For my Wide Reading Log I have chosen to focus on different aspects of prejudice that has caused conflict in society. All these novels regard the struggles in an African society. The Six texts I have chosen are the Red Sea Diving Resort directed by Gideon Raff, Hotel Rwanda directed by Terry George, Beasts of No Nation written by Uzodinma Iweala, Long Walk to Freedom, written by Nelson Mandela, The Fishermen written by Chigozie Obioma and The Icarus Girl  by Helen Oyeyemi

Title: Red Sea Diving Resort

Director: Gideon Raff

Text Type: Film

Date Watched: June

The film ‘Red Sea Diving Resort’ has made a feeble attempt to address ideas of conflict and prejudice evident throughout the African country of Ethiopia in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. The film is based on the Ethiopian Civil War and the American and Israeli operation to attempt to smuggle Jewish refugees out of Ethiopia through Sudan into Israel. This film has exposed myself to a series of historical events which I previously did not know, however, the film has been stripped of its initial purpose. The initial purpose of the film was to address the religious prejudice Jewish Ethiopians were oppressed to but instead focuses on white heroism and their bravery. This made me question how much the director exposed the audience to not strictly true information most of whom I expect to be very naive on the subject.

At the beginning of the film, the climate of the setting is given to us and is successful to an extent. The film begins with an emotional narrative of the current situation in Ethiopia spoken by the character Kabede Bimro. “My Country is once again broken. Death is spreading. The new government is waging a war against the rebels. The rivers again have turned red with blood. Thousands dead. Millions disfigured, dishonored, displaced… One ancient people suffers among the rest. The Jews of Ethiopia. We, like all Ethiopians, are in danger. But we alone are getting help. Help from men I have contacted.” Kabede Bimro’s words left me feeling dismayed, especially with the ongoing scene which was the raids into Jewish villages of whom were being slaughtered. This gained an emotional response from the audience as we were able to make connections between religion and current politics which have always had a conflict in society. This film was another example of this conflict occurring in modern times. Today it is expected that everyone should be free to believe in what they want to without fear of being oppressed and this film accentuates how we are failing to do so. Without the narrative in the opening scene of the film, I believe the film would’ve been a complete failure in addressing religious prejudice.

Why I believe that the film was unsuccessful as a whole was because of how the rest of the film only showed white heroism as a recurring theme. In the film, there is only one character who is an Ethiopian man in the sequence of main characters and even then he is not present for the majority of the film. Any other black characters were either portrayed as helpless, frightened refugees or the antagonists of the film and all of whom were majority men. The film does not take into account any other Ethiopians alike Kabede Bimro who aided the fleeing refugees which there were during the Civil War. Instead, the Mossad Agents were portrayed as the white saviors when they had successfully rescued thousands of refugees which has been a common theme through Hollywood’s retelling of historical events. I believe that the theme of a white savior had a negative impact on the films reliability to many people and in particular Ethiopians which gave the film the impression that it was a weak portrayal of a should be an inspiring story. This film gives no justification for the pain that the Ethipions felt during their civil war as it is barely discussed in the film.“The Prime Minister is about to sign the most important peace accord in our lifetime, and he can’t enjoy it because of some remote tribe of our people getting massacred on a continent no one cares about.” In context this statement from one of the Mossad Agents is negligible. This is because following the statement the main protagonist who is white brushes this off and states he has to be the savior of these people. I believe this was a subconscious decision by the director of the film due to his prejudices towards the conflict in third world countries. 

My prior understanding of religious prejudice is based on historical events such as the Crusade or more recently the Christchurch Mosque shootings, however, I have not personally been targeted of racial/religious prejudice. This film was a learning experience for myself as I now understand that if you are naive on a historical event such as the Ethiopian Civil War do not trust a Hollywood film to give an accurate representation of the event. However, though the Red Sea Diving Resort was not a successful retelling of the event it still had elements that were meaningful to the audience. “He kept his promise, we did go back. Again and again. We left no one behind. The Red Sea diving resort was not truly a hotel but it embodied a higher truth. Perhaps the highest. When you see your brother or your sister suffering, you must not stay silent. Do not remain still. Go to their aid. Help them.” The ending of the film was a narrative from the character Kabede Bimro alike the beginning of the film. This narrative had a great message that embodied a lot of truth. This was one of the first instances where the audience could take away a message that has meaning to multiple different situations that all people can relate to. 

