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The struggle in Rwanda, between the Hutus and the Tutsis, began eraly during the colonization of the Belgains. The Belgains randomly decided that the Tutsis were superior of the Hutus, although the Hutus were the majority ethnicity. The rivalry and hatred of the two intensified every passing year and continues to this day. In April of 1994, the president of Rwanda, who was a Hutu, was killed when his plane was shot down. The Hutus were quick to blame the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which was led by a Tutsi. The RPF was a group of Tutsis and modern Hutus which was stationed in Uganda, where many Tutsis had fled. This group was united because they were tired of the economic trouble the Hutu president had only increased, and therefore were planning to overthrow him in hope of being able to return to their Rwandan land.

There was no proof that the plane had been shot down by the RPF, but the accusation was enough to motivate the Hutus to take arms. This was the beginning of the 100 day genocide which stains the country of Rwanda. The Hutus targeted every Tutsi and even killed moderate Hutus which refused to support their massacre. Eight hundred thousand Rwandans were murdered. In July of 1994, RPF was able to capture the Hutus' base in Kigali, and declared a cease fire. Although the genocide was ended, the fight was not.

Today in Rwanda, Paul Kagame, leader of the RPF, is the president of Rwanda. They are still struggling with the Hutu forces that fled to the Dominican Republic of Cong. Along with the ethnic struggle, they also struggle with their economy continuously. For example, in June of 2006 they were just beginning to put in a sewage system, something many countries take for granted and have been for centuries. The photograph "Sitting on Rail" was taken in 2001, at a time when Rwanda did not even have a sewage system. That was just five years after the genocide, and four years after Musa, the photographer, arrived at the orphanage. "Sitting on Rail" displays the despair the children of Rwanda have lived with and the resulting loss of hope. The photograph appeals to pathos and logos, by means of vectors of attention, coloration, lighting and framing to demonstrate this argument. It is not a plea for pity, but for sympathy and help.
The boys are all facing away from the camera, making the vectors of attention toward the gray sky. This appeal to logos makes the viewer feel as if they are an onlooker of the photograph, not as if the children in the photograph are interacting with them. The boys in the pictures are not even interacting with each other; every single one is focused on the gray sky, which makes that the photograph’s focus. The gray sky provokes a sad, somber feeling that sets the mood for the photograph.

Through the appeal to logos, via the boys turned away from the camera, the photograph makes a similar appeal to pathos. It does not show the boys' faces or expressions, so the audience does not get to feel as if they understand the children or what they are thinking. This provokes sympathy instead of empathy. The sympathy is a result of the boys' posture. They are slumped on to the railing, or on their arms, displaying the sad, somber mood as stated before. Especially in modernized civilizations, people are accustomed to seeing phtographs of children at play, interacting with friends, or with a smile on their face. This photograph shows the exact opposite.

Children are often associated with bright and vibrant hues as well. However, the hues in “Sitting on Rail” consist of a lot of gray. There is gray in the sky, the railing, the cement, and in some of the boys’ clothing. Even the water, which is often shown as blue or green, is gray in this scene. This contributes to the appeal to pathos for sympathy, because gray is often connected with sadness or despair. There are other hues, in the children’s clothing, like red and green, which are not linked with sadness, but these hues are not very bright, they are dark. This results in them having no affect on the viewer’s attention, or changing the effects of the overwhelming gray hues. All of the hues in the photograph are saturated, making the picture look a little dream-like. Again, this has the result of making the viewer feel as if they are just onlookers to the sight, and not able to see it how the boys would be seeing it.

The photograph uses natural lighting, which makes the photo look realistic. Although it is dream-like due to the saturation, it looks like it is natural and not posed. Because it does not look as if it has been staged, it reminds the viewer this is a reality for these children. It is another example of an appeal to pathos to move the viewers to feel sympathy. The natural lighting makes the boys and the pathway look much darker than the sky and the water. This develops the attention on the gray hues even more.

The gray sky is where all the attention has been placed, and it appears to go on forever. This is due to the framing of the picture. It is taken at an angle, which is what makes the sky and railing look as if they go on for miles. This mirrors the boys’ lives, gray skies in their past and haunting their futures. It is cropped to include multiple children who have all had the same experience. The child just walking in to the picture creates an idea that the children it affects could just keep coming. The framing of the picture shows the lack of hope of the people experiencing the trouble in Rwanda.

The vectors of attention focusing on the gray sky, the boys’ activity compared to expectations, the gray hues, the saturation of the hues, the use of natural lighting, and the framing and cropping in “Sitting on Rail” all appeal to pathos, sometimes through an appeal to logos. These appeals show the somber attitude and foggy future in Rwanda and ask the viewer to sympathize for the children, but not to attempt to understand or feel empathetic towards them. These children have seen a lot, possibly witnessing the genocide but certainly observing the result of the genocide and the rivalry between the people within and surrounding Rwanda. They have also suffered from the economic state and lack of innovation in their homes and communities.

This picture was taken from a project “Through the Eyes of Children” in which they gave some orphans, like Musa, disposable cameras to take pictures of whatever they wanted to. The pictures were initially displayed in their orphanages but were soon after invited to be shared in an exhibition to raise money for their own education. Since then the project and the children’s photographs have won many awards and gotten a lot of recognition. Like “Sitting on Rail” the project inspires a lot of sympathy toward the children and their community in hope of inspiring them to help. Rwanda has not received as much aide as some people see fit, and these photographs have done something to change that.