Case study analysis: How narratives surrounding the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi are presented in history textbooks
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Prevalence of genocide in Rwandan secondary school history textbooks
1The concept of genocide, particularly either in reference to or recalling memories of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, is covered heavily in the Rwandan secondary school history curriculum. Over the course of six years, using the currently available textbooks, students encounter the term ‘genocide’ roughly 1,100 times (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020c, 2020e, 2020d, 2020i, 2020j, 2020k). Students in upper secondary school encounter it much more frequently than students in lower secondary school, even when accounting for textbook length. Whilst teacher’s guides for Senior One and Senior Two recommend ‘it is better not to treat such subject during national mourning period for example, during April and July so that learners will not be traumatised’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020c, 6, 2020e, 5), such recommendations are not made for other levels.
Figure 1: Graph representing the number of times the term genocide is mentioned in the six official Rwandan secondary education textbooks

Source : author.
2This term is primarily used in units specifically covering the genocide, which will be subsequently covered in more depth. However, there is not a single textbook where it is mentioned exclusively in those units alone. In some cases, it is used as a way of situating specific content in time. For example, the term ‘post-genocide transition period’ is used in the Senior Six unit ‘The Role of Democracy, Unity and Reconciliation in the Transformation of Rwandan Society’ in reference to the period between the cessation of violence in 1994 and the adoption of the new constitution in 2003 (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020k). It is used in a similar way in the Senior Five unit ‘International and National Judicial Systems and Instruments’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020j) and the Senior Four unit ‘Role of Gacaca and Abunzi in conflict solving’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020i).
3It is also used as an example students are familiar with to support broader understanding of other target content. In the Senior One unit ‘Forms, Causes, and Consequences of Conflict and Violence’ it is used to highlight the potential impacts of conflicts on individuals (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020c). When discussing the concept of patriotism in the Senior Two unit on ‘Interdependence and Unity in Diversity’, the textbook directly states: ‘The patriots of Rwanda are mostly those who fought against the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and its ideologies’(Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020e, 198). The Senior Five unit ‘International and National Judicial Systems and Instruments’ uses references to genocide to emphasise the necessity of holding perpetrators of crimes responsible for their actions, as the lack of justice in previous regimes is one of the cited reasons for the outbreak of violence in 1994 (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020j).
4Overall, genocide is referenced in some form at least once in six units in the Senior One textbook, four units in Senior Two, six units in Senior Three, four units in Senior Four, five units in Senior Five, and six units in Senior Six. Out of 1650 total pages of content across all six levels, the word ‘genocide’ appears on 192 pages. It is not limited to one unit covering a specific time period, but weaved in through various levels of the history curriculum, showcasing its broader impact on how students interact with historical content.
Figure 2: Graph representing the number of pages containing the word ‘genocide’ in each of the six textbooks used in Rwandan secondary schools

Source : author.
Structure and flow of narratives surrounding the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi
5Each of the six textbooks has a unit focused specifically on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Each year builds upon content covered in the previous years, adding layers of sophistication and difficulty to the topic. This content is covered over multiple class periods at each level. For example, students in Senior Six spend 20 lessons learning covering the 1990-1994 Liberation War1 and 22 lessons covering genocide prevention (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020h).
6Students’ first exposure appears in the Senior One unit titled ‘Genocide and Its Features’. This unit introduces several definitions of genocide, starting with simply ‘genocide is the killing of innocent people based on their tribe, political position, race or religion with the intention of completely wiping them out’ and ‘an attempt to wipe out an entire people based on tribe, religion, ethnic or race’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020b, 63) before including definitions from Raphael Lemkin and the official definition from Article II of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. While the category ‘tribe’ is not included in the Lemkin or UN definitions, its inclusion in the previous definitions reflects how the Rwandan Basic Education Board categorises parties in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020b) and is repeated when defining the term genocide in subsequent textbooks (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020e, 2020j). After an interlude to describe some of the features present in the 1994 Genocide with actions that occurred during the conflict and actors responsible, the textbook moves to describe other violations of international humanitarian law and calls upon students to distinguish between the different crimes (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020b).
