The man with two faces

During the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 over 800.000 people were killed. During World War II over 100.000 people were killed after a stop at Westerbork. And millions of people were killed all over Europe. Extremes in behavior and attitude are found everywhere. His father a Hutu, his mother a Tutsi. Jean Claude Rwibasira had to face both sides of the struggle, not only at a large scale, but in his families as well. And here the parallels appear again. Mixed couples and not only in Dutch society – Roman catholic, protestant, agnost, moslim, atheïst, humanist, urban, rural area, wealthy, poor, highly educated, illiterate, black, white, yellow, brown, heterosexual, homosexual, Dutch, Turkish, Maroccan, Surinam, English, German... – face simular reactions. There seem to be more simularities in human behavior than differences. Jean Claude Rwibasira provides us with this mirror. His questions are our questions. His book, his compelling story, unites us. This biography was written during his year at the University of Groningen, where he studied with support of the Eric Bleumink Fund.