By TIM MCDONALD
Local Columnist
JEFFERSONVILLE —
The next two weeks my columns leading up to the third-annual Frank C. Denzinger Scholarship Banquet on evening of 9/11 in the Hoosier Room of Indiana University Southeast will focus servant leadership.
For the past several years in my world history classes, I have shown a documentary that has been (so I am told by graduates) memorable for them. The documentary is called “The Ghosts of Rwanda” and documents the genocide of ethnic Tutsis by ethnic Hutus. The documentary is relevant on many points historically especially in dealing with European colonialism on the continent of Africa and the effect of that colonialism upon the independence of nations such as Rwanda. Over 850,000 ethnic Tutsis were murdered by machete wielding extremist Hutus.
However, the documentary has an affect upon students on a personal level because of singularly heroic acts by several individuals who stayed in Rwanda. The most notable were those attached to the United Nations forces whose rules of engagement were so curtailed that they saved lives (as seen in the film “Hotel Rwanda”) by persuasion alone.
Over the past six years of showing this documentary, most students have noted with surprise the one American who chose to remain in Rwanda when all other American nationals — including his wife and children — had been evacuated to nearby Burundi. Carl Wilkens had been a missionary in Africa for many years. I began e-mailing Carl about three or four years ago with comments and questions about his experiences in Rwanda. Some of these questions were generated by students.
The thing about servant leaders is for the most part they do not purposely draw attention to themselves or that would become selfish leadership. Servant leaders place the needs of others before their own needs.
Wilkens — director of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency — is the only American known to have stayed in Rwanda during the genocide of the Tutsi minority. Throughout the spring and summer of 1994, he risked his life to seek out safe havens for those in danger within Kigali and to transport them to safety, to obtain and deliver much needed water, food and money to hundreds of people in hiding and to ward off threats by standing up to the perpetrators.
Carl sent his wife and three children with an American convoy to Burundi (U.S. officials were afraid to use Kigali airport, so they evacuated their citizens by cars) and stayed in his home in Kigali with several friends. Wilkens knew that he could not leave his friends, many of whom were Tutsis, including two in his house. His decision was made during conversations with his wife, Teresa.
“Teresa and I would go back to the bedroom and we would talk, because we had made a decision that I wouldn’t evacuate. We would pray, and I’d say, ‘Does this still seem right?’ and she said, ‘Yes, it does.’
Wilkens stayed in Rwanda even as others fled, including U.S. officials. No one was more surprised by his decision to remain in Rwanda than the Rwandan people. Thomas Kayumba (Carl’s co-worker) said, “In a way I don’t quite understand it myself.
He said: “I can’t leave Rwanda. I’m staying with them. If they die, I die with them.”
One day, when Carl arrived at Gisimba, he saw more than 50 armed militiamen who were, it was quite obvious, waiting for an occasion to kill everyone inside the orphanage, but his presence there apparently stopped them. So Wilkens decided to sleep that night with the kids. He stayed there until, using all his connections, he found four grenades to guard the people inside and then jumped into his car to find the governor, who could help him to save the orphans.
When he was in his office, the Hutu prime minister Jean Kambanda was there and someone told Wilkens to ask him for help. The American himself describes situation with these words.
“Ask him?” It’s like that’s the stupidest thing you could imagine — to ask this guy who is obviously orchestrating the genocide, a key player, and yet I have no other options. ... [He’s like], “Just go out in the hallway. He’s in the next office. When he comes out, ask him.” So I went out [into the hallway] ... and [a] door opens. Everybody snaps to attention, and here comes [the prime minister] and his little entourage. They’re coming down the hall, and I am, too. I put my hand out and I said, ‘Mr. Prime Minister, I’m Carl Wilkens, the director of ADRA.’
“He stops and he looks at me, and then he takes my hand and shakes it and said, “Yes, I’ve heard about you and your work. How is it?” I said, “Well, honestly, sir, it’s not very good right now. The orphans at Gisimba are surrounded, and I think there’s going to be a massacre, if there hasn’t been already.” He turns around, talks to some of his aides or whatever, [and he turns back to me and] he says, “We’re aware of the situation, and those orphans are going to be safe. I’ll see to it".
In our conversations, Carl told me that it was difficult to leave Rwanda when you could put faces and personalities to those people who were facing certain death. Servant leadership is all about placing the needs of those you serve ahead of your own personal and professional goals. In fact, Major Jeff Struecker (Army Ranger from “Black Hawk Down) told me that as a leader, “If you are not serving your people, you are not a leader in any sense of the word.”
Next week, Struecker will be the focus of the column in advance of his speech at the Frank C. Denzinger Banquet.
— Tim McDonald can be reached at timothy.mcdonald@agsfaculty.indwes.edu