Title: Beasts of No Nation

Author: Uzodinma Iweala

Text Type: Novel

Date Read: June

I have never felt so sick reading a book before. The Novel ‘Beasts of No Nation’ was a powerful yet shocking fictional retelling of one of the most grotesque themes in a war-torn society. The Novel follows the journey of a young boy, Agu who watched his father and his village get slaughtered by their countries military during a civil war in an undisclosed African country. Agu escapes his timely death however is forced to become a child soldier for the rebels. Although the author Uzodinma Iweala had never experienced the events written in the Novel, the concept came from a harsh reality and it is obvious that he wrote the book intending to disgust the audience while also creating an emotional response to the distressing themes. This novel also shows how child innocence can be destroyed when there is conflict in society. Although prejudice is not directly discussed in the novel there are hints at prejudice. War (in Africa) was the central theme in the novel and is caused by ethnic marginalization and human rights violations. 

Beasts of No Nation is one of the most meaningful books I have ever read. I had a lot of trouble reading this text due to the themes of the Novel and especially because all the aspects of the novel I can not relate to on any level. This also made me wonder how many children can relate to this text on various levels. That was a scary thought. The narrative of the character Agu made the novel a lot more powerful, without it I doubt that the author would of as successfully gained the response he wanted. “Don’t think. Just let it happen. He is saying that the second you are stopping to think about it, your head is turning to the inside of rotten fruit. Commandant is saying it’s just like falling in love. You cannot be thinking about it. You are just having to do it And I’m believing him… Soon it will be your own turn and then you will know what it is feeling like to be killing somebody.” This passage of text showed how brutal life was for Agu and all the other child soldiers in the army. I can not deny that I shed a tear reading this passage of narrative because it is all too real for so many young boys across the world in the past and at present. What makes the novel harder to read is that the prejudice that caused this brutality was from the government and its military. This was a betrayal to the people of the undisclosed African country as their government was meant to protect them but due to ethnic marginalization between the state and government, this led to a brutal war where children were used as pawns. It also shows how desperate the children were, they never fled. Did they accept that this was their fate? I understand that these kids already lived in hardship but this was somewhat considered normal so when the children went off to war was this also somewhat normal. I know if it was myself in that situation I would flee, if I was caught I would then kill myself but I haven’t lived in their society so I don’t understand. If I was in that situation I wouldn’t be the person I am now. I would become a soldier because I don’t know any better. 

The Novel continues to show themes of loss of childhood innocence in war and how the children can be manipulated to do the rebel army’s dirty work as well as turning them into a dominant man in society by looting, raping, killing, drinking and smoking. These boys forget their happiness and freedom and become someone who has no worth to live in society. “ I am not bad boy. I am not bad boy. I am soldier and soldier is supposed to be killing, killing, killing. So if I am killing, then I am only doing what is right.” I am saddened that Agu and the other children try to convince themselves that what they are doing is right even though it is driving them into a darkness that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. In a stable society like New Zealand it is shunned upon to steal, rape, drink alcohol young and smoke but in this society, it is accepted and inforced and the children don’t know any better because that is what they have learned. This shows how the older generation is failing the youth and this is not just happening in Africa. Even New Zealand the youth are being failed just not to the extent these kids are in the novel. This novel is something that everyone can learn from. This is why Beasts of No Nation is a successful book.

Title: Hotel Rwanda

Director: Terry George

Text Type: Film

Date Watched: September

The film Hotel Rwanda is a sensitive yet powerful retelling of the conflict and prejudices the people of Rwanda has faced from its colonization in 1884 until 1994. The film is based on the Rwandan genocide in 1994 where the minority of the population, the Tutsi’s of whom ~ 500,000-1 million were massacred by the Hutu. The film is a true story of how Paul Rusesabagina a Hutu, houses over 1000 refuges in his hotel while the country struggles to get attention from the western world. The people that the refugees believe can save them. 

This film shows how a group of people will fight each other because it is seemingly justified to them and how through war and conflict you can see the best and worst in people. “The Tutsi were collaborators for the Belgian colonists, they stole our Hutu land, they whipped us. Now they have come back, these Tutsi rebels. They are cockroaches. They are murderers. Rwanda is our Hutu land. We are the majority. They are a minority of traitors and invaders. We will squash this infestation. The struggle that the people of Rwanda go through is a reflection of the philosophies of the western world towards people of colour. Rwanda’s racial prejudice is based on the separation from Rwanda’s colonization proving that abusing the people of a country will result in its own societies demise later on in the future. 

