“Hotel Rwanda” is a 2004 film about a Hutu hotel manager who wheels and deals to hide 1000 Tutsi at a luxury hotel in the midst of the 1994 Rwandan conflict. Being the manager of the luxurious Hôtel des Mille Collines (Co-lean) in Kigali, Rwanda afforded Paul Rusesabagina and his wife and children a comfortable life. His position and the ability to access various luxuries and resources helped create connections with various local and international big-shots. Those connections combined with Paul’s hustle and quick thinking would prove vitally important after the Hutu military began a genocidal attack on the Tutsi ethnic group.
Tag: <span>civil war</span>
If you’re interested in learning about the deadliest riot in American history which was caused in part by a military draft and fears of job competition from emancipated slaves, then my New York Draft Riots Black History Facts profile is for you.
“White Rage” by Carol Anderson examines the reality that Black efforts at progress and achievement are often met with resistance and a retrenchment of obstacles. Since the Civil Rights Movement and especially during riots, much has been made of Black people angrily lashing out against injustices and a lack of access to resources. Instead of focusing on the issues that lead to protests and riots, greater attention is often placed on what’s referred to as “Black rage” and calls for adherence to respectability politics. But looking back through American history, Anderson examines America’s historic and present “White rage”, the systemic oppression of Black progress.
“Beasts of No Nation” is a 2015 Netflix film based on Uzodinma Iweala’s 2005 novel about a boy who becomes a child soldier. Set in an unnamed West African country, a violent civil war is being fought between the military and rebel groups. Agu (Abraham Atta) is a small boy from a loving tight-knit family living in a village that is in the path of the approaching armies. When the fighting spreads to his village it is destroyed and his family torn apart, Agu flees in search of safety but instead finds himself drafted to fight in a rebel group under the Commandant (Idris Elba).
“Dancing in the Glory of Monsters” by Jason Stearns attempts to explain the causes of the Congo Wars and the events that unfolded once the fighting began. Unlike in other wars, there is no single individual or group to fully blame for the conflict because there were so many different parties involved from within the country and surrounding nations. The conflict received relatively little coverage in other parts of the world due in part to its complexity. The media likes simple stories with obvious headlines and this conflict provided everything but that.