Exporting Racism

According to Emmanuel Kolini and Peter Holmes ( Christ Walks Where Evil Reigned ), the Hutus and Tutsis of Rwanda were originally ethnically indistinguishable. Prior to colonialization, the difference was “vocational,” social and economic. Tutsis were cattle herders, Hutus farmers; Tutsis were Abel, Hutus Cain. When the Belgians took over, they gave each Rwandan an ID card that listed ethnicity as Hutu or Tutsi, “based in part on the measurement of their noses.” What was a social division within a racially unified people became a racial distinction.