Paul Rusesabagina and Hotel Rwanda

I had the opportunity to attend an event in Blackwell, on Feb. 24, to hear Paul Rusesabagina speak. Rusesabagina is the actual hero who saved thousands of lives in 1993 in Rwanda, Africa during the tension war between the Hutus and Tutsis. The film, Hotel Rwanda is based on his incredible journey from being the acting manager of the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali, Rwanda's capital to becoming Africa's most incredible heroes. The movie, often referred to as the African Schindler's List, was nominated for three Academy Awards and still inspires people today. Here's the trailer to Hotel Rwanda if you haven't already seen it. I strongly encourage that you do!





Rusesabagina spoke to us about "believing in the power of words" and not relying on the power of weapons, his beliefs being quite parallel to those of Dr. King's. His incredulous story began with merely being a hotel manager and trying to protect his family during the African genocide where the war between the Hutus (The educated class who dominated most of the Rwandan government) and the Tutsis (who were Africa's lower class: similar to the feudal system during the middle ages of the surfs and peasants). This genocide cost over 1 million people's lives. As Rusesabagina was working to save him and his family's lives, friends and neighbors began taking refuge in initially his home and as the refugees grew, he moved them into the famous Hotel Rwanda.





Click here to this site. It’s a wonderful site that uses photographs as a way of documenting depraved times all around the world. This one is a piece on the Rwandan Genocide aftermath.


The first day that Rusesabagina started helping others was an unplanned, heroic act that started with housing over 34 people in his home and was as he says, “the scariest day of my life.” Rusesabagina was nearly killed for helping to save these lives and explains his experiences as going “face to face with evil.” By confronting killers with a combination of diplomacy, stealth, and flattery, Rusesabagina managed to shelter more than a thousand Hutus and Tutsis in his hotel. It was this act that led him to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. Through his experiences in the genocide, Rusesabagina told me that his purpose now is “to be an advocate of dialogue.”



He is what I like to define as a real hero. An average person given an unexpected mission to take on extraordinary measures to save lives and initially make a difference in the world. I had the opportunity to talk to him after he spoke. It was an unreal experience being able to speak with him. Being able to be face-to-face with someone who embodies all the definitions of a hero was an honor! I found Mr. Rusesabagina gentle, kind and attentive. I didn't feel slighted over with him, he seemed thoroughly interested and engaged by my questions and answered them generously. He told me in his lovely African accent about the problems in the Great Lakes of Africa and his mission to change the problems that are currently happening that no one talks about. To break it down, this is what is happening:

The Great Lakes are in control of a dictatorship type of government that takes away all the money that is sent from America, mainly DC, to the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes as a result, is in a state of poverty and the people there start rebellions that as a result, are killing many of the people there. Rusesabagina told me that writing letters to our U.S. president asking to stop this dictatorship type of government, and taking away the money that is sent over for the growth of the Great Lakes is something that we can do to help. His wishes for the students at Longwood are to “advocate for equal justice and right in the Great Lakes of Africa.” His opinion of the Longwood student body was described as being “an excellent group of young people” and having the “eagerness to become involved to save the world.” Why thank you sir.


Tutsis Boys

I decided to be a little bold and asked him how he defined success. I couldn’t resist the urge asking someone of his “celebrity status” how he saw and defined success in his eyes. Rusesabagina was confused at first by my questioning and didn’t understand why I would ask a question like that to him. I quickly replied that I was merely interested in hearing a definition of success come from someone whose heroic background inspired millions of people and that for my article, it would be interesting for us students to know. After he came to terms to with my objective for the article, he gave me a completely humbled response and I quickly discovered that he was completely unfocused and unaware of having any type of “celebrity status.” He told me that “everything I do, I do it fully and never half-way.”


His mentality and seemingly unaffected ego rich with modesty seemed almost unreal to me. His mind is continually focused on the current issues in the Great Lakes and the passion he has for his people from what I observed, is anything but half-way.
When I spoke to Dr. Tim Pierson, the Vice President of Student Affairs, his viewpoint on the event mirrored that of my own: “Fantastic. He is a reminder to us to not be complacent. He embodies the true ideals of being a citizen leader.” We aren’t the only ones to share this opinion. Click here.




This whole problem in the Great Lakes makes me re-evaluate all my priorities and makes me feel miserable and confused on how innocent people are being killed and stripped away their freedom based on their birth right. It's so unfair to me that I go home to a nice home with a loving family and things like poverty, no freedom, and high risks of death are all foreign. I don't like hearing about all of this. I want to go over there and do something to help, not hear about it. I have decided to do my part in helping the Great Lakes by helping to contribute to Rusesabagina’s Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation. Right now I’m contemplating a fundraiser or a petition to help fight the dictatorship and corruption in the country. You can do your part too! Just visit the site and there are a handful of great ideas to help get you started.


-“I said, 'I'm not coming with you, because so far I'm the only person who can negotiate with the killers,”- Paul Rusesabagina

(To read the original published article go here)