Paul Rusesabagina is mostly known as the humanitarian Rwandan hotel manager who withheld and protected 1,268 Hutu and Tutsi refugees during the Rwandan Genocide. The Rwandan Genocide will go down in history as one of the bloodiest and deadliest times in Rwanda’s history, during which an estimated 500,000-1,000,000 Rwandans lives were taken. The origin of the war was a genocidal mass slaughter of the Tutsi and moderate Hutu by members of the Hutu majority. The genocide was so widespread that even top members of the national government were intimately involved, making it extremely difficult for members of society to escape the violence.
Interestingly enough, Rusesabagina was from both Hutu and Tusti descent. He was one of eight other siblings, and during his upbringing ethnic background did not pose as a threat. He was introduced to the concept and importance of protection at a young age when his family gave shelter to refugees during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s when issues between the Hutu and Tutsi were heating up. As Rusesabagina grew, he decided to capitalize on his passion of helping others and becoming closer to god by attending a seminary to become a minister of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
His endeavor did not go as planned, for after much trial and error Rusesabagina changed his life paths and found himself employed as the general manager of the Diplomates Hotel- a small portion of a hotel chain owned by the Swiss-Belgian Sabena conglomerate. Rusesabagina’s leadership skills were noticed early on in his career as manager, for he made a point of engaging with guests instead of sitting behind a desk. Rusesabagina took pride in his job, and
Rusesabagina’s leadership skills were founded in his ability to relate and manipulate people. For example, taking on the task of sheltering refugees took a lot more effort than simply opening up the doors to his hotel. When military captains would come to retrieve Tutsi refugees, Rusesabagina bribe them with alcohol, money, and cigars in order to leave the hotel. Bribing the military as a colossal gamble, for he was putting his own well being in jeopardy with these acts. Without his social skills, many of the Tutsi refuges would have been easily taken.
Rusesabagina also demonstrated his leadership skills by going to extreme levels in order to protect his “guests.” An example of this is within his ability to go to the ends of the earth in order to provide by repeatedly smuggling food and water into the hotel. Later, when the water supply was taken away, Paul used the water from the hotel’s pool so they wouldn’t become too dehydrated.
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