{{What Rwanda Has Taught Me About Being Human}}

Launch of Kwibuka20
Washington DC, 24 February 2014

I first lived in Rwanda in 1988-1989. I discovered a society divided by imagined identities that were even symbolized on its Belgian inspired identity cards.

When I asked President Habyarimana to remove ethnicity from the ID cards, an icy mask came down and he did not even answer.

Since the genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda of 1994, and the strong efforts of the Rwandan Patriotic Front government to build national reconciliation, I have learned a significant lesson about what it means to be human.

It is a lesson that one of my Anthropology professors at the University of Chicago taught as well, and that Dr. Mukesh Kapila is making his life work.

What is unique about being human? What distinguishes human beings from all other creatures? Is it our extraordinary minds, so complex that the French theologian and anthropologist, Teilhard de Chardin, concluded were the result of a cosmic event in the growth of complexity-consciousness.

The brain of each child contains more circuits than any super-computer, and more neural connections than all the stars in our galaxy. Are we unique because of our intellectual power? I do not think so.

For every discovery we have made, we have used it to kill. For every vaccine, we have created a biological weapon.

For every discovery of physics, we have made an atomic bomb. In Rwanda we saw that for every machete used to cultivate food, other machetes were used to commit genocide.

I believe that what is unique to humanity is our spiritual ability to feel the pain and suffering of others. We are able to stand outside ourselves and be self-conscious.

We are able to walk in each other’s shoes. Every human being has a conscience. Deep in our souls, we know that we are all human.

Genocide denies our common humanity. It is the most evil social sin.

Today, we re-dedicate ourselves to ending genocide. We must teach every child that there is only one race: the human race.

We must never again let our nationalities, ethnicities, religions, or political cultural or economic differences divide us. We need a rebirth of true humanism. The humanism of Henri Dunant, who founded the Red Cross.

The humanism of Eleanor Roosevelt with her vision of universal human rights. The humanism of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela, who dreamed of a world without racism.

The humanism of Raphael Lemkin, who imagined a world without genocide. Where will this rebirth of humanism happen?

In the minds of every child and every teacher; every farmer, worker, and businessperson; every priest, imam, monk, and pastor; every civil servant and volunteer; every government leader.

The twentieth century was a century of war and genocide. Let us make the twenty-first, the century when we end war and genocide in this one God-given world that we all together share.