5 million. 5 million dead. for what? Some due to political instability, some due to the continued ethnic conflict between the Hutu and the Tutsi, and a multitude of others due to disease or starvation. This, The Second Congo War, is the deadliest conflict in the world since World War II. While I was only three months old at its outbreak and unable to retain a single memory of the events that took place while I was there, I do believe that the Second Congo War and the massive, seemingly insurmountable obstacle which it posed for me and my family, almost single-handedly changed the direction of my family's life as well as the attitude we have in everything we do. I was born on May 12, 1998, alongside my twin sister and following my older sister, …show more content…
in the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa. In August of 1998 the Bunyamulenge, a group of Congolese Tutsi close to the eastern border of the DRC, erupted in rebellion. President Kabila enlisted the aid of refugee Hutus, those responsible for the Rwandan Genocide, to stop the insurrection and stirred public opinion against the Tutsi living in the Congo. My mother is a Congolese Tutsi, which is why when lynchings of Congolese Tutsi began taking place in my birth town we were given cause to tremble. My mother was forced to me and my two sisters into hiding, as she feared for our lives. After one year of living in hiding, we were able to escape to a refugee camp in Cameroon where we stayed for another year until we were granted the privilege to come to America.
While we were incredibly fortunate enough to escape the war, we continued to carry the trauma and distress of war well into our time in America, as several of our friends and relatives remained in our war torn hometown. I was too young to remember the trauma caused directly from the war that my parents are doomed to live with, However the pain of having to hear my mother sobbing through the night over the death of her sister is beyond enough to remind me of the tremendous opportunities I have been given here in America. My family was extremely fortunate to escape the war, but it would not have been possible without the best resource of all, my parents. The amount of steadfast, unconditional commitment which my parents had and continue to have for our family is beyond my level of comprehension. After escaping the war my parents were dedicated to giving our family an improved life compared to the one we left in the DRC. This dedication to a higher quality of life is the reason why my siblings and I have the opportunity to attend a university and accomplish something with our
lives. Hiding, running, and fearing for my life are events I don't remember enduring while in The Congo, in fact, I remember almost nothing from my time in the Congo. Yet, surviving the Second Congo continues to affect who I am. Everything I do, I do with the reminder that I need to take advantage of the opportunities I have, which a plethora of others in my country don't have. Due to the fact that I don't have much memory of it, I can't definitively say that the war changed me, however, I can confidently say that it made me who I am.
Just like these two World War II survivors, Louie Zamperini from Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand demonstrates the will power and determination it takes to survive and overcome life-threatening obstacles. Louie’s life was a constant battle; he endured 47 days stranded on a raft and endless nights as a prisoner in Japanese camps (Laura Hillenbrand). He had every reason to break down, but with all those challenges, he rose to the occasion. Hillenbrand states that “without dignity, identity is erased” meaning that without all the battles that Louie went through, he wouldn’t be the person he is today (Hillenbrand 182). All the hardships throughout someone’s life build them into a stronger person, not defining them, but impacting them to do better. It is safe to say that many Americans have faced countless number of problems and inspire everyday people like myself to keep
Today in America, people see the war zones of Syria, Iraq and Turkey with all the families torn apart and do not think twice about it but for those in the war zones the struggle to keep a family together is hard. “You don’t involve any more Meekers in this terrible war,” (Collier and Collier 149). Mrs. Meeker has already lost half of her
The Civil War was a tragic event, that caused trouble for everyone in the States, but it was us, Native Americans, who paid the ultimate price. Many of our tribes were split up due to the war and were forced to move West. Although a few families, such as mine, stayed here. Coming from the Catawba nation in the South, my husband, Gawonii (“he is speaking”) and my son, Wohali (“eagle”) were passionate about the war. I tried to convince them to stay home, to be safe and not put their lives in danger. But no, they were being stubborn “powerful” Native men, and decided to go anyway. And not only did my husband and son leave me by myself in our house, they went against each other on separate sides of the war. My husband was loyal to the Confederates in the South but my son didn’t want to follow the norms of our tribe, and went on to fight with the Union soldiers up North.
The struggle of life is not limited to the poor and the desolate, or even the minorities of our nation. It is something that attacks people from all walks of life. If our nation herself is not free from the struggles of war and violence, how can she seek to heal the souls of her children? In Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech, “Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence”, the speaker has successfully expressed to his audience the fact that unless the unjust Vietnam War ended, the citizens of United States would never be able to lead happy satisfying lives and their poverty would always follow them like a lost puppy.
In this section, I will provide a brief history of U.S. military involvement on the African continent, starting with the Barbary Wars and working up through the current date. This historical documentation will highlight the change in the role the United States has played in Africa [post 9-11???]. Prior to 9-11, the United States’ interactions were mainly [capture summary here]. Since [?], however, the continent has faced a marked increase in violent extremism and terrorism leading the United States to partner with many African nations in counterterrorism initiatives. These, and other initiatives, mean an increasing number U.S. service members are deploying to Africa to take part in training, humanitarian issues and military operations. These military activities are run by United States African Command, a recently created combatant command.