7The following year, students revisit the genocide in detail in the unit ‘Causes and Course of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi’. The textbook describes six different factors that led to the violence, namely ‘division ideology’, ‘bad leadership during the 1st and the 2nd Republics’, ‘the culture of impunity’, ‘the role of local media’, ‘no respect of human rights’, and ‘greed for power by members of the Akazu’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020e, pp. 54–56). These categories are not independent of each other as most of the categories tie back either in part or in whole to leadership decisions made during the previous two regimes. This is continued in the next section concerning preparations made for the genocide, covering these two time periods in their entirety from 1959 to 1994. It then discusses the course of events during the genocide, the actors responsible, and finally the role of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in the cessation of violence.
8The first unit of the Senior Three book entitled ‘Independent Rwanda’ focuses on the First and Second Republics and the Liberation War from 1990 to 1994. As the previous level introduced these regimes as causal agents in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, student expectations were set from the very beginning and most of the discussion follows these expectations. Themes such as the previously mentioned ‘division ideology’ are discussed in far more detail than the few sentences provided in the previous textbook, building and expanding on prior knowledge. Students are also introduced to a limited array of positive aspects of the regimes, without letting the positive aspects overshadow the negative ones. The textbook then follows the course of the Liberation War from the perspective of the RPF, starting with the declaration of war on 1 October 1990 and ending with the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) on 19 July 1994 (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020d). In its conclusion, it covers the effects of the war, primarily focusing on negative aspects while highlighting longer-term positive aspects resulting from the RPF victory.
9The next unit in the textbook, entitled ‘Consequences of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi’ follows a similar theme. It begins by encouraging students to recall the responsible actors introduced in the previous level before listing the impacts of the genocide both during and after the conflict. These impacts, presented in short bullet-pointed paragraphs, feed into the next section on challenges faced in rebuilding the country in the following years. For instance, an increase in HIV/AIDS cases is presented as an impact of sexual assault committed during the genocide, connecting to challenges faced in the health sector (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020d). Having presented these challenges, the chapter moves to introduce the achievements of the GNU in addressing them.
10Similarly to the structure of the Senior Three textbook, Senior Four begins with a unit entitled ‘History of colonial and post-colonial Rwanda’. It focuses first on reforms made under Belgian colonial rule after control was taken from the Germans and then on the transition to an independent state under the First Republic. It pays special attention to what is referred to as ‘the 1959 crisis’, an event characterised by anti-Tutsi violence and discrimination prompting some to seek refuge in neighbouring countries. This event plays heavily into narratives surrounding the 1994 Genocide and will be discussed in more detail in the subsequent section.
11The second unit of the textbook, entitled ‘History of genocide’, starts in a similar way to the chapter in the Senior One textbook by reviewing the definition found in Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It covers three cases of genocide in the 20th century, namely the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, the 1907 Genocide against the Herero in Namibia, and the Holocaust in Germany and occupied territories. The inclusion of the latter two conflicts serve mainly to enhance student understanding of the former. Students are presented with similarities between all three cases, but also aspects portrayed as unique to the genocide in Rwanda. Finally, the unit again discusses government actions taken to rebuild the nation post-conflict.
12The textbook for Senior Five begins with a chapter entitled ‘First and Second Republics of Rwanda’, which expands upon material presented in the previous textbooks. It approaches the topics chronologically and thematically, first assessing the structure, policies, impacts, and downfall of the First Republic before repeating the process for the Second Republic. The second unit, entitled ‘Genocide Denial and Ideology in Rwanda and Abroad’, focuses less on events during the conflict and more on its reception in the aftermath of the conflict. It defines the terms ‘genocide ideology’ and ‘genocide denial’, outlines three forms of genocide denial–literal, interpretative, and implicatory–and explains how each form has been used with regard to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. It assigns a time period to each type of genocide denial to explain the progression of denial over the years and lists examples of people, primarily from abroad, whom the authors have determined are guilty of genocide denial. It ends by discussing how genocide denial can be fought at the regional and national levels.
