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Un papa de sang
Jean Hatzfeld revient sur les collines de Nyamata, au bord de ses marais, vingt ans après le génocide. Il donne la parole ici non plus aux tueurs et aux rescapés dont les récits peuplaient ses précédents livres, mais à leurs enfants. Ils n’ont pas connu les machettes, mais ont grandi dans leur souvenir. Ils s’appellent Idelphonse, Fabiola, Immaculée, Fabrice, sont lycéens, couturiers ou agriculteurs. Ils partagent le génocide en héritage, mais pas du tout la même histoire familiale.
Dans ces familles décimées, certains ont grandi dans le silence et le mensonge, ont affronté les crachats sur le chemin de l’école, d’autres ont été confrontés aux troubles de comportement de leurs parents, à la houe sur une parcelle aride dès l’adolescence. Ils dansent ensemble, fréquentent les mêmes cafés internet mais ne parviennent jamais à parler des fantômes qui ont hanté leur enfance. Leurs récits à la première personne, au phrasé et au vocabulaire métaphorique si particuliers, se mêlent aux chroniques de la vie de tous les jours sur les parcelles ou dans la grande rue.
Dans ces familles décimées, certains ont grandi dans le silence et le mensonge, ont affronté les crachats sur le chemin de l’école, d’autres ont été confrontés aux troubles de comportement de leurs parents, à la houe sur une parcelle aride dès l’adolescence. Ils dansent ensemble, fréquentent les mêmes cafés internet mais ne parviennent jamais à parler des fantômes qui ont hanté leur enfance. Leurs récits à la première personne, au phrasé et au vocabulaire métaphorique si particuliers, se mêlent aux chroniques de la vie de tous les jours sur les parcelles ou dans la grande rue.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 27, 2015
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About the author
Jean Hatzfeld
32 books52 followersJean Hatzfeld is a journalist. He worked for many years as a war correspondent for Libération, a French newspaper, before leaving to focus on reporting the Rwandan genocide.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 25, 2018
Note: This review is for the full four-part series.
French reporter and longtime resident of the African continent, Jean Hatzfeld, documents the Rwandan Genocide in more detail than any other historian or journalist. But don't look to his series for a complete historical context or a full examination of the motives of the killers or the previous crimes of the Tutsi people and the colonialists. Other books, like Philip Gourevitch's excellent We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families informs and educates the reader more thoroughly on context, motivation, and history.
Hatzfeld instead offers direct contact with the killers and the survivors. He tracks life in one small village as it progresses over 24 years from the 100 days of the "cuttings" of the genocide, through the forced return and imprisonment of the escaped Hutu killers, to the killers' pardon in 2003 to live side by side with the survivors, and finally to the legacy of the genocide for the next generation of children, the children of both the killers and the survivors. Hatzfeld's series of four poignant and well-written books focus on the lives of the people of the Bugesera, a modest-sized district in the southeast of Rwanda--a place where Hutus slaughtered an estimated 100,000 Tutsis. Hatzfeld is detailed in his dispatches, following the same small group of people, gaining their trust by breaking through a haze of trauma and for the killers by passing through prison walls. It's doubtful any other reporter or historian will even gain similar access and intimacy with all the players. What is missing, for the most part, is the role the government of long-time President Paul Kagame plays in their lives.
Life Laid Bare: The Survivors in Rwanda Speak introduced us to the Rwandan voices, the survivors of the Bugesera, men, women, children, all who ran from the blades for 100 days until the Tutsi army-- led by Paul Kagame, refugee turned General turned President--could reach the marshes and the hillside of the district. It is here that Hatzfeld first introduces the reader to the victims and survivors of evil.
Hatzfeld's second installment, Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak is a short and dark tome offering up direct testimony and confessions of one small group of "cutters" who terrorized their small community for 100 days, they a part of a larger group that murdered thousands using mostly machetes, killing more efficiently than the Nazi death camp apparatus killed Jews. Reading Hatzfeld's commentary on his meetings in the crowded Rilima Prison, I detect little joy in his work and note his reticence during interviews of genocidaires.
