups.

16)
In the midst of all this, the plane carrying the Hutu president crashed. And the massacre began that night.

The radio played a significant role in inciting even ordinary people to commit genocide and in spreading the massacre throughout the country.

It repeatedly broadcasted that the downing of the presidential plane was the work of the Tutsis and called for the "Tutsi cockroaches" to be exterminated.

17)
Tutsis are cockroaches.

Hutu people hear these phrases all the time. What would you think if you were them?
How would human emotions be affected if we were repeatedly told that a fiercely hostile race is a cockroach?

18)
It is said that for genocide to occur, there is a process called "dehumanisation" in which the target is no longer seen as human, but if this is the case, then brainwashing that "Tutsis are cockroaches" would be precisely that.

By unconsciously dehumanising the target, it is said to have the effect of weakening resistance to killing.

19)
Of course, not all Hutus participated in the genocide. But it is said that at least tens of thousands of Hutus were determined to "annihilate" the Tutsis and, at times, willingly participated in the killings. Some killed voluntarily, some followed orders, and some were motivated by anger at poverty.

But the fact that tens of thousands of ordinary people joined is shocking.

20)
Talking about this, I realise that there are similarities with the previous massacre of Koreans.

In a place where there was a strong sense of discrimination, hatred and fear towards different ethnic groups, hearing false rumours and dehumanising words ignited a fire that led to widespread genocide.

21)
It is not known whether Tutsis committed the shooting down of the Hutu presidential plane.

When enthusiasm is born, it doesn't matter whether it's true. The trigger is a set of words that incite hostility.

Can you act without being confused by what you hear?
This question is still with us today.

Who are Hutu and Tutsi? Explaining the history that led to the Rwandan civil war

https://eleminist.com/article/3239

President Macron is the first government in history to admit that "France also bears a grave responsibility" for the Rwandan genocide that killed 800,000 people
https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/106221

Hotel Rwanda (2004) - 8.1/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395169/
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9B%E3%83%86%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%83%AB%E3%83%AF%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80

In 1994, during the Rwandan genocide that broke out in Rwanda, Hutu extremists massacred more than 1.2 million moderate members of the same tribe and Tutsis, and he hid more than 1,200 refugees in the hotel where he worked. The story is based on the true story of Paul Rusesabagina.

Hutu extremists killed around 800,000 people in about 100 days before being eliminated by Tutsi rebels. A text at the end of the film shows that the leaders of the genocide, including the Hutu generals, have been brought to justice.