Salgado: Rwandan Genocide (part 2)

For this weeks post, I will continue speaking about the Rwandan genocide and its scarring effects. On page 206 in Migrations by Salgado, we see a picture of an abandoned room. It is an old room with one window, nothing on the walls, and rocks on the floor. As you look at the picture closer you notice that the rubble on the floor isn't rubble at all, but it is the remains of human bodies. What happened here? During the Rwandan genocide in 1994, this former school house was used as a room to harness Tutsi's in a confined area. With them confined in this room it made them easy targets for the Hutu killers. Their remains are shown in this picture, unburied and untouched.

While looking at this photo I think Salgado captures a real moral message. The location of this incident truly speaks a thousand words; this was a former school house. This was once a location for learning and enlightenment. History has shown that when humans turn to their worst, enlightenment and knowledge turns dark and baron: much like school house in the photo. It is our duty to make sure that we use our enlightenment for good, and not for evil. Knowledge is a gift. Not a gift for our benefit, but rather for the benefit of others. It is my prayer that we use this knowledge to act for the better, and help others as we all continue down life's path.

Salgado, Sebastião, and Lélia Wanick. Salgado. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. New York:    Aperture, 2000. 206-207 Print.

Salgado, Sebastião, and Lélia Wanick. Salgado. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. (Pamphlet) New York:    Aperture, 2000. 13 Print.