Spiritual Damage Overview Flashcards
“Through roadblock after roadblock manned by drunken Hutu militiamen, Riza had pleaded our case.”
the repetition here suggests that the experience seemed to go on and on; describing those manning the roadblocks as ‘drunken Hutu militiamen‘ emphasises the sense of danger, as these men are clearly volatile, unpredictable and violent; ‘pleaded’ has connotations of begging, making clear that Keane’s party were effectively at the mercy of the militiamen.
“Some dangled their grenades through the open windows of our vehicles.”
it is clear here that the militiamen have little if any respect for life, as ‘dangled’ suggests that they are toying with Keane and his colleagues’ lives.
“Most of these people had been involved in the murder of their Tutsi neighbours. Tutsi men, women and children had died at roadblocks like this”
These sentences are designed to shock the reader with the listing sentence emphasising the fact that these militiamen had been indiscriminate in their actions towards the Tutsi – all had been killed regardless of their innocence
“Now and again the smell of the dead would drift out across the warm air of the afternoon.”
The reference to the smell (which is repeated later in the text) is important as heightens the impact of the scale of death. The smell of decaying flesh would come in waves and has deeply affected Keane. Even now he can remember it exactly as it was.
“Only when we reached the other side of the border and stopped to check the vehicles did I notice that my hands were shaking.”
This sentence perfectly sums up the fear felt by Keane as he attempted to escape from Rwanda and suggests that he was so afraid he was, in a way, numb. The fact that it was only when they had reached safety that he realised what his own body was doing clearly demonstrates his emotions during this time.
“Now, as we sat waiting for lunch in Nairobi, far from the darkness of those roads, we found ourselves wordless.”
The word ‘darkness’ here obviously has two meanings, referring both to the darkness of the night through which they travelled, and the scale of the evil that they witnessed. The use of ‘wordless’ is especially noteworthy as it is being used by a journalist whose livelihood depends upon his ability to express himself - this is the clearest indication yet of the devastating effects of witnessing the genocide and is one that the author returns to several times
“We stared at the menu, although we had already ordered. We gazed out of the window, looking around at the other guests, and stared at the cutlery and tapped our fingers on the tabletop.”
The words ‘stared’ (used twice in quick succession) and ‘gazed’ reinforce the sense that the group - all of whom are experienced journalists - are utterly unable to comprehend what they have seen, never mind be able to express it.
“Ours was an inarticulacy born of sorrow, fear and incomprehension. Each of us had experienced war and killing before, but in Rwanda we had stepped into a place where all previous experience of death and conflict paled into insignificance.”
Once more, Keane makes clear that he feels unable to express or even understand the horror of what he saw through the words ‘inarticulacy’ and ‘incomprehension’. This is particularly relevant given his occupation and reason for being in Rwanda in the first place. This highlights the constraints of journalism. He also contrasts his previous experiences of ‘war and killing’ with Rwanda, making clear that this particular experience was infinitely worse than anything he had previously been exposed to.
“To this day I am at a loss to describe what it was really like. That smell. On your clothes, on your skin.”
Keane describes his strong sensory memory of the experience.Just like in the first paragraph this reference, through the short fragmented sentence structure. demonstrates that the events witnessed by Keane were too awful to be understood, but too shocking to be forgotten.
“To walk at night across an overgrown courtyard strewn with the rotting dead, to have to watch every step because in the long grass there are the decapitated heads of the murdered.”
The description here makes clear the scale of devastation in Rwanda. “Strewn” highlights that the bodies were in every area of Rwanda. The image of the “decapitated heads” shocks the reader as it depicts how savage and horrific these attacks were which Keane himself had to witness.
“The experience still leaves me struggling for adequate words.”
The fact that Keane – an experienced, award-winning journalist - still struggles to put his feelings into words is a testament to just how damaging the experience was for him. It also highlights the inability of journalism to accurately convey to the world the true devastation of acts such as the Rwandan genocide.
“I have tried to tell the story in film and print but I have begun to accept that the ordinary language of journalism has failed me.”
Keane considers his profession to be unable to express the extraordinary horrors of the genocide. Once again, the wordlessness introduced at the beginning of the text is revisited, reinforcing the ‘spiritual damage’ that has been done - Rwanda changed him completely.
“Perhaps it is an inescapable part of the territory. If you operate in the zones of misery, the sense of being somehow an exploiter is never far away”
Keane reflects on his own behaviour and chosen profession when he refers to himself as an ‘exploiter’. He is aware that he makes money from these acts. His reactions leave him ‘ashamed’ of himself and his profession.
“I have had people call me a vulture and there are times when my own reactions have made me feel ashamed.”
The reference to vultures is a common one in relation to those who make a living from reporting on war, and may even seem appropriate given that vultures are scavengers which profit from the pain, suffering and death of other creations.
“We must not report countries like Rwanda as if they were demented theme parks, peopled by savages doomed to slaughter each other in perpetuity.”
Keane is angry at how some reported on the genocide and wants the real story to be told. His metaphor of “demented theme parks” suggests that Rwanda is demonic and that rules do not apply there. He highlights that many viewed Rwandans as “savages” and that this behaviour was typical and therefore did not need the West to intervene.
