Season of Blood: A Rwandan Journey

by Fergal Keane

When President Habyarimana’s jet was shot down in April 1994, Rwanda erupted into a hundred-day orgy of killing – which left up to a million dead. Fergal Keane travelled through the country as the genocide was continuing, and his powerful analysis reveals the terrible truth behind the headlines. ‘A tender, angry account … As well as being a scathing indictment – Keane says the genocide inflicted on the Tutsis was planned well in advance by Hutu leaders – this is a graphic view of news-gathering in extremis. It deserves to become a classic’ Independent.

Genres: Nonfiction, Africa, History, Rwanda, War, Memoir, Biography

200 pages, Paperback

First published April 25, 1996

Reviews

[Marianna the Booklover · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is different from all the books I've read about the Rwandan genocide because Fergal Keane's is an eyewitness account - he arrived in Rwanda in early June 1994 while the conflict was still raging across the country and so he and his colleagues from the BBC risked their lives trying to document what was going on. "Season of Blood" is a short memoir of those few weeks Keane spent in hell. The book was published in 1995 so naturally you won't learn from it too much about the full extent of the damage to the country and its population, or the aftermath (for that, read Philip Gourevitch or Jean Hatzfeld), but there's more than enough information on the origins of the conflict. Plus very evocative descriptions of the Rwandan inferno. Excellent read, if deeply harrowing, but what can you expect from a story of one of the bloodiest events in modern history...

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was excellent, it gives the perfect combination of historical context and personal account. It's a memoir, and that's exactly the kind of book I enjoy most. There were definitely a couple of parts in the book where I absolutely couldn't put it down.

The only bad thing about this book was that, if I hadn't read anything about Rwandan history before, the history provided in this book was a little cloudy. Hard to follow.

Other than that, I think this book was excellent.

[Fionnuala · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a perfect little study; it could work well as an introduction to the subject, as well as a supplement to somebody who already knows their way around it but who might be looking for more specific accounts and observations. It's always impressive that a book could be of value to both newcomers and experts, but this book definitely manages it. It's doubly impressive that it does so with so few pages.

I was a fan of the way this book was laid out: the history and context was outlined in the prologue, with masterful understanding that made several decades' worth of complicated history easy to follow and impossible to forget. The rest of the book then follows Keane's personal observations and reflections as he travelled through Rwanda as a journalist covering the genocide for the BBC. It's deeply interesting, very well-written, and full of an undeniable but unobtrusive anger. It dispels a lot of myths about the genocide and provides an incredibly detailed, personal look at what was going on at the time, all written in Keane's characteristic style: straightforward, an incredible talent for knowing what to speak about and how to describe it, and a great depth of emotion that never feels as though it's trying to force itself onto the reader. It simply is what it is, genuine and undeniable, and it adds an incredible and lasting weight to anything Keane turns his attention to.

Usually when books are this well-written, I always wish they were longer. In this case I don't think it's necessary. Keane says everything he needs to and he does so succinctly. It's one of those books that leaves you wondering what else there is to say, and having to admit that there's nothing. It speaks for itself, and it does so with memserising effectiveness.

[Ben Meese · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving eyewitness account of the Rwandan Genocide. Captures much of the aftermath of the killings and the conflicting nature of this genocide, in that much of the killing was carried out by civilians. Also touches on the failure of the international community in their response to the genocide. I would highly recommend this book for those looking to learn more about the Rwandan Genocide and the world's response.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read several disparaging remarks about Fergal Keane, the author, and his works as a journalist and presenter. People have called him arrogant and narcissistic but I beg to differ. Keane's account of travelling through a country undergoing genocide and war; his visits to a UN refugee camp in Tanzania and their journey through Burundi to get to government-held areas in the South of Rwanda is written with honesty, sensitivity and insight. Far from "narcissistic", Keane asks questions of everyone around him and gives a fair amount of insight into the lives of the RPF soldier, Frank Ndore, who escorts them for much of their journey and the Ugandan drivers who risk everything to take them on their journeys. He also asks a fair amount of questions of Interahamwe and government soldiers, giving us a glimpse of their reasoning and the ways in which the evil was perpetuated.

