African Wind
Chapter6
Rwanda Film Festival, Lessons learned form genocide
＜Rwanda Film Festival＞The Uplink in Shibuya will host the Rwanda Film Festival from April 7th to April 20th. For many people the word “Rwanda” may remind of the genocide in 1994. Especially as the recent release of the Hollywood movie, Hotel Rwanda, in Japan caused sensational media attention to the unspeakable truth about the genocide. We will be able to see more of the truth about genocide through featured movies, documentaries, and short films at the Rwanda Film Festival. In this issue of Africa no Kaze, I would like to share my opinions and what I know about the truth of the genocide in 1994, with the film review of one of the documentary film that will be screened in the festival entitled, Keepers of Memories.
The camera follows many of the survivors of the killings that happened in various locations in Rwanda, and the film captures sorrow, hatred, anger, and depression of the survivors of the genocide through talking to them about their experiences of the massacre. The film shows various sights of Rwanda including a person searching for the remaining of the family members though the piles of bones that were recently found, piles of human bones left behind, a person telling a blood stained personal story of the genocide in tears, and a person who carries weapons at all times in fear of the massacre. One of the most memorable scenes was a person who stares at the camera and screams “Are you a journalist? I have seen so many journalists report about us, and nothing has changed! When are you going to bring any change in here?”
It was a painful film to watch. After seeing the 52 minutes long film, I felt a sword pierced through my heart. As this is a documentary it obviously potrates the cruelness and the value of the truth. It shows unspoken emotions behind the simple story telling format. Officially the massacre was over. The nation had stepped forward to build a new nation. However each person who had experienced the genocide are struggling with the anger and trauma deep inside their minds. It seems as if they are trying to control their feelings by covering the pain and the memories of what had happened with a blank piece of white cloth, because the tragedy like the Rwandan genocide should never been seen again. This film brutally shows what is going on now in Rwanda, the current lives of the survivors of Rwandan genocide, and massive amount of tears of Rwandan over the massacre that happened 13 years ago.
I would recommend everyone to see this film. I hope the people who watch the film can feel the tears of the Rwandan, and put yourselves in their position for a minute. What makes us different from people in Rwanda? With the world-wide population is growing in the speed that we had never predicted, the natural resources will become more and more scarce. We may have the food shortage in the future, for example. And when it happens can we really share the limited resources in peace? What happened in Rwanda could possibly happen to any of us in the future. We could be the victim or the victimizer, depending on the situation. I would like to suggest thinking about what ethnic groups really are, and what blood really means when you watch this film.*The screening was finished
My take on the genocide
In 1994 a small country had experienced one of the most brutal massacre in the history called “Ethnic Cleansing”. People were slashed, gunned down, chased after, and killed just because they were Tutsis. It was reported that 1,000,000 people were killed in about 100 days. This is significant to me because 1994 was the year that I first visited African countries. And also my dear friend who taught me about Africa decided to go to Rwanda to witness what was going on directly. He obtained a VISA in Kenya to go to Rwanda, and it became personal to me.
He left for Rwanda in June. He said that he would enter Rwanda from Tanzanian border. The massacre was taking place all over Rwanda at that time. We heard from him for 10 days, but it suddenly stopped. I could not get any news about Rwanda from Japanese news media, so I turned on BBS and various European news programs to get the news about Rwanda. There were unbelievable footages of cruelty, piles of dead bodies, and red soil stained by the blood. It was unspeakable to see a person killed by an ax in this modern world. It kept me thinking of the people living in fear under the condition. I felt ashamed for not knowing that this brutal reality was going on at the same time on the same planet that I make living. I felt rushed to do something about it.
While I waited to hear from my friend in Africa I studied and researched on what caused this genocide, including the colonial policies in Africa, ethnical conflicts, and multi-ethnical societies and its problems. There were too many things to learn. Again I came to realize that the so-called information society was just a frog in a well. I realized that the information that Japan received was driven and filtered by the capitalism.
The next time I heard from my friend was in mid-July. He told me that he made it to the border check point between Rwanda and Tanzania, but solders of Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) stopped him from entering Rwanda. He negotiated by paying off the soldiers and he was allowed to get a ride into Rwanda. After a week later at the border between Rwanda and Tanzania, Tanzanian solders captured him this time. They took all his money and belongings, except for the $50 to pay for the VISA to re-enter to Kenya, which was sawn to the bottom of his pants. After all he had to give up on going to Rwanda. It took 3 weeks of hitch hiking without eating or drinking for him to go back to Kenya. He sold his dictionary to make a phone call to me. I was so glad to hear from him and to know that he was alive. I had experienced deaths of family members and close friends in the past but for someone who grew up without experiencing any war, I have never felt personally threatened by the ethnic cleansing and genocide before.
When he returned to Japan he showed me a few photographs. I saw many dead bodies floating on a river in a photograph. There was the reality that everyone wanted to look away.
Since then, Rwanda was taken over by the RFP, and hundreds of thousand of Hutus were fledging to refugee camps in Zaire (ex-Congo), Republic of Burundi, and Tanzania in fear for the revenge from Tutsis. It was around this time when the United Nations and European countries started to take actions to intervene. And even Japanese news media, which is chronically so clueless of what is going on in the world, started to take up some news about Rwanda.
This led me to visit Africa more that 30 times, and started my life long project called African JAG project. After experiencing the genocide indirectly I had to stop and think what I could do. I am not a journalist by profession, however I always try to be responsible for what I say and what I do. And in order for me to communicate or tell stories to the mass audience, I stay true to the original source, the local people and the real situation. I would like to communicate the truth of the people and the place that I encounter as real as possible though variety of methods of expression. In Africa the people is running out of time. The darkness is covering over their land, and they live facing death on daily basis. I remind myself that there are always lives to save. What happened in Rwanda changed my life. I learned to face the reality and figure out what I can do as an artist. I hope my efforts will signify all the lives and death of people who was affected by the genocide and not let them be just a pile of dead body.
Anyways the words in the film, “Are you a journalist? I have seen so many journalists report about us, and nothing has changed! When are you going to bring any change in here?” really hurts and stays in my heart.
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