Was there a religious distrinction between the Tutsi and Hutu?

[usregimechange]

[RevCheesehead]

1. I have no idea.

I'm not even sure of the ethnic/cultural differences, either.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Rwanda was a Belgian colony, and the only references to religion that

I recall were to Catholic churches.

[supernova]

3. I think they considered it ethnic hatred , ethnic cleansing

ethnic violence purpetrated on one group by another rather than religious violence.

I'm still not too sure about the history of Tutsis and Hutus, though.

[I_Make_Mistakes]

4. I actually think it is tribal

The tribes in the middle east and Africa are so strong. Think of the tribes in the Bible and subtract 2000 years.

[onager]

5. No. Economic and cultural.

And as an atheist, I always look for the religious land-mine first.

The (minority) Tutsis were traditionally cattle herders, the Hutus were small farmers. This gave the Tutsis economic and political advantages which created the usual resentments. In their society. just like ours, the better off financially you are, the closer you are to power. In the Tutsis' case, they were usually closer to the tribal rulers because of their occupation (tending the royal herds etc.).

This was only aggravated when Belgium colonized the area. The Belgians forced the two groups to carry I.D. cards defining them as either Tutsi or Hutu. The Belgians also favored Tutsis as workers in the colonial bureaucracy, but froze out the Hutus. As a byproduct of this policy, Tutsis could obtain higher education, but Hutus could not.

Most people mention "Hotel Rwanda" as a good cinematic look at the Rwandan genocide, but HBO did an excellent fact-based movie about it, "Sometimes In April." It's available for rental.