Immaculee Ilibagiza

Shocking and inspiring. Ms. Ilibagiza tells the story of what happened to her during the Rwandan Holocaust. The narrative's glut of horrific violence made me sick at heart, but Ilibagiza's faith and personal strength pulled me through.

These people are just like you and me: human, educated, desiring of a happy life, and it's stunning to see how quickly so much of this can go down the tubes when mob mentality, based on racial prejudice, sets in. And lest my dear review reader thinks that such show more things don't happen in America, let's pause for a moment to consider what happened in New Orleans during Katrina. Yes, Katrina, New Orleans, wasn't anything close to a Rwandan Holocaust, but I was shocked how many people, in the aftermath -- good religious, supposedly god-fearing people -- said things to me like, "Those people weren't smart enough to leave when they should have" or "Why should I send money, they're just a bunch of welfare cheats anyway", etc. Barbara Bush spoke for many when she said of the Houston Astrodome Refugess: "They're loving it here."

It's exactly that brand of dismissive rationalization and downgrading of human suffering, based on class- and racial-prejudice, taking place over decades, that set the stage for the Hutu massacre of the Tutsis. The Nazi Holocaust took off from the nearly exact same foundation of social and class prejudice against the Jews.

Anyway, I think that this should be required reading. Ms. Ilibagiza is remarkably brave, and you need to hear her story. show less

Immaculee Ilibagiza grew up in a country she loved, surrounded by a family she cherished. But in 1994 her idyllic world was ripped apart as Rwanda descended into a bloody genocide. Immaculee’s family was brutally murdered during a killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives of nearly a million Rwandans.
Incredibly, Immaculee survived the slaughter. For 91 days, she and seven other women huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor while hundreds of show more machete-wielding killers hunted for them.
It was during those endless hours of unspeakable terror that Immaculee discovered the power of prayer, eventually shedding her fear of death and forging a profound and lasting relationship with God. She emerged from her bathroom hideout having discovered the meaning of truly unconditional love—a love so strong she was able seek out and forgive her family’s killers. show less

To put this review in context: I tend to be pretty cynical, and I have to say for the most part that I don't believe in God. I read this book because I'm interested in Africa and Rwanda and why genocide happens. OK, now for the review: Of the books on Rwanda that I have read, this one scared me and saddened me the most. I've read the statistics and anecdotes from other books, like "We wish to inform you . . . " and "Ordinary Man", but this story has the most "up-close and personal" show more perspective. Like I said, Ilibagiza's narrative is frightening, and her story is incredible, but meanwhile she does a great job of describing how her faith in God, or as some may say "retreating into her religion", helped her through the crisis. I for one believe her, I have no doubt that her faith allowed her to survive this unimaginable tragedy with surprisingly little mental and, dare I say, spiritual scarring. That's relative of course, as she says there is certainly some long-term damage. The great thing is that Ilibagiza is a storyteller; not once does she proselytize or preach. That's refreshing, and I agree with other reviewers that the subtitle of the book "Discovering God . . ." is a bit misleading because she already has a strong relationship with God before the genocide, and this book is not really about how one "discovers God". Instead, it show how a personal relationship with your God can be protective. Don't get me wrong, I am not converted and will continue my cynical and secular lifestyle, but Ilibagiza's story will always live in my heart as an example of how a person's faith can have a strong, positive influence on their lives. I would definitely recommend this book even for the non-religious types out there. show less

Wow, was this one ever intense! Immaculée was a university student who had travelled home for easter in 1994 when the Rwandan genocide began. As a Tutsi, she and her entire family were in danger. She managed to make it to a neighbour’s house where he hid her and several other women in a tiny bathroom for over 100 days while the country literally went insane killing over a million Tutsi people.

I had heard of the Rwandan genocide before but I didn’t really know anything about it. As I was show more reading this book, not only was I disgusted by the attitudes of the people responsible for the genocide, I was amazed by how quickly the general population adopted those same attitudes and joined in on the killing. I am astonished by the capability of human beings to act in this manner, to be so cruel to each other. In many cases, Tutsis were hunted and murdered by people who had been their neighbours and close friends. And what they did to children? Unforgivable.

I think what bothers me the most about the whole thing though is that we, the so-called civilized nations just sat back and allowed this to go on. We knew what was happening but it took over three months before anyone was willing to enter to country to try and stop the slaughter.

This book made me so angry and sad. It’s especially saddening to know that this is not a unique circumstance. It happens all the time. Why do we as humans feel the need to divide ourselves along racial lines? Why do we have to feel superior to other races, sexes, religions? And why does that feeling of superiority give us permission to imprison, enslave, torture and kill those we view as inferior?

I think this book (and others like it) are so important for us to read so we can take steps to prevent these kinds of things from occurring. What struck me most was that Immaculée’s father was so confident that nothing was going to happen. On the eve of the genocide, his children tried to convince him that they should leave but he wouldn’t believe that anything could go wrong. How often do we think that way about where we live? How often to we read books about the terrible things that go on in the world and think “That could never happen here.”? “It’s ok for me to be a little bit racist because that could never happen here.” These are the kind of attitudes and thoughts that eventually lead to hate crimes.

The subtitle for this book is “Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust”. I think this is a little misleading because Immaculée was already very religious before the genocide began. There is definitely a lot of religion in the book as she is a very devout Catholic but it never bothered me. It wasn’t preachy or in your face religion. It’s just what got her through this difficult time in her life. Because she was able to forgive the killers (which I am astounded at – I can’t even forgive them and it didn’t happen to me!) she was able to move on and get past this terrible thing that happened to her. She was able to be happy again. Amazing.

This is a book I think everyone should read although you may not enjoy it!

From my blog: http://nosebook.mapledesign.ca/2010/03/book-review-left-to-tell/#content show less