— Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Castes in India
ACTIVITY
TRACK CASTE AROUND
THE WORLD
The film “ORIGIN” takes you to three different continents where caste exists. In the following activity, learners will explore historic and current caste systems and social hierarchies from around the world.
- Use this interactive map to better understand the universality of caste systems.
- Reflect on what caste system best defines your own immediate environment.
- What countries and systems would you add to this map?
- Use this interactive map to better understand the universality of caste systems.
- Reflect on what caste system best defines your own immediate environment.
- What countries and systems would you add to this map?
Delhi, India
Berlin, Germany
Tokyo, Japan
West Bank
Victoria, Australia
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Soweto, South Africa
Rwanda, East Africa
Belzoni, Mississippi
Haiti / D.R.
Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii
Taizz, Yemen
TAIZZ, YEMEN
Video Credit: Al Jazeera
In a society where lineage determines one’s social standing, the Yemeni untouchables, known as Al-Muhamasheen (formerly referred to as Al-Akhdam), have endured continuous discrimination and persecution by the Hashemites, who occupy the top tiers of Yemen’s social hierarchy and claim descent from the revered Prophet Mohammad.
“‘Al-Muhamasheen’ (‘the marginalized ones’) is the term that was adopted by members of the community itself to escape the derogatory term of ‘Akhdam’ (‘servants’) by which they are often referred.” —Minority Rights Group
The situation for the Muhamasheen of Yemen, a community often referred to as “the marginalized ones,” bears resemblance to traditional caste-based communities seen around the world. A socio-economically disadvantaged community, they have been disproportionately affected by the ongoing conflict in the country. The oppression faced by the Muhamasheen can be attributed primarily to two factors: their unclear or unknown tribal lineage within Yemen and their dark complexion.
“In a society where the social structure is partly based on lineage, the Muhamasheen’s unclear origins and existence outside tribal structures have led to centuries of descent-based discrimination. While the Hashemites, who are said to be descended from Prophet Mohammad, are at the top of Yemen’s social hierarchy in many areas of the country, the Muhamasheen — considered without origin — occupy the bottom, regardless of where they live. This also intersects with racial discrimination, as most Muhamasheen are dark-skinned.” —Sana’s Center for Strategic Studies
The majority of the Muhamasheen inhabit impoverished slums on the outskirts of cities, where they are often confined to low-wage occupations such as garbage collection and cleaning. Access to basic education and necessities is often beyond their reach, which results in low literacy rates. Additionally, they are typically restricted from marrying outside their community. Reports of violence, especially gender-based violence, against them are prevalent. They have limited recourse due to their exclusion from Yemen’s tribal social structure.
- Learn about Yemen’s written history through their discovered manuscripts
- Explore contemporary artists from Yemen
KEALAKEKUA BAY, HAWAII
Image Credit: Bob Lindsell, Panoramio Archives
IMAGE: Captain Cook Monument. Kealakekua Bay, Captain Cook
Captain James Cook’s 1778 arrival to the Hawaiian islands marked the end of ancient Hawaiian times and the onset of Hawaii’s modern era. It also introduced a division by education, income and occupation, unlike the continental American’s binary racial divisions.
In the continental United States, race is often employed as an arbitrary and superficial metric to determine a person’s caste level. Hawaii pre-colonization, the ancient caste system was more intricate and fluid, with a reliance on flexible delineations like ethnicity and class.
Ethnicity transcends mere ancestry and physical differences, encompassing deeper notions of kinship and identity. Unlike the rigid caste systems of the Antebellum (pre-Civil War) and Jim Crow eras in the American South, which anchored themselves on simple physical distinctions of race, Hawaii’s caste system was more penetrable, pivoting around ethnic and class distinctions.
- Ancient Hawaiian society comprised four distinct classes:
- The Ali’i (royal class), consisting of both high-ranking and lesser chiefs
- The Kahuna (priestly class), who managed temples
- The Maka’ainana (commoner class)
- The Outcasts (slave class), formed by slaves, captured during feudal wars, who served the Ali’i.