This is the fourth book I have read on Rwanda and I have a fifth lined up already. I would start with Left To Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza or An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina but I would definitely say this is an important book to read.

[Valissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apparently I have reached the age when I can spend a Friday evening reading about genocide and call myself content. This is not a full history of the Rwandan genocide, but offers a brief explanation of how/what/why/when/where during a journalists trip through part of the country.

It is harrowing, horrible, affecting, confusing, depressing, amazing, and the courage of so many people is vastly contrasted against mob mentality, bigots, and extreme grudge holders. It is amazing that after, what, 6000 years of human civilization, this petty bullshit is still going on. I can only imagine the jerks fighting over something minor (an imaginary border or the last piece of fruit or an accidental bump) that led to this genocide eons later are really embarrassed. The jerks.

I am giving three stars not because it is not excellent, but because it is one man's brief visit to the area, and is not a full description of the horror. And because, who can give a book about genocide five stars?

[Tom Elder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fergal Keane. Real life.
Season of Blood.
This is one mans story of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. This book is possibly one of the hardest books I've ever read, but it was mesmerising and I could not stop reading it. How can man be as evil as this even if they are from different tribes. I would like to think this will never happen again, but who knows. After all this happened only 20 years ago. If you read only 1 book on this horrifying course of events, then make it this one, you won't be disappointed horrified certainly but not disappointed. Very highly recommended.
5+ stars. 04 January 2015.

[Marc Lubman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for anybody interested in the Rwandan Genocide. Written starkly and without any reservation of detail. The author traveled through Rwanda with a journalistic convoy during the latter phase of the killings. He visited military camps, cities under siege, and scenes of massacres, while interviewing RPF forces, Tutsi survivors, and Interahamwe alike. He paints a comprehensive portrait of the cultural context and forces at play, and writes with very digestible and clear cut language. An incredibly compelling and enlightening work of journalism.

[Frederik · Rating 2 out of 5]

En krigsreporters reportager og rejse gennem Rwanda lige efter massakrerne fandt sted. Reportagerne rammer dog ikke hjertekulen lige så hårdt og fremstår mindre vedkommende end de insider-beretninger fra de ofre, der blev direkte berørt, som jeg tidligere har læst.

[Paulo Teixeira · Rating 5 out of 5]

(PT) Começo com esta citação vinda do livro:

"Antes de ler este livro, e enquanto o lê, nunca se esqueça do seguinte: em cem dias, cerca de um milhão de pessoas foram mortas a tiro, à catanada, estranguladas e espancadas até à morte. Lembre-se deste número. Um milhão. Não ignoremos o vasto número daqueles que foram feridos, violados e aterrorizados, ou os milhares de orfãos que encontrei ao longo das estradas deste país. No nosso mundo de terror instantâneo é fácil ver um corpo negro em termos abstractos, uma parte de uma enorme mancha negra que paira nas nossas consciências: Biafra nos anos 60, Uganda nos anos 70, Etiópia nos anos 80 e agora o Ruanda nos anos 90. Somos alimentados numa dieta de crianças famélicas, de corpos empilhados e de batalhões de refugiados e no final acabamos por desprezar África por que nos envergonha e nos assombra."

Fergal Keane, "Season of Blood", pgs 29-30

Pessoalmente, é uma releitura de um livro que o fiz pela primeira vez há quinze anos. E nada mudou. Nada mudou - e se calhar, piorou - no ser humano, que tem medo dos outros, das hordas de outros que fogem de guerras, da fome, de regimes opressores. Substitua-se Ruanda ou Bósnia por Síria e Venezuela, como daqui a 30 anos serem outros lugares dos quais as tensões estão adormecidas, como vulcões. Nem tem de ser negro para ter medo. Basta ser diferente. Basta ser distante do seu circulo de vizinhança para os tratar de modo diferente. É aquilo que trata deste livro, do que acontece quando tiramos a civilização de nós e o substituimos pela barbárie, pela "darwinização" dos mais fracos, por ter uma etnia, religião ou cor diferente. É um relato de um horror que não faz parte de uma era. Faz parte do ser humano, e isso deveria nos fazer envergonhar, horrorizar e temer.

