Hotel Rwanda

Hotel Rwanda is an inspiring story about a family trying to escape the mass genocide in 1994. European powers in the early 90s crossed tribal boundaries which forced two tribes, the Tutsi and Hutu to live on the same land. Under Belgian rule the Tutsi were the more powerful of the two tribes, repressing the Hutu. Then, after the President is killed the Hutus take over and begin the mass genocide, trying to wipe out the entire Tutsi population.

The movie tracks a hotel manager and his family through the ordeal. Under UN protection the hotel is a place the Tutsis run for cover. In the end Tutsi forces finally fought the Hutus off over the border, leaving more than one million people dead. The hotel manager helped save approximately 1,200 lives.

Even though this is movie came out a while ago, I just recently watched it. Unfortunately it is not only a piece of history for me, but I also have a real life connection to it. In 1994 I was seven years old, a couple years later, when I was in 4th grade I became good friends with a girl who just moved from Rwanda to the U.S. She would never talk about it or even speak her native language because she was so embarrassed and heart broken. My friend was born in Rwanda and escaped to the U.S. where her brother attended college at the time. Her whole family was killed in front of her. She and her sister survived by playing dead in a ditch while Hutus paced over them with machetes and guns.

So, the reason I chose to blog this is because back in 1994 the whole world knew what was being done to these people, the UN was even over there. Yet, no one did anything except stand by and let it happen. Now, we still know of wars like this going, maybe not a mass genocide, but slowly many people are losing their lives and yet we do nothing. Everyone should see this movie and hear the people’s stories!

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