The Hutu and Tutsi peoples of Africa speak the same language and practice the same religion. They also share a common past. When people first settled in Rwanda, the settlers who owned the most cattle were called 'Tutsi' and everyone else was called 'Hutu'. In those days, a person could easily change categories through marriage or cattle acquisition. So, we see that there isn't any major ethnic difference between the two groups either. (The only difference is that the Tutsis are a little taller than the Hutus, which could be the result of better food/ protein intake!)
Yet Hutus and Tutsis, the two groups from the same soil, became the worst enemies of each other due to political reasons, and the bloody conflicts between them-- that continued for decades-- stained the human history of the 20th Century. The animosity and hatred between these two groups was so deep that Tutsis slaughtered about 200,000 Hutus in Burundi in 1972, and Hutus targeted Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994 resulting in the murder of 1000,000 people in only 100 days !
Hutus and Tutsis didn't use firearms or bombs, they just used simple, handy conventional weapons. Most of the killing was done with machetes, rods, or knives. Imagine the scene-- angry youths gathering on the streets with sticks and knives, blocking roads, checking identity of passers-by and just killing on the spot everyone found to be from the rival group !
I wonder how politics can breed so much hatred, so much grudge, so much anger and cruelty in human beings against fellow human beings ! I wonder how Hutus and Tutsis are created in different parts of the world ! How one group is instigated against another group, how bigotry and extreme political views destroy peace, development, and the future of a nation !
Are you thinking what I'm thinking? (hint : I'm surely not thinking about Africa).
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