Crossroads 11: Rwanda Genocide Webquest

Directions:
1. Go to http://www.rwandanstories.org/origins/real_differences.html
2. Take some time to explore the site. Look around.
3. When you are ready, return to Real differences: history, inequality, and
oppression.
4.Watch the video A VERY short history of Rwanda. ALSORead the section
written by Phillip Gourevitch.
1. In your own words, describe how the definition of, and relationship between, the
Hutus and Tutsis changed over time. (Think: what did it begin as? What did it become?
How did it change?).
Using the menu located on the right side of the page, click on Hutu and Tutsi.
Read the section called Whats this Hutu and Tutsi thing?
1. What was the racial identity that the Belgians constructed for the Tutsi? For the
Hutus?
2. How was this constructed identity eventually used by the Hutu against the Tutsis?
Scroll down to the bottom of the page.
1. Based on the three paragraphs beneath it, what do you think is the meaning of
Beliefs are more powerful than facts?
Using the menu located on the right side of the page, click on A messy power
shift.
Read the paragraphs written by Feral Keane.
1. Why did the Belgians decide to switch their support from the Tutsi to the Hutus?
Using the menu located on the right side of the page, click on Preparing for
genocide.
Read the Trial run for genocide section
1. What is referred to by the term trial run?
2. What does Elie mean when he says that the seed was planted before? Do you think
that anything could have prevented this seed from growing?
3. Does the information in this section connect to or mirror anything that you learned or
read about during your exploration of Hitlers rise to power and build up to the
Holocaust?
Using the menu located on the right side of the page, click on My friend the
killer. Watch and listen to the movie clip of Josephines story.
1. Why do you think that the ex-leader of the Hutu killing squad could not understand
Josephines kindness? Can you understand it?

2. Did this interaction between the Hutu and Josephine stop him from participating in the
interahamwe (killing squads)? Why?
Go to http://www.rwandanstories.org/genocide/whose_idea.html
Using the menu located on the right side of the page, click on How did it start?
1. According to Jean Hatzfeld, how could so many of the Hutu death squads recognize
their targets, when they shared a language, homes, and physical characteristics? What
does this answer imply about the killers?
Scroll to the bottom of the page, to the section Outstandingly effective murder.
1. What are some of the similarities between the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide
that are mentioned?

2. What are some of the differences?

Using the menu located on the right side of the page, click on Hate Radio.
Note: This section focuses on the Hutus use of radio, most famously that of RadioTelevision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLMC), as a means of spreading anti-Tutsi hate
and propaganda throughout the entire country. Historians have identified the powerful
role that this technology played in terms of organizing and encouraging the
interahamwe in their murderous activities
1. What sort of audience were the radio messages meant for? How did the radio
stations appeal to this audience?
2. Who were behind the radio stations? Where they the same as the target audience?
3. Why didnt the United States stop the broadcasting of the Hutu radio stations?
Using the menu located on the right side of the page, click on This new job.
1. After reading this section, summarize a) how the killings took place, and b) how the
killing was viewed by those who took part in it.
2. Was hatred the only motivation for killing? What else was gained during the murders?
Using the menu located on the right side of the page, click on The refugee
crisis. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Read the section entitled Fleeing
from more than revenge.
1. What were so many Hutus fleeing from? When they eventually returned to their land,
were they able to out run it?
Go to http://www.rwandanstories.org/aftermath/a_wasteland.html
Using the menu located on the right side of the page, click on A wasteland.
1. Read A country ransacked. Watch the film clip that follows it. In your own words,
describe Rwanda after the Genocide.