The society operated under the Kapu system, in which religious taboos governed every aspect of life, including how people lived, worshipped and ate.
Learn more about Hawai’i’s Queens Kapi’olani and Lili’uokalini through photos from the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.
Cité Soleil, HAITI // THE CIBAO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Video Credit: Vox
“The Caribbean island of Hispaniola is home to two countries: Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Both have a population of around 10 million — but that’s about where their similarities end. The average Haitian is nearly 10 times poorer than the average Dominican, and much more likely to be unemployed. And that poverty manifests in drastic disparities in health. The infant mortality rate in Haiti is more than twice the rate in the D.R., and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS is almost double. Seeing this disparity, you can’t help but ask: How did one island produce two totally different worlds?” —Vox
Explore Haiti through photos from the Haiti Film Institute.
Explore the Dominican Republic through the life and art of Fernando Pena Defillo.
In 1804, following a successful uprising of enslaved people against European rule, Haiti became the world’s first sovereign Black Republic. This success spurred a wave of Latin American independence movements, and the newly established Haitian government sought to free all enslaved Africans on the island. However, tensions over colorism between Haiti and its neighboring country, the Dominican Republic, have escalated since then, leading to what some refer to as a Caribbean-style apartheid that reinforces the dominance of “pure” Dominican bloodlines.
While the Haitian Revolution led to the abolition of slavery and a redistribution of land to the peasantry, Dominican novelists, playwrights and academics perceived the Haitian unification as a period of chaos and profound suffering. This perception led to a rise in Anti-Haitian sentiment in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, culminating in measures that discriminated against and excluded Dominicans of Haitian ancestry. Under Rafael Trujillo, the former president of the Dominican Republic, education laws were modified to ensure students were taught solely in Spanish, effectively transforming the border region into a monolingual area distinct from Haitian cultural norms. In various ways, the educational system during Trujillo’s era was designed to mold Dominican citizens steeped in exploitation and nationalist animosity towards Haitians. Moreover, aiming for “blanqueamiento,” (or whitening, in English) policies to “improve” the nation and distinguish the “pure” from the “polluted,” Trujillo ordered a massacre, known as the Parsley Massacre. This atrocity led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian ancestry along the shared border, as he viewed them as inferior to lighter-skinned Dominicans.
In recent years, efforts have been made to fortify ties and enhance collaboration between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Trade agreements, international dialogues and financial partnerships have all been directed at resolving past grievances and fostering cooperation. However, challenges related to migration, human mobility and wealth disparities continue to shape the perceptions of the two nations towards each other, with the haunting memory of the Parsley Massacre lingering on today.
BELZONI, MISSISSIPPI
Image Credit: MPI, Getty Black History and Culture Collection
Segregated Cinema in Belzoni, Mississippi
“The story of segregated movie houses is not a chapter in Hollywood history that many documentaries on the Golden Age of the Studio System would like to dwell on. However, for the entire span of the classical Hollywood era, and not just in the South, Black moviegoers were denied equal access to theater space: they were restricted to Black-only “race houses,” forbidden admission to swank motion picture palaces, or, when permitted inside the better venues, relegated to what exhibitors called “Negro balconies” or “colored balconies.” Civil rights icon John Lewis, who began six decades of activism by fighting against segregation in moviegoing, dining and transportation, described these areas as “Jim Crow roosts.” For Black customers, the means of admission into segregated space varied with venue and locality, but, typically, after purchasing a ticket at a separate ticket window, Black people would be required to walk around the theater entrance to the alleyway outside and trudge up a fire escape to gain access to the segregated areas.” —The Hollywood Reporter
From the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, Black people in the United States faced systematic oppression and racial discrimination enforced by a set of laws collectively referred to as “Jim Crow” laws. In 1896, the historic Plessy v. Ferguson ruling by the Supreme Court determined that racial segregation was lawful. This decision established a legal precedent for segregation and discrimination in public institutions, including schools, buses and trains, thereby depriving African Americans of the civil rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.
