Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: The Rwandan genocide took place 24 years ago. As many as a million people died. Years later, Rwandan writers, led by a Dutch NGO, launched a project to encourage reconciliation through a radio soap opera. The show is still going strong, and it reveals something universal about human behavior. Here's NPR's Shankar Vedantam. SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: In 1994, a radio station in Rwanda began transmitting urgent messages to the population of 7 million - sharpen your machetes; it's time to kill your neighbors. (SOUNDBITE OF RADIO STATIC) VEDANTAM: Very few recordings of these broadcasts exist today. Here's one. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) Rwanda belongs to those who will truly defend it. And you, the cockroaches, are not Rwandans. The cockroaches will not escape. VEDANTAM: The Rwandan government, dominated by the Hutu ethnic group, was in the process of dehumanizing the Tutsi group.
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