The Antelope's Strategy: Living in Rwanda After the Genocide, book three, titled because the victims of the genocide, when they could run, ran like the Antelope, staying in their herd, knowing that the Hutus would "cut" the slow, the old, the infirm, and those who carried their babies first. On the hilltops of the Bugesera in 1994, the comfort of the pack helped Innocent Rwililiza only so much. Out of the thousands that sought safety above the village, just a few dozens survived--the rest cut down by their Hutu neighbors and the Interahamwe. If it was possible to report a more dark and horrifying version of the genocide than that provided in books one and two, Hatzfeld finds it, as he documents Innocent's Rwililiza's story of survival.
In Blood Papa: Rwanda's New Generation, Jean Hatzfeld introduces readers to the children of the genocidaires and the survivors. While much of the book is spent with the children, Hatzfeld researches the community or Gacaca courts organized in Rwanda to free up the enormous backlog in the traditional court system. He tells the story of one particular case, a "cutter," a man whose confession Hatzfeld documented in Machete Season, a man who served seven years in prison and was then pardoned by President Kagame along with many other second-tier offenders in 2003, and a man who committed a crime so atrocious and evil that in 2010 his community's Gacaca court immediately dispatched the offender to life in prison.
French reporter and longtime resident of the African continent, Jean Hatzfeld, documents the Rwandan Genocide in more detail than any other historian or journalist. But don't look to his series for a complete historical context or a full examination of the motives of the killers or the previous crimes of the Tutsi people and the colonialists. Other books, like Philip Gourevitch's excellent We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families informs and educates the reader more thoroughly on context, motivation, and history.
Hatzfeld instead offers direct contact with the killers and the survivors. He tracks life in one small village as it progresses over 24 years from the 100 days of the "cuttings" of the genocide, through the forced return and imprisonment of the escaped Hutu killers, to the killers' pardon in 2003 to live side by side with the survivors, and finally to the legacy of the genocide for the next generation of children, the children of both the killers and the survivors. Hatzfeld's series of four poignant and well-written books focus on the lives of the people of the Bugesera, a modest-sized district in the southeast of Rwanda--a place where Hutus slaughtered an estimated 100,000 Tutsis. Hatzfeld is detailed in his dispatches, following the same small group of people, gaining their trust by breaking through a haze of trauma and for the killers by passing through prison walls. It's doubtful any other reporter or historian will even gain similar access and intimacy with all the players. What is missing, for the most part, is the role the government of long-time President Paul Kagame plays in their lives.
Life Laid Bare: The Survivors in Rwanda Speak introduced us to the Rwandan voices, the survivors of the Bugesera, men, women, children, all who ran from the blades for 100 days until the Tutsi army-- led by Paul Kagame, refugee turned General turned President--could reach the marshes and the hillside of the district. It is here that Hatzfeld first introduces the reader to the victims and survivors of evil.
Hatzfeld's second installment, Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak is a short and dark tome offering up direct testimony and confessions of one small group of "cutters" who terrorized their small community for 100 days, they a part of a larger group that murdered thousands using mostly machetes, killing more efficiently than the Nazi death camp apparatus killed Jews. Reading Hatzfeld's commentary on his meetings in the crowded Rilima Prison, I detect little joy in his work and note his reticence during interviews of genocidaires.
The Antelope's Strategy: Living in Rwanda After the Genocide, book three, titled because the victims of the genocide, when they could run, ran like the Antelope, staying in their herd, knowing that the Hutus would "cut" the slow, the old, the infirm, and those who carried their babies first. On the hilltops of the Bugesera in 1994, the comfort of the pack helped Innocent Rwililiza only so much. Out of the thousands that sought safety above the village, just a few dozens survived--the rest cut down by their Hutu neighbors and the Interahamwe. If it was possible to report a more dark and horrifying version of the genocide than that provided in books one and two, Hatzfeld finds it, as he documents Innocent's Rwililiza's story of survival.
