The Oakland Public Library arranged for Paul Rusesabagina of "Hotel Rwanda" fame to give a lecture as part of its "Conversations of Conscience" series at the Oakland Museum.

"Hotel Rwanda" is one of the best and most important movies I have seen, so when the chance came to hear, first-hand, from the heroic real-life figure in that film, I not only bought a ticket, but I also volunteered to drive Rusesabagina and his wife, Tatiana, from the airport to the museum.

I had a companion to help me pick up the Rusesabaginas. He is Marcel Twizeyemungu, a Rwandan-born Oaklander who is a teen librarian in San Francisco.

Twizeyemungu volunteered to translate for Tatiana Rusesabagina, who speaks very little English. I welcomed his help, as I speak English only and a smidgen of Toisan Chinese.

While we waited for the Rusesabaginas to arrive, I talked with Twizeyemungu about sub-Saharan Africa and the Rwandan situation. I told him I was perplexed by what few mainstream U.S. news media reports I read on that troubled part of the world.

He — and then later Rusesabagina himself during his speech — began to educate me about what has led to the violent chaos in Rwanda, the Sudan and the Congo, among other places.

It traces back to the messy, unfinished business of European colonialism and the Cold War.

Rusesabagina has become an international public figure since the movie, starring Don Cheadle, was released.

The story the movie told was compelling — and disturbing — enough. He was a hotel manager who used his humanity, political skills, and accommodating personality to shelter 1,200 Rwandans from the brazen and inexplicable slaughter of one ethnic faction against another.

A gentle, soft-spoken, dignified man, Rusesabagina has been on the lecture circuit, telling his story and urging anyone who will listen to do something about the mass killings in the Darfur region of the Sudan.

His lecture that night gave a brief, but important historical context to Rwanda's genocide, before he told of the horrors he witnessed in the spring of 1994 in Kigali, Rwanda's capital.

The event organizers, led by Administrative Librarian Leslie Rodd, worked quickly to secure funding, donations, partners, volunteers and a venue so an event could be held in Oakland.

The Oakland Museum offered the venue, but with only 300 seats in the theater, arrangements were made to have audio and video hookups in the Lecture Hall and Restaurant so that 600 people could attend the event.

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