Genocide against the Tutsi: Why the Words Matter

The accepted name for what happened in Rwanda between April and July 1994 is the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. It is the term used in Rwanda's constitution and, since a United Nations General Assembly decision in 2018, by the UN, which marks 7 April as the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. In Kinyarwanda it is Jenoside yakorewe Abatutsi, the genocide committed against the Tutsi.

The wording matters because it states plainly who was targeted and why. In roughly 100 days, more than 800,000 people were killed, and Rwandan government figures put the number above a million. The great majority were Tutsi, murdered because of an identity that extremists had spent years turning into a death sentence. Hutu who opposed the killing or were treated as political enemies, along with some Twa, were also murdered. Naming the genocide accurately does not erase them; it describes what the killing was organised to achieve.

Why "the Genocide against the Tutsi" replaced vaguer names

For years the events were often called "the Rwandan genocide" or, worse, a "civil war" or an outbreak of "ethnic violence". Each of those labels blurs something essential. "Civil war" suggests two armed sides fighting each other, when most of the dead were unarmed civilians, including children and elderly people, killed in their homes, churches and schools. "Ethnic violence" suggests something mutual and spontaneous. And the general name can leave room for a deliberate falsehood known as the "double genocide" claim, which survivors and historians reject.

Rwandan survivors' organisations pushed for precise language, and the shift in UN usage in 2018 reflected that. Using the full term is a small act of accuracy that survivors notice.

Why "ancient tribal hatred" is the wrong explanation

A common outside story says Hutu and Tutsi were two tribes who had always hated each other. That story is wrong, and it has done harm, because it made the killing look natural and unstoppable, which helped foreign governments justify doing little.

Hutu, Tutsi and Twa share a language, Kinyarwanda, lived on the same hills, practised the same religions and often intermarried. The categories were real and carried meaning before colonial rule, linked to wealth, cattle, status and closeness to the royal court, and Rwandan historians are clear that pre-colonial Rwanda had its own inequalities. But the lines could shift, and they were not the fixed races of later propaganda.

The Hamitic hypothesis and the identity card

European explorers and colonial officials arrived with racial theories already in their heads. The so-called Hamitic hypothesis claimed that any sign of sophisticated government in Africa must have been brought by a lighter-skinned people from the north. Applied to Rwanda, it cast the Tutsi as foreign newcomers and the Hutu as natives. This was pseudo-science, but German and especially Belgian administrators, along with missionary schools, built policy on it.

In the 1930s the Belgian administration introduced identity cards that recorded each person's group. A category that had sometimes been flexible became fixed on paper and passed from father to child. Six decades later, those same cards were checked at roadblocks.

How the genocide was organised

The genocide did not begin without warning. After the revolution of 1959, waves of violence drove many Tutsi into exile, and anti-Tutsi discrimination became part of the political order. In 1990 the Rwandan Patriotic Front, formed largely by Tutsi refugees, invaded from Uganda, and a civil war began. Extremists used the war to recast every Tutsi civilian as an enemy within. There were massacres between 1990 and 1993, a hate press, and later the radio station RTLM, whose broadcasts spread contempt and fear.

On 6 April 1994, the plane carrying President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down over Kigali. Who was responsible is still disputed. Within hours, prepared structures were activated: lists of names, roadblocks, militia groups such as the Interahamwe, local officials, soldiers and gendarmes. This is why historians describe an organised genocide rather than a spontaneous eruption. Ordinary people took part, sometimes under pressure, sometimes for gain, but they did so inside a system designed to make killing possible.

There were also people who refused, hid neighbours and resisted, as at Bisesero in the west, where Tutsi civilians defended themselves for weeks. Their courage is part of the record, though it does not soften the scale of what happened. The genocide ended when the Rwandan Patriotic Front took control of the country in July 1994. A United Nations peacekeeping force was present throughout, and its inability to stop the killing remains one of the gravest international failures of the late twentieth century.

Kwibuka and the Kigali Genocide Memorial

Kwibuka means "to remember". Every year from 7 April, Rwanda enters a national commemoration that lasts 100 days, the length of the genocide, with the first week a period of national mourning. Flames of remembrance are lit, communities gather, and survivors speak.

The Kigali Genocide Memorial at Gisozi is the burial place of more than 250,000 victims and the best place for a visitor to begin understanding. Its exhibitions start well before 1994, with the colonial construction of identity, and end with questions about prevention. In 2023 Gisozi was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List together with the memorials at Nyamata, Murambi and Bisesero.

How to approach a memorial as a visitor

• Prepare before you go. Read a short history, so that you arrive to learn rather than to be shocked.
• Follow the site's rules on photography. Some spaces do not allow photographs at all. Never photograph remains or personal belongings unless the site clearly permits it.
• Dress and behave as you would at a funeral. Speak quietly, and leave time afterwards to sit with what you have seen.
• Let Rwandans lead. Memorial guides and educators are often survivors or their relatives. Listen, ask with care, and never press anyone for personal detail.
• Use the right words. Use the full, accurate name for the genocide, never "tribal war".

Why this matters on foot

Rwanda is a short stretch of the planned route, roughly 250 km from the Tanzanian border through Kigali to the Ugandan border, but it carries a heavy chapter of the journey. The walk is planned to pass through hills where, in 1994, neighbours were turned against neighbours. Leon hopes to arrive having done the reading, to visit memorials only with respect, and to let Rwandan historians, educators and survivors be the authority on their own history.

Walking makes one thing plain: these were ordinary roads, villages and churches, and the people who live along them today are building a future while carrying memory. The expedition's sister pieces on the gacaca courts and on Umuganda look at what came afterwards. You can read who Leon is, follow updates in the journal once the walk begins, or support the walk.

Frequently asked questions

Why is it called the Genocide against the Tutsi?

Because the Tutsi were the group the genocide set out to destroy. The term is used in Rwanda's constitution and was adopted by the UN in 2018. Hutu and Twa victims are remembered too, but the name records the genocide's purpose.

How many people died in the 1994 genocide?

The UN commonly cites more than 800,000 people in about 100 days. Rwandan government figures are higher, at over a million.

What is Kwibuka?

Kwibuka, Kinyarwanda for "to remember", is the annual commemoration that begins on 7 April and runs for 100 days, starting with a week of national mourning.

Can tourists visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial?

Yes. It welcomes visitors from Rwanda and abroad. Go prepared, follow the photography rules and allow time to reflect afterwards.