The Power of the Radio

(Translation: “What’s happening?” “They killed Habyarimana (Hutu President of Rwanda)” “We ask all our Hutu brothers not to let this crime remain unpunished. Get up. Get to work. Take your tools and eradicate this race of cockroaches. Find them in all the holes…”)

The Hutu extremists used the radio as a means of communicating hate filled messages to the general public. The radio was the best means of communication for the Hutu's because they were relatively cheap, could be shared by many people, and unlike the newspaper could be listened to and understood by those who were illiterate.  By distributing Radios to fellow Hutu's they were able to easily and quickly communicate news. By mixing hate messages in with popular African cultural music the Hutu extremists were able to turn people against their neighbors. The Radio communicated an ultimatum to all Hutu's, either kill all the Tutsi's or either we or they will rise up and kill you. Hutu's were lead to believe through messages on the radio that the Tustsi were evil cockroaches who would trick and manipulate you so they could rise to power and eliminate all Hutu's.