Rwanda

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A brief article/editorial on the problems in Rwanda appears in Anthropology
Today, vol. 10, no.3, pp. 1-2, June 1994, which I (in the US) received in the
mail today. Anthropology Today is the newsletter (more-or-less) of the Royal
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. The article, written
by Alex de Waal, is entitled "Genocide in Rwanda." It contains an indictment
of the anthropological community for failing to protest the media
characterization of the violence as typically African tribal, ethnic violence.
It also describes the historical origin of the Tutsi and Hutu groups as an
artifact of German and Belgian colonialism. It concludes with the following:

"Even a modest anthropological appraisal of the nature of Hutu-Tutsi identity,
and of the nature of genocide in a country such as Rwanda, could rebut the
misleading press coverage and the irrelevant and even damaging proposals for
international intervention that have followed."

Jim Chiarelli
jchiarelli@earthwatch.org

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