A Distasteful End

Photograph by Salgado. Can you even imagine having to bury bodies with construction equipment? Here in Kibumba, Zaire after the devastation of the Rwandan Genocide, bodies are piled into mass graves. There were well over a thousand bodies here and with volcanic terrain digging graves was difficult. The French and Americans were some of the first to arrive with heavy machinery for excavating the land. Most of the bodies were moved by Rwandan Nationals hired by aid agencies. (Perlez) There was great personal risk in moving the dead because of the disease and illness in the bodies. In my life I have seen little death. Very few of my close relatives have passed on and death seems almost fictional to me. I cannot fathom having to bury people in such a distasteful way. I understand the inability to perform thousands of proper burials, but my heart shutters to think that so many left this world in such an appalling manner.

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Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. 193

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Perlez, Jane. “At Disease-Ravaged Camps, a Battle to Bury the Dead.” New York Times. 1 August 1994. Web. 2 February 2010

Left to Tell Book Review

Immaculee Ilibagiza did a phenomenal job conveying the emotional distress she faced in hiding during the Rwandan Genocide. She somehow found the courage to harrow up the things that have haunted her for the past fifteen years. Immaculee used vivid imagery to get her point across but at the same time did not offend. I was most impressed with the bluntness she used in writing her account. At times I felt as though I were there in Rwanda with her. She spoke of horrible events not in a way that upsets but in a way that inspires. How she can face her past in such a frank way is beyond me. After reading this book I feel that my eyes have been opened to the reality of hate and the need for love. She referred back to her religious experiences often and explained how she used them to get through such terrible times. I thought that she did a very good job of including religious references without being offensive. This is an excellent book both in content and in writing. It is very easy to read and almost impossible to put down. I would recommend this book to everyone.

The Voice of a Warchild

Emmanuel Jal also known as the Warchild is a refugee from Sudan. He was born in a war torn Sudan where death and despair were everywhere. At the age of five he watched as his mother was beaten and his aunt was raped. He grew up with hate for Arabs and Muslims.

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Three years later he joined the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. He spent the following three years fighting and watching his friends die around him. When Jal was eleven, his group of four hundred soldiers had diminished to just sixteen. With starvation facing the remaining sixteen some turned to cannibalism. Although tempted to eat his comrades in an attempt to survive he never brought himself to do it.

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At this time, the lowest point in his life, a British aid worker named Emma McCune came to his rescue. She brought Jal to Kenya where he received an education. He realized it wasn’t the Arabs or Muslims as a whole that killed his family, but a handful of corrupt and greedy individuals. With this realization he turned his pent up hate and vengeance into love.

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In 2005 Jal moved to the United Kingdom and began sharing his experiences through music and poetry. He uses rhetoric to build awareness for refugees much as I am trying to in this blog. Jal has committed to eating one meal a day until his aid fund has raised enough money to build a school in Sudan. Since hearing his story, Jal has become one of my personal heroes. I hope that he will move you in the way he has moved me.

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TEDtalksDirector. "Emmanuel Jal: The Music of a War Child." Youtube. Web. February 18 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF_dHdNOgSA

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Ervine, Dean. "Emmanuel Jal: The War Child Fighting for a Better Future." CNN World. November 26 2009. Web. February 18 2010

Why do Genocides Happen?

This photo by Salgado shows the conditions of the Rwandan refugee camp of Benako, Tanzania. Believe it or not these are the lucky minority of the Tutsi people who were hunted and killed by the rival Hutu’s. The mass genocide took place in 1994 and over twenty percent of the country’s population was eliminated (Wikipedia). The attack was aimed at the Tutsi people and the Hutu moderates. They were considered a blemish on the nation by the radical Hutu’s who decided a national cleansing was necessary. In all between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people were killed in 100 days.

Often we talk about the genocide itself, but I have been recently wondering the history between the Hutu’s and Tutsi’s and what specifically led to the Hutu annihilation of the Tutsi’s. The Hutu Manifesto was published in 1957 which gave the minority Tutsi’s a monopoly of power (Wikipedia). In the 1960’s the Hutu people overthrew the government and forced many Tutsi’s to flee. In neighboring Burundi the conflict between Hutu’s and Tutsi’s was even greater up until the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. There had been 2 genocides in Burundi, one by the Tutsi army against the Hutu’s and one by the Hutu people against the Tutsi’s (Wikipedia). In 1973 Juvénal Habyarimana took control with the hope of progress for these two conflicting ethnicities. On April 6, 1994 however, he was assassinated and the Hutu Radical’s took power. The blood bath began and the rest is history.

How can someone have that much hate? To be able to kill hundreds of thousands with no real reason. The government’s propaganda had so much influence on the people of Rwanda. The scary thing is that it is possible for it to happen again. This was only 15 years ago and somehow we feel removed from it. People are oppressed around the world and it is only a matter of time before another atrocity occurs. We need to remember the paths of history and stop the senseless killing before it begins.

“Rwandan Genocide.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 10 February 2010. Web. 10 February 2010.

Sebastiao Salgado. Photograph. "Migrations: Humanity in Transition [The Human Family Around the World]". Legends Online. PDN and Kodak Professional. Web. ND. 4 Feb. 2010.

A Long Way Home

This photo by Salgado was taken in Afghanistan. As you can see a goat herder casually passes a tank while going about his work. It is quite possible and even likely that this is a common occurrence for him.

In Afghanistan there is much conflict. The Taliban leads through fear and oppression while other groups such as the Afghan National Army try to restore peace and order. It is hard to say who the tank is fighting for. Is it headed to fight for the wellbeing of the Afghan people, or does it roam the countryside instilling fear in the humble citizens (like this simple goat herder) that make Afghanistan what it is? I would like to think that it is patrolling the dusty goat paths to keep the dejected Taliban confined to their lonely hideouts.

Currently Afghanistan is working hard to rid itself of terrorism and oppression by building a respectable military of its own. As of 2007 the Afghan National Army was approaching 50,000 soldiers. As the numbers grow larger, more and more people join. Desertion and fear made stable growth difficult at first, but as the military grew that fear began to dissipate. Nations such as the U.S., the U.K., and France have helped train many Afghan soldiers. The result is a sizable army that will one day be able to hold its own without the assistance and support of other nations.

Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture Foundation, Inc.: New York, 2000. 82

Official Website of the Afghan National Army Kabul. Nd. Web. 3 Feb. 2010.