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Rwanda #1
Life Laid Bare: The Survivors in Rwanda Speak
To make the effort to understand what happened in Rwanda is a painful task that we have no right to shirk-it is part of being a moral adult."
-Susan Sontag
In the late 1990s, French author and journalist Jean Hatzfeld made several journeys into the hilly, marshy region of the Bugesera, one of the areas most devastated by the Rwandan genocide of April 1994, where an average of five out of six Tutsis were hacked to death with machete and spear by their Hutu neighbors and militiamen. In the villages of Nyamata and N'tarama, Hatzfeld interviewed fourteen survivors of the genocide, from orphan teenage farmers to the local social worker. For years the survivors had lived in a muteness as enigmatic as the silence of those who survived the Nazi concentration camps. In Life Laid Bare, they speak for those who are no longer alive to speak for themselves; they tell of the deaths of family and friends in the churches and marshes to which they fled, and they attempt to account for the reasons behind the Tutsi extermination. For many of the survivors "life has broken down," while for others, it has "stopped," and still others say that it "absolutely must go on."
These horrific accounts of life at the very edge contrast with Hatzfeld's own sensitive and vivid descriptions of Rwanda's villages and countryside in peacetime. These voices of courage and resilience exemplify the indomitable human spirit, and they remind us of our own moral responsibility to bear witness to these atrocities and to never forget what can come to pass again. Winner of the Prix France Culture and the Prix Pierre Mille, Life Laid Bare allows us, in the author's own words, "to draw as close as we can get to the Rwandan genocide.
-Susan Sontag
In the late 1990s, French author and journalist Jean Hatzfeld made several journeys into the hilly, marshy region of the Bugesera, one of the areas most devastated by the Rwandan genocide of April 1994, where an average of five out of six Tutsis were hacked to death with machete and spear by their Hutu neighbors and militiamen. In the villages of Nyamata and N'tarama, Hatzfeld interviewed fourteen survivors of the genocide, from orphan teenage farmers to the local social worker. For years the survivors had lived in a muteness as enigmatic as the silence of those who survived the Nazi concentration camps. In Life Laid Bare, they speak for those who are no longer alive to speak for themselves; they tell of the deaths of family and friends in the churches and marshes to which they fled, and they attempt to account for the reasons behind the Tutsi extermination. For many of the survivors "life has broken down," while for others, it has "stopped," and still others say that it "absolutely must go on."
These horrific accounts of life at the very edge contrast with Hatzfeld's own sensitive and vivid descriptions of Rwanda's villages and countryside in peacetime. These voices of courage and resilience exemplify the indomitable human spirit, and they remind us of our own moral responsibility to bear witness to these atrocities and to never forget what can come to pass again. Winner of the Prix France Culture and the Prix Pierre Mille, Life Laid Bare allows us, in the author's own words, "to draw as close as we can get to the Rwandan genocide.
256 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1994
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6304 people want to read
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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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.
January 5, 2020
In order of publication, the books I am reviewing are:
Life Laid Bare: The Survivors in Rwanda Speak (2000) by Jean Hatzfeld, trans. Linda Coverdale
Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak (2003) by Jean Hatzfeld, trans. Linda Coverdale
The Democratic Republic of Congo: Between Hope and Despair (2013) by Michael Deibert
This review is about three books at once because: 1) the topics of all three books are related to the 1994 Rwandan genocide and its aftermath, and 2) writing about the books individually would force me to compartmentalize, which would leave the story only partially told in each review. Be forewarned I am going to provide background on related reading because examining my reading about these events in isolation would skew my explanation as much as reading only one book about it would do. In the end, I hope to tie all of this reading together and encourage you to find out more.
Several years ago I read “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” by Ishmael Beah. It was my introduction to the fact that children were being used as soldiers and turned into killing machines. Early in 2019 I read two books on the Rwandan genocide. From the perspective of a Tutsi refugee, Clementine Wamariya wrote “The Girl Who Smiles Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After”. I also read Philip Gourevitch’s “We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families”. Gourevitch’s account is a harrowing tale of the events leading up to and in the immediate aftermath of the 1994 genocide. These books encouraged me to find out more by reading the books reviewed here. I will be cross-referencing them below.
Life Laid Bare: The Survivors in Rwanda Speak (2000) by Jean Hatzfeld, trans. Linda Coverdale
In this book Hatzfeld interviewed Tutsi survivors from one region of Rwanda and related their stories. In this region 50,000 out of 59,000 Tutsi’s were killed by Hutu militias. Most of the survivors hid in nearby marshes where many of the victims were hunted down and chopped to death with machetes. The survivors from the marshes could often hear loved ones being hacked to death, sometimes they could even see it happening from where they were hiding. The victims were in hiding for over a month before the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) army coming from Uganda drove the Hutus out of Rwanda. If the RPF had not come when they did most of the victims interviewed concurred that the Hutus would have successfully wiped out everyone. In one case of particular irony a man who escaped the Hutu machetes by running through the forest every day, lost a leg to a land mine sometime after the Hutus had fled the region.
