The reading by Tayyib Mahmud made me think of how race has been, and can still be, used as a tool by the colonizers, who have now modernized and changed their method of colonialism into imperialism, which is the same thing if you ask me, just a new motivation; capitalism. Race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, and gender, can be used by several groups to assert their dominance and superiority, such as the colonialists, settler colonialists, imperialists, and even the natives who are a part of the bourgeoisie or the dominant and hegemonic class. It seems to me as if it were a never-ending cycle of prejudice, as well as oppression to a certain extent, although I think that these two concepts differ but can exist at the same time. These concepts were put to use by the colonizers against the colonized and intensified the already present oppression and prejudice against different groups within society, but also against the people themselves.
Mahmud talks about how modern Europe believes that their current state is built on the ideas of Enlightenment, such as equality, freedom, liberty, all the while simultaneously enslaving millions and colonizing most of the world’s land until the 20th century. The European thinkers and scientists found several different (and impressively creative) ways of justifying horrific acts such as, but definitely not limited to, colonialism, genocide, and slavery. Race and religion were two ways in which these atrocities were justified. One example of how religion was used would be the story of Ham. Ham is believed to be the son of Noah in the Abrahamic religions, and his descendants are supposedly modern-day Africans, while Japheth’s descendants are the Europeans, and Shem’s are the Middle Eastern natives. There is a belief that Noah cursed his son Ham, and this belief was used by the church, which during the 17th and 18th centuries was not separate from the government, rather they were in a sort of an alliance with the government and it was used as a way to convince people to support the regime’s actions. The church used the story of Ham to justify the killing and enslaving of Africans, claiming that it was a way for them to atone for their sins, their sins literally being the descendants of Ham, which in essence means their sin is existing. Meanwhile, European scientists and anthropologists supported the use of race as a way of justifying these awful acts. Racial science was created by these European anthropologists and researchers that studied the natives, and in this case it was specifically black Africans, and came to the conclusion that they are biologically different and inferior. This racial justification of genocide and slavery was mixed together with religious justification, along with several other things, that resulted in even more awful things, such as the history of Rwanda’s genocide.
Similar to Mahmud’s discussion about the Martial race in British India that divided groups of natives into superior and inferior, when the Europeans came to colonize Rwanda, they found two different groups of people, the Hutus and the Tutsis. The European anthropologists came to the nonsensical conclusion that the Tutsis, who were the minority in Rwanda, were superior to the Hutus because they are ethnically descendants of Europeans, thus they were more civilized and were superior to the Hutus. Due to colonization, many in Rwanda were also converted to Christianity, leading them to also believe in the story of Noah cursing Ham. Although, since the Tutsis believed that they were ethnically of European origin, meaning that they are descendants of Japheth, not Ham, the Tutsis were thus not cursed nor were they sinners. That’s the Hutus! They believed that the Hutus were racially inferior and were supposed to be punished for their religious sins. This led to years of the Tutsis oppressing the Hutus, which amassed hatred from the majority Hutus against the minority Tutsis. Eventually, the Tutsi government was overthrown and Rwanda was under Hutu control, however, this did not end oppression in the nation, rather it brought about the Rwanda genocide. In 1994, approximately 1 million people were killed in the genocide in Rwanda, where fighting broke out between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Over 800,000 Tutsis and around 200,000 Hutus were killed. These horrifying moments in history, Rwanda’s genocide, the Tutsis oppressing the Hutus, all stem from European colonialism, and their use of race and religion as a tool for oppression.
The difference between the Tutsis and the Hutus was that the Tutsis tended to livestock, while the Hutus were farmers of crops. The reality is that biologically, humans are not racially different and racial science is imaginary and was fabricated in order to be used to justify colonialism, genocide, and slavery. Although race was not the colonizer’s only tool, it was only one item in their toolbox. Other factors such as religion, gender, and many others, were used by the colonizers and resulted in different forms of prejudice that has been used against the colonized by the colonizer, and by the colonized themselves.