The recent Civil War in Congo has been a bloody flight, causing more than 3.3 million deaths in just 4 short years.1 Various rebel and ethnic groups have been involved in the violence, fighting over Congo's rich natural resources or engaged in a bitter ethnic war. With so many opposing factions, it has made reaching a solution difficult. While a rough peace treaty has been established, sporadic fighting pops up in the country every day. The people of Congo are being pushed further into poverty and starvation, and can't handle the fighting for very much longer.
The Hutu and Tutsi were once peaceful people, who together made up the majority of Rwanda. In the 1800s when Imperialism and Industrialization were popular trends in Europe, Rwanda was colonized. The colonial occupation of Rwanda by Germany, and later Belgium instilled pro-euro ideology in the Tutsi tribe which quickly changed the peaceful mentality of the country. The next century was full of power shifts and tribal violence. However, no man could have predicted the events that took place on April 6th. On that fateful day in 1994, centuries worth of boiling racial tension finally exploded when the president of Rwanda, Juvenal Habyarimana was assassinated. What ensued was the most chaotic and controversial event of the late 20th century and one of the most tragic
In the ten year battle between the United States Army and Vietnamese soldiers, thousands of young able bodied Americans lost their lives. Families lost their loved ones and were left to grapple with the depression that comes as a result of death and lifetime injuries attained from war. The loss of the lives of American soldiers was worsened after the Tet offensive when the numbers of the causalities almost tripled. I had an opportunity to interview sixty-three-year-old Alvin whose brother took part in the war and was lucky to come back home with serious physical and psychological defects. Following the arrival of his brother, his family has suffered in ways that Alvin finds difficult to explain to me, sometimes being moved close to tears.
In 1945, things were a lot different. America had was ending a devastating depression and had recently declared their entry into WWII, unaware of the devastation that would be caused. For my grandfather, now eighteen and officially an adult in what my mother loves to call, “the real world.” Is faced with new responsibilities such as the possibility of serving his country if he were to be drafted, and in later years paying his bills, and making a living for himself and his family. His life was in some ways much different than my father’s.
Imagine you’re a little three year old child during the year 1945, World War Two is slowly coming to an end. Both of your parents were fighting for the United States, and you and your eleven year old brother are left wondering where your parents are. A couple months go by and it’s now November and you still haven’t seen or heard a thing. Later that week your aunt pulls into your driveway and tell you that both of your parents passed away, your mother during the war and your father a week ago due to severe injuries. Now 72 years later you have three kids of your own, all of them have kids of there own as well. You’re at home and you think back to when you were little and imagine what it would be like for your grandchildren if one or even both
Over a period from 1960-1965, the first Republic of the Congo experienced a period of serious crisis. There was a terrible war for power that displayed senseless violence and the desperation to rule. There were many internal conflicts among the people. The country eventually gained independence from Belgium. For many countries this would be a time for celebration. Unfortunately for the people of the Congo this became a time to forget. Almost immediately after independence and the general elections, the country went into civil war. Major developed cities like Katanga and Kasai wanted to be independent from the Lumumba government. Different factions started to fight the government and Katanga and Kasai tried to secede from the rest of the country out of fear of the mutinous army that was out of control looting and killing.
This war took everything from me and turned my life upside down. It brought so many tragedies; it took my grandmother away from me, educational opportunities, and left me with a lifetime of physical and emotional scars.
This horrific event led to about a million of lives ending abruptly. It prevented some children from blooming into the beautiful flowers they could have been. It caused some adults to wither and die, losing their green and blooms. The conflict that caused this spiteful event was the Hutu being told to kill all Tutsis. This command originated from the Tutsis being accused of killing the Hutus’ president (“Genocide-Rwanda”). The party responsible for instigating this calamitous event included figures of authority from the Hutu. The victims were the Tutsis, being massacred without a care in the world. The motivation was scapegoating, for the Hutu inculpated the Tutsis for the death of their president. This genocide occurred in Rwanda, and lasted only one-hundred days (“The Shameful Legacy”). Although it lasted for a miniscule amount of time, it had a lasting impact; killing five-hundred thousand to one million people. It lasted from April 1994 to Mid-July 1994. It was orchestrated by people with high authority in the Rwandan government (“Rwandan Genocide”).
Sierra Leone, located on the west coast of the African continent is a young nation, having acquired independence in 1961 recently emerged from a decade long civil war in 2002 (BBC, 2015). The nation is bordered by Guinea, Liberia, and the Atlantic Ocean, a tropical climate harboring diverse rainforests. Sierra Leone’s largest city, Freetown, also the nation’s capital and political and economic center is populated by approximately 700,000 inhabitants, over the estimated national population of just over 6 million people. Sierra Leone is divided into sixteen ethnic groups, however, the nation is predominately Muslim. Religious violence is quite rare, however animosity sparked the civil war through government corruption and economic strife established
Somewhere in the world, there’s a young innocent child stranded around a sea of dead corpses. This child hears babies cry over their dead mothers, and the women scream from rape of the enemies. Bullets fly everywhere, piercing the child’s family, and bombs destroying their home. After witnessing all of this, the child realizes that there’s no such thing as love and hope in this corrupted world. The reader believes that this situation truly seems impossible to exist, but that’s where the reader is absolutely wrong. Somewhere in Africa, a war similar has happened, and it’s considered atrocious because this foolish war costed the death of millions by hunger, diseases, and especially rape. It has also become ghastly because the very root of this