In Blood Papa: Rwanda's New Generation, Jean Hatzfeld introduces readers to the children of the genocidaires and the survivors. While much of the book is spent with the children, Hatzfeld researches the community or Gacaca courts organized in Rwanda to free up the enormous backlog in the traditional court system. He tells the story of one particular case, a "cutter," a man whose confession Hatzfeld documented in Machete Season, a man who served seven years in prison and was then pardoned by President Kagame along with many other second-tier offenders in 2003, and a man who committed a crime so atrocious and evil that in 2010 his community's Gacaca court immediately dispatched the offender to life in prison.
October 10, 2018
As a book on the children of Hutu perpetrators and Tutsi survivors from the marsh massacres and impact of what happened in the marshes on them, it is an important book let down by an underwhelming interviewing technique. Generally speaking, it doesn't depict the lives of RPF-Tutsis or their victims. It is geared specifically towards the villages of Nyamata and Ntarama where thousands of Tutsis perished in a cruel, senseless, vicious blood lust by their Hutu neighbors. I wanted to know about the lives of these neighbors before the attack, decades before the attack even, how the Hutus felt picking up the machetes, how the Tutsis saw the actions of other Tutsis at the border that led to and motivated the Hutus to pick up the machetes, how the Hutus justified their attack years later from the comfort of their light prison sentences and pardons, how the Tutsis felt about Hutus still being able to have a life with their wives and children after release, etc. etc.
Even in the test case of Ernestine Kaneza, the killers either don't mention it in the interviews with Hatzfeld or just brush over it, while it IS very important event for a number of survivors as well as the author. I wish more inquisitive time was spent talking to the elders (parents of children) than their children (who were too young to remember anything, if not born later in Congo border area, and frankly seem like in denial and assert their individuality and familial ownership over their parents' past).
The genocide didn't start at Nyamata and Ntarama and the 'peace' achieved feels uneasy, as if it's a quiet before another storm (God Forbid). .
Writing is 4.5 (description of the life and various places is very good). The information is 2. There are no pictures of people interviewed. Still, thanks to the publisher for the ARC.
Memorable paras:
From where we sit, we hear, besides the yelps rising from the marches, a background sound of herons’ raspy barks, the shriller squawks of white vultures gliding overhead, ibises’ bursts of laughter, and a concert of less distinct songs, perhaps parrots or tiny talapoin monkeys, which, they say, live here in throngs. As one approaches the muddy water, the cries are lost in the din of screeching frogs and egrets, of grunts and whirs. With a bit of luck, one spots a herd of warthogs wading at the edge of a pond and, more rarely, the raised head of a sitatunga antelope swimming in the brackish water. White waterlilies are lulled by the current. Pink orchids fringe islets of reeds. There, in the sludge, lie the families of Berthe and Claudine, Francine’s baby, Innocents’ parents and sister, Jeannette’s mother, Angelique’s parents, Jean-Baptiste’s wife and son, and Edith’s parents and parents-in-law. Thousands of bodies have sunk into the Akanyaru and Akagera marshes, which are haunted now by a crowd of ghosts who climb the hills to torment the living.
“The corpses were rotting so quickly that we no longer recognized those we had struck. We came across death with nearly every step and yet we never anticipated our own or that of our families. Death became at once routine and unreal. I mean, it left us untouched. The truth of the genocide is in the mouths of the killers, who manipulate and conceal it, and in the mouths of the dead, who have taken it away with them.” - Ignace Rukiramacumu (Hutu, killer)
“But can you feel ashamed of being Hutu if that is your fate? Many people claim that ethnicity has no place in Rwana anymore, that in the future it will simply disappear. I think if we ignore such a natural truth, we distill venom that is bound to poison children from a very young age. If we bury ethnicity, confusion constantly inflames the frustration of victims.” - Jean-Pierre Habimama (former Hutu prisoner’s son)
“The killings hummed in our ears, but I didn’t think much of it. They were words without a story, which children get used to. I didn’t doubt what I heard, but deep down the words weren’t meant for me. My childhood continued carefree, because that is what life offered me.” - Immaculee Feza (Tutsi suriviror, parents killed)
“Twenty years from now, nothing will set me aprt from others.” - Fabrice Tuyishimire (Hutu prisoner’s son)