During the Jim Crow era, several tactics were employed to curtail the voting rights of African Americans. These included literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, intimidation, violence and restricted registration options. Only with the Civil Rights Movement and its resulting legislation were these obstacles dismantled, leading to the attainment of equal voting rights for all.
Caste in America could be found even on American soil during World War II. The Geneva Convention protected German prisoners of war held in the United States. They were known to be treated with respect in accordance with international law, while Black soldiers in good standing were discriminated against and segregated.
“An incident occurred when Lena Horne, a Black singer, grew frustrated performing in front of a crowd where German POWs were seated in front of Black servicemen. Additionally, POWs were invited to have dinner with White families in their households and in restaurants, and African Americans were not extended that same courtesy”
– Amy Dunkleberger, Grunge
SOWETO, SOUTH AFRICA
Image Credit: Bettmann/UPI, Getty Black History and Culture Collection
- Tour online exhibits from the Nelson Mandela Foundation
- Explore the Soweto journey to Freedom in this Smithsonian online exhibit
- Learn about the Soweto Uprising
- Learn about anti-apartheid activist Bantu Stephen Biko
IMAGE: African Man Holding Passbook
“The first time Pass documents were used to restrict the movement of non-European South Africans was in the early 1800s. However, slaves at the Cape had been forced to carry Passes since 1709. Farmers at the Cape ran short of labour during the first British occupation of the southern tip of Africa in 1795, with its subsequent abolition of slavery in 1808. Until that time, Dutch farmers employed by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) supplied fresh food to passing ships using slave labour to stock up the refreshment station. They could still sell slaves within the colony, but were prohibited from importing new slaves. The settlers and government turned to the indigenous Khoikhoi people to fill the labour gap.” —South African History Online
Under the repressive Apartheid regime, lasting from 1948 to the early 1990s, the movements of Black South Africans to and from their homelands were regulated by white South Africans, forcing them to carry identification at checkpoints, denying them the right to gather and dictating who they could marry.
Apartheid, a policy of racial segregation in South Africa, established a framework of inequality between its white and nonwhite population for nearly half of the twentieth century. According to South Africa’s Apartheid Museum, racial classification was the foundation of all apartheid laws. Through the The Population Registration Act of 1950, the country categorized individuals into one of four groups: native, colored, Asian, or white. A myriad of racial tests were used to determine a person’s category. If unsure, a “pencil test” was performed, where a pencil would be pushed into a person’s hair, and if the pencil held in place, the person was categorized as colored.
Unlike the United States, South Africa found itself in a unique position, with white individuals being a minority within the population. As a result, the National Party had a stronger incentive to establish distinct social rankings due to their lack of numerical dominance. The white minority stood at the apex of this caste system, enjoying the most privileges and rights, whereas the Black majority found themselves at the bottom, subjected to severe restrictions and marginalization.
In an effort to curtail interaction between races, the South African government introduced several new, discriminatory laws. Laws rooted in racism such as the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949, prohibited marriages between white individuals and those of other races. “It also made it a criminal offense for a marriage officer to perform an interracial marriage ceremony,” writes Angela Thompsell for ThoughtCo. Thompsell continues: “The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act was designed to "protect" white political and social dominance by preventing a handful of people from blurring the line between white society and everyone else in South Africa. It also showed that the National Party was going to fulfill its promises to protect the White race, unlike its political rival, the United Party, which many thought had been too lax on that issue.”
The anti-apartheid movement gathered steam with organizations such as the African National Congress (ANC), which rallied people through protests, boycotts and acts of civil disobedience. Years of turmoil between the government and anti-apartheid leaders, including Nelson Mandela, led to the dismantling of apartheid laws, the release of political prisoners and the preparation for democratic elections. In 1994, South Africa held its first non-racial democratic elections, resulting in the ANC’s victory and the transfer of power from the National Party to a democratically elected government, marking the official end of apartheid and the beginning of a new era for the country.
From an economic perspective, this caste-like system led to a stark disparity in wealth and opportunity, with whites holding a disproportionate share of wealth and resources. The journey away from apartheid has been intricate, marked by persistent efforts to dismantle the deeply rooted structures of segregation and inequality. The process has involved land redistribution, the promotion of equality through affirmative action policies and the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address past abuses. Despite these efforts, the social and economic effects of apartheid’s caste-like system are still evident today, with many South Africans continuing to experience substantial inequality.
VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA
Video Credit: National Museum of Australia
The displacement of ‘half-caste’ children was rationalized by the belief that it would benefit their future by curtailing the continuation of an Indigenous bloodline. White welfare officers would raid Aboriginal camps, gather the children, separate those with lighter skin, and take them away in their trucks. Parents who protested were often held at bay by the police. To avoid creating a scene, and for efficiency, authorities sometimes outfitted the back of their trucks with wire cages and spring doors. They devised a cruel trap, enticing children with sweets so they could swiftly capture them.
Indigenous Australians have been fighting injustice and defending their liberties for decades. With the arrival of the First Fleet, a group of British ships commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip, Europeans began to populate Australia. Since the arrival of European settlers, Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, the Indigenous peoples of Australia, have battled for the acknowledgment of their human rights. The British intentionally colonized Australia to establish a prison colony and expand their power in the region. Under the WA Aborigines Act 1905, the Chief Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia was empowered to act as the legal guardian for every Aboriginal individual and ‘half-caste‘ child (a child with one white parent). Carrying out the act’s requirements, local authorities were chosen as “Protectors of Aborigines,” acting as special law enforcement. The Act sought to create missions and reserves, limiting Aboriginals’ freedom of movement, and the removal of ‘half-caste’ children from their families.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, as of 2022, Indigenous adults constitute about 32% of the total prison population, even though they make up approximately 3% of the overall Australian population. This over-representation reflects the systemic biases and structural factors of caste.
Track the history of the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families using this timeline: “Track the History Timeline”
- Discover the First Australians and the activists who fought for them in this online exhibit
- Explore aboriginal frontier life in the early 20th century
- Explore this contemporary display of photojournalism capturing First Nations Australians
- Learn about Australian First Nations terminology
- Learn about the Torres Strait peoples
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
Video Credit: Vox
Three centuries of the transatlantic slave trade brought millions of Africans to the New World, half of which were brought to Brazil. Racial hierarchies and power dynamics established by the institution of slavery continue to influence Brazilian culture today.
In the port area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, visitors will find Valongo Wharf, where an estimated 900,000 enslaved and brutalized Africans arrived, beginning in 1811. During the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Brazil imported more slaves than any other nation on earth. Now an archaeological site and UNESCO World Heritage site, the wharf was once the busiest slave port in Brazil and possibly in all of the Americas.
Fearful of an uprising from the Black majority, Portuguese colonial authorities encouraged racial mixing in hopes of “whitening” Brazilian society and, eventually, making Blackness extinct. In Brazil, colorism results in biases and discrimination favoring lighter skin tones. The underrepresentation of dark-skinned Brazilians in media further reinforces this hierarchy. Colorism affects personal relationships, employment and economic disparities. According to the 2010 census in Brazil, Black (preto) individuals constituted 7.6 percent of the population, while brown (pardo) individuals made up 43.1 percent. The differentiation by skin tone—where both preto and pardo individuals are Afro-descended, but only the former are considered Black—exemplifies the entrenched colorist values that perpetuate discrimination against Afro-Brazilians.
“Blanqueamiento comes from an ideology derived from European colonialism and revolves around maintaining white dominance in social hierarchies. In fact, blanqueamiento could easily be compared to the ideology of white supremacy, often seen as something exclusively American. We think of white supremacy and immediately what comes to mind are the numerous white nationalist rallies that have taken place in the states—this year alone. But it’s not something that only white American nationalists subscribe to.”
