Radio propaganda clearly played a role in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 in which over a million people, mainly Tutsi, were killed. Foreign media and many commentators saw the propaganda as based on ethnic difference. Through an analysis of eighty-six Radio Rwanda and Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines broadcasts, the author shows how reliance on one explanation – be it of ethnicity, politics, ‘race’ or occupation – falls short and oversimplifies. She argues that in fact the broadcasts ‘othered’ the target group by simultaneously drawing on multiple constructions of Hutu and Tutsi identities from many periods in Rwanda’s history.
Quoted in JonesA., Genocide: a comprehensive introduction, 2nd edn (London and New York, Routledge, 2011), p. 346.
2.
SchabasW. A., ‘Hate speech in Rwanda: the road to genocide’, McGill Law Journal (Vol. 46, 2000), pp. 141–71, p. 148.
3.
In StrausS., ‘What is the relationship between hate radio and violence? Rethinking Rwanda’s “radio machete”’, Politics & Society (Vol. 35, no. 4, 2007), pp. 609–37, pp. 612–13.
4.
United Nations, The Prosecutor v. Ferdinand Nahimana Jean-Bosc Barayagwiza, and Hassan Ngeze, Trial Chamber I (2003), pp. 1–31.
5.
In KellowC. L.SteevesH. L., ‘The role of radio in the Rwandan genocide’, Journal of Communication (Summer, 1998), pp. 107–28, p. 108.
6.
Ibid., pp. 115–16.
7.
Ibid., p. 110.
8.
Schabas, ‘Hate speech in Rwanda’, op. cit., pp. 145–6.
9.
Straus, ‘What is the relationship between hate radio and violence?’ op. cit., p. 609.
10.
DesForgesA., ‘Leave None to Tell the Story’: genocide in Rwanda (New York, Human Rights Watch, 1999).
11.
Ibid.
12.
Ibid.
13.
KellowSteeves, ‘The role of radio in the Rwandan genocide’, op. cit., p. 118.
14.
Schabas, ‘Hate speech in Rwanda’, op. cit.
15.
KellowSteeves, ‘The role of radio in the Rwandan genocide’, op. cit., p. 119.
16.
Schabas, ‘Hate speech in Rwanda’, op. cit.
17.
KellowSteeves, ‘The role of radio in the Rwandan genocide’, op. cit., p. 107.
18.
Ibid., p. 118.
19.
UnitedNations, The Prosecutor v. Ferdinand Nahimana Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, and Hassan Ngeze, Trial Chamber I (2003), pp. 1–31.
20.
KellowSteeves, ‘The role of radio in the Rwandan genocide’, op. cit., p. 118.
21.
Straus, ‘What is the relationship between hate radio and violence?, op. cit., pp. 626–7.
22.
LiDarryl, ‘Echoes of violence: considerations on radio and genocide in Rwanda’, Journal of Genocide Research (Vol. 6, no. 1, 2004), pp. 9–27, p. 15.
23.
Schabas, ‘Hate speech in Rwanda’, op. cit.
24.
Ibid., p. 146.
25.
Ibid.
26.
Li, ‘Echoes of violence‘, op. cit., p. 15.
27.
KellowSteeves, ‘The role of radio in the Rwandan genocide’, op. cit., p. 118.
28.
Ibid.
29.
Ibid.
30.
Ibid.
31.
Li, ‘Echoes of violence’, op. cit., p. 16.
32.
NewburyD. S., ‘Irredentist Rwanda: ethnic and territorial frontiers in central Africa’, Africa Today (Vol. 44, no. 2, 1997), pp. 211–21.
33.
Quoted in KamolaI. A., ‘The global coffee economy and the production of genocide in Rwanda’, Third World Quarterly (Vol. 28, no. 3, 2007), pp. 571–92, note 2.
WalkerR., ‘Survivors of Rwanda genocide still live in fear as rival tribes prepare for first presidential vote’, Telegraph (24August2003).
37.
DesForges, ‘Leave None to Tell the Story’, op. cit.; R. E. Howard, ‘Civil conflict in sub-Saharan Africa: internally generated causes’, International Journal (Vol. LI, no. 1, 1995–1996), pp. 27–53; UvinP., Aiding Violence: the development enterprise in Rwanda (West Hartford, Connecticut, Kumarian Press, 1998).
38.
DesForges, ‘Leave None to Tell the Story’, op. cit., pp. 33–4.
39.
Howard, ‘Civil conflict in sub-Saharan Africa’, op. cit.
40.