13Similarly to students in Senior Four and Senior Five, students in their final year of secondary school study two units covering content relevant to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The first unit, entitled ‘Post-Colonial Rwanda’, discusses the time period exclusively in relation to the Liberation War. It begins by explaining how bad governance and discrimination, primarily ethnic in origin but also with regional elements, led to the outbreak of war in 1990. Following this, the chapter covers the timeline of the war before discussing both the impacts of the Liberation War at large and the genocide specifically. Finally, the chapter once again discusses the achievements of the government in the post-war period from 1994-2003.
14The final unit Rwandan secondary students study focusing on genocide is titled ‘Genocide Prevention’. This unit does not focus on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi exclusively but rather relies on what students have learned over the past five years to support discussion of how to prevent future genocide. It introduces different factors and practices that make genocide more likely in a country, using previously covered content to help contextualise the concepts for the students. For example, it brings up the ethnic identity cards previously covered in units focusing on the First and Second Republics when explaining social categorisation, making the point that the categorisation itself may not be intended as a precursor to genocide but rather creates an environment where in-group–out-group antagonism thrives (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020k). It then transitions to discuss how to prevent genocide at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Finally, it presents challenges faced in preventing genocide as well as solutions that can be enacted at the national, regional, and international level.
Recurring narrative themes regarding the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi
Diminished value of ethnic labels
15One recurring theme found across all textbooks revolves around the ‘Hutu’ and ‘Tutsi’ identities. The teaching material does not frame the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi as one based in ethnicity but rather one based in tribalism (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020b) as the distinction between these identities is taught to be tribal in nature. Starting in Senior Two, students learn that these identities were social categories in traditional Rwandan society turned into ethnicities by the colonial administration and codified with identity cards in 1935. This classification is explained as such:
To ascertain where one belonged, those who owned ten cows or more were classified as being Tutsi. Those with less cows were classified as Hutu while Batwa were considered those Rwandan who survived on pottery activities. (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020, 34)
16The Senior Three and Senior Four textbooks expand on the notion that these ethnic identities were artificially created as part of the colonial ‘divide and rule’ strategy. It explains that these categories were more fluid in the pre-colonial period and could change depending on a person’s wealth. The colonial government, however, used it to create a rigid social structure that situated administrative duties exclusively in the hands of Tutsi from the best families at the expense of the Hutu and less privileged Tutsi families (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020f). The narrative continues, teaching that as the relationship between King Mutara III Rudahigwa and the Belgian Colonial Administration worsened, the Belgians retaliated against the Tutsi elite by supporting Hutu leadership instead.
17This narrative is not limited to discussions of the colonial government but is repeated throughout the curriculum when teaching about the First and Second Republics. For example, Senior Three students are taught ‘Grégoire Kayibanda forced his way into political prominence and he was more than willing to use “ethnic identities” to access power and sow divisions to maintain his rule’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020d, 2). The latter part of the statement, focusing on the maintenance of power through manmade societal divisions, is parallel to how the strategy of the Belgian government is described. As the unit moves from the First Republic to the Second Republic, students learn how ‘ethnic’ and regional divisions were institutionalised through a quota system, which allocated spots in education and jobs in the national government based on ethnicity and regional origin, mainly favoured candidates from the ruling party’s own ethnic and regional groups, in this case Hutus from the North of the country. Students are led to understand this as a method of further consolidating power by the ruling elite. The Senior Five textbook teaches students how the previous regimes used education and political speech to further indoctrinate ordinary Rwandans into regarding genocide ideology as truth (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020j).