Close Viewing Exercise
“Brazil was the last place in the Americas to abolish slavery — it didn’t happen until 1888 — and that meant that the final years of the practice were photographed… In its original size and composition, the image from photographer Marc Ferrez, one of the most impressive photographers of nineteenth-century Brazil, shows a wide shot of a group of slaves drying coffee in a field. Their faces are indistinct, but the overall impression is one of order and calm. But once the picture is blown up, the expressions become distinct and details emerge. A female slave is breastfeeding a child in the field; clothes that look neat are seen to be tattered. Expanding the photos, we can see a lot of things we couldn’t see, and the state didn’t want to see.” — NPR
TOKYO, JAPAN
Video Credit: FRANCE 24 English
“Burakumin are a marginalized community who are still living with the reality of being outcasts from mainstream Japanese society. The word Buraku itself invites contestation. Though it has long been associated with stigma, the BLL (Burakumin Liberation League) has sought to subvert its meaning and reclaim it. This is similar to what happened with the word Dalit, which was repurposed and deployed in militant action by the Dalit Panthers and Dalit literature, subverting the submissiveness attached to it. Though official estimates suggest that there are around 1.2 million Burakumin in Japan, the actual total is likely to be significantly higher, given that many prefer not to disclose their ancestry out of concern for the repercussions. Like Dalits in India, Burakumin were routinely exploited as laborers to undertake the least desirable work — slaughtering animals, dealing with the hides, executing criminals — that was widely regarded as polluting, according to Japan’s Buddhist and Shinto beliefs.” —Minority Rights
Japan’s caste system became firmly established during the Edo period, also known as the Tokugawa period (1603–1867). During Japan’s feudal era, a four-tiered social system existed, with the celebrated Samurai class being at the top of the social hierarchy and farmers, artisans and merchants existing below. Underneath the lowest tier, there was another category: the outcasts. It was widely believed that individuals with occupations associated with impurity and death, such as butchers, executioners, undertakers, prostitutes and even actors were deemed polluted. The prevailing belief was that their impurities were hereditary and could contaminate and spread to other people. This caste-based or outcast group is called Burakumin, also known as the ‘untouchables’ of Japan.
“Some unfortunate people also fell below the lowest rung of the four-tiered ladder. These people included the ethnic minority Ainu, descendants of enslaved people, and those employed in taboo industries. Buddhist and Shinto tradition condemned people who worked as butchers, executioners and tanners as unclean. They were known as the Eta.
Another class of social outcasts was the Hinin, which included actors, wandering bards and convicted criminals. Prostitutes and courtesans, including oiran, tayu and geisha, also lived outside of the four-tiered system. They were ranked against one another by beauty and accomplishment.
Today, all of these people are collectively called burakumin. Officially, families descended from the burakumin are just ordinary people, but they can still face discrimination from other Japanese in hiring and marriage.”
The Emancipation Edict, a significant reform during the Meiji Revolution in Japan, abolished the eta and hinin social classes, granting them improved legal status. However, it is worth noting that the Burakumin community did not receive substantial support from the government until the 20th century when collectives of Burakumin mobilized efforts to achieve their goals. Mr. Jiichiro Matsumoto, a pre- and post-War leader of the Buraku liberation movement, played a crucial role in this mobilization. Despite facing oppression and imprisonment, he devoted his life to the movement, served nearly 30 years in parliament, and became Vice-President of the Upper House after the war. His commitment led to the enactment of the Law on Special Measures for Dowa Projects, earning him the title “Father of Buraku Liberation.”
While the legal structure of the caste system may have been dissolved, the lingering stigma continues to influence employment practices and perceptions by community members of certain professions and careers in Japan.
- Learn about Japanese feudalism through art
- Explore this gallery of photos of Japan’s “outcast people”
- Explore this glossary of Japanese society during the Edo Period
BERLIN, GERMANY
Video Credit: Roar LK
In 1938, Heinrich Himmler, a leading member of Germany’s Nazi party and a key architect of the Holocaust, sent a five-member team to South Asia to search for the origins of the supposed Aryan race.
