[CASE STUDY OF THE PHENOPILL] Phenotype differences played a huge role in causing the Rwandan Genocide.

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enchanted_elixir

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Went down a rabbit hole after scrolling around humanphenotypes.net and this page





I'll summarize this very quickly
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1.​


The Kingdom of Rwanda (pre-colonial Kingdom) wasn’t “tribal.”
It was class-stratified with phenotypic correlates.


  • Tutsis: Taller, thinner, maybe lighter, narrower facial features (nose, etc.) more Caucasoid (skull morphology); cattle-owning pastoralists; military aristocracy.
  • Hutus: Shorter, broader (body, nose), maybe darker, farmers; made up the agrarian labor class.
  • Twa: Marginal hunter-gatherers, pygmies.



2.​


Pre-colonial Rwanda allowed mobility.
A poor Tutsi could become Hutu.
A wealthy Hutu could become Tutsi (kwihutura = “to shed Hutuness”).
Identity followed cattle ownership and proximity to power, not blood.




3.​


Colonialism destroyed that.
The Belgians froze fluid classes into biological castes.
They issued ethnic ID cards (1933) and declared Tutsis a "Hamitic" race—East African pseudo-Caucasians; admixed Hamitic type with ancestors who migrated from Ethiopia/Somalia.
Tutsis were used by the colonial groups to enforce colonial rule.
Tutsis were more likely to be preferred by the colonial ruling groups due to the Hamitic hypothesis.




4.​


Phenotype became destiny:
If you had a tall frame, long nose, angular jaw—you're a Tutsi, and that meant you were:


  • An oppressor
  • A traitor
  • A proxy of colonial rule
  • A parasite on the Hutu body politic

Even if you were a subsistence farmer.




5.​


Post-independence Hutu elites took over the government from the former Tutsi monarchy adopted a Marxist-style binary:


  • Tutsis = bourgeois/feudal class
  • Hutus = oppressed proletariat
    But with a twist: this was mapped onto phenotypes.

It wasn’t just economic; it was embodied.




6.​


The 1990–1994 civil war radicalized this.
Media, schools, and pamphlets didn’t just warn about “Tutsi rebels.”
They trained people to recognize Tutsis by sight:


“Tall, slim, narrow nose = kill on sight.”

Phenotype became a kill switch.




7.​


Tutsis were the productive class:


  • Ran schools, clinics, trade routes, cattle breeding
  • Dominated bureaucratic skill roles before the 1959 purge
  • Even in exile, they trained themselves into RPF officers, doctors, strategists

They were the kulaks of Rwanda: visible, envied, essential.




8.​


Genocide logic:


  • Dehumanize the Tutsi as racial oppressor class.
  • Declare violence as justice.
  • Mark the body itself as evidence of guilt.
  • Mobilize the majority to kill.



9.​


Outcome:

  • 800,000+ killed in 100 days.
  • ~70% of Tutsis eliminated.
  • Infrastructure collapsed.
  • A country decapitated.
  • Trauma embedded across generations.
 
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  • Hmm...
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  • JFL
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