Still, pointing fingers at the Hutus is easy, because they were the ones wielding the cutlasses. Here is what one of the victims said to the author: “Neither do I wish to express what I think about why the Whites watched all these massacres with their arms crossed. I believe that the Whites take advantage of the quarrels among Blacks to sow their own ideas afterward, and that’s all.” When one reads Gourevitch’s book the connection among France, the President of France and his son, an arms dealer and the Hutu power military that instigated the genocide in April 1994. (Gourevitch 1998, pp. 89, 155, see also, Deibert (2013) p. 53)
Reading about these experiences and sharing the thoughts of these victims is a profoundly moving and disturbing experience. In addition, it is a cautionary tale of the danger of building a machinery of hate. One can easily forget the horrors that can exist in the world of human beings when one is living in a relatively peaceful place with a privileged and protected middle-class lifestyle. Still, these words are a weak transmitter of the experiences of the victims. As American writer Susan Sontag wrote in the preface of Hatzfeld’s second collection, “To make the effort to understand what happened in Rwanda is a painful task that we have no right to shirk – it is part of being a moral adult.”
Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak (2003) by Jean Hatzfeld, trans. Linda Coverdale
A few years after interviewing the Tutsi victims Hatzfeld went to a prison in Rwanda to interview perpetrators of the genocide from the same region as the victims he previously interviewed. The interpreter Hatzfeld employed was one of the Tutsi victims interviewed in his earlier book. The Hutu men had fled before the RPF mainly into what was, at the time Zaire. Eventually the people in the refugee camps were repatriated to Rwanda and many of the perpetrators were imprisoned pending legal action.
Three things in particular stood out in these interviews. First, the way in which the killing was made into a work routine: there was a general starting time, the need for excused absence if you missed work, and the end of the day of work given by a uniform signal which all obeyed. Second, after the day of killing (and looting) the men would gather in bars (known in local parlance as cabarets), drink, compare notes and brag about the numbers of people they had killed. Third, all of the men interviewed felt they were being victimized by the Tutsi led regime in Rwanda for something they were compelled to do: the argument being that if they did not participate, they would have been killed for refusing. This however was not true.
Perhaps the following excerpts can help explain what I mean:
“One evening at the rough beginning, we came back late. We had spent the day running after the fugitives. We were tired.
But on the way back, we discovered another group of girls and boys. We pushed them along as prisoners to the judge’s house. He ordered that they be sliced up on the spot, in the dark. No one grumbled despite our weariness from an exhausting day. But afterward he assigned us ordinary schedules such as we were used to.” (p. 63)
And
“For the simplest farmers, it was refreshing to leave the hoe in the yard. We got up rich, we went to bed with full bellies, we lived a life of plenty. Pillaging is more worthwhile than harvesting, because it profits everyone equally.” (p. 64)
In addition to the interviews, Hatzfeld included some research material on the background of each of the men he interviewed. One of them was a relatively important figure in atrocities in that region, Joseph-Desire Bitero. He was also a leader among the prisoners at the time of the interviews. The author described an encounter with Bitero at the prison: “[He] arrived in his pink uniform with a swing in his step, exchanging discreet friendly greetings with every other prisoner he met. . . . He did seem jolly, said hello nicely, and would gladly have offered us a beer if he’d had one handy. . . .[W]henever Joseph-Desire goes back and forth between his special block and the garden by the road, he claps some former drinking or killing companion on the back, fires off a joke, winks and rolls his eyes, and asks how everyone’s doing, testing his popularity while trying to renew old ties.” (p. 165 & 173) He was an ordinary, jovial, neighborly guy. Frightening.
In the final chapter of the book entitled “The Killers” Hatzfeld delivers short biographies of each of the men interviewed. Two of them struck me in particular. Leopold Twagirayezu was described as having “been a fervent Catholic since childhood.” Fulgence Bunani was described as, “A fervent Catholic, he served as a voluntary deacon during lesser rites in the church in Kibungo and filled in for the pries, who had to minister to several parishes.” That church in Kibungo was the site of a massacre of 5,000 people who had taken shelter thinking they would be spared because they were in a church.
The Democratic Republic of Congo: Between Hope and Despair (2013) by Michael Deibert
Ten years after Hatzfeld released his book of interviews with the perpetrators of the genocide, author and journalist Michael Deibert released this book. This book traces the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and it relates in great detail the time in recent history after the Rwandan genocide. In doing so he discusses what he refers to as “The Great Congo Wars” which took place, essentially between 1994 and 2001. Of course conflicts continued in regions of the DRC after 2001.
