Hotel Rowanda

Running Head: Hotel Rwanda Movie and Text

Hotel Rwanda the Movie with Connection to the Text

Sociology 210-101

Hotel Rwanda the Movie with Connection to the Text

Summary

Based on a true story, this movie involves a Hutu man, Paul, and his wife, Tatiana who is Tutsi. Paul does everything he possibly can to keep his family safe. He works as a manager in a hotel, which later on becomes a refugee camp for the surviving Tutsis. The UN sends troops to help keep the peace but they are forbidden to interfere with the civil war. When they can nothing more for the Tutsis the UN retreats leaving the Tutsis and Paul’s family behind. Paul then goes to a Rwandan Army General, Augustin Bizimungu, and black mails him into helping the refugees. They escape on a UN buses safely to a Tutsi rebel camp.

The History

Before the movie, many people had never heard about the genocide in Rwanda. In 1916 the Belgian colonists recognized the Hutus and Tutsis as two different ethnic groups. Although they shared the same language, lived in the same areas, and celebrated the same traditions. (BBC News, 2004) In the Belgian’s eyes the Tutsis had more authority over the Hutus. After the Belgian’s gave Rwanda their independence in 1962, the Hutus took over the lands. Over the next decades Tutsis began to escape to neighbor countries and plan a rebellion. The massacre began on April 6th, 1994 shortly after the first Hutu president, Juvenal Habyarimana, was assassinated. They are still unsure as to who killed the president.

Chapter 9: Race and Ethnicity

This movie relates to the book mostly in chapter nine. In this chapter we covered genocide, race, ethnicity, minority group, dominant group, scapegoat, authoritarian personality, discrimination and many more topics that pertain to how the Tutsis where treated. Genocide is the attempt to destroy a group of people because of their presumed race or ethnicity. (Henslin, 2009) This definition describes exactly what happened in Rwanda. In...