Matthew Keeling

Mr. McConnell

English 9

April 26, 2018

Forgiveness

Nations across the globe have waged war on each other for thousands of years, and many

other wars fought purely based upon revenge against the other. Many extremist groups have rose

up for the sake of revenge against a rival government or party. For example, the assassination of

Archduke Franz Ferdinand was perpetrated by Gavrilo Princip, a terrorist for the Black Hand

society in an effort to revolt against Austria-Hungary. This major event spiraled into World War

One which caused a massive 16 million deaths across Europe. The Hutus during Belgium’s

occupation of Rwanda has adapted this same vengeful mindset. This hate of the Tutsis cultivated

for decades until Belgium’s colonization ended and then the Hutus took over and oppressed the

Tutsis for years. The Hutus instead of oppression for the sake of revenge should have stood next

the Tutsis as equals and realized the Belgium’s government was who caused this divide.

Forgiveness is the best option because it does not create enemies for anyone involved.

Forgiveness is important because there can be no violent backlash from it. Forgiveness

can also change people’s perspective of how they think about life. This epiphany gives thoughts

of how the situation could easily be reversed where they were the victim and their victim would

turn into the aggressor. Immaculee experiences this sort of realization on page 94, when God

seems to answer her prayers and states very simply, “You are all my children…” Immaculee sees

that the only way race relations can change is if the Tutsis can forgive the Hutus for the horrible
acts they have committed. She states “Now we have to make sure we never face the same battle.

We have to stop killing in order to forgive (Ilibagiza 178).” She mentions this to Major Ntwali

and he disagrees with her entirely.

The opposite of forgiveness is revenge and hate. The emotions and adrenaline going

through the body cause a surge in anger and creates a sort of motivation for payback. It was this

motivation of payback that held a grasp upon the Hutus for generations, eventually leading to the

genocide. This generational hate is apparent on page 85 when Sembeba was talking about how

the Tutsis thought they were superior. He tries to justify his thoughts by saying that if the Tutsis

were still in power they would be killing the Hutus. This generational hate is obvious when

Immaculee talks about how she was taught in school that the Tutsis were not to be trusted. “I

knew that he was not entirely to blame for his ignorance because he had learn his contempt for

Tutsis in school (Ilibagiza 85-86).” This lack of forgiveness in Rwanda has created terrible racial

tensions and decades prior exiled many Tutsis because of it. This type of mentality cannot be

passed on because it causes problems for future generations of people.

Humans can forgive each other through the realization that the “an eye for an eye”

mentality will never help anybody regardless if you are the attacker or the aggressor. Nothing

will ever logically justify revenge in any way, shape, or form. People must understand the

gravity of what Jesus meant by turning the other cheek meant. The only way to spread more

peace is to show mercy and the kindness of the human heart. This is because people will not

have the strength or evil capacity to react negatively without feeling terrible amounts of guilt and

regret.

Forgiveness can not ever be defeated because it does not create enemies because of it and

is the best option for any kind of war or conflict. Revenge can not and has not ever been
logistically justified in any ways. Much anger and revenge is not just because of that person’s

opinions but it might be views taught or brainwashed to them by parents, teachers, influential

figures, etc. Much of peace and forgiveness can be realized through God and his guidance, just

like how Immaculee managed to learn forgiveness. Forgiveness is an important concept for not

just enemies to learn but for everyone to experience and find in their lives. In doing this one can

pass the fundamental kindness of the human heart to one another.