What do you think?
Rate this book
Surviving the Slaughter: The Ordeal of a Rwandan Refugee in Zaire
Though the world was stunned by the horrific massacres of Tutsi by the Hutu majority in Rwanda beginning in April 1994, there has been little coverage of the reprisals that occurred after the Tutsi gained political power. During this time hundreds of thousands of Hutu were systematically hunted and killed.
Surviving the Slaughter: The Ordeal of a Rwandan Refugee in Zaire is the eyewitness account of Marie Béatrice Umutesi. She tells of life in the refugee camps in Zaire and her flight across 2000 kilometers on foot. During this forced march, far from the world’s cameras, many Hutu refugees were trampled and murdered. Others died from hunger, exhaustion, and sickness, or simply vanished, ignored by the international community and betrayed by humanitarian organizations. Amidst this brutality, day-to-day suffering, and desperate survival, Umutesi managed to organize the camps to improve the quality of life for women and children.
In this first-hand account of inexplicable brutality, day-to-day suffering, and survival, Marie Béatrice Umutesi sheds light on a backlash of violence that targeted the Hutu refugees of Rwanda after the victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front in 1994. Umutesi’s documentation of the flight and terror of these years provides the world a veritable account of a history that is still widely unknown. After translations from its original French into three other languages, this important book is available in English for the first time. It is more than a testimony to the lives and humanity lost; it is a call for those politicians, military personnel, and humanitarian organizations responsible for the atrocious crimes—and the devastating silence—to be held accountable.
“Umutesi’s tale, told with honesty and eloquence, is a tribute to the human spirit, a searing indictment of the agents who perpetrated these horrors, and a reproach to those who turned away.”—Catharine Newbury, African Studies Review
“Restores a human dimension that has been lacking in the history of the genocide and massacres in Rwanda.”—Danielle de Lame, African Studies Review
“A vivid account of the grueling nightmare experienced by tens of thousands of Rwandan civilians whom the world had deliberately forsaken. . . . An outstanding call for justice.”—Aloys Habimama, African Studies Review
“A towering work. . . . An epic for our times, a tale to ponder for the lessons it conveys, testimony so powerful and moving that it reaches an unintended literary greatness.”—Jan Vansina, African Studies Review
“Of all the current books and films ten years after the Rwandan genocide, none is more effective than Surviving the Slaughter . . . . This book carries one along, often as if running with the refugees.”—Anne Serafin, Multicultural Review
Surviving the Slaughter: The Ordeal of a Rwandan Refugee in Zaire is the eyewitness account of Marie Béatrice Umutesi. She tells of life in the refugee camps in Zaire and her flight across 2000 kilometers on foot. During this forced march, far from the world’s cameras, many Hutu refugees were trampled and murdered. Others died from hunger, exhaustion, and sickness, or simply vanished, ignored by the international community and betrayed by humanitarian organizations. Amidst this brutality, day-to-day suffering, and desperate survival, Umutesi managed to organize the camps to improve the quality of life for women and children.
In this first-hand account of inexplicable brutality, day-to-day suffering, and survival, Marie Béatrice Umutesi sheds light on a backlash of violence that targeted the Hutu refugees of Rwanda after the victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front in 1994. Umutesi’s documentation of the flight and terror of these years provides the world a veritable account of a history that is still widely unknown. After translations from its original French into three other languages, this important book is available in English for the first time. It is more than a testimony to the lives and humanity lost; it is a call for those politicians, military personnel, and humanitarian organizations responsible for the atrocious crimes—and the devastating silence—to be held accountable.