18The current regime, however, is taught as the antithesis of this. Instead of a regime based in division, it is one based in unity. When students are later asked to ‘discuss how to understand oneself in reference to Rwanda and East Africa’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020d, 226), the suggested answer from the teacher’s guide states:
Today, the government of Rwanda is promoting the concept of ‘Ndi Umunyarwanda’ (I am Rwandan). The ‘Ndi Umunyarwanda’ campaign aims at strengthening unity among Rwandans and combating divisionism that has been emphasised from the colonial period and reinforced during the First and Second Republics. (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2022, 207)
19The reversal of policies portrayed as sowing artificial disunity amongst the population in favour of a new Rwanda where tribal identities are deemphasised in favour of a unified national identity separates Rwanda today from the bad governance of the past in the eyes of the students. In fact, the Senior One textbook has an entire unit devoted to showing students how they can construct individual identities separate from their national identity, with options such as name, gender, age, province, nationality if they have a non-Rwandan parent, religion, clan, family, physical characteristics, but does not mention ethnic or tribal heritage as a valid differentiating feature for identity formation. Furthermore, the textbook emphasises that none of these individual differences can be overshadowed by the unity found in being Rwandan (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020c).
Origins of the conflict
20Despite teaching students that ethnic differences amongst Rwandans are false, the violence against members of the population based on these perceived differences is shown as being anything but. The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi is taught not as an isolated incident of violence situated in a single moment in time, but as the final step in a progression of violence beginning in 1959. Though mentioned very briefly in Senior One, the Senior Two textbook is where this narrative begins to take shape. Students learn that, after a group of young Tutsis allegedly attacked a prominent member of the Parti du Mouvement de l'Emancipation Hutu (PARMEHUTU) political party in Gitarama, members of the PARMEHUTU and Association Pour la Promotion Sociale de la Masse (APROSOMA) parties retaliated violently against the Tutsi and members of the pro-monarchy Union Nationale Rwandaise (UNAR) party (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020e). This event is revisited in Senior Four, where the authors suggest that the violence may have been intentional, stating ‘some called it a “planned revolution” instigated by the colonial rule through members of PARMEHUTU and APROSOMA’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020i, 13). Regardless of the origins, this is seen at the start of a refugee crisis that would ultimately lead to the outbreak of civil war in 1990.
21Senior Five details the ‘Inyenzi’ attacks from 1961 to 1967 conducted by young Rwandans rejecting exile with the goal to ‘fight the Belgians and the new PARMEHUTU leaders as well as to take back their right to citizenship’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020, 6). The text explains how the term ‘Inyenzi’ is a dehumanising term meaning ‘cockroach’ which spread in use from just referring to the people involved in these incursions to including the entire Tutsi population. The attacks were ultimately unsuccessful in achieving their goals, moreover the textbook emphasises how Tutsis would be targeted in retaliation after each attack, leading to an additional 200,000 asylum-seekers beyond Rwanda’s borders in addition to the estimated 20,000 killed. This discussion is also where the text first establishes the genocidal intent of the government by stating ‘President Kayibanda warned the Inyenzi that: “If they try to conquer Kigali by fighting, it would be the total and quick end of the Tutsi”’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020, 7), thus further connecting the violence in the 1960s with the 1994 Genocide.
22The Senior Three textbook refers to the period between the first refugees fleeing in 1959 to the advent of the Liberation War in 1990 as ‘the long exile’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020d, 19), where Rwandan refugees who had fled the country in response to violent outbreaks were subject to poor living conditions and denied repatriation. Snubbed by their home government, the desperate refugees were required to form their own groups to improve their situation, such as Rwandese Alliance of National Unity (RANU) and RPF-Inkotanyi. This long exile reappears in Senior Six as the first cause of the Liberation War. According to that textbook:
Although the Government of Rwanda had since 1964 requested that refugees be settled in their countries of asylum, it did almost nothing to help them. On the contrary, its policy consisted of making life for refugees very difficult in those countries. The Rwandan embassies watched refugees closely in their countries of asylum. (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020k, 4)
23It goes on to exhibit in more detail how RANU and RPF-Inkotanyi gave hope to Rwandans in exile to fight the injustice and ethnic division being propagated by the existing regime, which could only be achieved through RPF military action.
