One Village, Six People is a role simulation from the Workable Peace Curriculum Series unit on Ethnic Conflict and Genocide in Post-Colonial Africa.

In 1990, Tutsi exiles in Uganda formed the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF), a political and military organization. After three years of war, they came within 30 km of invading Kigali, the Rwandan capital. The Rwandan president was forced to sign a power-sharing peace agreement with the RPF. However, Hutu elites within the government had been training civilians, militias, and army units to massacre the Tutsis. On April 6, 1994, President Habyarimana was assassinated and the genocide began.

For three months, the citizens of Rwanda were slaughtered on such a massive scale that five times more people were killed per day than in any other twentieth century genocide. Approximately 830,000 people were killed, of which 800,000 were members of the Tutsi ethnic minority, and the remainder members of the Hutu majority. Eleven percent of Rwanda's population died. Two million of Rwanda's seven million people fled the country as refugees.

In 1996, most of the Rwandan people returned to their homes and livelihoods. The ethnic conflict that had exploded into genocide two years before still existed, however, and new conflicts had arisen out of the genocide.

This negotiation is set in a small village in Gisenyi Province of northern Rwanda, just after the return of a massive wave of refugees. The format is a village meeting with six participants: Bernadette (a 44-year old Tutsi woman whose husband and son were killed by the Hutus); Frederic (a 22-year old Tutsi refugee whose parents fled to Uganda from Gisenyi 30 years ago); Ancille (a 45-year old Hutu woman whose daughter had married Bernadette's son); Joseph (a 25-year old Hutu man, recently appointed prefect); Charles (a 60-year old Hutu man, and the locally elected bougmestre who challenges Joseph's authority); and Perpetune (a 29-year old Hutu woman whose land abuts the land claimed by Bernadette, Ancille, and Frederic). The villagers will seek consensus regarding competing land claims and local authority issues.

• How intergroup conflicts begin when individuals identify strongly with a particular group as a way to meet their physical and psychological needs, and come to believe that this "identity group" is being threatened by members of other groups;
• How intergroup conflicts escalate when group members and leaders decide to use threats or acts of violence to meet the needs of their own group; and
• How members of groups in conflict can take steps toward a workable peace by negotiating truces, recognizing each others' right to meet basic needs, and making rules for settling their conflicts and meeting their needs without violence.

Teacher's Pack includes:

• History and General Instructions
• Confidential instructions for Perpetune, Frederic, Charles, Joseph, Ancille, and Bernadette
• Observation/Assessment Instructions
• Teaching Note
• Master List of Player Goals
• Teaching Overheads
• Framework for a Workable Peace

If you would like additional information about the Workable Peace framework and teaching materials, including information about teacher training and support, please contact Workable Peace Co-Directors David Fairman or Stacie Smith at: