ABSTRACT
The history of political parties in Rwanda exemplifies ethnic cleavage primarily rather than nationalism or ideology. Parties, prior to independence and after, were formed along "ethnic" lines first and then ideology or personalities. One general observation about political parties is that most of their manifestos preached progress and development of Rwanda. The invasion of Rwanda by the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF)/A crystallized a process that had slowly been developing prior to this invasion. On the surface, the regime was bending to accommodate the internal opposition and the threats from the invading RPF. But this only reinforced the sense that extremism was the only force that the regime could employ in order to save itself from falling. Extremism was not only consolidating, but plans were being drawn up to implement that extremist ideology. The phase in the consolidation of extremism that eventually led to genocide was the militarization of ethnicity.
