By Tiffanie LeBlanc | Observer Contributor
Coexist is a documentary about the Hutus and Tutsis in post genocide Rwanda and having to live together in peace. What I learned while watching this film was that the Hutus wanted power over the Tutsis and decided to start taking over their property and killing anyone who stood in their way. After the government stepped in and stopped the genocide the Tutsis and the Hutus now have to abide by a law to live with each other as neighbors and church gathers called “reconciliation.”
Some Hutus have asked for forgiveness, saying they only killed Tutsis’ out of fear of being killed them selves. Some Tutsis still live in fear that this could happen to them again. Men, women and children were killed, and families turned on families. Some Hutus are in prison for life and don’t regret doing what they did.
The documentary has several interviews with Fifi, whose parents were killed for their land and her family cast her away. She lived from place to place, with cousins and other family and struggles with post-traumatic stress and feels that she can trust no one. Agnes, Her husband and three children were killed and their house was burned down by a neighbor. She ran but was caught and raped. She says if she does not forgive what has happened to her, then how can she go on with her life?
Some of the people in the movie say that reconciliation is not possible and that tolerance is a better term to use. Watching this movie made me think, could I be as forgiving as some of the Tutsis if my family was murdered like that? Could I sit in church or go to school with someone that killed for their own selfish purposes. If I was a Hutu, would I have stood up and said no to killing innocent people? We live in a world where some of us don’t even realize the freedoms that we have, or people take them for granted. But, if you were in the positions that the Hutus and the Tutsis are in, could you Coexist? The movie overall was very educational and I am glad to have learned about something I was oblivious to. For info on the movie please visit coexistdocumentary.com.
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