Spinning Rwanda: Hollywood's Trilogy of Gloom
Published May 24, 2005
I don't think there's a one of you out there--of those who know me--who doesn't know my views on the Rwanda genocides and the reaction of the West, particularly the United States. A decade or so after the fact, one can hardly turn around without bumping into yet another article or tv program or book or big-screen commentary on the events of 1994, and every time, I just get more and more disgusted and saddened by the whole affair. Never mind that at the time, I don't think I shed even one tear. It wasn't enough of a news story to do so, nestled between whatever else was going on that year.
In Sometimes in April, Haitian director Raoul Peck makes devastating use of news report sound bytes, including one of Kurt Cobain's suicide with a visual of business people shuffling onto the subway to get home while people were being hacked to death across the globe. I'll never forget Cobain's untimely death because I was at the mall of all places when I heard; the stores were overrun with ravenous consumer-zombie teens a flutter with their own ignorance of the reality of death. Though I remember that scene clearly, I have zero recollection of how and when I first heard about what eventually became the deaths of 800,000 for whom "untimely" is too much the understatement, and my own and my country's own chosen ignorance is a heavy burden.
The horror stems from many factors, not the least of which being that my generation slept on another Holocaust. That the hands of the United Nations were tied still makes little sense to me. But the real hook in my throat came after reading Howard French's A Continent for the Taking. I first learned from French's book that the U.S. refused even to jam the radio broadcasts that the Hutu extremists used to stir the masses to irrevocable vengence against family and friends and community members. The radio personalities so efficiently and effectively dehumanized the enemy, that the exterminators were, in fact, targeting cockroaches, not people. Radio broadcasts were also used to help direct the army, and if the President Clinton didn't want to put U.S soldiers on the ground, the least we could have done was block the transmissions. THE LEAST.
- Spinning Rwanda: Hollywood's Trilogy of Gloom
- Published: May 24, 2005
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Video
- Writer: mpho
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Not to be rude, but I'd recommend against Dallaire's book and his hero-posturing.
Philip Gourevitch's We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda is a good alternative.
Gourevitch's book is definitely good but I would disagree with your assessment of Dallaire as "hero-posturing". I wouldn't call Shake Hands with the Devil a brilliant read (Dallaire uses far to many obscure UN acronyms for my taste) but it does a good job of capturing the essence and hopelessness of the situation. Given the lack of support for the mission, Dallaire did about as well as anyone could, to his own cost.
The ending of Sometimes in April wonders if after the next genocide it will take another 10 years for HBO films and the like to be made before people realize, yet again
Great opinion,mpho
thanks, aaman. While I appreciate the reading suggestions (I haven't read any of them yet), my rambling sort of point was that I'd rather have Hollywood tackle these historical moments long after the fact than not at all because if once-current events don't make it into what we think of as entertainment venues, a huge cross-section of the population will never learn anything, even a distilled, watered down version of events. I'm sure more people have seen the box office smash Hotel Rwanda than the total number who have read Shake Hands With The Devil, Gourevitch's book, and Bowden's book added together. I mean here I am, acting like I know it all, and I haven't even read their books. It's easier to get someone to commit to 2 1/2 hours of voyeuristic activity than to push a book on somebody, so why not make the most of it?
by the way, French's book, A Continenet for the Taking," is subtitled "The Tragedy and Hope of Africa." While it's not specific to Rwanda, French talks a lot of things that happened all over Africa during the 1990s. Foreign Affairs has a great review at http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20040501fabook83355/howard-w-french/a-continent-for-the-taking-the-tragedy-and-hope-of-africa.html which is different from the link I chose in my blog post.
Great post. I'm Rwandan so it's always good to see something like this. And I agree with Dean- both books are important in their own way, although Gourevitch's will probably never be topped.
totally agree with your rwanda comments. i saw "hotel" and was devastated. yeah, i knew what had happened - had read articles & commentary. but seeing it dramatazied like that made such an impact. yep, the whole theater was sobbing, rightly so. will have to check out the other film you mentioned, when i can handle it...
Another excellent review!
One more good book to add to the list, is Toni Bambara's Those Bones Are Not My Child which isn't about Africa at all, let alone Somalia or Rwanda, but it is about race and African-American state-of-life in America (it's about the Atlanta murders) and somehow it seems to go well with the DVDs and books above. More pertinent to the subject, probably the best book is one already recommended above, We wish to inform you... which is as harrowing as Hotel Rwanda.
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I heartily recommend the book Shake Hands With The Devil by the Canadian General Romeo Dallaire for anyone who wants a serious examination about UN and US policy on Rwanda and the efects as it was seen by the guy who was in charge on the ground when the crap hit the fan.