Genocide in Rwanda and Chile : from Manchuca (2004) to Sometimes in April (2005)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to establish lessons that can benefit Africa from the Chilean experiences of violence and mass murder in the 1970s. The search for lessons is done through a comparative exploration of the Chilean film Machuca (2004) and the Rwandan film Sometimes in April (2005). The importance of Manchuca (2004) is that it traces and represents the epistemic conditions that can lead to violence and mass murder while Sometimes in April (2005) depicts the actual occurrences of mass murder which characterized the Rwandan genocide. The argument of this article is that although Chile experienced mass murder in the 1970s, Rwanda in particular, and Africa in general, failed to capitalize on the Chilean experiences in order to avoid a genocide which occurred in Rwanda in 1994. To support this argument, this article highlights points of intersection, commonalities and differences between the Latin American social conditions and Africa that can encourage violence and mass murder. The Chilean mass murder and the Rwandan genocide are important to research on so that the two countries provide lessons that can be used to denounce the use of violence to solve political issues in Third World countries.