Only when one reads the book can one grasp the enormity of the consequences of these wars, but three things stood out in Deibert’s account of this time in history. First, that different African nations, including Kagame’s Rwandan regime and Uganda’s Museveni regime (among others) supported various bands of fighting groups in different, resource rich, areas of the DRC. Their purpose was resource extraction. To facilitate the resource extraction various multi-national mining companies worked with these armed bands. Second, the money from the resource extraction was invested in buying more arms: guns, bullets, grenade launchers, mortars, missiles and so on. Third, these “militias” were known for three things in particular: mass killing, brutally violent rape and impressment of children to fight as soldiers (for a first-hand account of how this could happen see Beah 2007). Deibert explains, “The effect of the continued battles on the population was horrendous, as in the town of Kpandroma, about 50 miles north-east of Bunia, which saw an average of one rape case reported every day between July and mid-December 2004.”
It was in Deibert’s book that I understood more about the killing of Hutu refugees. One instance in 1997 was described as “systematic, methodical and premeditated” (p. 60) Throughout the book, including up to the time of publication, roving bands of “militias” continued to spring up in the resource rich border regions along Rwanda and Uganda. Every time the activities of the various groups are related in the book there are atrocities and counter-atrocities committed: mass killings, rape, abduction and forced labor.
Conclusion
It is all about the money. A theme I have repeated in previous reviews cannot be overemphasized. In the boardrooms of mining corporations and munitions corporations in Europe, Canada and the United States the champagne and caviar are flowing. With the goal of squeezing out every possible cent in order to have it flow into their already gorged coffers these human vampires have the blood of all of these victims on their hands. But it goes virtually unnoticed. The corporations who provide the never-ending stream of reports on celebrity marriages do not find telling the truth about the system to be profitable. It would be interesting to learn how many members are on the board of mining and weapons companies, or maybe even all three.
But this will not bring back all of those lost lives. I remember these words from Nelson Mandela: “Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.” I would add that the unbridled, profit-driven, death cult that is the weapons industry and the mining industry can also be overcome. It is definitely not natural. It is man-made. It can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.
I strongly recommend you read these books. Why? I will let Clementine Wamariya, author of “The Girl Who Smiles Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After,” answer that: “What’s wrong with me? Or what’s wrong with you? If I don’t share with you my history, if I don’t explain what I’ve brought with me to this moment in time – that to me the bird hitting the window sounded like a shell detonating – then how could you know me?”
November 2, 2020
Difficile de noter des témoignages, impossible même. Je mets 10/10 aux quelques oeuvres que je chéris tout particulièrement, pour mon classement personnel. Alors ce 9/10, c’est tout sauf mathématique. Il ne manque rien à Dans le nu de la vie pour être inénarrable, il est insensé à lui tout seul.
Jean Hatzfeld recueille 6 ans après le génocide (autant dire, au quasi lendemain), les témoignages des rescapés Tutsi, qui ont rampé des mois dans la vase des marais, s’épuisant dans des courses absurdes pour échapper jour après jour à leurs voisins tueurs. Comme le dit très justement plusieurs témoignages, un mur infranchissable sépare les rescapés des non concernés, aucun des Tutsis interrogés ne se sont vus révéler la beauté et la préciosité de la vie à la faveur de ses moments dramatiques. Le génocide a décimé la société, des pans de sociabilité bien ancrés dans la culture rwandaise, l’avenir de jeunes enfants laissés à eux-même, la confiance dans le futur… La Nation se remet debout mais il lui manque la flamme. Tout est éteint, rien n’a de sens et d’importance. Les survivants se retrouvent pour discuter ad eternam de ce qu’ils ont vécu, tissant des souvenirs plus ou moins romancés : parce que la vérité est trop dure à assumer, parce que le flou s’étend et qu’il faut raccommoder sans cesse l’histoire, parce qu’on veut « jongler » avec sa douleur, la raconter par de multiples point de vue, sans même réaliser qu’on s’éloigne de la vérité, hideuse et cruelle.
En l’absence de mention contraire, je pense que les récits ont été recueillis en français, et quelle langue… la beauté des tournures de phrases rwandaises ne donnent que plus de force au récit, tout en pudeur et images troublantes mais explicites.
On referme ce livre en s’étonnant d’avoir su le finir. En pensant à ses enfants recueillis par des femmes de bonne volonté, à ses Hutus qui saluent au marché le voisin Tutsi qu’ils traquaient des années auparavant, à la résilience de l’être humain, et à sa profonde cruauté.
Jean Hatzfeld recueille 6 ans après le génocide (autant dire, au quasi lendemain), les témoignages des rescapés Tutsi, qui ont rampé des mois dans la vase des marais, s’épuisant dans des courses absurdes pour échapper jour après jour à leurs voisins tueurs. Comme le dit très justement plusieurs témoignages, un mur infranchissable sépare les rescapés des non concernés, aucun des Tutsis interrogés ne se sont vus révéler la beauté et la préciosité de la vie à la faveur de ses moments dramatiques. Le génocide a décimé la société, des pans de sociabilité bien ancrés dans la culture rwandaise, l’avenir de jeunes enfants laissés à eux-même, la confiance dans le futur… La Nation se remet debout mais il lui manque la flamme. Tout est éteint, rien n’a de sens et d’importance. Les survivants se retrouvent pour discuter ad eternam de ce qu’ils ont vécu, tissant des souvenirs plus ou moins romancés : parce que la vérité est trop dure à assumer, parce que le flou s’étend et qu’il faut raccommoder sans cesse l’histoire, parce qu’on veut « jongler » avec sa douleur, la raconter par de multiples point de vue, sans même réaliser qu’on s’éloigne de la vérité, hideuse et cruelle.