Heinrich Himmler was intrigued by ancient Indian culture and fascinated by the Hindu sacred text, the Bhagavad Gita. These ancient Hindu ideologies served as inspiration for what became the Aryan myth in Germany. In the German search for racial superiority, the Aryans were identified as an all-conquering tribe of Central Asian chariot-riders and horse lords who supposedly migrated through India and Iran about 4,000 years ago, becoming the ancestors of modern German-speaking Europeans. This belief propelled Himmler to become the central orchestrator of the Holocaust, as he aspired to restore the myth of the superior Aryan “master race.”
These ideologies were not codified until Nazi Germany passed two radical pieces of legislation in 1935: the Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, known as the Nuremberg Laws. These laws laid the foundation for the mass persecution of people who were not seen or classified as “pure” Aryans. The Nuremberg laws were crafted meticulously and thoroughly. The Nazis sent researchers to the United States, drawing direct inspiration from American Jim Crow-era laws of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In his book Mein Kampf, Hitler praised America as the one place that made progress by “excluding certain races from naturalization.”
The Nazis devised an extreme method to enforce racial purity and territorial expansion, specifically a network of concentration camps that were created to be killing grounds. Between 1942 and 1945, those not categorized as Aryan were deported to camps all over Europe, spanning both German-controlled territories and allied countries. Inside these labor camps, non-Aryans, including Jews, were gassed and others died of starvation or disease. This culminated in the death of more than 2 million people at Auschwitz concentration camp alone.
Use this timeline from The Breman Museum to see the history of the Holocaust from 1933-1945.
DELHI, INDIA
The history of India’s caste system dates back at least 3,000 years. Rooted in Hinduism, it’s a system of graded hierarchy that divides the population into four broad varnas, or caste categories — Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras Dalits, previously called “untouchables,” are outside this hierarchy, as they’ve been deemed “impure, less than human.” Within each varna, there exist thousands of sub-castes, each with a rigid hierarchy and set social and behavioral norms, any deviance from which (for example, by marrying outside one’s caste community) may subject one to punishments that range from harassment and social ostracization to assault and even murder. Inherently unequal and discriminatory, the caste system is based on categories assigned at birth that cannot be changed in one’s lifetime.
Video Credit: Sumeet Samos
In this video, Indian anti-caste scholar and rapper Sumeet Samos uses music and lyrics to explain the Indian caste system and the role of the Dalit community within the hierarchy.
In the movie “ORIGIN,” scenes of both historical and contemporary caste behavior are chronicled.
WATCH: Learn more about what it means to be Dalit in India and to listen to community members discuss some of the ways in which anti-caste resistance and emancipatory movements have evolved:
READ: These articles speak to how the caste system in India continues to dehumanize, oppress and divide Indian society into ranked hierarchies, and what resistance against caste can look like:
- No Escape From Caste on These Shores, 'Untouchables' From India Say
- India’s Dalit artists are shaking the age-old system of caste oppression
- Why is blue the color of Dalit resistance?
- When there is a global anti-caste movement
- Suraj's Shadow: Wherever He Goes, His Caste Follows — Even In America
- I am born untouchable: This is my story
- Learn about the first Dalit president of India, K.R. Narayanan
- Explore the art of students expressing injustice and crime against Dalit communities
- Discover the history of Dalits and Indian sanitation systems
RWANDA, EAST AFRICA
Video Credit: DW Documentary
Within the thirty years since the genocide, Rwanda has made strides in seeking justice, with many perpetrators, including high-ranking officials, facing trial. Most were tried in Rwandan courts, with others facing international tribunals or foreign domestic courts. Community-based gacaca courts wrapped up in 2012, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda concluded in 2016. Despite these efforts, most survivors are still recovering from its horrific impacts today, highlighting the ongoing need for healing and reconciliation. Click here to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial.
