The majority of my knowledge about Rwanda regards the 1994 genocide and its contextualization, the roles and treatment of women within the country and justice pursuits in the aftermath of the conflict (gacaca, reconciliation).
Specifically, three things I know include:
1) There are THREE ethnic groups in Rwanda- the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. The Twa is a much smaller population but still participated in the genocide as both perpetrators and victims. A limited, popular perception — brought about by the Rwandan government’s post-genocide policy of national unity and reconciliation, media representations, etc — teaches that that the genocide was waged only between the Hutu and the Tutsi with all Hutus being perpetrators and all Tutsis being victims.
(Learned this from writing my PCON senior thesis)
2) The Hutu, Tutsi and Twa are/have been more than “ethnic” groups – their identities have changed and evolved throughout history ranging from social to political groups, and often manipulated for the self-interest of the government.
(Learned this from writing my PCON senior thesis)
3) The United States, under President Bill Clinton, failed to intervene in the Rwandan genocide. Clinton did not publicly term the conflict “genocide,” because that word is married to an obligation to act and the US did not want to act.
(Learned this in high school history class/my Colgate first year seminar called Confronting the Past: Historical Injustice and Reconciliation)