ナショナルジオグラフィックのインスタグラム(natgeo) - 4月29日 00時04分

Photo by David Guttenfelder @dguttenfelder | This month, the world begins a solemn commemoration of the Rwandan genocide and the lives of an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsi and moderate Hutus killed 25 years ago.

I made this picture in 1994. It shows a Rwandan man, reaching under a door in a psychiatric hospital, trying to free himself from solitary confinement where he’d been locked by fellow patients after allegedly stealing from the facility’s limited supply of food. During the killing and chaos of the 100 days of genocide, hospital staff were gone and patients, both ethnic Tutsi and Hutu, were left to care for themselves. Ironically, the hospital was one of the few places remaining where Hutu and Tutsi continued to live side by side. International aid agencies began offering assistance. I opened this door and met this man.

In April 1994, I was working for a community newspaper in small- town USA and watched the news of the killings with horror. Millions of refugees were streaming over the border into neighboring DRC and Tanzania, where, two years before, I had been a foreign exchange student of Swahili. Hoping to contribute something, I packed my bags and moved to eastern Africa, and I stayed on the continent for the rest of my 20s. It was an overwhelming, humbling start of both my work and a purpose that continues 25 years on.

I join in mourning for Rwanda today. Though it is very painful to remember what was committed there and what I witnessed, I also can’t forget the toughest and most spirited and resilient people I’ve ever met in my life.

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