RWANDAN GENOCIDE: A WORLD FAILURE

My daughter had to do a two minute presentation on the Why of the Rwandan Genocide. Not an easy topic, and certainly a challenge for a short speech with a grade 11 point of view. I remember parts of the news at the time, but it happened in 1994, when I had no television, and emails didn’t even exist, in the midst of medical school in Canada, where news from Africa was mostly a Christmas with a new fundraising song by a collaboration of artists raising money for malnutrition, and AIDS.  I have since read around it, knowing the scope of failure in personal and global political terms to grasp the significance until it was too late. 

I actually use a signature that was inspired by the aftermath, a quotation by Terry Tempest Williams, explored in her book Finding Beauty in a Broken World. “Beauty is not optional, it is a strategy for survival.”

Also,

In the open space of democracy, beauty is not optional, but essential to our survival as a species.

Terry Tempest Williams, The Open Space of Democracy

She had just one slide finished when it was due. She talked about the inciting event of the assassination of the president. I wanted to make sure that she knew about the longstanding roots in colonialism, Belgian racism,  and power differentials that divided the country between the Hutus and the Tutsis.

I remember the pain of Romeo Dallaire, stuck in a role that exposed him to horrific things without being able to do anything about it. The ultimate Moral Injury. A story of PTSD. I still have Shake Hands With The Devil on my to-read list, but haven’t had the courage yet. 

I remember a quiet terror that the world did nothing. I had an inkling that the response was different because it was Africa. I felt that it could have been my life, and no one did a damn thing to stop it. A total failure of the UN, the world. Totally unlike the idyllic Alliance of Star Wars.

I was quite moved by the fictional story called Sunday At The Pool In Kigali, and a character at poolside inspired my first good character for my developing novel. 

I will not forget. No one can, if they hear the story.