This article focuses on the history of Rwanda. It discusses the country’s wars, massacres, and the Tutsi genocide of 1994, and aims to further the understanding of the origin of these atrocities. Drawing on works on the history of Rwanda, it shows that the political and educational systems before the genocide—especially those established during colonization and the two Republics—were based on ethnic discrimination, inequalities, and injustices. These inequalities, which fueled suffering, rivalries, and ethnic hatred, contributed to the establishment of what can be called second-class citizenship. This study of the evolution of Rwanda's socio-political history shows that, from the postcolonial period to the genocide, leaders instrumentalized ethnic divisions in all areas. The principles and values of citizenship were more ritualized than applied. What we are seeing here is ethnic citizenship, in the sense given by Schnapper, with different degrees of citizenship for each Rwandan citizen. Even the school system, in which citizenship is usually instituted to the full, has not been able to fulfill its role of "universality of citizenship" by offering education without segregation for all citizens. On the contrary, it categorized future citizens by ensuring the particular interest of certain ethnic communities at the expense of the general interest of the entire community of Rwandan citizens.