Heroes and Villains

As promised, today I will begin trying to put words to some of my recent experiences.

The first relates to my understanding of the notion of heroes and villains. What/who is a hero and what/who is a villain? In pre-genocide Rwanda, Mister X was considered a sadist in one of the villages we visited- he was renowned for his cruelty and people often wondered if he was mentally stable. During the genocide, this same Mister X was renowned for his heroism because he was able to murder Tutsis so ruthlessly and with so little remorse.

Mister Y, however, risked his own life during the genocide to save 23 Tutsis - using his position in the military to smuggle them into Burundi. After the genocide, Mister Y is considered a traitor in his home town and one of his neighbours recently poisoned one of his children. What/who is a hero and what/who is a villain?

This is just one example of some of the absurdity I have been trying to deal with recently. Indeed, it seems that during the genocide, black turned to white and white to black, good became evil and evil became good.

My gut reaction has been anger - how could this have happened? However, as wise Holocaust survivors have often told me, it does no good to be angry about what happened, we cannot change the evil that has been done. We can only affect change in the present and future by learning from our mistakes in the past.

Raffi