A haunting visit to Hotel Rwanda

On a recent visit to Rwanda, I visited the hotel popularly known as Hotel Rwanda, but whose actual name is Hotel des Mille Collines, a name which refers to the  lovely hills which dot  the country’s landscape, and these hills also give the capital some of its beauty. The name Hotel Rwanda is a reference […]

On a recent visit to Rwanda, I visited the hotel popularly known as Hotel Rwanda, but whose actual name is Hotel des Mille Collines, a name which refers to the  lovely hills which dot  the country’s landscape, and these hills also give the capital some of its beauty. The name Hotel Rwanda is a reference to the 2004 American film directed by Terry George and shot in both Kigali and Johannesburg, which captures gripping events that occurred in this same hotel and in the country itself, sometime in 1994. This hotel, now made famous by the film and by Paul Rusesabagina, its one time Manager, and the principal individual depicted in Hotel Rwanda, sits at the top of a hill. The setting is very green, and affords one, after a brief walk a glimpse of the sunny city beneath. My trip there was made early one wet morning, to meet Omari Ngera, who is on the staff of Hotel des Mille Collines. Rwanda was not the best place to be in April 1994. President Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane had just been shot down. But before this happened there were stories circulating in the press that he would soon be assassinated. Thus his death sparked off a genocide spearheaded by the machete wielding Interahamwe and  Impuzamagabi militia, which aimed at eliminating the Tutsi population. But genocide had always been on the agenda of some groups in the country, for as far back as the 1960s there was already great anti Tutsi feeling in Rwanda, with a number of genocides flaring up from time to time. The Tutsis had consistently been referred to as ‘Inyenze’ or ‘Cockroaches’. They had also been called ‘rats’ and ‘snakes.’ In the 1994 genocide some 1 million Tutsi’s lost their lives as the climax to a campaign that was carefully planned and executed. In this same year Paul Rusesabagina was the Manager of Hotel des Mille Collines. He was Hutu and his wife Tutsi, a very problematic combination at a time when the country was split along ethnic lines.
Hotel Rwanda tells the simple  story of how Paul Rusesabagina (acted by Don Cheadle) saves the lives of more than 1,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994 when the genocidal killings began in the country. He bribed the soldiers with money and alcohol, and risked his life and that of his family, in order to save the lives of the 1,000 Tutsis whom he gave shelter in the hotel. He gave the Tutsis water from the swimming pool to drink,when there were no other sources of water available. As one report puts it ‘While most of the world took no action to stop the killing, Rusesabagina sheltered more than 1,000 people inside his hotel. He gave them water from the pool so they wouldn’t die from dehydration, smuggled in food so they wouldn’t starve, and held off the militia who came to the hotel by bribing them with alcohol and cigars.’
Omari Ngera, the member of staff mentioned earlier, tells me that the hotel has had a number of owners. He says that it was first opened in 1973, and that it was previously managed by Sabena, now Brussels Airlines. He adds  that some changes have taken place at the hotel between 1994 and the present. One of these is the landscape around the hotel, which has changed somewhat. There is also an increase in the rooms, and the conference hall as well. On the genocide he says, ‘During the genocide there were many people here. There were both Hutus and Tutsis. The Tutsis were in the neighbourhood, hoping that if the Europeans in the hotel were flown abroad, they too would be taken. Alas, this did not happen. Paul Rusesabagina did his best to help the people who were here, but he wasn’t one hundred percent successful’. He adds that the hotel has become famous ever since the film came out, and that people travel from all over the world to see the famous landmark. The majority of these visitors are Europeans, he says. Hotel Rwanda is a 4 star hotel. It has a total of 112 rooms and has some 300 staff.
Then  followed a brief walk through the hotel. There was the swimming pool, which became a convenient source of water at that time, as well as the kitchen area and the rooms. Also, there was the famous entrance, and the lobby, all of which look slightly different from the film itself. Paul Rusesabagina now lives in Belgium. In a recent interview he comments on the reasons why people carry out genocides. His words ‘One of these reasons, is, of course, bad leadership. When leaders teach the people they lead to kill others, then  people go ahead and do what their leaders tell them. A second reason is because people are poor and are not well educated… The worst reason is impunity. In Rwanda, for instance, since I was a young kid, late 50s, early 60s, we saw people killing their neighbours and getting their cars, getting their properties.’ On the recent violence in Syria and the Central African Republic, he opines ‘This recalls exactly what we were going through in 1994. That recalls that history repeats itself, and does not teach human beings any lessons.’