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Savannah N. Howard
Professor Dhillon
Peace and Violence
2 October 2024
Hotel Rwanda
There are two different types of violence, structural and direct. Structural violence is a
type of violence that is indirect, mostly related to systems, and is a root of a problem that tends to
lead to direct violence. Structural violence includes classism, racism, and sexism. While direct
violence is physical violence such as the action of kicking, punching, biting, etc. The film Hotel
Rwanda demonstrated examples of structural and direct violence as well as negative peace
throughout the film with the showcase of the genocide itself in order to display realistic
happenings during the Rwandan genocide.
The Belgians occupied Rwanda prior to the Rwandan genocide. They abused their power
and performed structural violence against the Hutu. In Rwanda the Hutu felt oppressed by the
Belgians and rightfully so, they restricted Hutu the access to land and higher education. The
Belgians also introduced ethnic identification cards which is a form of racism and in hand a form
of structural violence. They also took all power away from the Hutu and made the Tutsi elite.
There was structural violence against the Hutu however at the time negative peace, meaning
there was a lack of direct violence.
After the Belgian left, the Hutu felt underrepresented and not heard due to the structural
violence against them, which eventually led to them forming a revolution to take down the Tutsi.
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In the film there are several occurrences where the Hutu refer to the Tutsi as “cockroaches”, “tall
trees”, along with other names. The nickname “tall trees” derived from the classification the
Belgians made that Tutsi are more tall and lean than Hutu. These names are to dehumanize the
Tutsi, the Hutu do not want to recognize them as human beings because they didn’t feel as
though they were given their human rights while the Tutsi were considered elite. After the Hutu
were oppressed they wanted the Tutsi to feel the same they did.
As seen in the film, there were threats being heard over radio broadcasting such as “cut
down the tall trees.” “Cut down the tall trees” was an incentive to start massacring all Tutsi. The
radio broadcasting served an important role by encouraging all to participate in the genocide
towards the Tutsi. Although, the majority that were killed were Tutsi the Hutu that did not agree
with the genocide were killed as well. If the Hutu wanted to get rid of all Tutsi for how they were
treated, why kill other Hutu as well? In the film when Paul is caught harboring Tutsi he was
called a “traitor” and was going to get killed as well. If a Hutu had any associated with Tutsi they
were considered traitors and essentially sentenced to death, same goes for those against the
genocide.
During the genocide Tutsi children were targeted so they couldn't raise the next
generation of Tutsi. Tutsi women were also tortured. There is a brief scene in the film where
Paul goes to his supplier Georges Rutaganda and there are Tutsi women locked up in a cage.
These women were being sexually assaulted in order to carry children that were Hutu. Hutu
women also participated in the genocide and sexism occurred after the genocide due to this. Hutu
women were more reprimanded for participating in the genocide than Hutu men, because they
are women and its essentially more out of character for them. However, they had no choice, it
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was either participate or get killed. There was direct violence and structural violence between
Hutu and Tutsi women during and after the genocide.
The film Hotel Rwanda demonstrated examples of structural and direct violence as well
as negative peace throughout the film with the showcase of the genocide itself in order to display
realistic happenings during the Rwandan genocide. Negative peace is a weak peace in general; it
is easy to break. The act of direct violence breaks the negative peace there once was. As
mentioned before, direct violence usually stems from structural violence which was exactly the
case in this instance. The structural violence which was the oppressiveness done by Belgium to
the Hutu was the root of the problem. It built up resentment towards the Tutsi and made the Hutu
act upon themselves to get justice, which in their eyes was genocide of all Tutsi.