En l’absence de mention contraire, je pense que les récits ont été recueillis en français, et quelle langue… la beauté des tournures de phrases rwandaises ne donnent que plus de force au récit, tout en pudeur et images troublantes mais explicites.
On referme ce livre en s’étonnant d’avoir su le finir. En pensant à ses enfants recueillis par des femmes de bonne volonté, à ses Hutus qui saluent au marché le voisin Tutsi qu’ils traquaient des années auparavant, à la résilience de l’être humain, et à sa profonde cruauté.
December 31, 2020
Writing this on the final day of 2020, one of the worst years the world has seen during my lifetime, I'm humbled to be reminded that any inconveniences most of us have 'suffered' at the hands of the pandemic are nothing compared to what the Tutsis of Rwanda went through back in the 1990s.
I've been reading about Rwanda for many years. For me, it was the 2005 film 'Shooting Dogs' that fired up my interest. The book that solidified my interest - and tops my 'best book about the genocide' is undoubtedly 'A Sunday by the Pool in Kigali' by Gil Courtemanche. I have read the second of Jean Hatzfeld's books - the one about the testimonies of the killers - and recently managed to source a second-hand copy of 'Into the Quick of Life'.
The two books follow very similar structures. Hatzfeld takes a fairly random sample of people from a particular area of Rwanda, avoids anybody who could be considered 'political' and tries to let the people speak for themselves. Each chapter is one person's account - Hatzfeld introduces the circumstances of meeting that person, where they lived at the time of the killing and what they are now doing. Then he hands over and lets them have their say.
I pace myself with these books. To rush would not do justice to the severity of what these people suffered and might risk the reader getting a 'more of the same' feeling. I try not to take more than two chapters at a time. There is a lot of repetition - but that's because a lot of people went through the same horrors, hid in the same swamps, ran to the same churches, saw the same groups of killers cutting down their friends and neighbours.
One thing that comes through in the later chapters is the disdain that many of the survivors feel for 'the Whites'. The question will always remain about how people - admittedly assigned as 'peacekeepers' - were so restricted in their remit that they could only evacuate foreigners but not intervene in the killings. I did try to read General Romeo Dalaire's account of the genocide but found it so full of his attempts to cover his own arse and justify his inactions that I gave up less than halfway through.
The format of Hatzfeld's books ensures he tries not to influence but he also tends to not pull things together. For me, 'A Sunday by the Pool in Kigali' will always carry far more impact to the reader because it links the stories of many people together. Hatzfeld just presents the 'stories' (the truths of the people who tell them) without any attempt to interpret or extrapolate. There is space on our bookshelves for multiple approaches, and what matters most is that the world doesn't forget how easily this small African country slipped into utter carnage, and not for the first time.
I've been reading about Rwanda for many years. For me, it was the 2005 film 'Shooting Dogs' that fired up my interest. The book that solidified my interest - and tops my 'best book about the genocide' is undoubtedly 'A Sunday by the Pool in Kigali' by Gil Courtemanche. I have read the second of Jean Hatzfeld's books - the one about the testimonies of the killers - and recently managed to source a second-hand copy of 'Into the Quick of Life'.
The two books follow very similar structures. Hatzfeld takes a fairly random sample of people from a particular area of Rwanda, avoids anybody who could be considered 'political' and tries to let the people speak for themselves. Each chapter is one person's account - Hatzfeld introduces the circumstances of meeting that person, where they lived at the time of the killing and what they are now doing. Then he hands over and lets them have their say.
I pace myself with these books. To rush would not do justice to the severity of what these people suffered and might risk the reader getting a 'more of the same' feeling. I try not to take more than two chapters at a time. There is a lot of repetition - but that's because a lot of people went through the same horrors, hid in the same swamps, ran to the same churches, saw the same groups of killers cutting down their friends and neighbours.
One thing that comes through in the later chapters is the disdain that many of the survivors feel for 'the Whites'. The question will always remain about how people - admittedly assigned as 'peacekeepers' - were so restricted in their remit that they could only evacuate foreigners but not intervene in the killings. I did try to read General Romeo Dalaire's account of the genocide but found it so full of his attempts to cover his own arse and justify his inactions that I gave up less than halfway through.