“Umutesi’s tale, told with honesty and eloquence, is a tribute to the human spirit, a searing indictment of the agents who perpetrated these horrors, and a reproach to those who turned away.”—Catharine Newbury, African Studies Review
“Restores a human dimension that has been lacking in the history of the genocide and massacres in Rwanda.”—Danielle de Lame, African Studies Review
“A vivid account of the grueling nightmare experienced by tens of thousands of Rwandan civilians whom the world had deliberately forsaken. . . . An outstanding call for justice.”—Aloys Habimama, African Studies Review
“A towering work. . . . An epic for our times, a tale to ponder for the lessons it conveys, testimony so powerful and moving that it reaches an unintended literary greatness.”—Jan Vansina, African Studies Review
“Of all the current books and films ten years after the Rwandan genocide, none is more effective than Surviving the Slaughter . . . . This book carries one along, often as if running with the refugees.”—Anne Serafin, Multicultural Review
- GenresNonfictionAfrica
258 pages, Paperback
First published October 5, 2004
91 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 31, 2013
This is the anguishing story of a Rwandan refugee who was forced, along with tens of thousands of others, to flee their country to Zaire (now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
Ms. Umutesi was an NGO worker for women’s group in Rwanda at the time of the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) invasion in 1993. The RPF consisted of Rwandan refugees in Uganda. This invasion set forth a series of catastrophic events, which the international community did nothing to prevent. It led to the genocide of the Tutsi’s (and also many Hutu’s). This inferno forced thousands upon thousands of Rwandans to flee across the border to Zaire and settle in refugee camps under appalling conditions. Ms. Umutesi was one of these refugees. Once the RPF succeeded in becoming the de facto government in Rwanda they pursued and murdered these ex-patriot people in Zaire, forcing them to traverse this huge country along primitive roads and jungle trails. Like the author, most of them walked.
I found – and I feel very guilty in saying so because I have never undergone anything remotely resembling what the author experienced – the first half of the book rather dispassionate. It seemed like a mere recounting of events. Perhaps this is the authors’ was of adjusting to the hardships she underwent – or maybe it is my interpretation. It was when she and her family – along with thousands of others – entered Zaire that I felt the emotional impact of what she underwent. It is a harrowing description of refugees confined to camps, attacked brutally by various armed militia and forced to leave and walk for miles at a moments notice. These armed thugs could be the Rwandan military, the army of Zaire, or any regional militia that were preying on the helpless – refugees who had very little and were protected by nobody. It was the stories of those who aided the refugees that affected me the most. Here were people from Zaire, like Ya Pepe, who had very little in terms of worldly possessions, had little to gain (in fact were putting themselves at risk), but had it in their hearts to succour and feed these refugees from another country.
Here is a touching excerpt from this book (page 157, my edition):
“The panic reached its apogee when the “humanitarians” left Lubutu to go to Kisangani... All the whites had quickly gotten on a small plane sent from Kisangani to evacuate them... Hundreds of people were gathered all around the runway to help the humanitarians leave, but no one spoke. The impressive silence was only broken by the sound of the propellers of the little plane that had come to take the whites, leaving us alone to the mercy of the approaching rebels. We knew that since there had been an emergency evacuation of the humanitarians, it was only a matter of days before Tingi-Tingi [the refugee camp] would be taken. .. The humanitarians were packing their bags everywhere.”
Ms. Umutesi was an NGO worker for women’s group in Rwanda at the time of the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) invasion in 1993. The RPF consisted of Rwandan refugees in Uganda. This invasion set forth a series of catastrophic events, which the international community did nothing to prevent. It led to the genocide of the Tutsi’s (and also many Hutu’s). This inferno forced thousands upon thousands of Rwandans to flee across the border to Zaire and settle in refugee camps under appalling conditions. Ms. Umutesi was one of these refugees. Once the RPF succeeded in becoming the de facto government in Rwanda they pursued and murdered these ex-patriot people in Zaire, forcing them to traverse this huge country along primitive roads and jungle trails. Like the author, most of them walked.
I found – and I feel very guilty in saying so because I have never undergone anything remotely resembling what the author experienced – the first half of the book rather dispassionate. It seemed like a mere recounting of events. Perhaps this is the authors’ was of adjusting to the hardships she underwent – or maybe it is my interpretation. It was when she and her family – along with thousands of others – entered Zaire that I felt the emotional impact of what she underwent. It is a harrowing description of refugees confined to camps, attacked brutally by various armed militia and forced to leave and walk for miles at a moments notice. These armed thugs could be the Rwandan military, the army of Zaire, or any regional militia that were preying on the helpless – refugees who had very little and were protected by nobody. It was the stories of those who aided the refugees that affected me the most. Here were people from Zaire, like Ya Pepe, who had very little in terms of worldly possessions, had little to gain (in fact were putting themselves at risk), but had it in their hearts to succour and feed these refugees from another country.