“My papa - he’s mie. I love him more than anyone else. It’s understnadable. He is respectful of morals. The priest even chose him as deacon, because his educationb allows him to read the deep meaning of the Scriptures. His neighbors live with him in harmony. They get on well in conversation. He’s very well considered because he shows himself reasonable whenever a dispute arises. No one gives him trouble.” - Jean Damascene Ndayambaje (son of Hutu prisoner)
“I am both happy and unhappy about my ethnicity and I will explain why. It pains me because my people were hunted down like prey. My father was killed, my mother has suffered heartbreak and humiliation as a Tutsi. You take no pride in misfortunes unless you are the one giving chase. On the other hand, my ethnicity makes me glad because otherwise I would have to be Hutu. I thank God that I didn’t inherit a wicked heart, a heart driving me to hunt Tutsis, to wade in mud past my knees, pushing me to seek their extermination. Being hunted is more humane than blackening your soul in the hunt.” - Sandra Isimbi (Tutsi survivor’s daughter, father killed)
“If one day my blood papa were to appear before me, I would ask him his name, the work he does, and where he lives. That’s it. I wouldn’t listen to the rest - I wouldn’t care.” - Nadine Umutesi (Tutsi survivor’s daughter, father unknown, product of rape by Hutu interahamwe at border / in Congo when mother was 16)
“My first sister asked a Hutu she recognized to kill her without making her suffer. He said yes, pulled her out by the arm onto the grass, and struck her with his club. Then a close neighbor, named Habyarimana, shouted that she was pregnant. He ripped open her belly with a stroke of his knife. I weaved my way through the corpses, but unfortunately a boy managed to hit me with his bar. I fell flat on top of the corpses. I didn’t budge. I made my eyes dead.” - Janvier Munyaneza (Tutsi survivor, Ntarama church massacre)
According to Vincent Habyarimana, a group of seven friends participated in the killing of April 15.
“Do I know if Fulgence took part in the killings? I would think so, since he went off with the expeditions like so many other men. But Ernestine’s murder, that’s a big thing...........I remember the night of the killing, on the fifteenth. Who doesn’t remember it? He came home with someone called Sylverie. They were sweating - they smelled of sweat through and through........ If that was the day he became a butcher, would’t his wife have noticed in bed? ” - Jacqueline Mukamana, Fulgence’s wife
“Fulgence admitted his misdeeds like so many others, and the judge sentenced him harshly. Twelve years in prison is a big thing.Then he received the presidential pardon......Then the gacaca courts came. We trembled like everyone else.” - Jacqueline Mukamana, Fulgence’s wife
“I felt too little to ask him personal questions about his bad behavior. The traditional respect a child has for his papa is the same as trepidation. Mo questions for my Mama either, because she was blessed to be busy by her husband’s side. And none for my older brother, Idelphonse, for fear of being scolded.” - Jean-Damascene Ndayambaje (Fulgence Bunani’s son, Hutu prisoner’s son)
.
Even in the test case of Ernestine Kaneza, the killers either don't mention it in the interviews with Hatzfeld or just brush over it, while it IS very important event for a number of survivors as well as the author. I wish more inquisitive time was spent talking to the elders (parents of children) than their children (who were too young to remember anything, if not born later in Congo border area, and frankly seem like in denial and assert their individuality and familial ownership over their parents' past).
The genocide didn't start at Nyamata and Ntarama and the 'peace' achieved feels uneasy, as if it's a quiet before another storm (God Forbid). .
Writing is 4.5 (description of the life and various places is very good). The information is 2. There are no pictures of people interviewed. Still, thanks to the publisher for the ARC.
Memorable paras:
From where we sit, we hear, besides the yelps rising from the marches, a background sound of herons’ raspy barks, the shriller squawks of white vultures gliding overhead, ibises’ bursts of laughter, and a concert of less distinct songs, perhaps parrots or tiny talapoin monkeys, which, they say, live here in throngs. As one approaches the muddy water, the cries are lost in the din of screeching frogs and egrets, of grunts and whirs. With a bit of luck, one spots a herd of warthogs wading at the edge of a pond and, more rarely, the raised head of a sitatunga antelope swimming in the brackish water. White waterlilies are lulled by the current. Pink orchids fringe islets of reeds. There, in the sludge, lie the families of Berthe and Claudine, Francine’s baby, Innocents’ parents and sister, Jeannette’s mother, Angelique’s parents, Jean-Baptiste’s wife and son, and Edith’s parents and parents-in-law. Thousands of bodies have sunk into the Akanyaru and Akagera marshes, which are haunted now by a crowd of ghosts who climb the hills to torment the living.
