ABSTRACT
The most genocidal hundred days in human history was arguably the period from April to July of 1994 when the Hutu Power government of Rwanda orchestrated the killing of some 800,000 Rwandans in an orgy of violence marked by people killing their neighbors with machetes. Noting that the killers were Hutu and that most of the victims were Tutsi, Western accounts of the genocide called up an image of ancient tribal hatreds erupting in uncontrollable mass killings. This picture was consistent with popular stereotypes of Africa, and thus plausible to many who knew little about Rwanda. It also provided moral cover to the various Western governments and international institutions that had tolerated or even facilitated the genocide, and was thus comforting to those who knew too much.
