You just viewed a scene from the film “Hotel Rwanda” starring Don Cheadle. This film is an account of the genocide that took places in this country in 1994. For hundreds of years, the two major tribes of Rwanda were the Hutu and the Tutsi. They lived together with no animosity between them. When Belgium colonized Rwanda, they gave preferential treatment to the Tutsi because they (the Belgium’s), thought the Tutsi’s to be “superior” due to the fact that they were taller, their skin was lighter and their noses where pointier. This caused a divide between individuals of Hutu and Tutsi descent even after the era of colonization came to an end. As new generations were born, they no longer blamed the Belgium’s, they blamed the Tutsi’s themselves because the new generation of Tutsi’s (growing up in this divided culture) began to see themselves as different from the Hutu.
In this particular scene, a hotel manger (who is a Hutu) by the name of Paul is buying supplies from a distributor and fellow Hutu. Paul is hiding Tutsi friends and neighbors in his hotel and the news is spreading that Paul is a Tutsi (Hutu’s also refer to them as cockroaches) sympathizer.
What does your text say about Dominance and Subordination between Groups?
How did the discrimination by the Belgium’s change the cultural perceptions of these people?