Director Terry George has created a successful film which delivers an important message within the heavy aspects of this film. Instead of focusing on the thousands of deaths of adults and children he focuses on the inspirational story of a man saving thousands of refugees lives. I believe the audience would not have had such a strong emotional response to the film if it was just murder after murder. Although there is still extreme violence shown, there is also courage and solace. The strongest qualities of a person, and the qualities I aspire to have. It also teaches the audience the power of supporting one another and how a collective group of people who care for one another will endure. That is until they are forced to fight for themselves. “There will be no rescue, no intervention for us. We can only save ourselves. Many of you know influential people abroad, you must call these people. You must tell them what will happen to us… say goodbye. But when you say goodbye, say it as if you are reaching through the phone and holding their hand. Let them know that if they let go of that hand, you will die. We must shame them into sending help.” When the refugees are asked to fight for themselves and their family it became even more distressing for the audience. I believe it was to get us to think about what we would have done, and how we would have coped which would have influenced how you died, which was either comfortable at old age, or beaten and murdered. It became a competition and the ones with global connections were going to be free. 

After I finished watching this film I was left with a negative impression of the United Nations of whom denied any aid to the Tutsis over the three months. I hold gratitude towards the director of this film as he addressed the weaknesses in organizations like the United Nations which are intended to expel any conflict globally. It just shows how a tragic event such as the Rwandan genocide will be globally avoided yet if this happened in a western country the UN would intervene and the whole world will know about all the gruesome details. I felt disgusted at how whites continue to express their superiority and target the minority unconsciously or intentionally. Your dirt, we think your dirt. The west all the superpowers… Your’re black, your’ne not even a nigger, you’re an African. I am repulsed that this has to be stated and is a justified answer to why there is no help or no love from the outside world, it makes me furious and dejected. I don’t understand why we think we just need to protect our own from the horror of living in this world but we can’t protect or fight for others living in more hardship. We are cowards. And I think we are shameful.

Title: A Long Walk to Freedom

Author: Nelson Mandela

Text Type: Autobiography

Date Read: September

The Autobiography A Long Walk to Freedom, written by Nelson Mandela describes the struggles of the inequality between the people in South Africa. Nelson Mandela, tells his life journey as a political prisoner for 27 years, an activist for anti-apartheid and becoming the first black president in South Africa in 1994. His Autobiography is inspirational to us all and teaches us the values and the importance of being part of a community that does not force oppression but thrives for harmony. 

After reading Nelson Mandela’s Autobiography I felt a strong sense of admiration for him. Not only did he face hardship on a day to day basis alongside with other black South Africans who were led by a racist government, but he was also able to face the African congress with an overwhelming power of strength behind him. Nelson Mandela’s autobiography portrayed strength, kindness, love but also deprivation. The autobiography also reminded me of principles I continue to forget when consumed from the enormity of conflict today. “People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite… Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished.” I took this quote to heart. It is mentally exhausting to hate someone yet it only takes less energy to love yet we choose to hate. I believe we need to be reminded that we have support everywhere and we should never feel we have to hate something or someone just to feel something. I had no trouble confronting my weaknesses while reading this autobiography. This meant I was able to make myself stronger as the youth of our country. I learned that one of my strongest weaknesses is hating the people who create hate in society when instead I should focus my attention on the many positive aspects of our society. I am now going to make conscious changes to how I perceive our world. 

The most earnest moment in Nelson Mandela’s A Long Walk to Freedom was when he discussed his challenges after being faced with aggression from very influential people in the South African Government and oppression from nonblack South Africans. He feels very comfortable talking about his learning moments, failures or weaknesses throughout his autobiography which means that the audience can relate to him in a more personal level which shows how he is morally strong. “It was a useful reminder that all men, even the most seemingly cold-blooded, have a core of decency, and that if their heart is touched, they are capable of changing.” It confounds me that he is able to regard the people that oppressed his nation so respectively, he states that he is an optimist but it is still hard for me to understand. My inability to understand why he can do this is an example of how important he was to a conflict stricken society. In any campaign fighting for basic human rights there is always an influential person that ignites the power of the group and Nelson Mandela is one of those people. This reflects how society relies on a person who is not afraid of any negative consequences and of whom can remain strong in distressing situations. Nelson Mandela’s determined frame of mind is what lead to the shift in government and policies which were racially prejudiced.  

 I can emphasize that the autobiography, A Long Walk to Freedom made me reconsider the effect that prejudice has on a person. As I have never been the direct target on prejudice I believed that the response I would have is fury but Nelson Mandela’s response to extreme racial prejudice is the complete opposite to this. I admire Nelson Mandela’s strength to remain absolute and respond to prejudice as an opportunity to learn and teach others. “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” I am inspired by Nelson Mandela. I completely agree with this statement as it addresses the idea of nature versus nurture as it has been a pattern within a prejudiced society. The conclusion I came to when I finished reading the autobiography of Nelson Mandela was that we are all capable of love, and if we struggle to love a person because of their visual differences it doesn’t take much to learn to love them. 

