Conflict is prominent in our world today and that is obvious in the small African country of Rwanda where Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups are engulfed in a bloody battle for control of their country. There are many differing ideas as to what the rest of the world, mostly Western countries, should do about the current conflict. Some would argue that the West must intervene in this African affair in order to establish peace, but I do not believe that an intervention would be helpful.
As a Nigerian citizen who has spent his entire life in Africa underneath a watchful eye of Western nations like the United States, I believe that this problem should be handled by Africa. The current situation between the Hutus and Tutsis is based on historical jealousy and struggle between the two groups. If Western nations decide to intervene as the New York Times article suggests, that would be a mistake and would only lead to even more problems inside of Rwanda. Many scholars, including the political scientist who authored the New York Times article, believe in instrumentalism in ethnic conflicts.
These scholars would argue that ethnicity is not inherent or a product of human nature. Instead, they would say that it forms a disguise for a deeper core of economic, political, or spiritual interests. Using Rwanda as an example, an argument would be made that the Hutus united as an ethnicity in order to establish a group that could garner significant economic advantages. The Hutus in this case would unite and after years of oppression by the Tutsis and would try to advance their previously unimportant and unrepresented political and economic interests.
Another argument by the instrumentalists is that leaders can and will strategically manipulate ethnicity in order for them to gain more power. This argument would suggest that the President of Rwanda Juvenal Habyarimana, his advisers, and the interhamwe would blame the Tutsis for the problems in Rwanda. By putting the blame on the Tutsis, they could decrease the pressure on themselves for the struggles of the country and the conflict and following genocide would only increase their power in the country. However, the other school of thought called essentialism is my belief and better explains the ongoing problems inside of Rwanda.
After the end of World War II, many new nations were created and because of arbitrary lines drawn by the western powers, many different ethnic groups were sometimes included in the same nation. After the boundary lines were drawn, competition for power began to occur and the ethnicities which had been fighting for much of their history continued to act on these deep rooted hatreds. Another aspect of this philosophy is primordialism which argues that ethnic groups form strong bonds and that these bonds are more important to people than bonds that are created for civic purposes.
I believe that essentialism is the best explanation for the genocide occurring in Rwanda right now because like many essentialists, I am adamant that hatred has the ability to guide human behavior. It is obvious that the Hutus hatred of the Tutsis has led to their harsh behavior toward their countrymen. For anyone who takes an interest and studies the ongoing conflict in Rwanda, it will soon become obvious that essentialists are correct in their assumptions.
When studying the history of Rwanda and neighboring Burundi, we see that the problems between the Hutus and Tutsis have been developing for many years. The Hutus have historically been the majority throughout the region, at times they have made up nearly 90% of the population of Rwanda, Burundi and the Congo. However, the Tutsis have always been around competing for resources and power. This is eminent when looking at the Belgian occupation of the lands where the Tutsis were granted special privileges in Rwanda because they looked more “European.
This special treatment was one of the factors that caused a resentment that is rooted in the history of the region. As an African myself, I believe that the West should stay out of the conflict in Rwanda and leave it to be solved by the powers within the continent and Rwanda itself. The last time that the West intervened in the region, the Belgians created a divide between the Tutsis and Hutus based on the ethnicity cards that they passed out and how they distributed the power within their colonies.
The two groups have long been at odds with each other and essentialism tells us that this causes conflict, which I believe cannot be stopped by the western nations. This is not a simple mission to take out a few Hutu leaders and restore the country, Rwanda is engulfed in conflict because of their history which included mistakes from the West. Now is not the time for Belgium, France, the United States, or the UN to try to fix their mistakes with military; that time has long passed.