A small country
Open the map in 1994 and find Rwanda in the heart of Africa, between Zaire, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi. Compare its size with the Netherlands. Ask the atlas: "Who ruled Rwanda before independence in 1962?"
Open this view on the mapPost-Cold War · 1994
Rwanda 1994: genocide, and those who did not look away
In about 100 days in 1994, Hutu extremists murdered an estimated 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda, while the world looked on. Students learn how the genocide was prepared, why the UN pulled back, and meet the people who sheltered and rescued others. Written with care for students aged 14 and older.
- Length
- 50 minutes
- Ages
- 14–16
- On the map
- 3 steps, AD 1994
- Live lesson
- 7 rounds, 3 on the map
- Worksheet
- Two A4 pages, with Classroom
- You need
- A projector; phones for live
Live lesson · new in Classroom
Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.
Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.
€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.
- 7 rounds
- 3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
- About 15 minutes
- Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
- A report
- Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
Introduction
5 minRead aloud
In about 100 days in 1994, Hutu extremists murdered an estimated 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda, while the world looked on. Students learn how the genocide was prepared, why the UN pulled back, and meet the people who sheltered and rescued others. Written with care for students aged 14 and older.
By the end of the lesson, students can
- Explain how colonial rule and later politics divided Rwandans into Hutu and Tutsi.
- Describe how the genocide of April to July 1994 was organized and how it ended.
- Give examples of rescue during the genocide and explain how Rwanda and the world tried to deal with the crimes afterwards.
Explore the map
15 minProject the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.
Arusha
Travel to Arusha in Tanzania. Here a peace deal was signed in August 1993, and from 1994 a UN tribunal judged the leaders of the genocide. Why hold the trials outside Rwanda?
Open this view on the mapGoma
Go to Goma, just across the border in Zaire. In July 1994 about a million refugees crowded here. Ask the atlas: "What happened in the refugee camps around Goma in 1994?"
Open this view on the mapClass discussion
15 minPick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.
- Belgian rulers put "Hutu" or "Tutsi" on identity cards in the 1930s. How can a label on a card become a death sentence sixty years later?
- Radio RTLM called Tutsi "cockroaches" and read out names and addresses. Why is hate propaganda so dangerous?
- After ten Belgian peacekeepers were killed, Belgium withdrew and the UN cut its force to about 270 soldiers. What should the world have done instead?
- Some Rwandans hid neighbors in their homes, in churches or in a hotel in Kigali. What did they risk, and what made them act?
- After 1994 Rwanda used community courts, gacaca, to judge hundreds of thousands of suspects. Can a country find justice and still live together?
Game round
10 minDo not play Rule History in this lesson. If you use it in a later lesson, play as Abraham Lincoln, the closest ruler in time, and discuss what a leader owes to people who are being persecuted. Compare with the choices of General Dallaire of the UN force and of the rescuers in Rwanda.
Open Rule HistoryWorksheet
5 minThis worksheet comes with Classroom
€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.