Heroes
by KevinApril 8th, 2007
Hilzoy knows of one:
Instead of writing about the genocide, I want to focus on Mbaye Diagne, a Senegalese military observer who was profiled in the excellent Frontline program Ghosts of Rwanda. His background was unremarkable: according to the profile on the Frontline site, “Capt. Mbaye, a devout Muslim, was one of nine children from a poor family on the outskirts of Dakar, Senegal’s capital. He was the first in his family to go to college. After graduating from the University of Dakar, he joined the army and worked his way up through the ranks.”
But what he did during the Rwandan genocide was extraordinary. Again, from Frontline:
“”A real-life Cool Hand Luke…”
“The bravest of the brave…”
“…the greatest man I have ever known…”
These are the words of those who knew Capt. Mbaye Diagne, a young Senegalese army officer who served in Rwanda as an unarmed U.N. military observer. I have never heard another human being described in the way that those who knew Mbaye describe him: he was, as one of his colleagues told me, “the kind of guy you meet once in a lifetime.”
He was a hero.
From literally the first hours of the genocide, Capt. Mbaye simply ignored the U.N.’s standing orders not to intervene, and single-handedly began saving lives.
The Amazing Race went to Auschwitz last week. It was, considering that its a reality show, tastefully and respectfully done. You see places like Auschwitz and you read about people like the men who killed the Major and all your left with the inescapable impression that the human race is a collection of right bloody bastards.
I live in the probably vain hope that my children or my children’s children will one day read that last sentence and wonder what I could possibly have been talking about.
