World Issues 02 07 2024
February 7th – What Has a Man with a ‘Genocidal Machete’ Got to Do with a Belgian Military Officer: Commonalities and Differences between the Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda and the Genocide against Hutu in Burundi.
Jeanine Ntihirageza, Northeastern Illinois University.
With survivor lenses, I analyze the deeply painful chapters in the histories of Burundi and Rwanda. Armed with the divide and conquer principle, the Belgian colonial administration played a far-reaching role in subsequent Hutu/Tutsi genocides. Rwanda, unlike Burundi, has promoted and supported public and collective memorialization.
Jeanine Ntihirageza is an Associate Professor at Northeastern Illinois University, and Department chair of Anthropology, ELP, Philosophy, and TESOL. She is a founding member of the African Summer Institute and the Genocide Research Group. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Chicago.