Title: The Fishermen

Author: Chigozie Obioma

Text Type: Novel

Date Read: August

The Novel, The Fishermen is a dark exploration of four brothers who turn on each other. The Nigerian brothers, Ikenna, Boja, Obembe, and Benjamin go to a river to illegally fish without their mother’s knowledge until they are discovered by there neighbor. The character Abulu who is considered as the local madman, predicts that the oldest brother Ikenna will be killed by a fisherman which he believes will be one of his brothers. After the boy’s father left the household to work elsewhere, Ikenna becomes the head of the household but hatred and paranoia consume him. Ikenna acts out of his new belief which causes a rupture in the family relationships. 

The Novel, The Fisherman was able to make the theme of conflict the novel very realistic even though I have never known this to happen in society. As I have siblings myself, I understand how important trust is to the relationship and it breaks my heart that in the novel these siblings relationship is torn apart due to a dull-witted prophecy and their paranoia. The author discusses aspects of manhood and the prejudice that emerges from it, this is evident in African society that the male is the head of the household. At 15 years old Ikenna becomes the head of his family however his superstition means his siblings lose their childhood innocence. The narrative of the novel is from the second youngest brother, Benjamin of whom is nine years old and he uncovers serious truths about his country, family and makes his own decision based off these. The climate of Nigeria is the predominant cause of this tension, the countries leaders are corrupt and enforce different aspects of prejudice. This includes sexism and cultural/religious ignorance. The novel had very valid messages in the text which uncover some truths. I admire how the author was able to create a fictional story that gains a strong emotional response from the audience while also referencing his home country. “Hatred is a leech: The thing that sticks to a person’s skin; that feeds off them and drains the sap out of one’s spirit. It changes a person, and does not leave until it has sucked the last drop of peace from them.” This statement refers to everyone in this world, we are all capable of hating the only difference is the level of hatred we present, it takes a lot of valiance to take a different path however this does not happen in the novel and it finishes ill-fated with no closure. The ending is justification for how important human connection is to a young person, it saddens me that Benjamin becomes the very person he did not wish to be and like his older brothers hatred consumes him.

Chigozie Obioma was able to successfully get the audience to reconsider their morals and values and in particular, explain how important your relationships to your siblings are. Although the severity of the characters broken relationships was extreme compared to the conflict in somewhere like New Zealand, it was a reminder. When Ikena grew suspicious of his younger brother Boja, and they began fighting. The fight led to the murder of Ikenna and the suicide of Boja a few days later when he drowned in the family’s well. The family’s struggle with hostility, paranoia, and hatred was transfixing. I was left in horror, I sympathize for the family and wished this would never happen to anyone. “The prophecy, like an angered beast, had gone berserk and was destroying his mind with the ferocity of madness . . . until all that he knew, all that was him, all that had become him was left in disarray. To my brother, Ikenna, the fear of death as prophesied by Abulu had become palpable, a caged world within which he was irretrievably trapped, and beyond which nothing else existed.” The unraveling of Ikenna’s obsession with his death was very hard-hitting. I felt I needed to go to my siblings and tell them how much I love them and support them so I could ensure this never would happen to my family even. This made me believe that this was the author’s intention, to get the audience to show their love and appreciation and forget about any anger. I could relate to this novel to some extent. There are some broken relationships in my extended family and after reading this novel, I know I should be more understanding and not respond to the conflict with hate. 

The ignorance that the household in the Novel blows my mind. Both dead brothers were treated at burial differently due to the reason for the death. This irritated me. The enforcement of the same cultural and religious beliefs in Nigeria made me angry, this was very similar to the character Benjamin in the novel. Ikenna was given the proper burial even though he was part of the reason for the rupture of his family’s relationship, it saddened me so much, that he was so selfish yet he is buried with gracious respect from the community when in comparison Boja who committed suicide was cremated according to the superstition around suicide in Nigeria. If this is how burials are still treated today in African countries, I am disappointed. I feel that those who have suffered from depression at the expense of someone else should be sympathized by the community, this hurts me. “The things my brother read shaped him; they became his visions. He believed in them. I have now come to know that what one believes often becomes permanent, and what becomes permanent can be indestructible.” After the death of Benjamin’s two older brothers, Benjamin who is nine years old decides he will kill Abalu. The community was unable to support Benjamin and failed him completely. When Abalu is found slaughtered, Benjamin confesses to the murder. The Novel describes how important family is to each of us, when we are failed by our parents or siblings or when we fail them we need to reminded how important we are to each other, and without each other we can’t function, we become consumed by anger, hatred, and frustration and we need to be reminded to love and cherish. 