Heroism of the RPF
24In establishing the origins of the conflict, students are introduced to the ultimate hero of the narrative - the RPF. This is not done in a way that is meant to be subtle, the last section shows how the RPF is introduced as the solution to decades of injustice. Students are taught unambiguously that the RPF was ‘the only force to have politically and militarily opposed the Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020k, 18). This theme is repeated through all levels, with the exception of Senior One which does not mention the RPF by name. A section from Senior Two summarises the narrative surrounding the RPF’s role succinctly:
It should be emphasised that the role of RPF forces in stopping the Genocide is of major importance. From the onset of the 1990 Liberation War, RPF forces worked to liberate the country from the hands of dictator Juvenal Habyarimana and his clique among the Akazu. When the mass killings started from 7th April 1994 (though it had taken place sporadically since 1959) to July 1994, RPF forces doubled their mission. They fought to liberate the country at the same time stopping genocide and saving victims. (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020e, 60)
25One of the attitudes students are meant to take away from this unit is an appreciation of the RPF for their heroic role, something teachers themselves are encouraged to research in more depth to support (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020a).
26Senior Three students are introduced to more details of the Liberation War of 1990-1994, the name of which contributes to the narrative of the RPF as liberators, which is expanded upon in Senior Six. Senior Three teachers are encouraged to bring in pictures of commanders in the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA), Major General Fred Gisa Rwigema recommended specifically (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2022). The course of events follows the advancements of RPF military successes, with opposition acting as a barrier towards peace by reneging on the Arusha Peace Agreement and targeting civilians. Interestingly, when military setbacks are discussed, the text slips into the passive voice, such as ‘the first attack was in Umutara, but was not successful because of the death of Major General Fred Gisa Rwigema’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020d, 23) and ‘the RPF first launched an attack in Umutara at the beginning of October, 1990; but this attack was not successful because of the death of Late Major General Fred Rwigema on October 2, 1990’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020k, 9). This allows them to discuss the failures without giving credit to opposition forces. As such, these setbacks are not seen as victories for the opposition, but temporary deviations from the RPF’s success.
27Furthermore, the Senior Six book teaches that within Rwanda, people either supported the RPF because they represented liberation from the oppression they had been facing, opposed the RPF out of fear of retaliation from the Habyarimana regime, or had been mobilised by Mouvement Révolutionnaire National pour le Développement (MRND)2 narratives that portrayed the Tutsi as their enemy. At the end of the unit, students are asked to put themselves in the RPF’s shoes by listing justifications for the initial RPF attack, explaining why certain causes of the war are important to them personally, identifying how they would address major consequences of the war, and listing challenges and achievements of the post-conflict government.
Villains
28While the hero of the story is unambiguously clear, there is no single villain appearing in the narrative. More broadly, the textbooks state the genocide was carried out by ‘extremist’ Hutu. This terminology appears in every textbook apart from Senior Six. For example, in Senior One students learn that the genocide ‘involved rape, abduction and torture of the innocent Tutsi by the Hutu extremists’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020c, 65). In reference to the Arusha Peace Agreement set to end the Liberation War in 1993, the Senior 3 textbook teaches ‘the Hutu extremists, who felt left out of the process and threatened by the results, were not satisfied and started to organise a genocide against the Tutsi and killing of moderate Hutu’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020, 29).
29This last statement primarily implicates members of the national government, which serves as the main actor in the conflict. Beginning in Senior One, students are explicitly taught ‘[t]he government initiated, executed and coordinated the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020, 66). This sentiment is repeated in Senior Two, Senior Four, Senior Five, and Senior Six. The genocide is portrayed as a premeditated political act, planned long in advance by the ruling regime (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020i). The Senior Six textbook describes the Habyarimana regime as outwardly deceitful, tricking the public into believing their own attacks on political opposition was actually ‘an attempt by the rebels to attack the capital whereas it was a false attack meant to allow a presidential move to justify a massive cleansing operation against the Tutsi and other opponents of the regime’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020, 18). The government is also said to have spread propaganda to encourage other Hutus to join in the violence, which many were reportedly receptive to (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020c).
