The documentary “Reclaiming History – Colonial Roots of the Genocide in Rwanda” marks the first of its kind, examining the role of German and Belgian colonialism in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. It premieres on April 5 on DW’s global linear program and the DW Documentaries YouTube channels.

Rwandan director and filmmaker Samuel Ishimwe goes in search of the origins of the “racial hatred” between the Tutsi and Hutu communities: “We speak the same language, share the same culture, the same country – what drove us apart?”

In April 1994, the parents of two-year-old Samuel Ishimwe were murdered in Rwanda. Their fate was shared by up to a million people in the genocide against the country’s Tutsi minority. Thirty years on, Samuel sets out to discover what set these terrible events in motion.
Accompanied by DW director Matthias Frickel, Ishimwe traverses Rwanda, Germany, and Belgium, shedding light on his country’s history through conversations with historians and contemporary witnesses. Among the interviewees is Roméo Dallaire, former head of the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda. In Rwanda, Ishimwe meets convicted perpetrators and their victims, now living together in a reconciliation village.
30 years after the genocide, peace now prevails in Rwanda. President Kagame’s policies have worked to break down adherence to Hutu and Tutsi identities. Does this mean that the country’s dark past and the distrust that long simmered between the groups has now been overcome?