Title: The Icarus Girl 

Author: Helen Oyeyemi

Text Type: Novel

Date Read: September

The Novel, The Icarus Girl, written by Helen Oyeyemi is a tale of the difficulty with living with internal conflict. The main character Jessamy is bi-racial, she has a white English Father, and a Nigerian mother and with this, she struggles to find her identity, she is constantly ridiculed by her classmates about the colour of her skin. Jessamy does not fit in her school environment and always feels alone. She goes with her mother to Nigeria to meet her mother’s family and meets a new friend, the girl Tillytilly. Throughout the beginning of their friendship, it finally seems that Jessamay has made a new friend, however, Tillttilly’s visits become disturbing. 

 The Novel describes cultural conflict and racial prejudice in a very different aspect than any other books about similar themes. The novel really tested the values of the audience and was able to sympathize about the internal conflict of not fitting into society. The main character Jessamy was a great portrayal of a character who struggles to get along with people who do not look like her, the other children in her class are scared of her, especially since she has the tendency to have screaming fits. Very early on in the book, we learn that Jessamy is a troubled child which tests the cultural values of her mother. The idea of conflict in this book is very difficult to read, especially because it’s the conflict created in the individual’s mind. Jessamy’s friend Tillytilly is a ghost and Jessamay loses her childhood innocence and becomes consumed by fear as her relationship with Tillytilly grows. “A girl was standing silently above her, looking down at her with narrow, dark eyes so dark that, to Jess, lying on the ground, they seemed pupil-less. There was something about her that was out of proportion. Was she too tall and yet too… small at the same time?”. I understand that the character would have never had a normal life because of her internal conflict and dangerous thoughts however I felt that the character was beautiful. Beautiful in the sense that she had a wonderful imagination and remanded strong even though she was only 8 years old. It is so unfair that even very young children express prejudice towards others even though they do not yet understand it. It saddens me how her parents sent her to family in Nigeria but it made the situation worse. Even though Jessamay feels closure and happy in Nigeria with the company of Tillytilly in Nigeria, she still does not know where she belongs. I can not relate to this but I feel sympathy for her, I can imagine how hard this is to a young person who feels they don’t belong in either world. I feel saddened that only at eight years old Jessamay is thinking of these things, and it makes me wonder how many others, in reality, go through this discomfort especially since she does not know much about her culture. 

Helen Oyeyemi was able to successfully discuss elements of conflict in a young girls mind, the author does this so well it seems realistic. As Tillytilly begins to appear in impossible places, Jessamay slowly realizes that her friend is not real and this terrifies her. We are lead to believe that the reason why Jessamay could not distinguish between fiction and reality was that she was too young but I disagreed. I believed that the Author wanted Jessamay to have a six sense, which meant that she could see dead people. This idea shows how difficult it is to see things you’re not meant to see. It’s terrifying and a dark aspect of the conflict. “She held her hands up in front of her and tried to imagine them as pudgy little fists; tried to create a continuity between a time when she didn’t know herself and now.”. The Author included elements of Nigerian mythology which includes the superstition towards the death of a child. Tillytilly is the image of Jessamays stillborn sister. In Nigerian mythology, it was believed that if there was no ritual to allow the spirit to rest then the spirit will haunt the living twin. The cultural differences between Jessamay’s parents cause another form of conflict, her mother believes she needs to be sent to a witch doctor and her father refuses. The Icarus Girl explores how cultural differences can lead to conflict even in a family, this is recurring throughout the story and is tragic. 

It is dreadful that Jessamy feels she needs to shut away from her opinions and emotions. I completely relate to this, I often feel like I can’t express myself because I am scared of what is going to be said, or that what I say will offend someone else even though I never intend for this to happen. However, the difference between my perception of containing emotions compared to Jessamay is drastically different. Jessamy as a should be innocent eight-year-old fears for her life or fears of what will happen if she shared what she was seeing. It is a huge burden to isolate yourself from people to protect them and this is what happens to Jessamy. “Once you let people know anything about what you think, that’s it, you’re dead. Then they’ll be jumping about in your mind, taking things out, holding them up to the light and killing them, yes, killing them, because thoughts are supposed to stay and grow in quiet, dark places, like butterflies in cocoons.” It is a constant battle between Jessamy and her internal conflict which is influenced by any racial prejudice she is targeted within London or the cultural conflict between her family. The conclusion I came to after finishing the novel was that it is so important to be mindful of internal conflict in somebody, not to the extent that was described in the novel but other aspects which could include the difficulties of feeling isolated at school or home.