Myths play an important role in Rwandan society. With most deeply entrenched myths, facts intertwine with fiction obscuring truth. This can be seen in the creation story of Rwanda. It most closely matches the primordial perspective of the origin of the conflict, many Rwandans believed in the inherent animosity between Hutu and Tutsi groups. What is firmly established is that when Nilotic peoples arrived from the north, they established, in most areas, a form of colonialism over Bantus. The level of oppression undoubtedly varied, but a true record of this history cannot be written for lack of accurate records. Taylor writes that ‘the selective use of this historiography leads one to believe that the narratives, far from being recent creations, date from the late colonial times and form something of a substrate for the ideology of Hutu ethnic extremism’.2
Propaganda about the ‘hamite myth’ of superiority was internalized and put into practice.3 One view written by conservative Tutsi chiefs in the 1950s, expressed the feelings of their time in that they could not allow democratization since, ‘our kings conquered the land of the Bahutu, killed their “little” kings and thus subjugated the Bahutu; how, then, can they now pretend to be our brothers?’4 Undoubtedly, the European rule of first the Germans and then the Belgians changed the course of Rwanda’s future under a system of indirect rule. Perhaps because of Rwanda’s own imperial system, Europeans found varied levels of cooperation and resistance.5 Colonial reliance on the Tutsi population led to an intensification of ethnic tensions between the two groups. While there was tension previously, the introduction of European rule changed the dynamic sufficiently to lead to competition both between and among ethnicity. Traditionally, Rwanda has also been a society that held deep respect for authority. When the first Europeans arrived in Rwanda they identified with the royal system. Prunier writes, ‘The mwami (king) lived at the center of a large court and was treated like a divine being. The nature of his power was sacred rather than profane and he physically embodied Rwanda.’6 Like other societies capable of mass popular movements, Rwandan popular respect for authority remained a consistent element even as regimes and ideology changed.
By most accounts, under the indirect rule system, the ruling Tutsi treated the majority very harshly resulting in the Hutu having a collective ‘aggressively resentful inferiority complex’.7 After the 1956 elections, the Hutu became increasingly frustrated as reforms