Here is a touching excerpt from this book (page 157, my edition):
“The panic reached its apogee when the “humanitarians” left Lubutu to go to Kisangani... All the whites had quickly gotten on a small plane sent from Kisangani to evacuate them... Hundreds of people were gathered all around the runway to help the humanitarians leave, but no one spoke. The impressive silence was only broken by the sound of the propellers of the little plane that had come to take the whites, leaving us alone to the mercy of the approaching rebels. We knew that since there had been an emergency evacuation of the humanitarians, it was only a matter of days before Tingi-Tingi [the refugee camp] would be taken. .. The humanitarians were packing their bags everywhere.”
July 23, 2017
Umutesi shares her harrowing tale of life as a refugee due to the genocide in Rwanda.
She spent 4 years walking from refugee camp to camp in search of safety and security.
The book is also her attempt to record the voices of those who perished in the deadly times. Through this work she says she want the international community to realise that both Hutu and the Tutsi suffered terribly at the hands of the warring rebel groups.
Forming pseudo family, trying to organise and set up the refugee camp and risking their lives at the hands of the 'supposed' saviors; the memoir lays bare the truth of how an independent educated woman is turned into a refugee overnight.
She spent 4 years walking from refugee camp to camp in search of safety and security.
The book is also her attempt to record the voices of those who perished in the deadly times. Through this work she says she want the international community to realise that both Hutu and the Tutsi suffered terribly at the hands of the warring rebel groups.
Forming pseudo family, trying to organise and set up the refugee camp and risking their lives at the hands of the 'supposed' saviors; the memoir lays bare the truth of how an independent educated woman is turned into a refugee overnight.
August 16, 2020
The most harrowing book I've ever read. Voices of victims from conflicts are too far and few between, and often become the subject of historical interpretation. This first hand account of one of the worst events of the 20th century gets you closer to an understanding of the reality of the horror of genocide than any other book will. It may not be easy to read, or the writing style in places may be difficult, but everyone should read this. Not because it's good, but because it's necessary.
April 15, 2009
This book was riveting.
I can't even remember the background--the woman was...a Hutu? Methinks. her ethnic status became more salient as the troubles in Rwanda grew worse.
She ended up in the refugee camps in Congo/Zaire with 1+ million other refugees and the militant *genocidaire* functionaries who came with them.
Later she trekked deep into Congo Zaire along with tens of thousands of others, fleeing the militias who were hunting down refugee/genocidaires in order to summarily kill them.
she eventually arrived in a village where the villagers befriended her and cared for her. When those villagers first saw her, most assumed that she had a few days left to live and would die from exhaustion.
She wrote this book in French, which I can't really read...the English translation is gripping, riveting, mesmerizing.
March 16, 2016
The word harrowing is thrown about for stories of this kind probably too often but here is a truly tough story of epic survival. All the common themes of war are here, genocidal armed factions, suffering refugees, global indifference. Those escaping the evils of the Middle East will probably be able to identify with this tale of a Rwandan refugee escaping conflict and persecution on a never ending search for peace and safety that takes her across the entirety of Zaire. We see just how humanity deals under times of hardship, persecution and unexplainable hatred as the refugees are robbed, beaten, despised and degraded everywhere they go. Only the infrequent hands of kind strangers save them from mobs of sadistic gangs, the claws of starvation, the many diseases and the threat of deportation back to persucution.
November 8, 2008
I liked this book and learned a lot about the struggles post the genocide in Rwanda. However, as a book in translation, Surviving the Slaughter suffers from the editors compacting sections that were really much longer in the French version. This always bothers me and this is why it is only getting a 3. It is no fault of Umutesis, but rather the editors. However, you will benefit if you review the genocide on your own while reading. I will probably read this again at some point.
Umutesis is an extremely remarkable figure, not only because she survived the genocide, but for many other reasons. Read the book to find out!
Umutesis is an extremely remarkable figure, not only because she survived the genocide, but for many other reasons. Read the book to find out!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews