Shake Hands with the Devil

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda is a 2003 book by Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire and Major Brent Beardsley. It is an account of Dallaire's experiences during his stint as force commander in UNAMIR from 1993-1994 and the Rwandan Genocide.

This book won the 2003 Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing, and 2004 Governor General's Award for nonfiction. It was made into a documentary film called Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire in 2004.

Tropes used in Shake Hands with the Devil include:
  • Badass Crew: Dallaire's entire team, save the Bangladeshis. It takes balls to live the way they did.
  • Black and Gray Morality: The RGF is slaughtering and torturing civilians, while the RPF is shelling civilian places and taking away medical aid.
  • Blatant Lies: What the Clinton administration said about what they did to help Rwanda. 'Provided $9 million in relief' my ass.
  • Canucks With Chinooks: Dallaire himself and the Canadian contingent within UNAMIR.
  • The Chessmaster: Paul Kagame
  • Child Soldiers: The RPF and the RGF both use child soldiers... something Dallaire is violently opposed too.
  • Complete Monster: All the genocidaires, as well as the Interahamwe. Here's an example:

The Interhamwe made a habit of killing young Tutsi children in front of their parents, by first cutting off one arm, then the other. They would then gash the neck with a machete to bleed the child slowly to death but, while they were still alive, they would cut off the private parts and throw them at the faces of the terrified parents, who would then by murdered with a slightly greater dispatch. Have fun sleeping.

  • Doorstopper: Over 500 pages, in most versions.
  • Frame-Up: Used in one of the most depicable ways possible: it is speculated that the RGF had framed the RPF for the murders and gangrape of six young children.
  • Friend to All Children: Dallaire. In the Prologue, he almost decides to take an orphaned child back to the UN camp in Kigali. He cares deeply about the youth of Rwanda.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: Dallaire and his team. The RPF could technically count, too, though the hero part is really debatable.
  • Heroic BSOD: Dallaire and troops suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome after all the horrors they've witnessed in genocide.
    • Dallaire himself was seriously suicidal for years after returning to Canada. As he mentioned in the afterword for the book, writing it was his attempt to dispel the demons that haunted him. It was apparently mostly successful, though in speaking engagements and interviews he admits to still having deep-seeded psychological problems.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters
  • It Got Worse: The entire book is made of this.
  • Last Sane Man: Dallaire, sometimes. While the rest of the world refuses to see the scope of the genocide and take action, Dallaire is in the thick of it from start to finish. Especially later on in the book, when Dallaire's two most loyal men, Brad Beardsley and Luc Marchal, are forced to leave UNAMIR.
  • Last Stand: Dallaire's there to the bitter end.
  • Magnificent Bastard: After the events of the book Paul Kagame became the leader of Rwanda, a landlocked African country with a tiny population and a tinier army. The Result was the Congo War. He won. Holy Shit.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After finding out that their family had been slaughtered, some of the RPF soldiers go on this against the Hutus.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: Romeo Dallaire.
  • Slave to PR: The entire UN
  • Tear Jerker
  • Too Dumb to Live: Yes, France, try to to stop the genocide by launching an operation to support the genocidaires.
  • Tragic Hero: Dallaire, oh so much.
  • Woobie: The more you read about the shit Dallaire had to deal with, the more you want to hug him.
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