Propaganda for Genocide

Propaganda was used on the Rwandans to convince them that genocide was an acceptable means of gaining power. The media played a large role in the Rwandan Genocide. Newspapers and radio broadcastings were a crucial part of what intensified the killings. Rwandan newspapers printed so much hate speech against Tutsis that it seemed to be the norm. During the genocide there was a high level of illiteracy, so radio broadcastings were an important way of spreading information about the genocide. Two popular radio stations for the genocide were Radio Rwanda and Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines. In March 1992, Radio Rwanda started to broadcast that Tutsi was going to attack Hutu Bugesera. The messaged was broadcasted to trick Hutu into attacking Tutsi first in order to protect themselves. Hutu villagers began to attack the Tutsi’s, killing hundreds. (Picture from Nat. Geo.)

In 1993, the Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines falsely broadcasted that the Burundi president was tortured and defeated; causing more attacks. In April of 1994, authorities started using the two radio stations to deliver messages to the soldiers on what to do in battle. The radio announcements would entice the attacks by giving specific areas and methods for carrying out the killings. The radio stations broadcasted rumors about the Tutsi women saying they were only used as sexual weapons. It was believed from the broadcastings that Tutsi women were used as tools to breakdown the Hutu men. (Picture from National Geographic)

Genocides are usually started by a main source. In the case of Ender’s Game, it was the adults who pressured the children into battle against the Buggers. With the Holocaust, the leader was Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler used propaganda to turn people into Nazis. Hitler promoted Nazism in any way possible. He would use parades, magazines, and even posters to spread the word of Nazi power. While imprisoned Hitler wrote the book, Mein Kamf, “My Struggle”. Hitler pleaded how the Aryan race was superior to all other races. He saw the Jews as a threat, fighting for world domination. The same is apparent in Ender’s Game, it is believed that the Buggers are trying to destroy the planet.

(Picture from www.questgarden.com)

Works Cited
"Genocide in Rwanda." Propaganda of the Rwandan genocide. 12 Feb. 2009 .
Rummel, R. J. "Genocide*." Genocide. 23 Nov. 2002. Hawaii Education. 14 Feb. 2009 .

Motivation for Genocide

Why would anyone want to destroy all people of a race, religion or political stance? One motive is to destroy a threat to the current rulling power. In 1971 East Pakistan was attempting to gain independence from West Pakistan, a campaign of mass murder began durring West Pakistan killed millions of Bengali intellectuals, professionals, leaders, Hindus. In Rwanda, the Hutu majority government murdered all Tutsi they could because the Tutsis were rebelling against the Hutu government. In just over three months approximately 800,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsis were killed, about 10,000 deaths per day.

(Picture from http://www.usafricaonline.com/genocide.rwanda10.jpg)

Another motive for genocide is emotionally driven; this includes the destruction of any who are hated, despised or even envied. The holocaust is an example of an act of ethnic and religous hatred. The Nazis murdered millions of Jews because of their hatred for them and their beliefs. In 1915 Armenians were hated for being Christians in the largely Muslim Ottoman society, more than 500,000 were killed between 1914-1918.

(Picture from www.knowledgenews.com)

Communist societies have carried out genocides in the pursuit of an ideological transformation of society. Anyone perceived to oppose the ideology are murdered. Ethnic cleansing, purifications, or eliminating alien beliefs are also motives for genocide. All of these motivations are clear, but what is difficult to comprehend is convincing large numbers of people to believe in these means to an end.

(Picture from akiopersonalessay.blogspot.com/)

Works Cited
"Genocide in Rwanda." Propaganda of the Rwandan genocide. 12 Feb. 2009 .
Rummel, R. J. "Genocide*." Genocide. 23 Nov. 2002. Hawaii Education. 14 Feb. 2009 .

Genocide in Darfur

In the book Enders Game, by Orson Scott Card, Ender Wiggin is chosen by the military to stop the world from destruction. The adults believe that the buggers are trying to destroy the planet, and they start a child battle school to defend themselves. Ender learns that the buggers are highly evolved insects that communicate solely through their queen. The adults eventually trick Ender into committing xenocide, the extinction of an entire planet.


There are many times throughout history that we have heard of genocide, “the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group (Dictionary.com 1). One of the more recent events of genocide is in Darfur, Western Sudan. Darfur has a population of approximately six million, and of those people a little over 3 million are black Africans, the rest are Arabs. This region of the world has been plagued with severe neglect from the central government. Six years ago, in 2003, rebel groups began to address the government for their economic grievances, and asking for more political power. The Sudan government saw the rebels as a threat to the country. They believed that if word got out, everyone would want more autonomy. The government reacted by carrying out a deliberate attack on all of the African tribal people of Darfur.




(Picture by Wendy Stone)



Janjaweed, a large Arab military affiliation, are the main people the government hired to carry out the genocide in Sudan. The government arms the Janjaweed, and they are sent into different villages. While in the villages, the military is expected to kill Africans of all ages. They may do so by fire, destroying their food, mass executions, wide-scale rape, and kidnapping children. Approximately 400,000 villagers have been murdered, and 2.5 million have been displaced. The Sudan government denies any affiliation with the genocide, but there are records that reveal high ranking officers planning the murders. The government is going to great lengths to make sure no reporters get into the villages that are under attack in Darfur.

The United States has already officially proclaimed the deaths in Sudan as genocide. The United Nations are calling it “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today”. The Africans in Darfur have not been extinct yet, but the Janjaweed is still raiding the villages. In Ender’s Game, the children are similar to the Janjaweed, they are ordered to kill another race in order to keep their area intact.

Works Cited

Random House. Dictionary.com. 2006. 16 Feb. 2009 http://www.dictionary.com.

United Human Rights Council. "Genocide in Sudan." United Human Rights Council. 16 Feb. 2009 .

Enders Game

I am testing my blogging abilities!!