In an attempt to get ahead of my school assignments I began working on my reading project this week. My reading project is a chapter in the book by Immaculee Ilibagiza called Left to Tell. The chapter and book are based upon Immaculee’s experience during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, while hiding in a small bathroom with seven other women and children. The article really struck at my emotions and I wanted to pursue the topic further from a different person’s viewpoint. That is when I came across the BBC documentary named Roger Genocide Baby.
The documentary which is about one hour long highlights the life of Roger. Roger’s mother Illuminée Nganemariya was pregnant during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. She managed to keep her and her son safe during the 100 days where Hutus the majority tribe in tried to exterminate the minority tribe of the Tutsis. During that time she watched as men hauled off her husband and eventually killed him. However, she was able to get to safety with her son Roger and soon after migrated to England to begin a new life. In order to deal with the pain of the situation she wrote a book describing her journey. This documentary could really be about Illuminée Nganemariya herself. Fortunately, this documentary shines a small light on her viewpoint and spends the other time sharing with the audience the fascinating viewpoint of her son who is now 17.
In order to explore his Rwandan roots Roger returns to Rwanda. His exploration is in meeting members of his family that are still alive, attending a remembrance ceremony, and being face to face with a man who was convicted and served jailed time for killing Tutsis during the Rwandan genocide. He uses his mother’s book as a guide to places that he visits throughout the journey.
It was amazing to see the differentiation of culture between how Roger could have been and the young man he is now. He does not speak French and was raised in England. He speaks with a pronounced British accent and uses British slang throughout the documentary. In addition, his clothing and the way that he dresses is far different than his fellow Rwandan’s. Speaking English gets Roger in trouble when he is in a local shop, shopping for boots. The shop owner overhears him speaking in English and immediately raises the prices of the boots. I wonder what his thoughts were when he knows is Rwandan like the shop owner and was essentially excluded or taken advantage of because he did not speak the local language. How do you look at yourself and your culture after that experience?
The main thing that Roger is searching for is his capacity to forgive. His mother has forgiven the men who have killed her husband. Can he forgive the people who killed his father? Can you forgive people that destroyed your entire family and effectively changed cultural traits that you have?
You would think with what happened there is no way that Hutus and Tutsis could live together after what transpired. Though Roger goes into a village and meets a Tutsis woman whose family has all been killed. She takes him to meet her neighbor who is Hutus and finished serving jail time for his place in the killings. Although this man is not the person who killed Roger’s father, he asks Roger to forgive him. Roger does forgive the Hutus man for his part in the killing, however he admits that he could not do the same if he was faced with his father’s killer.
I have to commend Roger and his mother for even having the capacity to forgive any Hutus. In their same situation I don’t know if I would have been able to forgive someone for slaughtering my entire family. I especially don’t think that I could live as the women in the village and break bread with the enemy. Perhaps for Roger, his mother, and fellow Tutsis living in Rwanda forgiveness is part of the healing process and redefining the Rwandan culture.
No comments:
Post a Comment