In 1954 Luc de Heusch shot a film illus­trat­ing the tra­di­tion­al rela­tion­ship between Tutsi herds­men and Hutu farm­ers in the ancient Cen­tral African king­dom of Rwanda. He now tells the country’s story from the time of German coloni­sa­tion, deal­ing in turn with the Bel­gian man­date, the drama of inde­pen­dence, the coup of G.Kayibanda and the dic­ta­tor­ship of J. Hab­ya­ri­mana. This reveals the true face of this soci­ety, dis­fig­ured by the colo­nial ide­ol­o­gy, then by the repub­li­can regime. Con­trary to what a mis­in­formed public opin­ion was all to will­ing to believe, the tragedy of the geno­cide was not the ulti­mate episode in a strug­gle between two hos­tile »ethnic groups«. Hutu and Tutsi make up one nation whose inhab­i­tants speak the same lan­guage and come from the same religion.