The Rwandan Genocide of 1994, one of the most horrific instances of mass violence and genocide in modern history, resulted in the slaughter of between 500,000 and one million Tutsi Rwandans by Hutu Rwandan extremists. Author and journalist Phillip Gourevitch who covered the genocide, writes, “The Europeans brought with them an idea of race science, by which they took this traditional structure and made it even more extreme and more polarized into an almost apartheid-like system. And ethnic identity cards were issued, and Tutsis were privileged for all things, and Hutus were really made into a very oppressed mass.”
During Belgian colonial rule, the Tutsis were positioned by their oppressors as socio-political elites, given preferential treatment over the Hutus. This favoritism sowed seeds of deep resentment among the Hutu majority. “Generally, the Hutu-Tutsi strife stems from class warfare, with the Tutsis perceived to have greater wealth and social status (as well as favoring cattle ranching over what is seen as the lower-class farming of the Hutus). These class differences started during the 19th century, were exacerbated by colonization, and exploded at the end of the 20th century,” writes political journalist Bridget Johnson for ThoughtCo.
The “Hamite hypothesis” played a significant role in shaping the racial and social dynamics in Rwanda, contributing to the ethnic tensions between the Hutus and Tutsis that ultimately led to the Rwandan Genocide. This hypothesis considered Tutsis descendants of the Hamites, a Caucasoid race that was allegedly superior. This theory suggested that the Tutsis had migrated from the northeast, possibly Ethiopia, and were more closely related to Europeans in terms of their racial characteristics. This creation of a hierarchy based on caste, gave Tutsis the opportunity to gain prominent positions in society.
Following Rwanda’s independence in 1962 from Belgium, the Hutu majority came into dominance and power, institutionalizing discrimination against Tutsis, which culminated in decades of violence and persecution. In 1994, the death of the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, when his plane was shot down above Kigali airport, triggered a meticulously planned and executed genocide aimed at eradicating the Tutsi population. This escalated the ongoing civil war, and mass killings began. Civilians were even encouraged to murder their neighbors, by government-sponsored radio stations. The result – more than 800,000 deaths in just over 100 days, The result – more than 800,000 deaths in just over 100 days.
At the end of the Rwandan Genocide, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a predominantly Tutsi rebel group led by Paul Kagame, gained control of the country. This victory led to the establishment of a coalition government aimed at restoring order and rebuilding the nation.
- Use this timeline from the United Nations to see the comprehensive history of the Rwandan Genocide.
- Explore the Rwanda Art Museum Collection on Art for Peace.
Lesson Two: Module Two
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
- How has the caste system in India evolved over time?
- What current resistance movements are challenging the traditional hierarchy of India’s caste system?
- How have the Burakumin in Japan and the Dalits in India worked towards subverting the negative connotations associated with their social statuses?
- How do military occupation and political conflict exacerbate social hierarchies and discrimination in the Occupied Palestinian Territory?
- How has colorism impacted the social hierarchies of Yemen, Brazil and the United States?
- How might individuals and communities work towards dismantling harmful social hierarchies and promoting social justice and equality in these regions, and in the world at large?
- Click here to tell your own “ORIGIN” story
Lesson Two: Module Two
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
- How has the caste system in India evolved over time?
- What current resistance movements are challenging the traditional hierarchy of India’s caste system?
- How have the Burakumin in Japan and the Dalits in India worked towards subverting the negative connotations associated with their social statuses?
- How do military occupation and political conflict exacerbate social hierarchies and discrimination in the Occupied Palestinian Territory?
- How has colorism impacted the social hierarchies of Yemen, Brazil and the United States?
- How might individuals and communities work towards dismantling harmful social hierarchies and promoting social justice and equality in these regions, and in the world at large?
- Click here to tell your own “ORIGIN” story
LESSON 2: MODULE 1
Common
Threads
LESSON 2: MODULE 3
Knowing Caste When You See It
