Genocide and constructions of Hutu and Tutsi in radio propaganda

Radio propaganda clearly played a role in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 in which over a million people, mainly Tutsi, were killed. Foreign media and many commentators saw the propaganda as based on ethnic difference. Through an analysis of eighty-six Radio Rwanda and Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines broadcasts, the author shows how reliance on one explanation – be it of ethnicity, politics, ‘race’ or occupation – falls short and oversimplifies. She argues that in fact the broadcasts ‘othered’ the target group by simultaneously drawing on multiple constructions of Hutu and Tutsi identities from many periods in Rwanda’s history.