The Anthropology Of Genocide - WNLibrary

170 annihilating difference
that the degree of human goodness that one possessed was directly proportional
to the width of one’s nose. Hutu stereotypically have wider noses than Tutsi.
In other instances the styles affected in the improvised uniforms of the Interhamwe
militia, their gestures, and body language showed the influence of James
Bond, Bruce Lee, Rambo, and Arnold Schwarzenegger films, all of which were
readily available and popular in pregenocide Rwanda. Violence, it would appear,
has its fashions and its styles, and these are partly transnational in origin.
THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE AND
HISTORICAL TRANSFORMATION
Although I believe that the imagery of flow and obstruction was pervasive during
the genocide, it would be wrong to conclude from the above argument that Rwandan
culture is simply a machine a tropes constantly replicating the same structures and
hermetically sealed off from all influences arising from within or beyond its borders.
As Bourdieu (1977, 1990) maintains, people tend to reproduce the “structured
and structuring logic” of the habitus. Nevertheless, although older generations subtly
inculcate this logic to their juniors, the socialization process is never perfect or
complete. Transformed objective circumstances always influence socialization. The
tendency to reproduce a structured logic thus should not be seen as simple and volitionless
replication. There is always improvisation and innovation, even if many
of the basic patterns retain their saliency.
In the Rwandan instance, colonialism and concomitant transformations in economic
and political conditions influenced the perception and depiction of evil. Because
of these changes, the symbolism of malevolent obstruction could be applied
to an entire ethnic group. This was a radical departure from the past. During precolonial
times, the image of the menacing “blocking being” was confined to a limited
number of individuals. These included impa—women who had reached childbearing
age and had never menstruated; impenebere—women who had reached
childbearing age and had not developed breasts; individual enemies of the Rwandan
king, and sorcerers. All these malevolent beings were mythically presaged in
the legend about the agakeecuru and the origin of Death. Occasionally, in the rituals
associated with sacred kingship, such individuals were publicly sacrificed to rid
the polity of their potentially nefarious influence.
It was not until Tutsi and Hutu ethnic identities had become substantialized under
colonialism, and then privileges were awarded by the colonial rulers on the
basis of these identities, that an entire group of people could be thought of as a
source of obstruction to the polity as a whole. Tutsi could be easily assimilated to
the category of “invaders” because of their alliance with German, then Belgian,
outsiders and the colonialists’ reliance on Hamitic theories. When Belgians quickly
shifted their allegiance to Hutu in the late 1950s, supporting the Hutu Revolution,
Tutsi were left to fend for themselves while retaining their substantialized identity.
Tutsi assimilation to the imagery of malevolent others, “blocked” or “blocking be-