The format of Hatzfeld's books ensures he tries not to influence but he also tends to not pull things together. For me, 'A Sunday by the Pool in Kigali' will always carry far more impact to the reader because it links the stories of many people together. Hatzfeld just presents the 'stories' (the truths of the people who tell them) without any attempt to interpret or extrapolate. There is space on our bookshelves for multiple approaches, and what matters most is that the world doesn't forget how easily this small African country slipped into utter carnage, and not for the first time.
April 17, 2025
stunning writing, all the interviews told different points of view, it talks about hope a lot for an account of genocide and i couldn’t be more shocked by what happened as someone who knew very little about this genocide and in awe at the tutsis
August 7, 2011
This is a gripping but sombre subject. It does exactly what it says on the tin -first hand accounts of what Rwandan genocide survivors experienced during those 100 days, with a short intoduction to their current lives as added by the author. I think more background would have made it more fascinating, but if you want that, read 'Shake Hands With The Devil' by Romeo Dallaire.
May 30, 2024
This book was a gut punch. Thirty years have passed since the Rwandan genocide and the stories told continue to horrify. Those told throughout this book are horrifying, heartbreaking but also full of courage and resilience. From a woman who married a Hutu leader in order to survive, fled back to Rwanda after and kept her marriage secret for fear of reprisals. A man named Innocent wrote a very poignant account and stated he wanted to write his own book one day which given how he spoke I'd read his book. The scary part of this story and the entire Rwandan genocide is how people who were friends, neighbours ordinary people can suddenly turn violent and turn against each other. One day your caring teacher is suddenly coming at you with a machete and that's the most terrifying thing of all. This ultimately though is a survival story. How people manage to hide out and survive the terror and the awful things they saw, how they come together to talk or just be with each other how some turned to faith, some offered forgiveness and others can't bring themselves to forgive and just moved on as best they could. A must read in the many books about this horrific event in recent history.
January 4, 2025
Un des livres les plus durs que j’ai lus. Il m’a fallu poser le livre par instants, pour respirer, éviter la nausée, chasser une larme. Il y a quelque chose d’incompréhensible dans un génocide, qui va toucher ce qu’on a de plus humain et bouleverse cette part humaine. Qu’il s’agisse de la Shoah ou du génocide des Tutsis, le caractère systématique et machinal reste le même. Faire témoigner les victimes est une nécessité qui dévoile l’humanité
December 26, 2021
Je ne pense pas qu'il soit possible d'écrire un avis sur ces témoignages qui racontent l'horreur humaine, que ce soit à chaud ou avec du recul.
Comme il est répété plusieurs fois au cours des narrations, ceux qui n'ont pas vécu ce génocide en son coeur ne pourront jamais en saisir les subtilités. Et pourtant chaque vie nous apporte la compréhension d'une nouvelle facette de ce qu'ont vécu et de ce que vivent après coup les rescapés Tutsis de cette commune, et d'ailleurs.
Je trouve les témoignages extrêmement bien retranscrits et j'espère qu'ils font honneur et hommage à celleux qui donnent leur parole et aux victimes de ce génocide.
Tres dur à lire, mais en vaut le coup. Je pense qu'il me marquera pour toujours, j'ai beaucoup appris de cette lecture.
Comme il est répété plusieurs fois au cours des narrations, ceux qui n'ont pas vécu ce génocide en son coeur ne pourront jamais en saisir les subtilités. Et pourtant chaque vie nous apporte la compréhension d'une nouvelle facette de ce qu'ont vécu et de ce que vivent après coup les rescapés Tutsis de cette commune, et d'ailleurs.
Je trouve les témoignages extrêmement bien retranscrits et j'espère qu'ils font honneur et hommage à celleux qui donnent leur parole et aux victimes de ce génocide.
Tres dur à lire, mais en vaut le coup. Je pense qu'il me marquera pour toujours, j'ai beaucoup appris de cette lecture.
February 3, 2021
Kilka lat czekała na półce nim poczułem, że jestem w stanie przeczytać świadectwa ludzi, którym udało się przeżyć ludobójstwo.
Ciężka i ważna lektura.
Ciężka i ważna lektura.
August 9, 2022
L’expression qui a donné son titre au livre est de Sylvie Umubyeyi, l’une des rescapée Tutsi du génocide perpétré par les Hutus au Rwanda.
Dans ce livre, le premier de la trilogie Récits des marais rwandais consacré au génocide, Jean Hatzfeld donne la parole exclusivement aux Tutsis rescapés. Ils racontent l’horreur, les conditions dans lesquelles ils ont survécu et leur difficile tentative de reconstruction. Passé l’horreur des tueries, c’est l’après qui frappe. Les rescapés semblent vidés, ils ont définitivement perdu quelque chose, en plus de leurs proches, quelque chose de fondamental, qui est au coeur même de la vie humaine. C’est la foi en l’humanité, en ses semblables. Après avoir vu ce dont l’Homme – et pas un étranger, celui qui était encore il y a quelques jours son voisin –, on ne peut plus croire en l’Homme. Aucun autre être vivant n’est capable d’une telle cruauté. Face à ce phénomène, c’est la stupéfaction qui demeure. Impossible à expliquer, malgré quelques raisons évoquées qui reviennent dans les témoignages.
