olatile countries for generations. For many years, the Hutu and Tutsi tribes lived in an unstable peace with one another. The Tutsi acted as feudal lords over the nation, equipped with their own monarchy and ruling elite. The Hutu served as serfs for their Tutsi lords. This arrangement provided an uneasy security for both parties. The majority Hutu population was governed and protected by the Tutsi, who in turn prosperity for themselves through the Hutu’s labor .This original arrangement was changed with colonialism by Germany, and following the First World War, Belgian colonial occupation. The Hutu under colonial administration were exploited as slave labor. The existing Tutsi hierarchy was used by the colonial powers as an administration for monitoring the slave labor. Therefore, the Tutsi came to act as local representatives of the colonial power .The result was a complete breakdown of traditional respect and contractual relationships between the Hutu and Tutsi. As the Hutu came to resent colonial rule, the Tutsi became the focus of much of their anger. The Tutsi carried out the orders of the colonial power. By the late 1950’s, the Hutu had organized opposition to colonial rule and to the Tutsi monarchy. In 1959, this resulted in a revolution among Hutu that forced the Tutsi monarch to flee the nation. The Hutu proclaimed a democratic republic in its place. A United Nations supervised referendum confirmed the abolition of the monarchy in 1961, with 86 percent (obviously Hutu) approving the measure .The Tutsis in exile did not rest. They organized in neighboring African countries, specifically Uganda, where a Tutsi backed coup-de-etat took over the nation in 1986. It was in Uganda that the children and grandchildren of the Tutsis exiled in the sixties organized the Rwandan Patriotic (RPF), an army of mostly Tutsis prepared to “take back” their homeland. They made their move in on October 1, 199...
