Genocide
A Justice Site
Rwanda: A New Imaginary
Related References
California State University, Dominguez Hills
Created: June 5, 2001
Latest update: July 12, 2001 jeannecurran@habermas.org.
We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families
by Philip Gourevitch
Review and Teaching Essay by Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata
Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata, June 2001. Fair use "encouraged."
This essay is based on Philip Gourevitch 's We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families. Picador USA, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, N.Y. 1998. ISBN: 0-312-24335-9 $15.00 at Vroman 's in Pasadena.
Gourevitch brings up all the questions we 've discussed on the process of violentization, on the meaning of such violence, on our fascination with it, on our moral obligation to understand it. "I presume that you are reading this because you desire a closer look, and that you, too, are properly disturbed by your curiosity. Perhaps, in examining this extermity with me, you hope for some understainding, some insight, some flicker of self-knowledge---a moral, or a loesson or a clue about how to behave in this world: some such information. I don 't discount the possibility, but when it comes to genocide, you already know right from wrong. The best reason I have come up with for looking closely into Rwanda 's stories is that ignoring them makes me even more uncomfortable about existence and my place in it. . . ." (At p. 19.)
Gourevitch tells in beginning about his encounter with a man who announces himself to be a pygmy. The pygmy expounds his principle of homo sapiens: "all humanity is one," in the author 's words. The pygmy insists that he must marry a white woman, but cannot discover where to find one. Gourevitch starts with the story of the pygmy and then goes on into the stories from Rwanda. He tells us that he tells this story of the pygmy "because this is a book about how people imagine themselves and one
Rwanda: A New Imaginary
Related References
California State University, Dominguez Hills
Created: June 5, 2001
Latest update: July 12, 2001 jeannecurran@habermas.org.
We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families
by Philip Gourevitch
Review and Teaching Essay by Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata
Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata, June 2001. Fair use "encouraged."
This essay is based on Philip Gourevitch 's We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families. Picador USA, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, N.Y. 1998. ISBN: 0-312-24335-9 $15.00 at Vroman 's in Pasadena.
Gourevitch brings up all the questions we 've discussed on the process of violentization, on the meaning of such violence, on our fascination with it, on our moral obligation to understand it. "I presume that you are reading this because you desire a closer look, and that you, too, are properly disturbed by your curiosity. Perhaps, in examining this extermity with me, you hope for some understainding, some insight, some flicker of self-knowledge---a moral, or a loesson or a clue about how to behave in this world: some such information. I don 't discount the possibility, but when it comes to genocide, you already know right from wrong. The best reason I have come up with for looking closely into Rwanda 's stories is that ignoring them makes me even more uncomfortable about existence and my place in it. . . ." (At p. 19.)
Gourevitch tells in beginning about his encounter with a man who announces himself to be a pygmy. The pygmy expounds his principle of homo sapiens: "all humanity is one," in the author 's words. The pygmy insists that he must marry a white woman, but cannot discover where to find one. Gourevitch starts with the story of the pygmy and then goes on into the stories from Rwanda. He tells us that he tells this story of the pygmy "because this is a book about how people imagine themselves and one
References: Rwanda: Update to End of February 1998 (March 1998) By Gérard Prunier – WRITENET. Belgian Court Tries 4 in Rwandan Convent Massacre By Marlise Simons. One of the four was a Mother Superior in the Convent. backup Belgian Jury Convicts 4 of 1994 War Crimes in Rwanda By Marlise Simons. backup Nuns ' Conviction 'Surprises ' Vatican By The Associated Press. backup Organizational foundations of genocide The Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict. Scroll down to No.4. "At the Derry conference, Prunier characterized Rwanda as the "Prussia of Africa," a state with recent history of centralization of power and a population habituated in obedience to state authority. He described how the identities of Tutsi and Hutu were reified by the state, to the point that state ID cards were a major determinant of who was targeted for extermination." from Before Conflict: Origins and Predictors of Ethnopolitical Conflict, Section 4 Typological Summary Underlying Presentation of Cases: Levels of Ethnic Conflict Report of Derry Conference.