Black Earth Rising--spoilers therein

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag-map_of_Rwanda.svg

I recently finished Black Earth Rising on Netflix. The show stars Michaela Coel (as Kate Ashby), Harriet Walter (as Eve Ashby), John Goodman (as Michael Ennis), among many others. It's about a Rwandan genocide survivor Kate, who was adopted by an international lawyer (Eve) who prosecutes cases in the ICC. Over two decades after surviving the genocide, Kate and all those around her are forced to come to terms with some seriously uncomfortable realities of what happened before, during, and after the genocide. The show got in my head...

One, it was great to see so many beautiful, brown-skinned people in a show and to experience a story of modern African history--albeit horribly, tragic history. And every time Coel was on screen, I marveled over her beauty--beautiful, smooth, brown complexion, amazingly shaped eyes, beautifully pronounced cheekbones and full lips.

Two, although fictionalized, I learned a LOT more about the Rwandan civil war and genocide than I remembered from before--probably because I can't watch ANYTHING that even has a hint of history without googling furiously to find the truth. Although I was mid-teens at the time of the Rwandan genocide, I do recall hearing pieces of news about the genocide when it happened.  (Yes, always been a nerd!) When the movie Hotel Rwanda came out in 2004, a decade after the murderous100 days, viewers got a better view and reminders of the atrocities when the film showed the daunting efforts of hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina to save Tutsis by giving them refuge in his hotel. I need to rewatch the film now with adult eyes, but it definitely offered a better view of the genocide than my teen brain remembered--albeit a cinematic view.

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So, for those who don't know or recall what the Rwandan civil war and genocide was about, here's a very condensed, oversimplified primer. The really fucked Berlin Conference of 1884 originally assigned Rwanda to Germany. (The Berlin Conference is where Africa was carved up and assigned to European countries to control, rule, manage, rape, pillage, and generally, fuck-over.) Around WWI, Belgian came to control Rwanda. Although Hutus, Tutsis, and Twa already existed as groups in Rwanda, both Germans and Belgians thought it was a genius idea to arbitrarily divide and conquer the already established groups. Develop arbitrary and ultimately devastating classes of superiority/inferiority.  In good ole, colonialist fashion, divide the people and they are easier to conquer/control, and meh, who gives a shit about the fallout later. The Twa are pygmy people of the area and are often forgotten when most people think/talk about the genocide; yes, they were killed too. Tutsis were promoted by the Europeans as superior although Hutus had the majority numbers. So, like elsewhere in the world--the smaller group was deemed superior and the rulers while the majority was ruled and ultimately got pissed and tired of being ruled. When Rwanda gained independence in the early 1960s, Hutus were left in charge. And therein the violence, tensions, fleeing, warring, etc. started simmering.
Fast forward 30+ years, and we land at the Rwandan genocide wherein in about a million Tutsis were killed in 100 days while the world watched, refusing to officially call it genocide (which would've allow the UN to act instead of just "keep peace"), and just sorta let it happen. Though now, some leaders express regret. Regret doesn't revive the dead. The Rwandan Patriotic Front (led by Tutsis) helped bring the genocide to an end, and have also been accused of slaughtering many civilians, Rwandan leaders thought to have aided or allowed the genocide, and allegedly even Hutu refugees as the RPF worked to end the genocide. (Note: Again, I fully realize I've oversimplified a LOT here. For more details, follow the links.)
So, yeah, a million people (possibly more) were killed because some damn imperialist, colonialist asshats decided that one group of people in the colonized country should be superior to another and encouraged to hate each other. Divide, conquer, flee, then encourage rape, pillage, murder, then deny, deny, deny.

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So, now that we are up to speed with the historical events, let's return to Black Earth Rising.
Part of the reason I kept marveling over seeing so many beautiful brown people was I kept raging at the really sick trick the Europeans pulled: get citizens of a country to hate each other, based on their already existing lines of division. It's utter bullshit.

And this is highlighted quite well in the show because ***SPOILER*** a person believed to be Tutsi throughout the entire show is later revealed to be Hutu. And I'm sitting here watching the show and asking, "seriously, if someone never told you who they were and you didn't know their family, how would you know if they were one or the other? Other than knowing someone was Tutsi or Hutu, how do you look at someone with your same/similar complexion and features and decide they need to be killed?" So arbitrary bullshit led to a million people being slaughtered.
And I say this fully acknowledging that 1) I know it's a historical fiction, and 2) perhaps my Americanized eyes can't easily pick out differences of people from a country I've never visited. But I've seen news footage of the actual people. So, please, someone enlightening me as to the physical differences?

Two other things got to me:
1) Is the ICC continue colonialist ideology?
2) How important is it for a country to remember and reconcile the FULL weight of its history, esp. if that history is filled with blood, and let's be honest, what country's history isn't filled with blood?

But I'm going to have to save these 2 for another post, I've expounded on long enough here.

Pay attention.
Be informed.
Take part.