34 pages • 1 hour read
Paul RusesabaginaAn Ordinary Man
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Hotel Mille Collines
Built by the Belgian Sabena Corporation in 1973, the Mille Collines hotel is a symbol of luxury, where the rent of some of the luxurious rooms is equivalent to the average annual salary of a Rwandan citizen. The hotel hosts diplomats, international humanitarian workers, and the occasional tourist. Then, during the genocide, the hotel provides refuge for hundreds of people.
Paul first sets his eyes on the hotel, he has “no idea just how large a role this strange new place was going to play in [his] life—or in the life of Rwanda” (33). Nevertheless, he falls in love with the place: “The Hotel Mille Collines was something like an old friend to me…[m]y troubles in marriage had made me bitter and hurt, but I threw myself back into my work with vigor and not a little bit of relief. It became my solace” (44).
Paul learns the art of communication during his years as manager of Mille Collines. During the genocide, he applies these negotiation skills to assuage ruthless murderers and save the lives of hundreds of people. He is quick to see that compromise is possible when there is an offer on the table: “someone who deals can never be an absolute hard-liner. The very act of negotiation makes it difficult, if not impossible, to dehumanize the person across the table from you” (49). In this way, the hotel and its atmosphere of hospitality embody the skill of conflict resolution.
Words
For Paul, who has been taught by his father to use words in a positive way, words symbolize a lifeline: “words are the most effective weapons of death in man’s arsenal. But they can be powerful tools of life. They may be the only ones” (xv).
Conversely, words also incite violence and spur Rwanda’s genocide. Vitriolic commentary on radio programs turns simple people into machete-wielding murderers, whether by Tutsis spewing a “poisonous stream of rhetoric designed to reinforce the power of the elite” (xiv), or by Hutus whose “avalanche of words celebrating racial supremacy and encouraging people to do their duty created an alternate reality in Rwanda” (xv).
Banana Beer
Banana beer occupies an important role in the social life of Rwanda as a symbol of good heartedness and amiability. Paul says that “brewing banana beer is like the art of friendship: simple and very complicated at once” (7).
Banana beer plays an important role in conflict resolution “in our traditional local court system, known in the Kinyarwandan language as gacaca, or as it is loosely translated, ‘justice on the grass’” (8). After the two warring parties are brought to reconciliation, they sit together and sip banana beer as a sign of renewed friendship. Onlookers also drink the beer, participating in “a secular communion” (10).
Machetes
Most families in Rwanda own machetes, common tools used for kitchen and outdoor chores. However, during the genocide, the machete becomes a symbol of bloodshed, used to behead and cut the limbs from victims. The machete’s worth and purpose are transformed from domestic implement to weapon, symbolizing the country’s descent into war.
