Ñhallenges to development posed by Rwandas colonial experience

CHALLENGES TO DEVELOPMENT POSED BY RWANDA'S COLONIAL EXPERIENCE
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Almost every country in Africa went through colonization with the exception of two countries. Most of the countries were faced with challenges which contributed to civil war trying to remove the colonial powers from their mother land. Though these challenges were common in most African countries, Rwanda among the African countries faced a hideous experience when it comes to civil wars resulting from European colonialism. This resulted to genocide where more than one million people died. This paper seeks to look at the colonial history of Rwanda and how civil war has contributed to un-development in Rwanda.
Rwanda has established to be a land of fascination and horror since its independence. Its independent birth comes with terrible episodes of mutual violence, and Rwanda people have known oppression, fear and genocide during the postcolonial period. In 1994, there was genocide which was an event which is still fresh in most people psyche up to date. This genocide that took place in 1994 was an event of historical and global significance, representing other genocides that had happened in the twentieth century where many people got killed in about three months of that year (Odom, 2005).
Rwanda population is made up of three ethnic groups which include: the Tutsi, the Hutus and a minor group of about 1% of the Twa. The Hutus dominates the land since they are about 85% of the total population and they were known to be farmers. On the other hand, the Tutsi and the Twa made up the other 15%. Tutsi was cattle handlers by tradition, and they lived and respected each other before the Belgian forces came to have power in their mother land.
Though there were several issues that contributed to conflict between the Hutus and Tutsi the idea of their separation was mainly formed by the Belgian forces, who thought that they were separate racial groups and certain which group every person fitted to by writing on the identity cards that everyone had to carry (Dudley, 2001). Though one could tell it even before the introduction of the identity cards, Hutus were believed to have originated from the North while the Tutsi was from the South. Their complexions were different, and Tutsi were seen to be less "Africans" and more like Europeans.
This brought about nepotism of people who belonged to the same group and have almost same origins. The Belgians realized their differences, and they made it worse by dividing the two groups where once can say it was a wheel which lead to genocide in Rwanda. Division of the two groups was done by profession and wealth. In this case, if persons had more than ten cows, they were Tutsi, and if they owned less than ten they were Hutu. Twa were minorities and were not affected much by this.
The Rwanda genocide can be traced back from the era of colonization in Rwanda. Before they were taken over by Germans, ...