Where the Hutus and Tutsis always fighting with each other in Rwanda?
Tutsis were always the elite. However, pre-colonisation it wasn’t a strict ethnic division. A Hutu by gaining power and wealth could become a Tutsi, so it was part way between an ethnic group and a caste / class system. The Belgians changed it into a strict racial division, you were either Tutsi or Hutu and there was no changing that, typical colonial strategy of divide and rule.. The Tutsi were maintained as an elite. Needless to say, it didn’t go down well with the Hutu who were now firmly a second class. At the end of the colonial period the Belgian territory split into Burundi and Rwanda. Tutsis maintained power in Burundi and committed genocide against the Hutu in the 70s. In Rwanda the Hutu took power and they likewise carried out attacks against the Tutsi. This led to a large Tutsi refugee population in Uganda. It was amongst these people that the Rwandan Patriotic Front was formed. They launched a civil war against the Hutu dominated government which ended with the Arusha peace
