Nearly thirteen years ago, the Rwandan News Agency with the New York Times presented us with a story that will remain with me for all my days. In the post-conflict period of the Rwandan genocide, in a school resting between Zairian and Rwandan borders, a survivor retold how one teacher and seventeen schoolgirls were shot and killed by gunmen after the girls refused an order to separate themselves into two ethnic groups: Hutu and Tutsi. They resisted the attacker's attempt to label, isolate, humiliate, and kill a part of their school's community. In one moment, this group of girls chose to say no to a system that had, in prior months, managed to annihilate over 500,000 (mostly Tutsi) Rwandans.Perhaps they did not realize the impact their choice and lives would have upon others around the world who work towards creating a peaceable community, who walk on common ground, and who honor our common humanity. Their lives have impacted mine. Of the eighteen questions we can ask to initiate deeper understanding of the Rwandan Genocide or any conflict in our lives and global community, one question is answered in this story: What capacity for peace can be identified?
Recommended Reading
Preventing Genocide: A Blueprint for U.S. Policymakers by Madeleine K. Albright, William S. Cohen
The Psychology of Humiliation: Somalia, Rwanda/Burundi, and Hitler's Germany by E.G. Lindner
Left to Tell, By Imaculee Ilibagiza
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch
Photo Credit: U.S. Department of State
