Two sides of the same coin

I got an interesting comment on my last blog post from a dear friend of mine. With her permission I share it to you now, so you can get the other side of the story...

"I lived there for almost 2 months. It's amazing what they, Rwandans, have done after the genocide. It's a shame that the hatred is deep down in their bones. 

My first days there were heavenly. As I started interacting with the locals, I realised they are very suspicious of anyone and that is because Kagame, the president, has thousands of spies and anyone that talks ill of him or the government, is arrested. Democracy there is dead. I don't know if you noticed but the people there are not very lively like here. There is an air of tension.

There is quite a lot I can tell you about my experience there. You got most of it right on your blog but some, no. The Tutsi and Hutus were not classified by the Belgians. The Rwandans had a caste system and they divided themselves as so. The Tutsi were cattle herders while the Hutus were farmers. Hutus could rise up to the status of being known as a Tutsi if they acquired a certain number of cows. When the Belgians arrived, they used this caste system to divide and rule them. They went to the Tutsi telling them they were alike in looks (light skinned, sharp noses) and gave them high positions of power. They then went to the Hutus and told them they were foolish to be "ruled" by a minority group (Hutus make up the majority of Rwandas population). This created tension and it led to the first (though minor) genocide in 1952 (or so). The second one was in the 70s and the 19994 was the culmination of it all.

It is a lovely country and the people need a strong though kind of dictator like Kagame as they are very hard headed and very vengeful. I hope they will be able to maintain peace once he leaves the office."