Exxtol said:
No i do not mean it in that way, nor do i mean it in the same way the West Africans of the African Diaspora were able to tell what land their fellow bondsmen came from, on the way to the "New World". Bearing witness to differences in your fellow man is one thing--attaching positive/negative connotations to physical features is another. What i meant was in the AA community we have the "good/bad hair", the "fine/good features" etc, etc. And fyi, the superficial differences shared between the Tutsi and the Hutus was not an issue until Belgian occupation and colonialism.
Ok, thanks for clarifying.
And about the Hutus and Tutsi, actually they had been under tension well before any european had seen sub-saharan Africa.
When the Tutsi (who are tall and cow hearders) conquered the Hutus (who are short and farmers), the Tutsi dominated the region today known as Rhuwanda. Among Africans of that region, Cows were used as Currency and were hardly eaten, the Tutsi being tall and cow hearders were seen as wealthier and more powerful by themselves and the Hutus. The Hutus, being short and farmers were seen as weak and poor and they were subjugated to Tutsi rule.
When the Belgians arrived to that region, they simply continued that same social structure (Tutsi on top, Hutu on bottom) until Rhwanda gain its independence in the mid-1900s. From that time period onward, there have been periodic struggle for power from the Hutus against the Tutsi.
All that struggle exploded in the early 1990s with the Rhwanda Genocide where millions of Tutsi were slaughter by the Hutus and also, some Hutus were killed by the Tutsi.
Today, Rhwanda (and neighboring Congo) is infiltrated with the now adults who were the children who lived through that ordeal and they are armed, filled with distrust and hate towards each other and ready for a new battle. Women are still being raped, men are still dissapearing, and the world looks the other way or focuses on small caribbean countries where things are rather calm, especially compared to those Central African nation.
BTW, research the history of Hutus and Tutsi, its written in many encyclopedia and sources. So far, the only people who keep blaming the european for that extremely old African problem have been afro-americans and I don't really know why this is the case, but I can only speculate.
-NAL
EXTRA: Notice one thing, the Hutus were in Rhwanda first, the Tutsi conquered them. Hundred of years later (in mid-1900s) the Hutus tried to regain control of their area away from the Tutsi. In the early 1990s, the Hutus commit the genocide against the Tutsi.
Now look at this, the world today looks at the Hutus with a negative note, and feeling bad towards the suffering Tutsi. Who is the international community condeming?
The Hutus are getting condemned and demonized for killing the Tutsi.
Originally, who were the inhabitants of the Rhwanda area? The Hutus.
Hutus are being cursed for letting foreigners invade them in the beginning. Now, they lose their control of their land, and support globally.
All of this makes me feel bad for the Hutus, more so than the Tutsi. Why?
That land belongs to the Hutus, they were there first, but that is just my opinion based on historical facts.
One can almost apply the samething to Dominicans and Haitians. Dessalines created what basically was a genocide against Dominicans during his invasion where Moca, Santiago, and other Cibao towns were completely slaughtered. Years later, during the Trujillo dictatorship, tens of thousands of Haitians were slaughtered by a regime supported by some of the most powerful countries on earth.
Organizations the world over now look at the Dominicans with slight distrust based on the Haitians slaughtered in the 1930s, and there is almost a complete absense of the much bigger (percentage wise) dominican genocide created by Dessalines army in the 1800s.
Now, back to topic.
that is) hehehe