Removing the Past

Shanghai, China. 1998

Photograph by Sebastiao Salgado

In Shanghai, China there is a rush to modernize the city. In most cases, the people being evicted from their house that they have lived in for generations. If you are lucky enough to own your house you might be able to sell it, but you will be lucky to get 2/3 of the agreed payment. The sweep is trying to move so quickly that it is causing the "re-locators" to break into homes. Re-locators will take all of your possessions, box them up, and take them away. Many people have tried running to the police, however, they will just stand aside. While few people have tried seeking the government for aid, failure is a commonality. Whether they try court cases, running to local police forces, all cases have a similar ending. Failure. Being removed, and relocated on these people is extremely hard. Major transitions are happening, because the people who used to be at the heart of the city, are now being sent out onto the outskirts of the city. While these hardships are going on, they are not only moving families, but history. Taking it, sending it away, all for the modernization of a city.


Work Cited Page

Photograph

Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. 377.

Looking at the Effects

This week we are going to again talk about Rwanda. In Goma, Zaire there is a refugee camp called Kibumba. In Rwanda on April 6, 1994 their President Habyarimana died. His death lead to several thousand, even tens of thousand of Hutu's(majority ethnic group) to wage a war against Tutsi (minority ethnic group). "President Habyariamana's assassination plungedRwanda into the worst frenzy of killing the world has ever seen"(Morello).This effect caused several hundreds, even thousands of Rwandans to seek refuge.





Photograph by Sebastio Salgado

This photo was taken in Kibumba. "Rwandan refugees die daily of cholera... The photographs show the burials of more than 4,000 persons"(Salgado) What exactly is cholera? "Cholera: an infectious and often fatal bacterial disease of the small intestine, typically contracted from infected water supplies"(Oxford). Now there are many ways that water supplies might get infected. I am going to quote part of the book Left To Tell. "The truck then stopped at the edge of a cliff high above the Akanyaru River, a favorite spot of the Interahamwe for dumping corpes. "They threw all the bodies over the cliff and into the river," Florence continued... I woke up in the mud by the riverbank the next morning. My parents and sister were lying there, too, but they were all dead. I looked up at the cliff and couldn't imagine how I survived- it was at least a 200-foot drop."(Ilibagiza)

Work Cited Page

Photograph

Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. 193.

Ilibagize, Immaculee. Left To Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. Hay House Inc. 2006.

Morello, Debbie. "Best of the 90's." US News and Worldly Reports. 2007. Web. 17 Feb. 2010

Taking It With You

• Rwanda. 1994. In Rwanda there are two main kinds of people. Hutu and Tutsi. "a Hutu majority; a Tutsi minority"(Ilibagiza). "Tutsi were supposed to be taller, lighter-skinned, and have narrower noses; while Hutu were shorter, darker, and broad-nosed."(Ilibagiza)
  
• These two differences had very little effects on the people because Tutsis would marry Hutus, and Hutus would marry Tutsis. However in 1994 a genocide occured. Genocide:"the deliberate killing of a large group of people, esp. those of a particular ethnic group or nation."(Oxford).

• "Between half a million and a million people out of Rwanda's total population of 8 million, died in a few weeks between April and June 1994."(Steven). This was forcing the Rwandans to flee their homes taking whatever they could carry with them, and in some cases not even being able to take anything except for the clothes on their backs. Rwandans had to flee to a refugee camp in Ngara roughly twenty five miles from their homes. They had no cars, motorcycles, or any of the fine luxuries that we take advantage of everyday.
  

• If you are at all interested what happened in Rwanda I would recommend reading a book called "Left To Tell" by Immaculee Ilibagize. The info is in my work cited page. The book isn't about the war, just the person story of Immaculee Ilibagize.
  

Work Cited Page

Photograph
Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. 171.

Steven. “1990-1994: The genocide and War in Rwanda.” Libcom.org
8 Sept. 2006. Web. 12 Feb. 2010

Ilibagize, Immaculee. Left To Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. Hay House Inc. 2006.

Seeing the Shadows

Soldiers. We hear about them everyday. We see them on the news, and get updates about the wars happening around the world. How are these soldiers gathered together? What is needed to make a soldier a soldier? To start off we need a war, battle, or two people that have a vast amount of power.

Imagine if you will that your country goes through a civil war. Why even here in the United States we had a civil war. What if we had two? In Africa a country named Sudan had just that; two civil wars.

In 1983 the President Nimeiri announced that Sudan would incorporate Islamic Law into their constitution. In 1985 there was a coup with the government. The Sudan Poeple's Liberation Army (SPLA) decided to rescind President Nimeiri declaration. In May 1986 the SPLA and some Sudanese political parties went to Ethiopia, and drew up the "Koka Dam" declaration. This declaration abolished the Islamic Law. However, in June 30, 1989 the military government overthrew the SPLA.

"The SPLA is in control of large areas of Equatoria, Bahr al Ghazal, and Upper Nile provinces and also operates in the southern portions of Darfur, Kordofan, and Blue Nile provinces. The government controls a number of the major southern towns and cities, including Juba, Wau, and Malakal. An informal cease-fire in May broke down in October 1989, and fighting has continued since then.(Sudan Second War)"


Photograph by Sabestio Salgado

With both parties struggling for power, and going through a civil war things started to get out of hand. Villages were broken into, and even burned down in the middle of the night just so the military government, and/or rebels could kidnap these boys. Parents became very aware of this and feared they would not be able to protect their children. Parents would send away their children, and hope they made it to Kenya where there were refugee camps provided by the United Nations. Along the way several were lost, several were taken by military governement, and/or rebels, and several died. Some only had a memory of their family, slowly fading into the shadows.




Work Cited Page


Travis, Truitt "A Sudanese Survivor: Refugee's Journey From "Lost Boy" to Self-Sufficiency Inspired Others" Chicago Talks January 24, 2010. Web. February 4, 2010.

"Sudan Second Civil War" Military. Global Security, April 24, 2005. Web. February 4, 2010

Photograph
Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. 71.