“The corpses were rotting so quickly that we no longer recognized those we had struck. We came across death with nearly every step and yet we never anticipated our own or that of our families. Death became at once routine and unreal. I mean, it left us untouched. The truth of the genocide is in the mouths of the killers, who manipulate and conceal it, and in the mouths of the dead, who have taken it away with them.” - Ignace Rukiramacumu (Hutu, killer)
“But can you feel ashamed of being Hutu if that is your fate? Many people claim that ethnicity has no place in Rwana anymore, that in the future it will simply disappear. I think if we ignore such a natural truth, we distill venom that is bound to poison children from a very young age. If we bury ethnicity, confusion constantly inflames the frustration of victims.” - Jean-Pierre Habimama (former Hutu prisoner’s son)
“The killings hummed in our ears, but I didn’t think much of it. They were words without a story, which children get used to. I didn’t doubt what I heard, but deep down the words weren’t meant for me. My childhood continued carefree, because that is what life offered me.” - Immaculee Feza (Tutsi suriviror, parents killed)
“Twenty years from now, nothing will set me aprt from others.” - Fabrice Tuyishimire (Hutu prisoner’s son)
“My papa - he’s mie. I love him more than anyone else. It’s understnadable. He is respectful of morals. The priest even chose him as deacon, because his educationb allows him to read the deep meaning of the Scriptures. His neighbors live with him in harmony. They get on well in conversation. He’s very well considered because he shows himself reasonable whenever a dispute arises. No one gives him trouble.” - Jean Damascene Ndayambaje (son of Hutu prisoner)
“I am both happy and unhappy about my ethnicity and I will explain why. It pains me because my people were hunted down like prey. My father was killed, my mother has suffered heartbreak and humiliation as a Tutsi. You take no pride in misfortunes unless you are the one giving chase. On the other hand, my ethnicity makes me glad because otherwise I would have to be Hutu. I thank God that I didn’t inherit a wicked heart, a heart driving me to hunt Tutsis, to wade in mud past my knees, pushing me to seek their extermination. Being hunted is more humane than blackening your soul in the hunt.” - Sandra Isimbi (Tutsi survivor’s daughter, father killed)
“If one day my blood papa were to appear before me, I would ask him his name, the work he does, and where he lives. That’s it. I wouldn’t listen to the rest - I wouldn’t care.” - Nadine Umutesi (Tutsi survivor’s daughter, father unknown, product of rape by Hutu interahamwe at border / in Congo when mother was 16)
“My first sister asked a Hutu she recognized to kill her without making her suffer. He said yes, pulled her out by the arm onto the grass, and struck her with his club. Then a close neighbor, named Habyarimana, shouted that she was pregnant. He ripped open her belly with a stroke of his knife. I weaved my way through the corpses, but unfortunately a boy managed to hit me with his bar. I fell flat on top of the corpses. I didn’t budge. I made my eyes dead.” - Janvier Munyaneza (Tutsi survivor, Ntarama church massacre)
According to Vincent Habyarimana, a group of seven friends participated in the killing of April 15.
“Do I know if Fulgence took part in the killings? I would think so, since he went off with the expeditions like so many other men. But Ernestine’s murder, that’s a big thing...........I remember the night of the killing, on the fifteenth. Who doesn’t remember it? He came home with someone called Sylverie. They were sweating - they smelled of sweat through and through........ If that was the day he became a butcher, would’t his wife have noticed in bed? ” - Jacqueline Mukamana, Fulgence’s wife
“Fulgence admitted his misdeeds like so many others, and the judge sentenced him harshly. Twelve years in prison is a big thing.Then he received the presidential pardon......Then the gacaca courts came. We trembled like everyone else.” - Jacqueline Mukamana, Fulgence’s wife
“I felt too little to ask him personal questions about his bad behavior. The traditional respect a child has for his papa is the same as trepidation. Mo questions for my Mama either, because she was blessed to be busy by her husband’s side. And none for my older brother, Idelphonse, for fear of being scolded.” - Jean-Damascene Ndayambaje (Fulgence Bunani’s son, Hutu prisoner’s son)
.