30Although the government may have been the primary villain in the narrative, they are far from the only one. Beyond the central government, the Senior Two textbook also list paramilitary groups such as the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi, Republican forces, civil servants, the military, businessmen, teachers, entrepreneurs, and ordinary citizens who contributed to the conflict in roles ranging from passive observer to accomplice to active participants. However, the text makes it clear that simply belonging to one of these groups does not necessarily imply complicity. It states:
One could assert that among all these categories, there were a few numbers that were reluctant to act as they were expected. Some accepted to die instead of killing their brothers, sisters, neighbours and friends while others used all means to save those who were being killed by providing them refuge or helping them escape the danger before RPF forces arrived. Some testimonies of genocide survivors proved this fact. (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020, p. 59)
31Nevertheless, accountability could be found at all levels and not being directly involved in the violence is not enough to absolve a person of guilt. Furthermore, the media is mentioned as playing a major role in spreading genocidal messages such as portraying the genocide as necessary to avoid the massacres of Hutus by the Tutsi and mobilising more people to join in the violence (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020e).
32Guilty parties are not just identified inside the country, but outside as well. In reviewing the relevant actors, the Senior Six textbook states ‘the main actors were: the interim government local administration, security forces, militia, the media, civil society organisations (churches included), the population and the international community’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020, 58). The Senior One and Senior Four textbooks both emphasise the inaction of the international community in stopping the genocide when they had the knowledge and ability to do so. As such, in the Senior Six unit on genocide prevention, the textbook celebrates the introduction of the Responsibility to Protect at the UN level and advocates for greater accountability at the international level to prevent future genocides.
33Beyond the blanket guilt for the international community as a whole, certain countries bear more blame than others. As previously mentioned, Belgium carries the blame for instituting the initial policies that transformed the Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa identities from being more flexible based on social categorisation to being rigid ethnic identifiers (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020e, 2020i). As Rwanda transitioned to an independent state, Belgium supported the PARMEHUTU as they took power. According to the Senior Four textbook, the Belgian colonial government felt animosity towards the Rwandan King Mutara III Rudahigwa, who the textbook asserts was a good symbol of unity for all Rwandans, and the Tutsi elite. As a result, they supported the Hutu leadership in order to keep power out of the hands of the monarchy (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020i). The Senior Two textbook states: ‘In such a state of affairs, the colonial power had successfully created a Hutu-Tutsi conflict which had never been there before’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020, 45). The Senior Three, Senior Five, and Senior Six textbooks tie Belgium directly to violence against Tutsis by stating that the colonists assisted the PARMEHUTU in massacring primarily Tutsi members of the UNAR (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020d, 2020j, 2020k). They are implicated again later in the textbook for supporting the Habyarimana government alongside France and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) during the Liberation War (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020d, 2020k).
34Beyond their involvement in supporting the Habyarimana regime, France is mentioned multiple times as a guilty party. Opération Turquoise, a French humanitarian zone in Western Rwanda set up during the genocide, is blamed for doing little to help Tutsi being targeted in the region while allowing those actively involved in the genocide to escape justice (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020h). This is said to have contributed to security problems faced by the post-conflict government as former members of the Forces Rwandaises de Défense (FAR) and Interahamwe remained armed in the Turquoise Zone and received support from Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020i). Moreover, France is featured heavily in the Senior Five discussion of genocide denial. At one point, French politicians are called out directly: ‘To hide the role of their government in genocide in Rwanda, French authorities namely Francois Mitterrand (defunct), Alain Juppé, Hubert Védrine, Bernard Debré and Dominique de Villepin glorify the good image of France (“Operation Turquoise”) during the genocide.’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020, 50)
Victims
35Unsurprisingly, the textbooks identify the primary victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi and the events leading up to it as the Rwandan Tutsi population. In Senior One, students are taught that ‘the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi was organised specifically to clear the Tutsi’(Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020c, 66) and in Senior Two they are taught that ‘the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi was the mass killing of innocent Tutsi’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020e, 54). As previously mentioned, the genocide is portrayed as the final act of decades of persecution and violence. During this time period, the Senior Four textbook mentions how the Tutsi were consistently treated as scapegoats for the nation’s political problems, using similar language later when discussing Naziism and the regime of Adolf Hitler (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020d). When discussing the 1981 quota system for schools and government positions that granted preferential access to Hutu children from the North to the great expense of the Tutsi and those from the South, the Senior Five textbook states ‘this culminated into the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020, 28).
