The Power of Words

5 min readJan 4, 2021

Over 5,000 people seeking refuge in Ntarama church were killed by grenade, machete, rifle, or burnt alive.

Most people are aware of the Rwandan Genocide of the early 1990s, but for those who aren’t familiar here’s an entirely insufficient abbreviated summary:

Rwanda is small country in East Africa, currently home to about 12 million people.
It is home to two major ethnic groups, the Hutu (~80%) and the Tutsi’s (~15%), along with a minor group the Twa (~1%).
For most of its history, the country was led by the Tutsis even with their minority status in terms of the population.

Following decolonization, the country went through internal strife leading to the ouster of the Tutsi’s from power and the election of Hutu leaders for the country.

This in turn led to the Tutsi’s creating a resistance force, the Rwanda Patriotic Front (FPR), to push back against the Hutu dominated regime. This all set the stage for the horrific Rwandan Genocide.

Rwanda in the early 1990s had 3 major radio stations. The government run Radio Rwanda, which was primarily non-partisan, the FPR backed Radio Muhabara, and finally the Hutu hard line supported Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM). These three radio stations all competed to gain the hearts and souls of Rwandan’s in the upcoming conflict.

Rwandan’s relied heavily on radio at this time for their source of information. Many Rwandan’s were illiterate or simply did not have access to text forms of information. As a result radio became their one source of information. Adding to this confusion, was that Radio Rwanda and RTLM both existed on the same wavelength, only having their programs at different times.

While both Radio Muhabara and RTLM generally had fiery talk and instigative language, RTLM often dehumanized the Tutsis. Using language to describe the Tutsis as cockroaches and calling for their extermination. Eventually this language and the heated rhetoric came to a head when unknown attackers shot down the plane of the President of Rwanda, a Hutu, Juvénal Habyarimana:

And you people who live … near Rugunga … go out. You will see the cockroaches’ (inkotanyi) straw huts in the marsh … I think that those who have guns should immediately go to these cockroaches … encircle them and kill them …

Kantano Habimana on RTLM, April 12, 1994

Following the further excitement and encouragement of action against the Tutsi’s between 500,000 and 800,000 were killed brutally in the immediate aftermath. Most shocking of all were that most Tutsi’s were killed in their own villages, their own homes, and their own communities. The culprits were often local Hutu gangs who sought out any Tutsi’s.

Most profound of all, was the lack of action by most nations to take active action to stop the infighting and onslaught. The United States which actively had played a role in previous interventions across the globe had a very light touch approach to the crisis.

There was simply no appetite for military intervention — outside helping other foreigners trapped within the conflict. At the same time, there was no interest in pursuing any other options, if not military ones. One idea thrown around was jamming the airwaves so the rhetoric of RTLM could no longer be thrown around and cause further instigation.

However, even that was shot down:

In early May the State Department Legal Advisor’s Office issued a finding against radio jamming, citing international broadcasting agreements and the American commitment to free speech ….

Power, “Bystanders to Genocide”

When the issue was raised again — a Pentagon official criticized the idea stating “Radios don’t kill people. People kill people!”

The conflict raged on for a few months till July of 1994 until the FPR resistance army took control of the capital and ousted the old Hutu government. The impact of the genocide has had long lasting effects throughout Rwandan history and human history.

Studies showed that potentially the language used by RTLM resulted in an increase of general violence by nearly 60% — and that it’s estimated that nearly 10% of the violence during the genocide can be attributed to RTLM’s broadcasts & language¹.

Since 1994, the Tutsi dominated FPR has won every election with over 90% of the vote. FPR might have come to a conclusion that if they ever were to lose power again, another potential genocide may just be around the corner again, and as such have failed to push for major democratic reform and transparency — leaving the nation with a single political party.

Even more recently (Dec 2020), Paul Rusesabagina, who helped save over 1000 refugees during the genocide (both Hutus and Tutsis), was arrested as part of a political maneuver by the FPR government. It only goes to show that the scars of the genocide have only persisted and corrupted the current state of affairs in the country.

While RTLM wasn’t the only source of the hatred towards Tutsi’s it definitely acted to further flame the elevated anxieties of the Hutus. In many ways, in 2021, we’re not much different in how hate speech can push people the wrong way. Think of social media and how easily it can spread ideas and false information — if that false information or angry rhetoric causes even one person to take steps towards violence, is there no responsibility for the platforms and voices that preach for such language?

If figures and media companies escape any serious consequences for their language, then we should expect to see further explosion of such language and ideas across social media. Freedom of speech should not be associated with freedom from consequences.

Words have an impact — and especially so if they are repeated over and over — regardless of their validity and/or truthful nature. One needs to be held responsible for their actions & language, especially so in a time when words travel and echo across millions and perhaps even billions, otherwise the unfortunate Rwandan Genocide won’t be the only example of how hate speech escalates to violence on a massive scale.

The Power of Words

Written by Anuraag Mattapally