May 28, 2022
Comment est-ce qu’une société peut survivre un genocide entre ses deux ethnies ?
Comment les gens peuvent vivre avec ce qu’ils sont fait ?
Avec ce que leurs pères ont fait ?
Avec ce qu’ils ont subi par leurs voisins ?
Avec ce qui a été fait à leurs proches ?
Jean Hatzfeld divise ces récits dans “Le Souvenir”, “Les Parents” et “Le Devenir” et essaie de répondre à ces questions en présentant des profils des différents individus qui ont fait l’expérience du genocide des deux côtés.
Ces récits sont durs, honnêtes, parfois simples, presque toujours tristes. Ils montrent que même une génération plus tard, les deux ethnies sont divisées et que la politique qui voulait aider une réconciliation, n’a qu’augmenter les différences et les sentiments ambigus.
Les Hutus parlent beaucoup moins du génocide mais peuvent imager une réconciliation, bien qu’ils aient certaines réticences par rapport au fait que les Tutsis reçoivent tout ce dont ils ont le droit suite au génocide. Les Tutsis parlent du génocide dans les familles et entre eux et ne sont pas prêts du tout à oublier ou à faire confiance aux Hutus. Comment une société peut grandir ensemble dans ces conditions, c’est difficile à imaginer...
“J’ai la nostalgie d’une existence optimiste.”
Comment les gens peuvent vivre avec ce qu’ils sont fait ?
Avec ce que leurs pères ont fait ?
Avec ce qu’ils ont subi par leurs voisins ?
Avec ce qui a été fait à leurs proches ?
Jean Hatzfeld divise ces récits dans “Le Souvenir”, “Les Parents” et “Le Devenir” et essaie de répondre à ces questions en présentant des profils des différents individus qui ont fait l’expérience du genocide des deux côtés.
Ces récits sont durs, honnêtes, parfois simples, presque toujours tristes. Ils montrent que même une génération plus tard, les deux ethnies sont divisées et que la politique qui voulait aider une réconciliation, n’a qu’augmenter les différences et les sentiments ambigus.
Les Hutus parlent beaucoup moins du génocide mais peuvent imager une réconciliation, bien qu’ils aient certaines réticences par rapport au fait que les Tutsis reçoivent tout ce dont ils ont le droit suite au génocide. Les Tutsis parlent du génocide dans les familles et entre eux et ne sont pas prêts du tout à oublier ou à faire confiance aux Hutus. Comment une société peut grandir ensemble dans ces conditions, c’est difficile à imaginer...
“J’ai la nostalgie d’une existence optimiste.”
November 28, 2024
'Jestem Tutsi. Moi rodzice są Tutsi, czuję głęboki związek z moją grupą etniczną. (...) Jestem zadowolona i niezadowolona zarazem z pochodzenia - zaraz to wyjaśnię. Z jednej strony jest mi z tego powodu przykro, bo moich bliskich ścigano jak zwierzynę łowną. Mojego ojca zabito, moja matka smuciła się i cierpiała z powodu upokorzeń, dlatego że jest Tutsi. Nikt nie szczyci się nieszczęściami, jeśli ich nie szuka. Z drugiej strony to mnie cieszy, bo inaczej musiałabym być Hutu. Dziękuję Bogu, że nie odziedziczyłam złego serca, które skłoniłoby mnie do polowania na Tutsi, brodzenia w błocie sięgającym kolan, żeby ich wszystkich zgładzić. To bardziej ludzkie, cierpieć z powodu prześladowań, niż całkiem znieczulić duszę, by prześladować innych'.
autor powraca po latach do swoich bohaterów i ich dzieci, by oddać głos kolejnemu pokoleniu, które ludobójstwo przeżyło w pieluchach lub narodziło się tuż po nim. to dzieci Hutu i Tutsi, ofiar i zbrodniarzy, ludzi żyjących na wolności i za kratami więzienia. nastolatkowie i młodzi dorośli, którzy żyją otoczeni traumą, często unikając tego tematu jak ognia, marzący o spokojnej, stabilnej dorosłości. snują plany dotyczące studiów i pracy, są przywiązani do swojego miasta i rodziny, marzą o dobrym mężu lub żonie. niektórzy Tutsi widzą możliwość życia w związku z Hutu, inni absolutnie sobie tego nie wyobrażają - i vice versa. jest to książka dojmująco smutna, opowiadająca o niewyobrażalnym bólu i trudzie, z jakim wiąże się próba przebaczenia i zrozumienia, podążania za oficjalną polityką państwa. rozmówcami są bardzo młodzi ludzie, przez co bardzo uderzający jest kontrast prostolinijnej naiwności co do codzienności i ogromnej dojrzałości w temacie przeżyć swoich bliskich. o ile poprzednie książki Hatzfelda o Rwandzie można czytać w dowolnej kolejności, tak 'Więzy krwi' najlepiej wybrzmią na samym końcu.
autor powraca po latach do swoich bohaterów i ich dzieci, by oddać głos kolejnemu pokoleniu, które ludobójstwo przeżyło w pieluchach lub narodziło się tuż po nim. to dzieci Hutu i Tutsi, ofiar i zbrodniarzy, ludzi żyjących na wolności i za kratami więzienia. nastolatkowie i młodzi dorośli, którzy żyją otoczeni traumą, często unikając tego tematu jak ognia, marzący o spokojnej, stabilnej dorosłości. snują plany dotyczące studiów i pracy, są przywiązani do swojego miasta i rodziny, marzą o dobrym mężu lub żonie. niektórzy Tutsi widzą możliwość życia w związku z Hutu, inni absolutnie sobie tego nie wyobrażają - i vice versa. jest to książka dojmująco smutna, opowiadająca o niewyobrażalnym bólu i trudzie, z jakim wiąże się próba przebaczenia i zrozumienia, podążania za oficjalną polityką państwa. rozmówcami są bardzo młodzi ludzie, przez co bardzo uderzający jest kontrast prostolinijnej naiwności co do codzienności i ogromnej dojrzałości w temacie przeżyć swoich bliskich. o ile poprzednie książki Hatzfelda o Rwandzie można czytać w dowolnej kolejności, tak 'Więzy krwi' najlepiej wybrzmią na samym końcu.
March 10, 2019
Literature is in real life, as some would say. Sometimes you just need to listen to what is happening in the world.
After interviewing survivors and perpetrators of the Rwandan massacres, Hatzfeld returned to the same small city to interview adolescents born shortly after the events.
The first part of the book is quite repetitive. Each interview starts with a description of the village, often with quite cliché wording. Sometimes these reminders are useful and help paint a clearer picture or explain a particular event, but a lot of the time they get in the way of the interviews. Also, each interview seems to end with a long passage about god, which seems suspicious. Maybe people are very pious, but do all the adolescents talk about their belief system at exactly the same part of an interview?
The second part is smart: the adolescents' parents talk about how they chose to discuss the massacres, which gives contextual elements.
The third part of the book is beautiful: the adolescents are interviewed a second time. This is where the most haunting phrases appear, as the teenagers talk about the hopes and aspiration for the future. It's almost worth skipping some of the beginning to get straight to this part.
After interviewing survivors and perpetrators of the Rwandan massacres, Hatzfeld returned to the same small city to interview adolescents born shortly after the events.
The first part of the book is quite repetitive. Each interview starts with a description of the village, often with quite cliché wording. Sometimes these reminders are useful and help paint a clearer picture or explain a particular event, but a lot of the time they get in the way of the interviews. Also, each interview seems to end with a long passage about god, which seems suspicious. Maybe people are very pious, but do all the adolescents talk about their belief system at exactly the same part of an interview?
The second part is smart: the adolescents' parents talk about how they chose to discuss the massacres, which gives contextual elements.
The third part of the book is beautiful: the adolescents are interviewed a second time. This is where the most haunting phrases appear, as the teenagers talk about the hopes and aspiration for the future. It's almost worth skipping some of the beginning to get straight to this part.