Jean Hatzfeld recueille ces paroles avec beaucoup de soin, en conservant leur belle langue d’origine, le français rwandais. Il n’intervient pas, ou peu, pour donner son analyse – ce qu’il fera dans le second tome –, mais se contente de poser le décor pour nous immerger au mieux dans cet univers afin de nous transmettre ces précieux témoignages. De belles photos de chaque interlocuteur signées Raymond Depardon illustrent les chapitres.
Également publié sur mon blog.
En 1994, entre le lundi 11 avril à 11 heures et le samedi 14 mai à 14 heures, environ 50 000 Tutsis, sur une population d’environ 59 000, ont été massacrés à la machette, tous les jours de la semaine, de 9 h 30 à 16 heures, par des miliciens et voisins Hutus, sur les collines de la commune de Nyamata, au Rwanda.
Dans ce livre, le premier de la trilogie Récits des marais rwandais consacré au génocide, Jean Hatzfeld donne la parole exclusivement aux Tutsis rescapés. Ils racontent l’horreur, les conditions dans lesquelles ils ont survécu et leur difficile tentative de reconstruction. Passé l’horreur des tueries, c’est l’après qui frappe. Les rescapés semblent vidés, ils ont définitivement perdu quelque chose, en plus de leurs proches, quelque chose de fondamental, qui est au coeur même de la vie humaine. C’est la foi en l’humanité, en ses semblables. Après avoir vu ce dont l’Homme – et pas un étranger, celui qui était encore il y a quelques jours son voisin –, on ne peut plus croire en l’Homme. Aucun autre être vivant n’est capable d’une telle cruauté. Face à ce phénomène, c’est la stupéfaction qui demeure. Impossible à expliquer, malgré quelques raisons évoquées qui reviennent dans les témoignages.
Jean Hatzfeld recueille ces paroles avec beaucoup de soin, en conservant leur belle langue d’origine, le français rwandais. Il n’intervient pas, ou peu, pour donner son analyse – ce qu’il fera dans le second tome –, mais se contente de poser le décor pour nous immerger au mieux dans cet univers afin de nous transmettre ces précieux témoignages. De belles photos de chaque interlocuteur signées Raymond Depardon illustrent les chapitres.
Également publié sur mon blog.
January 17, 2016
Life Laid Bare by Jean Hatzfield
4 Stars
“In 1994, between eleven in the morning on Monday, April 11 and two in the afternoon on Saturday, May 14 about fifty thousand Tutsis, out of a population of around fifty-nine thousand were massacred by machete, murdered every day of the week from nine-thirty in the morning until four in the afternoon, by Hutu neighbors and militiamen, on the hills of the district of Nyamata, in Rwanda.” (pg. 14)
Jean Hatzfield has quite a collection of work dealing the Rwanda genocide, each from a different perspective. Last year I read the Machete Season, based on interviews of ten Hutu members imprisoned for their participation in the slaughter. Life Laid Bare provides the survivors’ perspective. Hatzfield, again, personally interviews fourteen survivors ranging in age from 12 – 65 years old. In many ways the stories are similar. Most people initially sought refuge in a local church, as that was the traditional method of survival during past conflicts. However, it became apparent rather quickly, that this time safety would not be afforded, forcing those surviving the initial onslaught to flee into the marshes. Here difficult decisions had to be made. Would a family stay together or separate to increase the chances of at least one member surviving? If not survival, separation could at least make death easier for whoever was not killed first. “When everyone in a family must die, when you can do nothing to save your wife or ease her agony, and it’s the same for her it’s better to go get yourself killed somewhere else. I will say what I mean precisely. If you will not be dying first, if you will hear the cries of your papa, your mama, the screams of your wife or child, and if you cannot lift a hand to save them, or even to help them die easier, you in turn die in the wreckage of the feelings you shared in the good times, because you will feel too guilty for a situation that is utterly beyond you….That is why I thought it might be better that we should be cut, all of us, out of one another’s sight.” (pg. 85). If caught, the prospects were so devastating that individuals bargained, not for pardon, but for a quick death. Unfortunately, most of the time, not even this was granted.
As with Machete Season, Hatzfield begins the book with an effective chronology of events from 1921 – 2003, providing context for these events. I also felt that the inclusion of photos of survivors leant a personal touch to these stories. What I thought was most poignant from this work was the consensus that history will repeat itself not somewhere else, but there in Rwanda. Keeping in mind that this was based on personal interviews it is difficult to ascertain whether this is merely perception and fear or based on evidence. Although, the reader can certainly sympathize with those fears when you combine the harrowing events the survivor’s faced with the fact that 2 out of 3 Tutsis have returned to their homes and killer and victim are once again neighbor and that not one Tutsi seems to be willing to take responsibility for his or her role much less seek forgiveness. This concept is probably dealt with in more detail in the final work, The Antelope Strategy, which I will probably read without waiting a year.