(EN) I'll open with this quotation from the book:

"Before you read this book, and while you read it, remewmber the figures, never forget them: in one hundred days up to one million people were hacked, shot, strangled, clubbed and burned to death. Remember, carve this into your conciouness: one million. This is no to ignore the vast numbers of those who were wounded, raped and terrorized, or the thousands or orphans whom I found clustered around derlict buildings across the country. In our world of instant televised horror it can become easy too see a black body in almost abstract terms, as part of a huge smudge of eternally miserable blackness that has loomed in and out of the public mind through the decades: Biafra in the sixties, Uganda in the seventies, Ethiopia in the eighties and now, Rwanda in the nineties. We are fed in a diet of starving childeren, stacked corpses and battalions of refugees, and in the end we find ourselves despising the continent of Africa because it haunts and shmames us."

Fergal Keane, "Season of Blood", pgs 29-30

Personally, it's a re-reading of a book that I read some fifteen years ago. And nothing changed. Perhaps, it even got worse, in the humen beings, on others that escape from hunger, wars, opressing regimes. Replace Rwanda or bosnia for Syria, Iraq or Venezuela, or even in 30 years time, for some other distant, unknown place where tensions are sleeping, like a giant volcano.

And what this quotation is saying is, no matter the place, the color of the skin, the religion, what people fear, loathe, hate and then kill, replacing civilization for barbarism, is the fear of the difference. The wrong religion, the wrong colour. It's a roadtrip from hell that is part of an era, but it's timless, endless and boundless. And that should makes us fear from ourselves.

[Stephen Hoffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 to 4.5 stars

This is a book that provides a searing, unvarnished account of the Rwandan genocide in the hands of a wordsmith of a journalist, who has a deft touch in explaining human emotions, the environment, the feeling of a place and an insight in to the human mindset, whether that is fleeing murder or murder.

Throughout the book is the stench of death, an apt stench given the horrors of the Rwandan genocide.

The prologue in to the book is an excellent and considered history of Rwanda, how the Hutus and Tutsis came in to being and what were the main causes and actors who caused the Rwandan Genocide.

The next two chapters were OK, but there was a little too much scene setting for my liking.

The remaining chapters were in the main bar one of the highest quality and described the horrors of the genocide, various massacres, as well as following the main protagonists of the genocide and those who stopped the genocide in the RPF. The book is improved by him explaining how he has a journalist with his team went about their job, their honest feelings and how what he saw in Rwanda left its mark and gave him nightmares. If you want to understand the sheer inhumanity of the Rwandan genocide and the fact this was organised and caused by an ideological hatred of Tutsis, similar in a lot of ways to how the Nazis saw the Jews then look no further than this book.

The conclusion felt a bit rushed and given the brutal dictatorship Paul Kagame now runs, he was though understandably too rosy in his predictions in how the RPF leadership would run Rwanda in the future. That said, what the conclusion said about the need to bring the leaders of the Rwandan genocide to justice was on the money.

A picture paints a thousand words and I would have appreciated photos showing the horrors of the Rwandan Genocide and its aftermath. I think the book missed a trick in not including this.

This is a powerful, moving, angry and well written book about the Rwandan Genocide, which I'd urge people to read.

[Amy Kannel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very different from other books I have read about the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Written within a year after the fact by a BBC journalist who traveled in the country while the killings were still happening, it has a feel of immediacy that makes the horrors palpable. The prologue provides a valuable analysis of Rwandan history that led to this tragedy, and the author's first-person observations and reflections make the horrors palpable. Since he is an outsider, he can provide a somewhat distanced third-party perspective, yet he is clearly very deeply affected by the evils he witnesses.

While the history and background provided are much more comprehensive than other books, the account itself is more of an "on the ground" perspective, with narrow slices of what he experienced in three or four specific locations during a brief visit. Keane writes maddeningly about the killers and the injustice of their being sheltered and fed in refugee camps instead of prosecuted. He also gives calmly scathing indictments of the international community's both refusing to get involved and meddling in unjust ways. It's a personal and penetrating account that has a valuable place in the canon for this topic.

