The Weekly Observer (Kampala)
Martyn Drakard
16 July 2008
book review
Immaculee Ilibagiza is a brave woman. Her book, Left to Tell, records her many brushes with death during the Rwandan genocide. Her courage stands out in actually writing the book, where she tells of the death of some of her family members, childhood friends, and the betrayals of people she and her family trusted.
Born into a loving Catholic family close to Lake Kivu, her parents, both village teachers, were highly respected for their generosity towards the needy. Immaculee was third-born of four, and the only girl.
Life was idyllic, until one day in "fourth grade" she had a rude shock when the teacher humiliated the Tutsi's in class. Until then she hadn't heard the word "Tutsi". A very bright girl, she eventually won a scholarship to the Lycee Notre Dame d'Afrique, a leading girls' school in northern Rwanda. From here she proceeded to the National University at Butare, and completed her studies just before the genocide erupted.
When the Interahamwe struck, the family were all at home, except for her brother, Aimable, studying in Senegal. Her father refused to believe the worst, but sent her off to a nearby Hutu pastor who hid her and other Tutsi's in his big house. There, hiding in the small toilet of the master bedroom, with, at first five, then seven other women, she spent the next three months, communicating by sign language, unable to wash, and living on scraps.
They were smuggled out to a camp the French had established once the RPF took Kigali, but their troubles were far from over. When the French struck camp, they were left on their own, with Interahamwe stragglers still loose, and high on drugs.
Rather than a political account, Immaculee grips our attention and emotions because the genocide offers her the opportunity to come to terms with her deepest feelings, especially hatred and revenge. Realising that neither of these is the solution she tries the men intent on hunting her down as God's creatures. Once safe in the RPF camp, she begs the local burgomaster, Semana, to let her meet the ring-leader of her family's murderers, Felicien, and tells him: I forgive you. When Semana upbraids her, she tells him that forgiveness was all she had to offer.
Many excellent books have been written about the Rwandan genocide. This stands out for its intensely personal account of a woman struggling with herself, in a situation that called for superhuman heroism, and, in Immaculee's case, great faith. But the mystery remains: how could former close friends, even relatives, betray one another, and even kill with such fury? She records a Hutu sheltering Tutsi's who'd been close friends at school, and then spending the day hunting down and killing other Tutsi's. Yet, many Hutus risked their lives saving Tutsi's, even people they didn't know, like the fisherman ferrying Tutsi's across Lake Kivu to Zaire.
Immaculee is saying that even if the devil was loose in Rwanda, God was never far away having rescued her countless times.
Book: Left to tell
Author: Immaculee Ilibagiza, with Steve Erwin.
Publisher: Hay House publishers
Volume: 279 pages. .
Price: Shs 28,000
Reviewer: Martyn Drakard
Available in Aristoc
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Weekly Observer. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