I didn’t rate this as high as Machete Season mainly because I felt that the intervening observations by Hatzfield distracted a bit from the survivors’ tales.
4 Stars
“In 1994, between eleven in the morning on Monday, April 11 and two in the afternoon on Saturday, May 14 about fifty thousand Tutsis, out of a population of around fifty-nine thousand were massacred by machete, murdered every day of the week from nine-thirty in the morning until four in the afternoon, by Hutu neighbors and militiamen, on the hills of the district of Nyamata, in Rwanda.” (pg. 14)
Jean Hatzfield has quite a collection of work dealing the Rwanda genocide, each from a different perspective. Last year I read the Machete Season, based on interviews of ten Hutu members imprisoned for their participation in the slaughter. Life Laid Bare provides the survivors’ perspective. Hatzfield, again, personally interviews fourteen survivors ranging in age from 12 – 65 years old. In many ways the stories are similar. Most people initially sought refuge in a local church, as that was the traditional method of survival during past conflicts. However, it became apparent rather quickly, that this time safety would not be afforded, forcing those surviving the initial onslaught to flee into the marshes. Here difficult decisions had to be made. Would a family stay together or separate to increase the chances of at least one member surviving? If not survival, separation could at least make death easier for whoever was not killed first. “When everyone in a family must die, when you can do nothing to save your wife or ease her agony, and it’s the same for her it’s better to go get yourself killed somewhere else. I will say what I mean precisely. If you will not be dying first, if you will hear the cries of your papa, your mama, the screams of your wife or child, and if you cannot lift a hand to save them, or even to help them die easier, you in turn die in the wreckage of the feelings you shared in the good times, because you will feel too guilty for a situation that is utterly beyond you….That is why I thought it might be better that we should be cut, all of us, out of one another’s sight.” (pg. 85). If caught, the prospects were so devastating that individuals bargained, not for pardon, but for a quick death. Unfortunately, most of the time, not even this was granted.
As with Machete Season, Hatzfield begins the book with an effective chronology of events from 1921 – 2003, providing context for these events. I also felt that the inclusion of photos of survivors leant a personal touch to these stories. What I thought was most poignant from this work was the consensus that history will repeat itself not somewhere else, but there in Rwanda. Keeping in mind that this was based on personal interviews it is difficult to ascertain whether this is merely perception and fear or based on evidence. Although, the reader can certainly sympathize with those fears when you combine the harrowing events the survivor’s faced with the fact that 2 out of 3 Tutsis have returned to their homes and killer and victim are once again neighbor and that not one Tutsi seems to be willing to take responsibility for his or her role much less seek forgiveness. This concept is probably dealt with in more detail in the final work, The Antelope Strategy, which I will probably read without waiting a year.
I didn’t rate this as high as Machete Season mainly because I felt that the intervening observations by Hatzfield distracted a bit from the survivors’ tales.
January 30, 2021
When we study genocide, it's all too often that we do so through the sterile lens of impartial historical judgment, the practical recounting of events, the numbers that detail death, the analysis of why the Genocide happened. All too often, the testimony of actual survivors falls by the wayside, or is relegated to the status of color commentary.
It's tragically true that, in the context of history, one death is a catastrophe, while one million deaths is instead a statistic. The remedy for those of us who read about and study genocide is to seek out the testimony of survivors, unfiltered and put into focus. The survivors of the Rwandan genocide lost all they had, often losing everyone they loved as entire families were killed. The scars of this trauma linger today in the survivors, with many unable to survive mentally in a nation that continues to house those who perpetrated or enabled the genocide.
The narrative of forgiveness means well, it observes tremendous suffering from those who were targeted as well as those who regret committing acts of genocide. But without reconciliation, a process by which genociders and their enablers, true forgiveness cannot be pursued, nor should it be. An especially haunting image is that of a visitor's book near one of the memorial, filled with the sentiments of foreigners saying 'never again'. But the same was said in the wake of the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, the Anfal, Bosnia and beyond. We often forget that, at any moment, genocide can be perpetrated, and it is incumbent on all of us to do more than remember, we must act to prevent the next massacre.
It's tragically true that, in the context of history, one death is a catastrophe, while one million deaths is instead a statistic. The remedy for those of us who read about and study genocide is to seek out the testimony of survivors, unfiltered and put into focus. The survivors of the Rwandan genocide lost all they had, often losing everyone they loved as entire families were killed. The scars of this trauma linger today in the survivors, with many unable to survive mentally in a nation that continues to house those who perpetrated or enabled the genocide.
