On reading about genocide while living in Africa

“ ‘Humanity’s struggle is to conquer nature,’ the pygmy said fondly. ‘It is the only hope. It is the only way for peace and reconciliation – all humanity one against nature.’

He sat back in his chair, with his arms crossed over his chest, and went silent. After a while, I said, ‘But humanity is part of nature, too.’

‘Exactly,’ the pygmy said. ‘That is exactly the problem.’ ”

Philip Gourevitch

Today I finished reading We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with out families, Philip Gourevitch’s journalist account of the Rwandan genocide and its aftermath.

The point of the book is not to blame western nations. To blame western nations for failing to recognize genocide while it was happening. To blame western nations for dividing the people of Rwanda into the groups that one of whom would systematically annihilate another 60 years later.

The book is an exploration of how we define ourselves. Of how we continue to systematically divide ourselves, not because it is natural, but because we have been taught that it is our nature. Of why we are our own worst enemies.

Since living here, I have had Africans tell me Africans are so much less intelligent than the rest of the world. I’ve had Africans tell me Africans are not hard workers. I’ve had Africans tell me Africans will never be as advanced as the rest of the world.

I refuse to believe this. I refuse to believe in the dark continent of Joseph Conrad. I refuse to believe that one’s identity as an African, better yet, Beninese, defines their capacity for intelligence or content of character, as opposed to the context into which they have been involuntarily thrust.

I think a lot about how my life would be different right now if I had been born here instead of the US. If my identity was Beninese instead of American. However, my identity as American here means something completely different than when I lived in the US. I guess what I’m really working toward is the creation of my identity as part of humanity.