Having viewed Hotel Rwanda before, I thought that I was prepared for the carnage and bloodshed that I knew was in store for me. But Don Cheadle proved me wrong; I was weeping 15 minutes into the film. "Jesus, I'm so ashamed" states Joaquin Phoenix's photographer character, Jack Daglish. This is, overwhelmingly, the case throughout the entire film. Joaquin has hit the nail on the head and this view is echoed by abrasive Colonel Oliver (Nick Nolte) in his shockingly truthful speech about the negligence of the Western powers. In Charles Murigande's article, "Lessons Learned from the 1994 Rwandan Genocide" he gives us a little background information regarding just how much the UN and the West knew about what was going on in Rwanda. For example, in a report from 1993, a reporter named Adama Dieng, discovered that NGOs had discovered that the current regime of Rwanda was planning a large-scale genocide. Another warning that was ignored due to what Murigande calls "International Indifference" was a cable from General Romeo Dallaire in 1994, commander of the UN Assistance Mission in Rwanda conveyed news that the Interahamwe were drawing up plans that would allow themselves to kill one thousand Tutsi's every twenty minutes, three months before the genocide began.
To Paul Rusesabagina, The West embodies everything that he respects. Order, comfort, safety; everything that his government is unable to offer him, he respects Western powers for giving to its citizens. The West carries authority, the UN can do no wrong. In an intense conversation between Daglish and Paul, Daglish apologizes to Paul for taking footage of violence outside of the Mille Collines. Paul, embodying our debate from our last blog topic on reporters and their culpability, thanks Daglish for taking the footage and making sure that the outside world will see what is going on inside of Rwanda, so that help can be provided. Daglish tells him that he really does not believe that the world gives a damn about Rwanda and that the footage will only serve to temporarily discomfit them before they return to their dinners. Shaken, Paul begins to doubt his former hero worship of the West and it's so-called values. As all of the white hotel visitors are evacuated from the Mille Collines, you really see Paul's world crashing down around his ears.
One of the chapters from Murambi, Book of Bones that most struck me was the little girl Marina Nkusi's memory of "Tonton Antoine." This short chapter illustrates a a young girl who remembers when her father took up his machete in defense of his family. Her father's friend, Tonton Antoine, somebody who the little girl had formerly cavorted with gleefully, tries to convince Marina's father to join him in fighting at one of the barricades. The Hutu family was harboring several young Tutsi children and the father had heretofore managed to avoid joining in the killing which the Interahamwe expected of every good Hutu. Tonton Antoine manages to convince Marina's father to join the fighting, possibly by threats and certainly be some kind of coercion, as Marina remembers hearing shouting coming from the room where the two men are talking. Her father has serious moral conflict with killing people who have never done him any harm. But to protect his family from the wrath of the Interahamwe he takes up his machete. He tries to convince himself that war is fleeting, "Don't you watch television? It's like all wars, you kill people and then it's over!" Marina tells us that that the killing he engages in strikes him to the heart; every night when he comes home from wielding his machete, he visits the little Tutsi orphans and gives them treats. This chapter illustrates how nobody was left unaffected by the Tutsi Genocide. It is impossible to ignore and everybody, even innocent people like Marina and her family, becomes culpable.
Tran: Comment on Rogers' blog.
ReplyDeleteAs you mention, there is somewhere in the movie where someone says to Paul how all the Western clients that he serves, respect, and tries to emulate, in the end they won't do anything for him because he is an African. Though Paul is friends with his guests, some of them weren't able to help him when he needed it most. Once again, the West disappoints those in countries like Rwanda. It simply wasn't worth their time or energy.
Your point about Marina Nkusi is a very good one! I think for the most part we always think only of the Tutsi who were killed, but every texts mentions 'Tutsi and moderate Hutu' who were killed. If you didn't want to kill Tutsi, the Interahamwe will think that you care about the Tutsi and they might hurt you instead. Some Hutus didn't want to be a part of the genocides, but they didn't have any other choice. Marina's father has to deal with two harsh identity since he is sheltering Tutsi children and now is forced to join the killings. It is a mob mentality and if you do not go along with it, you will suffer its wrath.
Gudan: Comment on Rogers’ Blog on Rwandan Genocide
ReplyDeleteI really liked your comment on the little girl as well. There were so many different characters in Diop’s book with so many different perspectives. I appreciated how Diop tried to tell the story from both sides, or rather, not to tell “the story,” but everyone’s stories. That being said, I understand that he was showing that even the people who were killing others were still people, still human and not monsters or devils, but it was hard to read nonetheless. It’s hard to think of having to go out and kill people, even people you don’t want to kill, because it’s your duty. I guess people do that every day though, and I just don’t think about it. Marina’s father kind of shows how difficult that is though, how much he struggles with the duality of murdering the people he’s also trying to protect. He’s trying to retain his humanity. His hypocrisy, though, is difficult to understand. If he kills because he has to, then why doesn’t he kill the children in his home? Are they not also Tutsi, and if he’s killing out of duty, is that not his duty as well? Maybe he doesn’t kill them because they’re children, or because he knew them. The reader is never told why he chose to save some and murder others. Obviously, he had problems with the whole situation, but even so, I wondered how he coped with it, how, despite all of the talk about war being a one time deal, he went home and ate dinner and slept soundly, knowing full well that he was killing innocent people, people who had never done anything to him. I think the fact that the children and his wife never mentioned the war shows the delicacy and hypocrisy of the whole situation, that it’s not something that can be discussed, even if everyone knows its happening.
I also liked your analysis of "Tonton Antoine" from Murambi, Book of Bones. The most startling aspect of this story to me was the hypocrisy the little girl witnessed in her own father. He struggles knowing that protecting his family from Hutu violence means killing innocent people. When the time comes he is forced to slaughter innocent Tutsi people and "wields his machete like a maniac" (88). When he comes home he immediately goes to the hiding place of the Tutsi children and offers them treats and plays with them. His daughter sees all of this behavior and it opens her eyes to the hypocrisy of the whole system. I think this is a good example of how the people committing these crimes are not necessarily monsters; many of the men doing the killing are motivated by fear. They are ordinary people like anyone else with families to protect and the threat of death hanging over their heads. Marina's father is forced to kill to demonstrate that he is a good Hutu in order to not be killed himself. I think we are to understand that he kills savagely because of a resolve to do what he has to do. He must face extreme difficulty and trauma in doing what he believes he must to protect his family. We do not know excatly why he does not kill the Tutsi children, but I can imagine it is because he wants to maintain some shred of his former resolve that slaughtering innocent people is wrong.
ReplyDeleteI think that the only reason that Marina's father goes out with his machete is because he is under threats from the Interahamwe through Tonton Antoine. He deludes himself into thinking that he can just go out and kill Tutsi's, then come home and go on with his life. We are never told that he sleeps soundly and eats well; all Marina tells us is that, after a long day of slaughter, he comes home and pets the little Tutsi's. Then he goes straight to bed and his family is so unnerved by him that they pretend sleep when he leaves the next morning. I don't think that Marina's father is acting under some sort of duty to the Hutu cause. His only duty is to his family and his rationalization of how the war will be over soon is only an appeasement of his blood spattered conscience.
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