1. Rwanda is a (relatively) small nation situated within central Africa, bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo, I believe. (I can’t pinpoint the exact moment when I learned this, though I suppose during 7th grade World Studies when memorizing continental maps).
2. There exist two ethnic groups, the Tutsi and the Hutu, and the tensions between such served as the impetus for the genocide in 1994. The current president is Kagame, and is praised for the country’s post-conflict transformation, which appears as a model for other African nations. (Speaking candidly, the very first I heard of the Rwandan Genocide was through the hype surrounding the movie, Hotel Rwanda, as I do not remember learning much about the atrocity in past history classes. The above knowledge is cemented by media articles [NYT, BBC, etc], and prior PCON courses).
3. During the Rwandan Genocide, the French president at the time was actively complicit, and supported the regime. In intervention, the stationed French soldiers allowed perpetrators to escape to the DRC . The reason why this is important to consider now is in relation to the political turmoil that currently exists in Mali. Just this week France enacted military intervention, which is leading scholars to recall the last time the country intervened in Africa… the Rwandan Genocide. Hence, questioning how the foreign intervention in Mali will unfold. (Recently, I have had to read up on the situation in Mali for another course, using scholarly articles and news sources. Thought that this relationship to the current state of affairs in Africa was interesting).