36Notably, this last statement does not focus exclusively on the Tutsi but mentions how Hutu from the South were discriminated against as well. In Senior One, students learn how perpetrators of the genocide targeted Hutu politicians who opposed the violence (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020c). Senior Two students learn that ‘the enemy to be eliminated was any Tutsi within the country. Enemies also included moderate Hutu who were seen as sympathisers’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020e, 57). The theme of moderate Hutu being targeted for opposing the genocide reappears in Senior Three and Senior Six (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020d, 2020k). Some of these Hutus, such as Agatha Uwilingiyimana and the Inyange students, are mentioned specifically in the Senior Two section on patriotism (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020e). However, these victims are not to be overstated, especially at the expense of Tutsi victims. The Senior Five textbook teaches how the overemphasis of Hutu deaths in comparison to Tutsi deaths, particularly those that occurred at the hands of the RPA, is a form of genocide denial (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020j).
Gravity of the genocide
37Over the course of six years, students are presented the statistic of one million Tutsi Rwandans killed over the course of the hundred-day genocide 13 times (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020c, 2020d, 2020i, 2020j, 2020k). This statistic is seen as important, as the Senior Five textbook warns that minimising the gravity of the genocide is an example of genocide denial (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020j). Students learn that the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi was ‘the fastest and cruellest genocide ever recorded in history of humanity’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020e, 54, 2020d, 33). Students in Senior Four learn that, whilst other genocides have utilises torture, the extreme forms of violence in 1994 set the conflict apart from other genocides (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020i). Students are introduced to these cruel acts in their first year of secondary school: ‘It involved rape, abduction and torture of the innocent Tutsi by the Hutu extremists. It involved pounding babies in mortars, and confining and starving victims to death. It also involved burying victims alive, maiming and shooting them to death’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020c, 65).
38In Senior Two, students learn more about the mechanisms of the genocide, how those in power drafted lists with names of targets, set up civilian militias to carry out the genocide more effectively, and set up patrols to ward off escapes and prevent people from hiding. The textbook expands its description of the cruelty, explaining: ‘The main tools used during the genocide against the Tutsi were machetes, grenades and bullets. Other forms of torture and killings included burning people alive, throwing people into pit latrines while still alive and forcing family members to kill each other’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020e, 58).
39While the number of genocide related deaths is emphasised, it is not presented as the only negative impact of the conflict. The Senior Three and Senior Six textbooks discuss the immediate impacts in depth, outlining intercommunal mistrust, security concerns, widespread displacement, a devastated economy, high levels of malnutrition and infectious disease, increased prevalence of HIV and AIDs as a result of conflict-related sexual violence, an incapacitated educational system, and an ill-equipped justice system. Adding insult to injury, many skilled professionals such as teachers and healthcare workers had been targeted and killed during the conflict (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020d, 2020k). The Senior Four textbook notes that ‘although this genocide affected mainly the Tutsi, all Rwandans were generally affected. Many people became refugees and were displaced while others were apprehended and became prisoners’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020i, 35).
40This shows the impact of the genocide on the entire country, and the challenges that the new government faced in rebuilding. The textbooks emphasise how the GNU that was established in 1994 addressed these challenges to usher in a new era in Rwandan history. For example, according to the Senior Three textbook, the ‘GNU fought and eliminated all constraints to national unity such as ethnicity, regionalism, and discrimination’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020d, 43). They allegedly established rule of law and free and transparent elections where no individuals are privileged over others, as was the case in the previous regime. The language used is very black and white and uses terminology such as ‘good’ and ‘evil’ to draw clear distinctions between the old government and the new. This theme is continued in Senior Six in greater detail, celebrating the achievements of the GNU before teaching students how to recognise and prevent future conflicts (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020k).