[Drew Doherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to rate a book like this, it is a gruesome story but it is so important people read it. The book is well written and at times I felt compelled to keep reading. It tells the story of genocide in Rwanda, the slaughter of innocent Tutsi's by Hutu's while the world looked the other way. The Belgians and the UN ran away deserting a small band of brave UN troops who were forced to watch the slaughter. The French come out of the story heavily implicated in the genocide as it armed and supported the Hutus and provided protection for them when they were defeated.

It is hard not to be angry about this but more so there is shame because while we watched the 1994 world cup and the OJ Simpson side show innocents were slaughtered and evil won over good for 100 days in Africa.

[Roma Lucarelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book works really well as an introduction to what happened in Rwanda during the genocide. However, it’s important to note that Fergal Keane, the author, is a white Irishman, so his experience in Rwanda during the genocide is going to be quite different. Granted, I think Keane does a good job presenting the facts for what he encountered as a BBC reporter in Rwanda. This book is not for the faint of heart because Keane does not shy away from the brutality of the mass murders carried out by Interahamwe. The history of the Rwanda genocide is very depressing and heavy, but also incredibly important as it’s crucial to remember that events like this.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fergal Keane is a Journalist for the BBC, and this book is a memoir of his reporting of the Rwandan Genocide. This was a difficult book to read, but necessary to understand what happened in Rwanda in 1994. The Rwanda holocaust is as important as the Nazi holocaust against the Jews during WWII, and the methods used (scapegoating, in particular) by The Hutus against the Tutsis.

I do not understand how the U.S. could not declare what happened in Rwanda: 1 million people slaughtered in 100 days, a genocide.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's odd to have to rate a book like this. I feel odd, at any rate. As you can imagine, it's not an easy read in parts. But Keane managed to make me feel both heartbroken and angry, so I suppose he pulls it off.

[Brian Mortimer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the sad yet important memoir of journalist, Fergal Keane's journey into the heart of the Rwandan genocide. There is a fair bit of filler at the beginning whether that be his nightmares after the journey or his goodbyes to his wife beforehand. A good deal of the history of Rwandan's tribal politics is set out before the journey.
'Attacks by bands of Tutsi guerrillas (nicknamed inyenzi, or 'cockroaches', by the government) led to vicious reprisals. In one such pogrom in 1963 Hutu militias murdered an estimated 10,000 Tutsis. There was a further outbreak in 1967 - again the Tutsis were butchered and dumped in the rivers - and then a large-scale purge of Tutsis from the universities in 1973.' (pp20-1)
The notes written on the journey are italicised so we get an interesting mixture of the events as they happened with memories and a retrospective voice that comes after the fact. Fergal is a decent writer and a brave man for throwing himself into the thick of the danger. We meet various interesting characters with heartbreaking stories. This book does much to elaborate upon the political complexities of Rwanda's history and the tribal factions created by it. From this a brainwashing campaign is taken up, creating a deep-rooted hatred which culminated in acts of evil barbarism and atrocity.
'The other day he saw soldiers throwing stones at the children to rouse them into killing. Some of them did not want to kill but the army forced them to take part. Everybody must have blood on their hands. Then no one person can be blamed.' (pp134-5)
It's a short book that takes you around the war-torn nation with a map provided for guidance. Though I found it readable and fascinating I've decided a 3.4 out of 5 is an accurate rating with the writing being nothing particularly expressive and the attempts to apply overarching conclusions about the 'soul of man' felt somewhat forced and cliched.


