Book Review Friday 8/29/08

Book: Left To Tell
Author: Immaculee
Pages:

A neighbor down the street recommended this book and lent me her copy. I'm a huge WWII buff, but I wasn't sure how I'd feel about Rwanda. I don't have a lot of similarities to grasp at with Rwanda, or Africa, in general and I've always been perplexed by one tribe trying to rid the earth of another tribe. For whatever reason, Hitler's reasoning--while clearly insane--was a little bit more foreseeable. However, I gave it a shot and I'm glad I did. This turned out to be an incredible read I'd recommend to anyone.

In 1994, Rwanda broke out in a civil war that left a million Tutsis dead in 100 days, the doing of another tribe, the Hutus, that had lived side by side with them for eons of time. Overnight, neighbors and friends turned on each other, leaving an entire countryside ravished by evil no living soul should have to witness.

Immaculee grew up in a tiny village with her parents and three brothers and had earned her way to college--a rarity for a Tutsi woman. In Easter of 1994, she had contemplated staying at school to study, but instead came home for the traditional Easter meal. It was a decision, as harrowing as her ensuing journey was, that saved her life. While life was never really good for the Tutsi's, over the course of a few months, it had become dangerous. Ethnic cards were distributed so that you were branded by your tribe. Violence was becoming commonplace. But the worse was yet to come.

Refusing to leave during the night and escape to Zaire, Immaculee's father stood behind his beliefs that it was getting better and the government was going to put a stop to the fighting. The next day, it became impossible to escape Rwanda.

Immaculee's father sent her to a pastor's house for shelter. Though the pastor was a Hutu, he agreed to hide Immaculee and six other women in a secret bathrooom, about 4 foot by 6 foot, in his master bedroom until the worst of the fighting had passed. 91 days later, Immaculee emerged to tell her harrowing story.

Afraid they'd be detected by the various houseguests, servants, and eventually the killers that were looking for any and all Tutsis that were hiding, they sat virtually motionless for hours on end. It was during these quiet times that, instead of plotting her revenge and lamenting her situation, Immaculee turned herself over to God. Her daily conversations with God gave her the strength to continue forth in a brutal and uncompromising situation.

While graphic and horrifying with it's details, this book serves to remind us that there are people living in truly unimaginable conditions while we sleep soundly at night. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. Immaculee's faith and courage stands as a testament to us all that we can indeed overcome anything.