Rwanda

Understanding the event

The figure of the enemy and the genocide project

Cover of the extremist newspaper Kangura n°26.

Nostalgic and prophetic, this "A" by Kangura published in November 1991 mobilizes the glorious memory of the "Hutu Social Revolution" of 1959 by displaying the portrait of its herald, Grégoire Kayibanda. The text that serves as a legend for the exhibition of the machete questions: "What weapons will we take to definitively defeat the inyenzi [cockroaches]?" In November 1959, a "revolution" led by Hutu political leaders had incidentally provoked the first massacres against the Tutsi.

In addition to the extremist press, there are other channels for hate propaganda. Founded in July 1993, the Radio Télévision des Mille Collines (RTLM) amplifies the broadcasting of these incendiary speeches. In a more informal way, the cabaret conversations and local meetings gradually participate in the transformation of the Tutsi into hereditary enemies of the «majority Hutu people».