Hotel Rwanda – the Hollywood Myth and the Reality

the real Hotel Rwanda where Hollywood provided the glossy fiction

Several movies have been made on Rwanda’s 100 days of madness – the genocide carried out by Hutus on Tutsis in 1994, but none seems to have made it as big or as popular as Hotel Rwanda starring Oscar nominated Don Cheadle who plays the “humble hero” Paul Rusesabagina – the general manager of Hotel des Mille Collines.

In true Hollywood fashion, the story was completely bastardized, although admittedly aided and abetted by Paul Rusesabagina himself. The film was based on his account of events alone.

The truth – or so claim Alfred Ndahiro and Privat Rutazibwa in their book “Hotel Rwanda – or the Tutsi Genocide As Seen By Hollywood” , is very different.

Using first-hand accounts from several of the refugees and staff working at the hotel, Mr Rusesabagina is not quite the saint and life-saver as he or indeed Hollywood chose to portray.

Rusesabagina profited all the way.

Orders were given by the hotel owner to provide free food and accommodation to all the refugees in the hotel. This was bluntly ignored by Rusesabagina. He demanded cash payments, cheques and IOUs of all guests both for food and accommodation. If guests could not pay they were simply evicted. Children were point-blank refused entry as they were unable to pay and were left to the hands of the militia.

the swimming pool - refugees who could not afford to buy water were forced to drink out of it to parch their thirst


A humble taxi driver in Bruge, Hollywood dug him up, portrayed him as a complete hero (based solely on his accounts of events), and Rusesabagina went on to be given the Medal of Honour, US Presidential access and made millions from both Hollywood and his subsequent autobiography - “An Ordinary Man”.

Not content with what he now has, his “charity” for Rwandan orphanages has been proved to be a scam with direct payments made into his own personal bank account at the Bank of Kigali” and is now claiming he wants to run for political office in Rwanda.

There were some true acts of heroism during the genocide: Hutus who hid their Tutsi neighbours at the risk of their own lives. Paul Rusesabagina was clearly not one of them.

the lobby as it is today