Rwanda z reportaży Jeana Hatzfelda – czytana przez różnie formułowane definicje ludobójstwa

The present essay reflects upon the outstanding, from the reporter’s craft point of view, and unprecedented when it comes to empathy (which sometimes borders on European, colonialcomplicity) books by Jean Hatzfeld (born 1949), which consist of five volumes on Rwanda: Dans le nu de la vie. Récits des marais rwandais (2000), Une saison de machettes (2002), La stratégie des antilopes: récits (2007), Engelbert des collines (2014), Un papa de sang (2015). Various definitions of genocide (starting with the notion itself, authored by criminal lawyer, a Polish Jew Rafał Lemkin (1900–1959)), that were also formulated ad hoc in works of art (thecase of a feature film by Joanna Kos-Krauze and Krzysztof Krauze Ptaki śpiewają w Kigali [Birds Are Singing in Kigali]) prove to be a kind of Ariadne’s thread. Embedding Hatzfeld’s reportages in the context of the notion of genocide aims at broadening the field of associations for both, the narrator himself and his Rwandan interlocutors, whosporadically and comparatively/by way of comparison refer to the Shoah.