Spoilers

the journey begins with them travelling South through Uganda towards the Rwandan border. North Rwanda is the moderate Hutu and Tutsi RPF zone who are rebelling against the government sponsored genocide of Tutsis. Fergal and his colleagues see the dead and meet survivors. First they witness the human remains scattered around a place called Nyarubuye. They are shown a church where two nuns are hiding the orphans of the massacre, some bearing machete wounds when they were hacked and left for dead. The wounds of these children are not solely physical.
'She made no sound at all but when she sat down she rocked back and forth incessantly. nobody knew what had happened to her parents because she had not spoken since the day the RPF soldiers had found her wandering in the bush.' (P69)
A man of power in the area, the Bourgmestre of Rusomo, Sylvestre Gacumbitsi is named by witnesses as the perpetrator of what happened in Nyarubuye. The team find he has fled and knowing refugees and Hutu extremists have crossed the eastern border into Tanzania to a UN-supported refugee camp, they go in search of him. After much probing they finally track him down and pose some difficult questions on his involvement in the genocide. He denies everything. It appears the UN camps within the border nations of Burundi, Tanzania and what was then Zaire(now The Democratic Republic of The Congo) were actually harbouring many of those who took part in the killings.
On returning to Rwanda Fergal visits the government held Capital of Kigali which is under siege by the RPF who are advancing from the north. There are various other episodes like saving two brothers from a hospital and even a journey into the government held southern regions where those who partook in the genocide claim this was all started by the RPF.
'He wanted me to know that he was an educated man and understood how politics worked. The RPF had been causing trouble since 1990. But what about the killing of Tutsis, I wondered, what did he think of that? Oh, he regretted killing but the whole thing had been started not by the Hutus but by the rebels.' (P165)
The journey finally ends when they reach Burundi and head home. The closing pages relay how the war ended with RPF victory in Rwanda although the threat of an invasion via Zaire from the old regime taking refuge there was very real. This actually led to the Zaire War just a few years later.

It is a book I would recommend although I find the praise it gets from the likes of The Independent who suggest 'It deserves to become a classic' are overinflated.
3.4 out of 5

[Nick Keane · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1994 , Fergal Keane together with a small support team drive into the Rwanda to report on the genocide which eventually left one million people dead.

The dedication at the start is to the people of the Nyarubuye Parish murdered April 1994 and it is Keane’s account of visiting the site in the aftermath that forms one the central chapters of the book. Keane is good at observing how eventually the scale of events renders once speechless at one point writing “I do not know what else to say about the bodies because I have seen too much.” A survivor with an aggressive head wound has the team reaching for their first aid kit, they can only offer panadol. Another survivor can identify the local man who led the attack, Keane and his team find him in a refugee camp and interview him.

Details often shock and sadden, Keane points out that women and children were deliberately targeted. The heart rending accounts are marginally leavened by Keane’s observations about the kindness and compassion he witnessed and also, on one occasion, the humour...these occasions are all too sadly rare.

It’s a tough read; I found that the episodic writing of the chapters made it easier, I would finish a section and leave the book for days to let it settle before continuing.

My copy is a battery copy bought for me by a good friend who found it in a second hand book shop in Kigali.

Although it is over twenty years since publication the insights into how humanity acts in conflict and extremis tells us much about our current world.

[harry gee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetic and profound with apt analysis and background given to comprehend the events in scope greater than just his eyewitness account. Keane comments that reconciliation should not be pursued as zero remorse has been shown, and therefore trying to coexist with the perpetrators at that point in time would be a fatal mistake for the Tutsis - a clear distinction from the events in Bosnia, which was happening at the same time, and one I’m not quite ready to unravel.

The book concludes with a recognition of the atrocities of the RPF, but a realpolitik concession that Rwanda is not ready for democracy, for fear of the oppression of minorities, and that the violence of the RPF cannot be equivocated to the violence of the Hutu government forces. On this matter, perhaps the books frequently mentioned but never expounded upon mentions of the groups of Hutus fleeing the RPF army’s advance is most telling. This reminds me of a conversation I had with a politically active man in Egypt who believed that President Sisi’s effective autocracy is a necessity for the nation due to its instability, as argued by the president in his doctoral thesis. This idea is one that I personally struggle to come to terms with, despite it making sense on the surface, and so I will be supplementing this topic with Michela Wrong’s Do not Disturb. Perhaps Fanon’s argument that post-colonial autocratic governments are inherently neo-colonial has affected my view on this.

