There has been a long history of conflict between the Tutsis and the Hutus, the two main ethnic groups in Rwanda and its neighboring country Burundi. This conflict dates back to the early 20th century when Belgian colonizers began identifying the native people based on their ethnicity, and deemed that the Tutsis were the superior class.
On April 6, 1994, a Tutsi rebel group led by current Rwandan president Paul Kagame assassinated the Rwandan president, a Hutu. Kagame denied this, but the Hutu backlash resulted in the genocide that left over 800,000 dead, most of those Tutsis. Millions more fled to neighboring countries, and conflict still remains as the current Tutsi government continues to invade the Democratic Republic of Congo to attempt to get rid of the Hutu refugees there.
In the aftermath of the genocide, the Imbabazi Orphanage was founded by Rosamond Carr, an American women living in Rwanda at the time. About 95,000 Rwandan children had been killed or orphaned in the violence, and the orphanage was meant to be a place where children would be protected and cared for. Over 400 kids have lived at the orphanage, including Musa, the photographer of this picture.
"Through the Eyes of Children" is a photography project started at the Imbabazi Orphanage. The program gave disposable cameras to the children to take "pictures for themselves and to share with others, exploring their community, and finding beauty as the country struggles to rebuild" (Rwandaproject.org). This project allowed Musa to become a photographer.
One of the main appeals to pathos is the coloration of the photograph. The sky and the lake are very similar hues, so they blend together and aren't very distinct. In addition, the colors in the background are not very saturated. The sky and water are both a pale grayish-blue, and the ground is a light brownish-tan. These hues and the saturation of the hues elicit certain emotions with the viewer. They create a sense of neutrality—there doesn't seem to be much going on in the background of the picture and it may not seem very important. Emotions of indifference and bleakness tend to arise from the hues in the photograph, which makes the audience pay more attention to the children and feel more emotionally connected to them.
The children sitting on the rail serve as a kind of visual separation between the sky and the water to better distinguish them. The top line of the rail is almost exactly where the horizon is in the background, which provides a clear distinction between the sky and the water that otherwise might not have been very noticeable. This serves as a backbone alignment for the photograph, further emphasizing the visual hierarchy.
The children in the photograph are looking out across the lake. Thus, the vectors of attention are focused in that direction, away from the audience. This creates an appeal to pathos because it evokes a sense of curiosity in the audience. What are the children looking at? Where is their attention focused? Why is it so important that they all are looking at the same thing? The audience can't see what the children in the photograph can see so this in effect distances and separates the viewers from the photograph. There isn't as strong of an emotional connection as there would be if the children were looking at the camera. Instead, the audience is positioned as an outsider looking in on the photograph instead of feeling like a part of it. This creates a sense of objectivity—the viewer can observe and take in the content of the photograph, but the emotional connection with the subjects of the photograph is not as strong.
The framing of the photograph appeals to logos. The rail and the lake appear to go on forever on either side; there is no clear end in sight in the photograph. This creates a sense of vastness and makes the children seem smaller and possible less significant compared to everything else. However, since the photo doesn't show how big the lake really is or how far the rail extends, the children take up the bulk of the picture and are still the main focus. By looking at the photograph, the viewer can infer about the photographer and how the photographer took this picture, appealing to ethos. The viewer appears to be where the photographer was standing, so the viewer puts himself in his place—standing behind the other children and observing them, again adding to the objectivity of the photograph.
These rhetorical strategies contribute to the overall argument that the children in the photograph have been able to move on past the violence and destruction in Rwanda and live their lives. Knowing the context sheds more light on the situation of the children at the orphanage and helps the viewer of the photograph to appreciate it more. At first glance, it is just a photograph of children looking out at a lake, but knowing the historical and cultural context of the photo appeals to the viewers' emotions, or pathos. “Sitting on Rail” shows what life is like for these children, so often forgotten. With the help of the Rwanda Project, Musa helped to ensure that these children will not be forgotten and that their story will reach the rest of the world.
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