In The Rwandan Tutsis, Eugenie Mujawiyera, a young Rwandan Tutsi woman, discusses the story of her ancient ethnicity, weaving into her narrative the dramatic events which make up Rwandan history from independence to the present day. While the Tutsi are again an integral part of the Rwandan nation - along with the Hutu and Twa— Mrs. Mujawiyera seeks an answer to a very fundamental question: Why did an entire ethnicity become the object of attempted physical extermination at the end of the twentieth century?

 

The author narrates the role of Germany and Belgium in the historical development of the Rwandan society, arguing that the arrival and departure of these colonial powers contributed significantly in the destruction of centuries-old traditions of inter-ethnic coexistence in Rwanda.  She also argues that the social development of the country after independence was based on an artificially engineered culture of inter-ethnic suspicion and bias, with the Tutsis officially regarded as feudal hindering to a new social order. She contends that this bias and the policies that flow from it sowed the seeds of the 1994 genocide.  

 

With an unmistakable flavour of eyewitness accounts and thoughtful reflections, the author warns that there is no guarantee that the 1994 tragedy will not be repeated. 

 

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Eugenie Mujawiyera was born to an exiled Rwandan Tutsi Presbyterian pastor and a Tutsi mother.  She lost her father - along with virtually every other member of her family - in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Then a second year student in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Literature at the National University of Burundi, Ms. Mujawiyera decided to return to Rwanda after the genocide to help rebuild her country. While in Rwanda, she continued her studies at the National University of Rwanda, graduating in 1997. She also studied Russian at the Moscow Linguistic University and moved to Canada in 2005 where she currently lives and works. She maintains close links with her native country.