Multiculturalism in the World’s Past and America’s Future
Book review by Graeme Kemp
‘Out of the Melting Pot, Into the Fire: Multiculturalism in the World’s Past and America’s Future’ by Jens Heycke; Encounter Books, New York, 2023.
Chapter 7 of Jens Heycke’s recent book on multiculturalism opens with a terrifying yet ultimately heroic story of young people who made a dramatic stand for unity in the face of ethnic division and hate. The Interahamwe militia had crossed into Rwanda from a neighbouring state and attacked the Nyange School, aiming to kill all the Tutsis and restart the genocide of three earlier.
This meant identifying and separating the Tutsis from the Hutus in the school. One girl refused to cooperate, asserting “We are all Rwandans” (page 91). She was executed by the Interahamwe terrorists. Bravely, the other students also stood firm, declaring:
“There are no Hutus and Tutsis. We are all Rwandans.” (Page 91).
For their refusal to be divided, they were all killed. As author Jens Heycke recounts, over 20 years later, the courageous stance of the pupils continues to be a source of inspiration to contemporary people in Rwanda.
For their refusal to be divided, they were all killed.
However, since the ethnic genocide of the 1990s Rwanda has achieved massive progress: an economy growing fast, a clean capital city, a low level of corruption, a large number of female legislators – all this in a generally safe country. Explaining the reasons for this dramatic recovery in Rwanda is a significant part of Heycke’s book Out of the Melting Pot, Into the Fire.
Heycke highlights the stupidity in the above attack on the Nyange School – the terrorists had to ask who was a Tutsi and who was a Hutu, because they simply could not tell by looking at them. The differences between the two ethnic groups were minimal and superficial.
So, asks Jens Heycke, what aided the subsequent unity of Rwandans and allowed such progress after genocide? The answer was Umuganda. This is a sense of unity and common purpose developed though activities that bring different people together to work on community improvement projects, planting trees, building schools and clearing ditches. Business leaders work alongside ordinary workers. The government encouraged a sense of pride and national unity, forged by bringing people together. All this was bound together by a kind of liberal, colour-blind approach to living in Rwanda that allowed the country to fully develop. After the genocide, there was a determination to build a new kind of society:
“The new government focussed relentlessly on ending ethnic division and promoting national unity. It began by eliminating the ethnic ID cards and stipulating that it would not tolerate any racial of ethnic distinctions…the new motto was “We are all Rwandans now”…The Rwandan government has effectively promoted the goal of a race – and ethnically-blind society…” (Page 107 and 108).
In the years prior to the genocide, Rwanda had endured a whole range of measures, under different regimes, of what can only be described as various divisive kinds of identity politics.
After a brief time of German control, the main colonisers of Rwanda after 1918 were the Belgians who introduced ethnic identity cards to clearly label everyone’s apparent ethnic group, entrenching and deepening any perceived differences.
The Belgian authorities later introduced a kind of affirmative action for the Tutsi minority – only later to reverse this to introduce a different affirmative action that favoured Hutus, rather than Tutsis, just before Rwanda gained independence. This later lead to Hutus demanding reparations for the decades in which the Belgian colonisers favoured the ‘privileged’ Tutsis.
Heycke points out that racial and ethnic preference programs alarmingly often become entitlements that ethnic groups defend with vigour, arguing that temporary measures need to continue, because ‘oppression’ is still rife. Both ‘oppressors’ and ‘oppressed’ ethnic groups end up tainted by the divisions created in societies where ethnicity is seen as central to identity.
Over-emphasised ethnic differences and group resentment in Rwanda eventually resulted in genocide. It was only after the genocide in the 1990s that there was positive change to heal the divisions and unite Rwandans, through a kind of colour-blind anti-racism.
Out of the Melting Pot, Into the Fire by Jens Heycke explains in detail how other societies have also fractured and torn themselves apart, when ethnic differences are highlighted and dwelt upon.
The Aztec empire six centuries ago similarly declined, arguably due to flaws in how different groups were viewed and just not integrated effectively:
“The Aztecs were brilliant in so many ways …But they got one thing very wrong: they pursued an explicit policy of multicultural particularism, of keeping ethnic groups distinct and separate. They never attempted to cultivate any sense of shared identity or unity among their empire’s ethnic groups.” (Page 49).
Indeed, state policies have often made things worse and contributed to disunity. Heycke relates how the Ottoman empire conquered the Balkans in the fourteenth century, creating the so-called ‘millet’ system, an early form of multiculturalism. Each millet consisted of an ethnic group who were allowed to keep their distinct identities and culture to such an extent that it created a deeper sense of distinctiveness and separation, developing stricter boundaries between groups; individuals started to see others through the lens of group identity. One ethnic group would often see another group as a rival, rather than an ally, within the empire.
Indeed, Yugoslavia in the twentieth century demonstrated how ethnic tensions could be created through often well-meaning policies to prevent ethnic disparities. In 1974 the Yugoslavian constitution introduced an affirmative action program that divided up key political and military positions for different ethnic or national groups. This later affected the education system, as well. In 1981, for instance, the University of Pristina mandated that 3.8 Albanian students must be enrolled for each student from another ethnic group.
As Heycke points out: these policies ended up increasing and heightening group differences in Yugoslavia - and created a sense of rivalry. As Yugoslavia fell apart in the 1990s, opportunists exploited these divisions to deadly effect.
Too often in such scenarios, different ethnic groups start fighting each other for their ‘fair share’ of state money or approval, Heycke explains.
In countries like Sri Lanka, attempts to equalise outcomes for different ethnic groups also ended up sometimes paradoxically benefitting the most privileged ethnic groups for various reasons.
Jens Heycke highlights how, for many years in the USA, the ‘melting pot’ was at least the ideal to be aimed for. This represented an attempt to unite Americans and assimilate new immigrants into one nation, based around a common American identity and shared values. By contrast, from the 1970s onwards, the melting-pot ideal gradually way to ‘multiculturalism’ – the idea that public policies and institutions should actively recognise and maintain ethnic boundaries and distinct cultural practices, using group preferences to achieve diversity or address past injustices. This multiculturalism heralded the birth of modern identity politics.
Jens Heycke is aware that related ideas, such as Critical Race Theory (he quotes Ibram X Kendi), are part of this new divisive phenomenon. Advocates of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) are opportunists, he says, obsessed with skin colour. As Heycke points out regarding the situation in the US:
“Americans will be taught that their fellow citizens are Irredeemably racist, perpetuating group division and distrust.” (Page 190).
The example of Rwanda in this book stands out as a positive example of how to move forward, but he gives other positive examples too. There is an interesting and surprising explanation of how early Islam was able to actually unite, rather than divide, different religious groups. Heycke also cites the example of another African success story: Botswana.
Like Rwanda, Botswana achieved progress in recent times through uniting citizens, via the concept of botho – a sense of connectedness with others in society, developed in the extended community. The aim is to minimise and leave behind separate racial or ethnic divisions. Botswana’s constitution prohibits both negative and affirmative discrimination. The aim of such colour-blind anti-racism is a post-racial future. Like Rwanda, Botswana has been a successful African nation economically.
Out of the Melting Pot offers fascinating historical and recent examples of successful - and unsuccessful - multi-ethnic societies. We would do well to heed his warnings.
Graeme Kemp is a former teacher and civil servant who currently lives in the Midlands. He is an English and Cultural Studies graduate of several universities in England and Scotland. He has also contributed book reviews to the Don't Divide Us website and 'Bournbrook' Magazine.
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