Genocide denial
41The theme of genocide denial is primarily found in the Senior Five textbook, however it is important enough to the narrative to warrant an entire section dedicated to it. According to the textbook, denial constituted the final stage of any genocide, with the organisers of the genocide planning in advance how to justify their actions to be able to get away with their crimes (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020j). The Senior Six chapter summarises the concept as follows:
They try to justify the killings, and to blame the victims, claiming that their own behaviours brought about the killings. In Rwanda, killers alleged that Tutsi were helping rebels of RPF, and they used this to justify the mass killing of innocent Tutsi. The denial of genocide is not only the destruction of the truth about the genocide by negating or minimising it, it is also a potential cause of its repetition. (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020k, 50)
42Students are taught to be on the lookout for genocide ideology and genocide denial. It could be found in schools, political speeches, social, political, or economic movements, the press, academia, people specialising in international law, international justice systems, foreign politicians, etc. It can even be found in one’s own family. As the textbook teaches, parents are not immune to the impacts of indoctrination under the previous regimes. They may have ‘retold their past memories reflecting the genocide ideology to their children. As being not mature enough to assess the given information, children embrace the ideology’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020j, 48).
43What the textbook considers to be genocide denial goes beyond merely dismissing its existence, though literal denial is discussed with a particular focus on how it was used immediately after the genocide. For example, French soldiers justifying the rescue of expatriate communities while Tutsi were killed in plain view simply because they were only ordered to save non-Rwandans is presented as a form of banal denial. The textbook also presents the categories of interpretive genocide denial, by which facts relating to the genocide are acknowledged but interpreted in such a way that justifies actions as a response to legitimate threats, and implicatory genocide denial, which shifts the blame for actions from one group to another. Using the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi as an example, claiming the deaths associated with the genocide were nothing more than an extension of the ongoing civil war without constituting a genocide or a double genocide are examples of the former, whereas claims that members of the RPF were actually instigators of the conflict constitute the latter (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020j).
The 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi could have been prevented
44As mentioned in the section discussing the villains of the narrative, the international community was implicated in the crime of genocide for their failure to stop it from occurring. This theme is introduced as early as Senior One, where students are presented with an isolated Rwanda, actively being emptied of peacekeeping support when the genocide was imminent. It discusses warning signs being ignored by the UN Security Council which could have acted early to pre-empt the violence (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020c). This theme reappears in Senior Four, as the textbook teaches:
45‘The international community did not intervene to stop the genocide in Rwanda. The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi was stopped by Rwandans themselves. It came to an end when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) defeated the genocidal forces in July 1994’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020i, 25).
46The failure of the international community to act, established in previous textbooks, is the prologue for the Senior Six textbook unit on genocide prevention. The textbook teaches that genocide prevention is not merely the job for those at the international level, as the international community has failed time and again since the Genocide Convention was adopted in 1948, even when warning signs have been present. The textbook introduces eight stages to genocide, namely classification, symbolisation, dehumanisation, organisation, polarisation, preparation, extermination and denial, with explanations providing more detail and connecting warning signs with content about the genocide that students have already been taught, such as the preparation of lists and planned denial (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020k). This lends credence to the repeated assertion that warning signs were visible but ignored.
47Students are given activities to apply their knowledge, including one assignment where they are instructed to ‘research on the situation that prevails in Africa. Describe a case that you think may lead to genocide. Afterwards, point out strategies that you think can be used to prevent any possible acts of genocide’ (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020h, 53). Students are taught about the different roles of the international community and regional bodies such as the African Union in the prevention of genocide, before explaining the role played at the national level to prevent the recurrence of genocide. In this, Rwanda is portrayed as the hallmark example of a society. This is achieved partially through education keeping the historical memory and lessons learned alive, and partially by bringing perpetrators to justice through legal mechanisms (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2020k).
Notes de bas de page
1This term refers to the civil war that occurred in Rwanda between 1990 and 1994. As this is the terminology the textbook uses to refer to this conflict, it is the one that will be used when discussing the textbook’s narrative.
2This is the political party associated with the Habyarimana regime. It is commonly referred to in the textbooks simply by its acronym.

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