In 1994, a horrific genocide occurred in the third-world, African country of Rwanda. It is estimated that 800,000 people lost their lives, and only in a time span of April to June. The conflict was between two races in the country known as the Hutus and the Tutsis. The Tutsis had ruled over the Hutus for many years, and now that the Hutus had come to a position of power, they were able to create an evil that knew no bounds with only a little bit of persuasion. Thousands of innocent people were massacred a day, yet surprisingly, almost all of the rest of the world stood by and watched. Few dared to get involved in such a touchy area, but those who did made all the difference. Captain Mbaye Diagne, a UN blue beret officer, was perhaps the most extraordinary of these people, and went to the most extreme lengths possible to help those in need. Simply put, Mbaye was a hero, but most believe he was even more than that. When the UN made orders to avoid conflict with the Hutus and to not get involved with the situation, Mbaye simply ignored them, and immediately began to save lives. He started with the children of the prime minister of Rwanda who at the time was Agathe Unwilingiyamana. Because the Hutus were looking for her, Mbaye took Agathe’s two children and hid them in a closet. Agathe was then murdered, but Mbaye was then able to take the rescued children to the “Hotel des Mille Collines” or “Hotel of a Thousand Stars” which was acting as a UN headquarters. As amazing a feat as this was, most people would probably stop after that event and not commit themselves any further, but not Captain Mbaye. This was just the first of countless acts of empathy that Mbaye would go on to carry out. All of these resulted in lives saved.
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Mbaye’s reputation grew and grew after that. He began to go on solo, unarmed missions in his jeep to rescue the suffering Tutsis, and amazingly, he was successful. The missions were fairly simple, but not without risk. Mbaye would pick up Tutsis in his jeep, usually five or so at a time, and drive them past up to 23 fully armed Hutu checkpoints convincing them at each one to let the Tutsis he was carrying live. After that Mbaye would take his refugees to the Hotel des Mille Collines, and from there they would reach safety. No one really knows how all this was accomplished, and the fact that these rescue missions were being carried out on and almost weekly basis was even more dumbfounding. Mbaye would simply show up with a truckload of Tutsis and his big toothy smile on his face and then would soon be on his way again. It was almost as if it was what he was born to do.
Mbaye’s rescues did in fact turn out to be what would seem to be his purpose in life. As he was driving back alone to the UN headquarters one afternoon, a mortar shell landed right next to his truck and he was struck in the back of the head with a piece of shrapnel. He died instantly. When his body was found by fellow UN allies, it was discovered that they were out of body bags, and that this man, who gave so much, couldn’t even be buried properly. Luckily a blue UN tarp was at least found to cover Mbaye’s corpse and he was able to be given a makeshift funeral in Kigali before his body was taken back to his homeland of Senegal where he was buried with complete military honors. It is estimated that in his lifetime, he saved at least 600-1000 lives.
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| Yacine, Mbaye's Widow |
Mbaye was born into a low income family and had eight other siblings. He grew up near the city of Dakar, which was the capital of Senegal, and was the first of his family to attend college as he went to Dakar University. After college, Mbaye enlisted into the military and was soon sent to Rwanda with the UN, where he would do so much good, but of which he would also never leave alive. Mbaye was a practicing Muslim throughout his life, and at the time of his death, had a wife and two children. His wife, Yacine, remained a widow and took care of both of her children on her own from then on.
Captain Mbaye was simply one man. He was not really any more qualified than anyone else to do what he did. He had no extraordinary education and no exclusive training. He didn’t even have a weapon, yet he was able to save a thousand peoples’ lives. If there were just ten men like Mbaye in the genocide, up to ten thousand more lives could be saved, and if there were a thousand men like Mbaye, as many as one million people could be saved. With an estimated 800,000 deaths in the genocide, that’s more lives than were lost in the whole entire genocide itself. We only needed a thousand men to do the job, and somehow, Mbaye was one of the only who did. The rest of the world watched and shook their heads, while the help of any country could have nearly stopped the whole thing.
The Mbaye legend lives on today in some regards, but is not nearly as strong as it should be. Though honored here in the US, Mbaye Diagne is an unknown name to much of our population, and is also one that has been merely looked over in the past years. Without, “Ghosts of Rwanda”, a documentary on the genocide produced by Greg Barker, close to no one would know who Captain Mbaye was. Though, he is better known in his homeland of Senegal, he is lacking much of the respect he deserves there as well. In the country, there is no memorial or commemoration of any kind that is dedicated to Mbaye, and the Diagne family has not even received a compensation for his death. It is nothing less than a disgrace that this man gave so much, and has received so little.
Mbaye is described by some in the past as “the bravest of the brave”, “the angel of Rwanda”, and even “the greatest man this earth has ever known.” With such atrocities committed in Rwanda, and Mbaye’s unwavering instinct to sacrifice everything for these people, most of which he had no personal association with whatsoever, I believe that Captain Mbaye is one hundred percent deserving of each of these titles, and truly was a more than extraordinary man.
Sources-
-The PBS documentary “Ghosts of Rwanda” produced by Greg Barker
