Dacula - Hope Amidst Hopelessness

Hotel Rwanda once again gives us a different perspective of mass genocide, this time through the lens of the persecuted and oppressed people of Rwanda. Like Sarajevo, this mass genocide did not last as long in comparison to the Holocaust of World War II. However, the lives lost in those brief three months were in the millions. As Dr. McCay mentioned, it is shocking to discover that most countries were not willing (or did not seem to be willing) to help the Rwandan people. In spite of heavy news coverage, most countries chose to turn a blind eye to this issue. The saying “ignorance is bliss” is undoubtedly a biased argument when it comes to this Rwandan genocide. The film raises the question of whether or not society has become increasingly self-centered in recent years. Using Rwanda as evidence, I think we can unfortunately say that most of these countries fostered the mindset of “it’s not my problem.” We learn that one man, however, named Paul Rusesabagina did not seem to foster such a self-centered mindset. Rusesabagina helps in saving over a thousand lives by allowing them to use his hotel as a shelter.

Hotel Rwanda explains that the reason for this mass genocide stems from a longstanding feud between social classes: the Tutsi (people of Rwanda in power based on racial elitism) and the Hutus (the general population of Rwanda who were not considered racially elite). The Hutus, because of their greater population, eventually overtook the power of the Tutsis in the 1960s. The mass genocide of Rwanda occurred as a result of the assassination of Habyarimana. This assassination led to the Hutus’ execution of countless Tutsis, who the Hutus referred to as “cockroaches.”

In Murambi, the Book of Bones, the Rwandan genocide theme continues. The book documents the life of Cornelius, a Rwandan history teacher who lived in Djibouti during the genocide. Cornelius’ family falls victim to the genocide killings in Rwanda. He returns to Rwanda and tries to reconcile the senseless death of his family with himself. Cornelius uses writing as his outlet to expose everything he has experienced with this genocide. Like the cellist in Sarajevo, Cornelius also discovers and maintains the sense that our humanity is the only coping mechanism we have in the face of hatred and senseless killing. He highlights the sickening lack of humanity amidst the atrocities he witnesses around him. IN spite of what he witnesses around him, we see that Cornelius refuses to let it ruin his own faith and hope in humanity. We see this in Cornelius’ description of Djibouti: “…it was the only place in the world where he had the feeling that one could start something new.” He makes a crucial point that such concentrated hatred and lack of humanity in one part of the world does not mean that hope for humanity is dead everywhere else as well. Djibouti becomes Cornelius’ strength.

Jessica also struggles maintains this sense of hope in the midst of a hopeless situation. The book describes her as a starving, hungry, and frail woman. Through her dialogue, we get an empathic feel for the suffering she goes through: “Should we just sit back and wait for our killers or try to do something so that our country can go back to being normal?...the tragedy would always end up catching you.” We see that Jessica is scarily uncertain about her situation and takes a dose of reality pills by admitting that tragedy is not something one can easily run away from. Through her thoughts, however, we also see that it is beneficial to face one’s “tragedies” and embrace them; only by embracing them can we then move on to fight it and experience what it really means to have hope in a hopeless situation.