Kangura

During the Habyarimana presidency, the media created four newspapers and one radio station (Radio Rwanda). One of the periodicals, called Kanguka ("wake up"), was first distributed in 1987 and was owned by a Tutsi and edited by a Hutu. In its pages it declared that Rwandan poverty and social imbalance is not a result of Tutsi domination (as the Hutus believe), but of the government's economic policy and its network of northern Rwandan clan loyalties. The paper was very popular but it threatened the akazu (anti-Tutsi Hutus) power. The akazu had a strong hold on national affairs and did not want to share any of their power with the Tutsies. In order to combat this influential paper, the Hutus created a paper called Kangura, which means "wake them up." The name is extremely similar and so was the layout style and tone of the paper. The Hutus did this to confuse readers and to make readers dislike, misunderstand, and criticize the Tutsi people and the RPF.

Hassan Ngeze, a correspondent for the Kanguka, was hired as the editor for Kangura. This was also confusing for the readers because he transferred over from one paper to the other. Ngeze was clever; he used caricatures and political cartoons as visuals to make sure illiterate and poorly educated Rwandans were influenced by the anti-Tutsi articles. He often used crude and shocking pictures such as Tutsi men castrating Hutu and Tutsi women giving sexual favors for international support of their sinful cause. Another tactic Ngeze and his writers used to ingrain anti-Tutsi ideas was using the name "inyenzi" instead of Tutsi. In Kinyarwanda, inyenzi means "cockroach." This insect usually has negative connotations, and is often unwanted in the place which it lives but they are difficult to eliminate. Another name used for the Tutsies was "inkotanyi," which is a historical term for warrior. This term was originally given for the RPF, but the newspaper used it in a negative way. The paper portrayed all of the RPF soldiers as armed against the Hutu people. This sent fear and distrust into the hearts of the Hutus because they were unarmed and one article threatened that "85% of the Tutsi are RPF collaborators 'who are working night and day' to overthrow security in Rwanda. Faced with such a threat the Hutu have no choice but to act in self-defense." Another issue in 1994 proclaimed that the UN peacekeepers were plotting with the RPF to assassinate the president and take over Rwanda. When the president's plane was shot down in April 1994, many Hutu panicked. Many of them believed what the media was feeding them. (Now researchers are almost positive that the Hutus shot down the plane; they are positive that the UN peacekeepers and RPF were not behind the plot.) Kangura is another example that shows the Rwanda genocide was strategically and carefully planned in order to be as effective as possible. This newspaper put doubt, fear, the feeling of the need for self-defense, and anger into the hearts and minds of the Hutu people. This caused them to commit horrific, irrational, and unsympathetic crimes.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akazu

http://www.trumanwebdesign.com/~catalina/kangura.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangura