I read a claim that the Hutus and Tutsis are actually the same and were first split by the European colonists who entered the region. Is there any support for this claim?

by breuxdawg
CalvinMcManus

No, while there is substantial overlap, there are real generic variation between the two population groups and Hutu animosity towards Tutsis, who migrated into what is now Rwanda, is a source of long grievance in the local mythology. There's also clear physiological differentiation, to my untrained eye, as the Tutsi tend to look much more like Africans from the Horn, who I lived and worked with for some time, while the Hutu are a central African people.

Tutsi probably differ genetically from the Hutu

Where did you read that?

tim_mcdaniel

Have you seen these?

How can the hate between hutu's and tutsi's be explained from a historic perspective?

The Tutsis during the Colonization of Rwanda

They are what cropped up in a search of AskHistorians for "Hutu Tutsi", and they seem to answer your questions.