A Battle for the Soul of Rwanda

The story of how Paul Rusesabagina saved the lives of his hotel guests during the Rwandan genocide was immortalized in the 2004 film “Hotel Rwanda.” Leveraging his celebrity, Mr. Rusesabagina openly criticized the Rwandan government, and is now imprisoned on terrorism charges.Today, we look at what Mr. Rusesabagina’s story tells us about the past, present and future of Rwanda.Guest: Declan Walsh, chief Africa correspondent for The New York Times; and Abdi Latif Dahir, East Africa correspondent for The Times.For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.Background reading: Paul Rusesabagina was mysteriously taken back to Rwanda late last year and arrested. His supporters say he has no chance of getting a fair hearing.In a jailhouse interview with Abdi Latif Dahir, Mr. Rusesabagina said he was duped into an arrest. He believed he was being flown to Burundi to talk to church groups. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.  Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.