“We Are All Humans”:

Abstract

Can a comic effectively convey a message of empathy, challenge attitudes, and render accessible one of the most violent episodes in history to children as young as 8 years old? This essay examines the possibility via an analysis of primary school students’ interpretation of 100 Days in the Land of the Thousand Hills, a comic developed by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) about the Rwandan genocide. It demonstrates how the comic challenges students’ attitudes, and in turn how their reading and discussion of the text leads to the creation of new perspectives that shape how they relate to one another. In doing so, it explores the shifts in thinking and normalization of empathy via a profound realization of shared humanity, shedding light on the transformation experienced by the children through their individual and shared interaction with the comic.