July 1, 2019
If I had known this was not really a stand-alone book, I would have read the previously written, related books first. I think I would have been able to understand the characters better, and therefore would have appreciated the book more. It is the kind of book that really makes you think; about genocide, about the impacts of colonialism, about how children are impacted by the actions of their parents, and most importantly to me, how a country can survive and thrive when one half of the people are continuously wary of the other half. Even if it wasn't my favorite book, I did enjoy all the thinking that I did while reading it.
August 12, 2024
opowieści o codzienności naznaczonej przeszłością, przeplatane sielskim krajobrazem tworzą świetny kontrast. przejmujące było zobaczyć przemyślenia ludzi, którzy, uwiązani historią, mogą jedynie starać się żyć z dnia na dzień. odnosi się wrażenie, że ich najprostsze i najszczersze przekonania mające zapewnić, że nigdy więcej nie doświadczą powtórnego okrucieństwa, są ich jedyną deską ratunku - reportaż ukazuje, jak społeczność Nyamaty powoli godzi się z przeszłością i w rytm prozaicznych zajęć ostrożnie stawia kroki w kierunku normalności. jednak mimo czasu upływającego od tragedii, którego znakiem jest pokolenie młodych rwandyjczyków, wniosek pozostaje przykry, czego autor dowodzi bolesną konfrontacją poglądu dzieci i rodziców na rzeczywistość. dorośli, doświadczywszy skrajnej brutalności człowieka wobec człowieka, odrzucają idealizm i wbrew słowom ich dzieci pokazują, że ich nadzieje i zapewnienia o dobrostanie mentalnym są najczęściej złudne. ludobójstwo na wiele pokoleń zniszczyło ideę społecznego zaufania i poczucie bezpieczeństwa w Rwandzie, a z tym - możliwość normalnego funkcjonowania. przejmujące.
January 14, 2021
Just read this book and you will think God you were born in the USA. It is so sad to see how something we viewed as a shocking movie (Hotel Rwanda) and forgot about a year later, affects the people that lived through that hell today. What is sad, is one year from now, I will remember the book, but not the individual stories of these people. Some their lives will not get any better for others the pain will hopefully continue to fade. What will Rwanda be like for the next generation?
December 22, 2017
Więzy krwi to opowieść przygnębiająca, mroczna i niestety, prawdziwa. To historie nastolatków i młodych ludzi, którzy od pierwszych lat życia zostali napiętnowani traumą i obarczeni odpowiedzialnością za czyny rodziców. Książka zdecydowanie warta poznania.
Cała opinia:
http://www.kacikzksiazka.pl/2017/11/w...
Cała opinia:
http://www.kacikzksiazka.pl/2017/11/w...
January 1, 2023
Important book on the lasting effects of the Rwandan genocide. So many books about the genocide focus on the genocide itself, but this one shed valuable insights into the effects it has had for children of perpetrators and victims. The book has simple language because it is primarily the youths’ narratives, but the material remains tough.
September 12, 2018
Very disturbing and sad, as you would expect.
April 27, 2021
"Souffrir d'être chassée est plus humain que de se noircir l'âme à chasser."
April 16, 2025
A hard pill to swallow
Before reading, I was already interested in this topic but this book had opened my eyes even wider.
I still cannot understand how this all happened
Before reading, I was already interested in this topic but this book had opened my eyes even wider.
I still cannot understand how this all happened
April 3, 2023
Finalement les descendants sont aussi des victimes indirectes et involontaires. Comment se reconstruire après le lourd passé des parents? Quel fardeau...
November 5, 2015
Un superbe ouvrage pour les intéressés du génocide rwandais. Ces témoignages nous révèlent bien la société actuelle et les répercussions de cet événement marquant du 20e siecle. Les principaux points négatifs sont le fait qu'il n'y ai pas vraiment de conclusion et que les termes spécifiques soient expliqués qu'en fin d'oeuvre.
August 23, 2018
The author did a great job of capturing the lives of a new generation of people in Rawanda that are dealing with the aftermath of violence in their country.
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