A Little More Than a Decade Ago, Rwanda Witness Three Months of Racial Genocide in Which

Kassaundra Escalera

BIOE 301

Book Review

3/24/06

Philip Gourevitch’s We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families: Stories from Rwanda

A little more than a decade ago, Rwanda witness three months of racial genocide in which 800,000 Tutsis were murdered in an attempt to “exterminate these cockroaches.” Philip Gourevitch’s novel We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families: Stories from Rwandaopens the doors to the historical beginnings of this feud, the influences that intensified them, and exposes a reader to a world they may have never truly understood otherwise. In pre-colonial times there existed a feudal system in which the Tutsi royal family controlled the Kingdom of Rwanda. Yet still unique in the world, the country has always contained an internal cohesion as every citizen shared one language, one faith, one law. Once known for their “ferocious exclusiveness, how then could Rwandans become so convinced of their separation to be inclined to carry out orders telling them to kill their neighbors, their school teachers, and their pupils? Gourevitch argues the Belgian interference in 1890 was a significant moment, at which point the racial prejudices were greatly intensified and the Tutsis and Hutus were pitted against each other in a desperate attempt to take control and possess power over the other.

In order to explore this influence Gourevitch discuss the historical state of the nation in pre-colonial times and in the times after the Belgians imposed their power over the nation. The divide between the Rwandans, before the Belgians, were not exclusive as status and identity were to be determined by many other factors such as clan, region, military prowness and individual industry. The pre-colonial relationship between these ‘two peoples’ was based on the cultural difference that resulted from the feudal separation, resentments most likely existed; however internal colonialism had not become an issue within the country. In the late 1800s and early 1900s “race science” was incredibly popular in Europe and was then applied to the two tribes, marking the deadly beginning of the Rwandans’ successive struggles for power.The myth that the Tutsi race was superior was confirmed by the racial scientists’ observations and studies of the two races. They found that Tutsis had “nobler” more “naturally” aristocratic dimensions than the “coarse” and “bestial” Hutus. This superiority was based on the Tutsis closer association with the White race and their narrower noses. It was with the intense Belgian influences that the dominant group began enforcing internal colonialism, indirect population transfer, and segregation. Tutsis in elite position were given “unlimited power to exploit” the Hutu race. Institutional discrimination had been effectively incorporated into the Rwandan society as an extension of the individual discrimination. Belgians dictated the order in the 1950s to Tutsis—“you whip the Hutu or we will whip you.”

From this disillusionment and intensified struggle Gourevitch paints the portrait of a country dominated by violence. A just political system was impossible as the struggle remained with one objective to dominate the other. The order was sent by the government “everyone of the Hutu majority to kill everyone of the Tutsi minority.” Blood revenge is what the Hutu sought, in retribution for all the oppression they had endured. They had a significant advantage in numbers, and in their unity they formed their end objective genocide of the Tutsis race—complete extermination. The massacre is given in great detail, as Gourevitch gives a powerfully beautiful account of the remains.Three months of genocide were carried out and the ending was one of a broken people living in a broken country. The help from outside countries was futile and insufficient. The UN refugee camps attempted to amend the genocide, but also served as an insignificant band-aid and old helped a fraction of the people. Rwanda continues to struggle with ways to improve investment and agricultural output and attain some point of reconciliation.

In relation to Bioengineering and World Health, there are two points that are discussed within the book. The first is the superstitious methods and mindsets of Rwandans, in relation to those in other African countries. We discussed African remedies of curing the ill and leaving the mother and child alone for a period of time after birth to protect from harm. A similar fear is discussed in the novel with respect to being poisoned by ones enemy. Further emphasizing the nation’s state of distrust and disillusionment about politics, survival was rooted in avoiding these poisonous powers. Even today these ideas of sorcery are expressed when there is a lack of evidence to support a case. Secondly, the outbreak of cholera, which was claimed to be stabilized, was another parallel to the course. However placing people in these camps put them in harms way, as it is highly contagious—most especially in such close-quarters.

“A country in which justice loses the fundamental quality of respecting minorities prepares the worst disorders and its own collapse” (61). This statement captures the tone of the novel in its realization that such a separated people can never have a functional government or society because their primary aim is not to survive; instead it has become to persecute and kill until one has power over the other. Gourevitch gives the accounts of each side, the Tutsis and Hutus, outsiders, and current officials. In this the reader is given a full perspective of this terrible tragedy and gives some understanding as to how something of such primal brutality could happen so few years ago.