Structural Violence in Rwanda: An Alternative Explanation for Genocide?

This article outlines the contribution of structural violence to the gradual outbreak of genocide in Rwanda. It examines how such violence, albeit indirect, provided permissive grounds for the egregious events that took place. Doing so challenges the popular notion that this genocide was primarily caused by ethnic hatred. Such a characterisation oversimplifies this tragic incidence of violence. Referring to theories of political opportunity and scapegoating allows an interpretation that the manipulation of the masses by political actors caused the 1994 genocide. By negating the role of primordial ethnicity, this article illuminates how ethnicity was used by elites to apportion blame to "othered" groups, namely the Tutsi.