For a discussion of how etic and emic indicators of ethnicity informed the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda’s (ICTR) decision, see RothbartD.BartlettT., ‘Rwandan radio broadcasts and Hutu/Tutsi positioning’, in MoghaddamF.M.HarréR.LeeN., eds, Global Conflict Resolution Through Positioning Analysis (New York, Springer, 2008), pp. 227–46, p. 228 and p. 245.
41.
Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (12December1993), p. 5.
42.
Ibid., p. 5.
43.
Ibid., p. 6.
44.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (12April1994), p. 2.
45.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (14April1994I), p. 9.
46.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (19April1994 II), p. 4.
47.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (15April1994 II), p. 4; Radio Rwanda, ’Transcript’ (17April1994 IV), p. 5.
48.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (17April1994 II), p. 5.
49.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (17April1994 IV), p. 12.
50.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (19April1994 I), p. 24; Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (April21, 1994 II), p. 17.
51.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (21April1994 II), p. 6.
52.
Ibid., p. 17.
53.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (24May1994), pp. 35–6.
54.
Ibid., p. 11.
55.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (18May1994 I), p. 10; Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (21May1994), p. 16.
56.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (23April1994), p. 4.
57.
Ibid., p. 13.
58.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (23April1994), p. 17; Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (30April1994), pp. 6, 7, 9, 10, 13; Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (1May1994), p. 3; Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (9May1994 I), p. 6; Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (17May1994 V), p. 5; Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (13June1994), p. 17.
59.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (15April1994 II), p. 7.
60.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (23April1994), p. 16.
61.
Ibid., p. 17.
62.
NewburyC. M., The Cohesion of Oppression: clientship and ethnicity in Rwanda 1860-1960 (New York, Columbia University Press, 1988); PrunierG., The Rwanda Crises: history of a genocide (New York, Columbia University Press, 1995); Uvin, Aiding Violence, op. cit., p. 13.
63.
DesForges, ‘Leave None to Tell the Story’, op. cit.; L. A. Fujii, ‘The power of local ties: popular participation in the Rwandan genocide’, Security Studies (Vol. 17, no. 3, 2008), pp. 568–97.
64.
SmeulersA.HoexL., ‘Studying the microdynamics of the Rwandan genocide’, British Journal of Criminology (Vol. 50, no. 3, 2010), pp. 435–54.
65.
Fujii, ‘The power of local ties’, op, cit.’
66.
UvinP., ‘Ethnicity and power in Burundi and Rwanda: different paths to mass violence’, Comparative Politics (Vol. 31, no. 3, 1999), pp. 253–71.
67.
Ibid.
68.
DesForges, ‘Leave None to Tell the Story’ op. cit.; NewburyD. S.NewburyC. M., ‘Bringing the peasants back in: agrarian themes in the construction and corrosion of statist historiography in Rwanda’, The American Historical Review (Vol. 105, no. 3, 2000), pp. 832–77.
69.
Ibid., p. 833.
70.
KellowSteeves, ‘The role of radio in the Rwandan genocide’, op. cit., all emphases added.
71.
Li, ‘Echoes of violence’, op. cit., pp. 11–12.
72.
Ibid., p. 14, emphasis added.
73.
RothbartBartlett, ‘Rwandan radio broadcasts and Hutu/Tutsi positioning’, op. cit., emphasis added.
74.
DesForges, ‘Leave None to Tell the Story’, op. cit.
75.
Ibid.
76.
Ibid.
77.
Ibid.
78.
NewburyNewbury, ‘Bringing the peasants back in’, op. cit., p. 861.
79.
Ibid., p. 867.
80.
Ibid.
81.
Ibid.
82.
Ibid., p. 868.
83.
Howard, ‘Civil conflict in sub-Saharan Africa’, op. cit., p. 38.
84.
VerwimpP., ‘Development ideology, the peasantry and genocide: Rwanda represented in Habyarimana’s speeches’, Journal of Genocide Research (Vol. 2, no. 3, 2000), pp. 325–61.
85.
VerwimpP., ‘The 1990-92 massacres in Rwanda: a case of spatial and social engineering?’Journal of Agrarian Change (Vol. 11, no. 3, 2011), pp. 396–419.
86.
Verwimp, ‘Development ideology, the peasantry and genocide’, op. cit., p. 357.
87.
Ibid., p. 350.
88.
Quoted in StrausS., ‘Organic purity and the role of anthropology in Cambodia and Rwanda’, Patterns of Prejudice (Vol. 35, no. 2, 2001), pp. 47–62, p. 59.
89.
Verwimp, ‘Development ideology, the peasantry and genocide’, op. cit.
90.
Verwimp, ‘The 1990-92 massacres in Rwanda’, op. cit.
91.
