CHAPTER 7: ANALYSING THE LIFE STORIES
7.3. Themes in the life stories
7.3.1. Ethnic identity
Amartya Sen writes about how we have allegiance to a plurality of identities that together make us who we are. He argues that we constantly 'explicitly or by implication' make choices about which identity we favour over others (2006, 19).
In the case of the life stories, all four participants rejected simple identification along ethnic lines. None was comfortable with being labeled either Hutu or Tutsi or as Hutu refugee and Ugandan Tutsi, which are categories into which each could be placed on the basis of their histories and present circumstances. Robert and Fred, both Ugandan Tutsi, expressed their disinterest in their ethnic
identification. Robert favoured his allegiance to the East African community whereas Fred emphasised his Rwandan identity. Francois was the least
comfortable with his ethnic identity, having been brought up by a Tutsi mother but being labeled Hutu due to his absent father's identity. There was even some doubt whether his father's line was in fact Hutu or had had their identity cards changed to Hutu at the beginning of the First Republic in order to gain favour with the authorities. Reginald was the only participant who seemed to experience pride
in his ethnic identity, identifying confidently with being Hutu, but this identification seemed secondary to what was far more important to him: being a Rwandan, an African and a member of the human race.
For Fred and Robert, ethnic identity played an insignificant role while they were growing up in Uganda. They were made constantly aware of their Rwandan identity, and this was seen as something derogatory and demeaning, but they were not aware of the terms Hutu and Tutsi. Robert’s refugee camp in Uganda, as far as he remembers, held both Hutu and Tutsi, but these distinctions meant nothing; everyone just wanted to return to Rwanda and leave the country that was treating them so badly.
Robert described the RPA as being Pan-Africanist, focused on the African continent and a united Rwanda. Their training was not only military but also included Rwandan and African politics and history. Robert says,
“In the RPA, Hutu and Tutsi wasn’t spoken about. They dealt with segregation with military discipline and strictness. They wanted to show that Rwandans could live without those, and it was forbidden. You couldn’t even speak of being Tutsi. They promoted patriotism and unity”.
When asked if he felt any hatred towards Hutu during the war, he replied, “Not at all. In the military we were mixed and what we were doing was a military
operation. I never had a background which gave me a reason to hate anyone”.
None of the participants looked the part of their ethnic group. Reginald joked during the interview about how his limbs and fingers were too long to be a Hutu but his nose too flat to be a Tutsi. Francois similarly described how his neighbours always said he was too tall for a Hutu. Fred, although tall, joked that he was too heavily built to be a Tutsi. Although all the participants were dismissive of appearance as a means of defining ethnic identity, Francois expressed
experiencing a distinct lack of belonging in either ethnic group as a result both of his appearance and his mixed parentage. He says,
“You can even hear it amongst people, you can sit down, and the people you are with think you are Tutsi so they start telling me certain things, then they realise I'm a Hutu and change what they were saying. When I'm with a Hutu they don't tell me anything. They think, they don't know with this guy.
You have to fight to convince someone you are a Hutu or a Tutsi. You have to fight to say that no matter what I am doing, I am still a Rwandan”.
He describes how as he was growing up he spent more time with his mother’s side of the family, who were Tutsi, but never felt he was one of them. During the interview he expressed the belief that Tutsi have secrets or inside knowledge that Hutu don't have, suggesting this might be intrinsic to being Tutsi. On the other hand, his Hutu friends never fully trusted him because of his close interactions with Tutsi and so never divulged their true thoughts. This has left him in an awkward position, the effects of which he still feels as a refugee today.
Each of the participants seemed to place less value on their ethnic identity than other identifications. Each also insisted that there was nothing that made a person essentially Hutu or Tutsi apart from upbringing and what they had been taught.
And yet, Francois' experience as described above brings to attention the myriad of unspoken factors that might give a person access to a particular group or not.
These factors are taken for granted, implicit, assumed and are most probably unknown or unrealised by those in the group, but for those forced to remain
outside they are very real and felt. During informal interviews, the secretiveness of the Tutsi was often mentioned and there was a sense that there was a hidden, shared knowledge between Tutsi that Hutu would never be able to have access to, making Tutsi essentially untrustworthy and unsafe to anyone outside of the ethnic group. When discussing ethnic stereotypes, Reginald commented that:
“Tutsi are considered to be superior, more collected, more intelligent, more secretive. Hutus are considered to be indifferent, don't care what will
happen tomorrow, concerned only with today; derogative depictions were used, people who are greedy”.
Elsewhere he describes Hutu as being 'transparent', in opposition to Tutsi who are more mysterious. Whether Tutsi experience themselves in this way, or believe themselves to have a secret knowledge denied to other was never expressed to me by a Tutsi. Two comments may bring this into question, though. The first was that several Rwandans, both Hutu and Tutsi, said to me on several occasions that Rwandans were not to be trusted and were not likely to tell the truth. But this statement was made by people from both ethnic groups and implicated people from both ethnic groups. The second was an informal conversation where a Tutsi man said he would sit at the same table as a Hutu but he would never trust a Hutu. I said that sitting at the same table as a Hutu was a positive step towards reconciliation. Another Tutsi friend who was there pointed out to me that the only reason he would sit at the same table as a Hutu was because Tutsi were
expected to show good behaviour and superior manners at all times. Although he would pretend to welcome Hutu into his home and share food with them, it would be without sincerity and with hidden motives. This story is of course anecdotal but it feeds into the belief many Hutu have that the hospitality of a Tutsi, or anything a Tutsi may offer, cannot be fully trusted.