A Final Sacrifice: Captain Mbaye Diagne

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Instinct often dictates action, overriding any forethought or humanity. One of the most primitive, yet profound instincts is the survival instinct. Self preservation is deeply ingrained into nearly every aspect of life, including the lives of present day people. Thus, diverging from this most innate way of life in favor of saving the life of another is an extremely noteworthy action. The Holocaust is an example of a time in history where preservation often took priority because of its vicious nature. History was repeated in 1994, when decades after the Holocaust, terror, disaster and ugliness surrounded the people of the Rwandan genocide after Hutu forces began the mass killings of the Tutsi people. The predicted response to an ugly time is simply to survive. Given that one’s own survival is often prioritized over the needs of others under these circumstances, the actions of one individual, Captain Mbaye Diagne, were shocking. Amid the horror of the Rwandan genocide, Captain Mbaye Diagne demonstrated exceptional action in sacrificing, despite the barriers, to save the lives of countless others.
Diagne’s actions took place, during the brutal and cruel Rwandan genocide. During the Rwandan genocide, Tutsis faced horrendous violent acts at the hands of the Hutus who spoke the same language, lived in the same place and shared many of the same customs. However, during the Belgian occupation of the area, the Belgians had favored the Tusti, believing them to be ethically superior to the Hutus. This favoritism created hatred between the two closely related groups (Koestler-Grack). The genocide was a result of a bursting of tensions between Hutus and Tustis in Rwanda, after the Hutu president’s plane was shot down. In mere hours from the t...

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