OhlssonL., Livelihood Conflicts: linking poverty and environment as causes of conflict (Stockholm, Sweden, Environmental Policy Unit, Sida, 2000).
92.
Verwimp, ‘Development ideology, the peasantry and genocide’, op. cit.
93.
Uvin, ‘Ethnicity and power in Burundi and Rwanda’, op. cit.
94.
VerwimpP., ‘An economic profile of peasant perpetrators of genocide’, Journal of Development Economics (Vol. 77, no. 2, 2005), pp. 297–323.
95.
Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (20June1994), p. 7.
96.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (21May1994), p. 16 and p. 19; Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (15May1994), p. 4; Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (17–18May1994), p. 25; Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (23May1994), p. 12; Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (28May1994 I), pp. 6–7; Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (30May1994), p. 9; Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (13June1994), p. 3.
97.
Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (14April1994), p. 1.
98.
Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (22April1994 I), p. 7.
99.
Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (16-17May1994), p. 13, emphasis added.
100.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript‘ (24May1994), p. 30.
101.
Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (18June1994), p. 5.
102.
DesForges, ‘Leave None to Tell the Story’, op. cit., note 34.
103.
Ibid., p. 62.
104.
Uvin, ‘Ethnicity and power in Burundi and Rwanda‘, op. cit.
105.
Verwimp, ‘An economic profile of peasant perpetrators of genocide’, op. cit.
106.
Quoted in DesForges, ‘Leave None to Tell the Story’, op. cit., p. 63.
107.
Straus, ‘What is the relationship between hate radio and violence?’, op. cit., p. 622.
108.
EltringhamN., ‘“Invaders who have stolen the country”: the Hamitic hypothesis, race and the Rwandan genocide’, Social Identities (Vol. 12, no. 4, 2006), p. 425.
109.
Seligman quoted in ibid., p. 425.
110.
Straus, ‘Organic purity and the role of anthropology in Cambodia and Rwanda’, op. cit., p. 61.
111.
Ibid., p. 61.
112.
Ibid., p. 61.
113.
See NewburyNewbury, ‘Bringing the peasants back in’, op. cit., note 14.
114.
Ibid., pp. 837–39.
115.
DesForges, ‘Leave None to Tell the Story’, op. cit.
116.
Straus, ‘Organic purity and the role of anthropology in Cambodia and Rwanda’, p. 58.
117.
HintjensH. M., ‘When identity becomes a knife: reflecting on the genocide in Rwanda’, Ethnicities (Vol. 1, no. 1, 2001), p. 41.
118.
Straus, ‘Organic purity and the role of anthropology in Cambodia and Rwanda’, op. cit., p. 62.
119.
Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (17–18May1994), p. 3.
120.
Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (28May1994 I), p. 7.
121.
Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (18June1994), p. 9.
122.
Ibid., p. 6.
123.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (16April1994), p. 13.
124.
Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (18June1994), p. 9.
125.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (17May1994), p. 14.
126.
Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (28May1994 I), p. 5.
127.
Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (28May1994 II), p. 2.
128.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (2April1994), p. 1.
129.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (16April1994), p. 25.
130.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (8June1994), p. 1.
131.
Ibid., p. 6.
132.
Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (16–17May1994), p. 2.
133.
Straus, ‘Organic purity and the role of anthropology in Cambodia and Rwanda’, op. cit., p. 61; see also DesForges, ‘Leave None to Tell the Story’, op. cit., p. 36.
134.
Quoted in KellowSteeves, ‘The role of radio in the Rwandan genocide’, op. cit., p. 121.
135.
DesForges, ‘Leave None to Tell the Story’, op. cit., p. 33.
136.
Ibid., p. 33.
137.
Chretien. quoted in KellowSteeves, ‘The role of radio in the Rwandan genocide’, op. cit., p. 121.
138.
Straus, ‘What is the relationship between hate radio and violence?’, op. cit., p. 622.
139.
DesForges, ‘Leave None to Tell the Story’, op. cit., p. 33.
140.
United Nations, The Prosecutor v. Ferdinand Nahimana Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, and Hassan Ngeze, Trial Chamber I (2003), pp. 1–31.
141.
DesForges, ‘Leave None to Tell the Story’, op. cit.
142.
Ibid.
143.
Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (28May1994 I), p. 4.
144.
Ibid., p. 4.
145.
Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (16–17May1994), p. 1.
146.
Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (28May1994 II), p. 11.
147.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (29April1994 II), p. 26.
148.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (16April1994), p. 31.
149.
Radio Rwanda, ‘Transcript’ (29April1994 II), p. 24, italics in original.
150.
Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, ‘Transcript’ (14April1994), p. 1.
