Rhetoric and Society in the Context of Rwanda's Genocide Research Paper

This paper focuses on the genocidal rhetoric in Rwanda, which targeted three particular aspects of the Hutu-Tutsi relationship in order to facilitate the outbreak of genocide. The paper explains that the destructive rhetoric focused primarily on a racial prejudice widespread in the Rwandan population that derived its potency from a specific colonial history; also, the rhetoric effectively exploited the various insecurities of the majority Hutus by starkly contrasting their past and present vis-a-vis the Tutsis. The paper notes that the instigators gave a supposedly objective and historical turn to their rhetorical portrayal of the ethnic conflict by invoking the original claim of the Hutus to the Rwandan land, which was particularly effective given the country's economic and political travails. The paper reaches the conclusion that the rhetoric employed during and after the carnage was seen as just another tool used to further the ends of genocide; thus, rhetoric emerged as a verbal counterpart to the machete.