Harrowing stuff 👍

[Natalia Ramdoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many accounts of this terrible period in world history miss the fact that the cause of this genocide was sparked by the irresponsible acts of just a few. This book, while also depicting the sensory horrors of the mass killings, most importantly shines the brightest spotlight on the racial and political schemes and complicity of not just the Rwandan government and those of surrounding nations, but more importantly the international community, who turned a blind eye and chose to minimise the mass murder of an entire population. It is shameful that "First World" countries continue to hold a grip on the rest of humanity and too often value the coins in their pocket over the lives of their fellow men.

[Kate Parr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a short book but it packed a powerful gut-punch. Keane has a fairly normal voice, not going in for proselytising, just explaining what he was seeing and, crucially, feeling as it unfolds. He is witness to the aftermath of a mass slaughter in a church, to an attempted ambush by road-side mines of his convoy, and safely escorting trucks of Tutsi orphans through checkpoints where they might otherwise have been 'disappeared'. His fear, his frustration, his anger is palpable and very human and reasonable given what he was going through, and he gave a really simple and understandable account of what happened. Not a fun read, but a necessary one.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book summarizes the experiences of an Irish journalist visiting Rwanda at the tail end of the genocide in 1994. It was published shortly after the genocide, so has the feel of something rushed to print. Overall, the book is written with kindness and empathy towards the genocide's victims, though it is almost entirely centred on the experience of the journalist in a conflict area. There are few interviews, and little background, though it does paint haunting imagery of roadblocks and the interahamwe (those who committed the genocide) and the struggles of journalists trying to cover crimes against humanity.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a gut-wrenching tale for which Keane and team should be commended. Journalists who venture to the worst places on earth just to tell the story so the world would know are to be greatly admired. Keane tells the story, but not just the facts. He attempts to tell the truth. As I read it couldn't grasp why he went there. In Spring 1994, Rwanda was the very worst place on earth, wreaking of the stench of rot and death, everywhere. He went, so I and any other willing to read his short book would know. Now I know. I wish didn't but I am glad I do.

[Shalisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in a simplistic and heart-felt manner. I appreciated the in-depth look at the context of the inception of the propaganda and the part that the Belgians and the French had to play in the genocide spanning as far back as 1918.

Every time I learn something new about another country in Africa, I always find the start of any trauma leads back to the West, planting seeds of hatred and disunity among the people to reach their own goals of greed and colonisation

Whilst reading this book I revisted the 2005 movie Hotel Rwanda, which brought the pages to life for me....I cried a river

[Nick McGowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished in one sitting, minus boarding the plane to Kigali. Incredibly engrossing first-person narrative of traveling through Rwanda during the beginning days of the genocide, to the point at which I jumped when dings of the PA system on the plane went off. An awesome balance of historical context that helps readers understand the faults of international narratives of what led up to, and what occurred during, the Rwandan genocide. A great way to tell history. Looking forward to this as a jumping off point to learn more.

[Someone Someone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I almost couldn’t finish this book. It is just absolutely gut-wrenching, from the very beginning. I have read several books about various genocides, most of them being memoirs from survivors. This was the first one where I had to set it down and walk away, truly process what was happening. It was so detailed, in the best and worst ways. Books like this are necessary, we cannot let ourselves become desensitized to events such as the Rwandan Genocide. Read this book, no matter how difficult it may feel.

[Guchu · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good, all things considered. It attempted to put things in their colonial, economic and political context and I appreciated that.

I am always uncomfortable and overly/appropriately critical of African/black history through non-African white POVs. This one is not without its problems but I thought he tried to stick to the facts of his experience in Rwanda (which is what the book promises to be about) rather than the diagnosis of it.

[Finnian Mclean · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first book on the Rwandan genocide. A dive into the happenings of Rwanda as the genocide was unfolding. Fergal shows the reader the horrors of the Rwandan genocide as it was young and fresh.
My only regret about this book is that Fergal is filing a documentary and interviews several leaders including I think general Natasha in a refugee camp in Zaire, however none of these interviews or footage of the documentary can be found online which is a great shame.

[Shane Mutlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very detailed and descriptive account of what it was like to be in Rwanda. As a Canadian Peacekeeper who spent 6 months touring around Rwanda, I can attest to how Fergal describes the sights and smells there.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is an important book to understand what happened in Rwanda. Genocide that the world seems to have forgotten.