Colonial era depiction of the Tutsi as a superior Hamitic race that invaded Rwanda laid the ground for severe ethnic polarisation. This myth resurfaced in the period leading to and during the genocide of 1994
'[... ] it appears impossible to believe, judging from the physical appearance of the Wahuma [Batutsi], that they can be of any other race than the semi- Shem-Hamitic of Ethiopia.' John Hanning Speke, (The Discovery of the Source of the Nile, 1863, Chapter IX.) [1]
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