Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Hacked to Death in Rwanda
Hutu killed Hutu in 1994, and Tutsi, too, because there just wasn’t enough – of anything: land, food, livelihood, to go around. In Collapse, Jared Diamond quotes the work of two Belgian scholars who had first hand experience of Rwanda, living in the Kanama commune in the northwest.
The fertile volcanic soil supported 1,740 people per square mile in 1988, and 2,040 in 1993, higher than Bangladesh. Those high population densities translated into very small farms – median size .89 acre in 1988 and .72 in 1993. Each of these was further divided into 10 separate parcels so that each farmer was tilling “absurdly” small parcels averaging only .09 in ’88, and .07 in ’93.
Because all the land was already occupied, young people found it difficult to marry, leave home, acquire a farm and set up their own households. Young people postponed marriage and lived at home with their parents. Between 1988 and 1993, the percentage of women 20-25 living at home rose from 39-67% and men from 71% to 100%. That obviously contributed to the lethal family tension that exploded in 1994. Not surprisingly, it proved impossible for most people in Kanama to feed themselves.
Even when measured against the low calorie intake considered adequate in Rwanda, the average household got only 77% of its calorie needs from its farm. The percentage of the population consuming less than 1,600 calories per day (considered below famine level) was 9% in 1982 , rising to 40% in 1990 and some unknown higher percentage thereafter. The Kanama farm society was increasingly divided between the rich haves and the poor have-nots, with decreasing numbers of people in the middle. Older heads of households tended to be richer and have larger farms.
Paradoxically, off-farm income was earned disproportionately by owners of large farms. The extra off-farm income allowed them to buy land from smaller farms, with the result that large farms tended to buy land and become larger while small farms got smaller. Thus at Kanama, most people were impoverished, hungry, and desperate, but some were more impoverished, hungry and desperate than others - impoverished, hungry and desperate enough to hack their neighbors to death….
The fertile volcanic soil supported 1,740 people per square mile in 1988, and 2,040 in 1993, higher than Bangladesh. Those high population densities translated into very small farms – median size .89 acre in 1988 and .72 in 1993. Each of these was further divided into 10 separate parcels so that each farmer was tilling “absurdly” small parcels averaging only .09 in ’88, and .07 in ’93.
Because all the land was already occupied, young people found it difficult to marry, leave home, acquire a farm and set up their own households. Young people postponed marriage and lived at home with their parents. Between 1988 and 1993, the percentage of women 20-25 living at home rose from 39-67% and men from 71% to 100%. That obviously contributed to the lethal family tension that exploded in 1994. Not surprisingly, it proved impossible for most people in Kanama to feed themselves.
Even when measured against the low calorie intake considered adequate in Rwanda, the average household got only 77% of its calorie needs from its farm. The percentage of the population consuming less than 1,600 calories per day (considered below famine level) was 9% in 1982 , rising to 40% in 1990 and some unknown higher percentage thereafter. The Kanama farm society was increasingly divided between the rich haves and the poor have-nots, with decreasing numbers of people in the middle. Older heads of households tended to be richer and have larger farms.
Paradoxically, off-farm income was earned disproportionately by owners of large farms. The extra off-farm income allowed them to buy land from smaller farms, with the result that large farms tended to buy land and become larger while small farms got smaller. Thus at Kanama, most people were impoverished, hungry, and desperate, but some were more impoverished, hungry and desperate than others - impoverished, hungry and desperate enough to hack their neighbors to death….