The narrative of forgiveness means well, it observes tremendous suffering from those who were targeted as well as those who regret committing acts of genocide. But without reconciliation, a process by which genociders and their enablers, true forgiveness cannot be pursued, nor should it be. An especially haunting image is that of a visitor's book near one of the memorial, filled with the sentiments of foreigners saying 'never again'. But the same was said in the wake of the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, the Anfal, Bosnia and beyond. We often forget that, at any moment, genocide can be perpetrated, and it is incumbent on all of us to do more than remember, we must act to prevent the next massacre.
November 8, 2011
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I enjoyed hearing the first-hand accounts told from the survivors themselves. I did not know much about what happened in Rwanda in 1994 before I read this book. I had heard about the genocide, of course, but I didn't know any of the specifics. I wonder if it was all over the newspapers when it was happening, and I just missed it (very possible, as I was in my last year of college in 1994, and busy with finals that April). But really, I don't remember seeing a single news article about it when it was happening. It is hard to imagine how this horrible event could have happened. The Tutsis and Hutus were neighbors. Their children played together. The wives worked together. The husbands drank together in the local cabarets. And suddenly, on April 7, the hutus just began killing all the Tutsis. Not even shooting them humanely, but chopping off their arms and legs with machetes and leaving them to die, or making piles of children and setting them on fire. How could that have happened? And what amazes me, is that the Tutsis don't seem to have fought back at all. Maybe because they were so outnumbered, I don't know. But I think it was more than that, more of a fundamental substance inside of each of them which made them willing to accept whatever fate dealt them. The stories are so incredibly sad, I often had to put the book down and go do something else for awhile before returning to it. I would definitely recommend it.
May 30, 2008
This is a hard book to read from the comfort and safety of your own warm bed. I whipped through it in a couple days. It's heart wrenching. Each chapter is the story of a different survivor of the genocide in Rwanda.
July 20, 2017
I can't find words to describe feelings this book arose, none seem fitting.
December 14, 2025
This is the best book I have read about the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. It was originally written in “Rwandan” French but even in this English translation the anguish and dignity of 14 survivors is communicated in a highly literary form. Each of the chapters sets the scene in post genocide Rwanda and then gives the testimony of a survivor. The author chose one region of this small highly populated country, Bugesara. Rwanda is known as the land of 1000 hills. Bugesara typical of Rwanda includes several villages on different hills as well as rivers, a eucalyptus forest and extensive papyrus swamps. This area was largely unpopulated until the genocide of 1959 when internally displaced Tutsi colonized it. Later Hutus joined them and by 1994 the year of the genocide the population was almost equally Hutus and Tutsis.
The 14 witnesses tell their stories, and many admit that the accuracy of their stories and those of other survivors is altered by thought suppression and self-deception as part of the means of self-preservation. But by listening to these 14 witnesses the reader sees a consistency in the horror of their stories. Three of the survivors are schoolteachers, one a social worker, the rest are made up of farmers, small time businesspeople and students. They all describe the incitement of the Hutus, the assassination of the Rwandan president by plane crash and the immediate commencement of the killing. Many ran to the Catholic Church but unlike those who stayed in the church and died they ran to the papyrus swamps or the forest. One schoolteacher Ignatius was among 20 of 5000 who ran to the forest who survived. The social worker made it to Burundi. One young girl became the ‘wife’ of one of the interhamwe killers to survive. They describe that the machetes were new, that the killers would come singing in the morning hunting for them and working diligently killing Tutsis until 4 or 430 pm then going home for the day. It is noted by several of these witnesses that if the ‘evil doers’ had not been fighting over the loot and property of the Tutsis they would have succeeded in killing all but because of these delays some survived until the arrival of the Rwandan Patriotic Front ended the genocide.
The experience of seeing their family and friends killed by neighbors is repeated. The involvement of the educated elite rather than the ignorant shocked them and none of the witnesses could understand the motivation of the genocide. The complicity of the French is mentioned twice but not emphasized. The 14 witnesses all complained about the failure of the west or the whites to intervene but one also complained that other Africans also did not intervene. The survivors do not believe they could forgive but they do accept the need for reconciliation.
They also note that the Hutus they know deny complicity or knowledge, but they do not believe them. This reminds me of the denial of knowledge of the holocaust in Germany. I visited a death camp in Dachau in Bavaria. The camp and the ovens are so close to the town of Dachau that it is unbelievable that the towns people did not know. I have been to Rwanda and taught interns who were both Hutu and Tutsi. I have visited on genocide memorial with the seemingly uncountable skulls and long bones. The community near the memorial near Butare that I visited had almost no phenotypic Tutsi. The Hutus had to know what happened there and that they families were involved.
I know one survivor of the genocide who lives in Canada who lost 9 first degree relatives. This book genuine reflects what I know about Rwanda through my observations and experience. I found it allowed me to empathize if not understand the psychological disturbances I recognize in my Rwandese friends and students (both Tutsi and Hutu). It also helps understand a part of our own humanity which is terrifying
The 14 witnesses tell their stories, and many admit that the accuracy of their stories and those of other survivors is altered by thought suppression and self-deception as part of the means of self-preservation. But by listening to these 14 witnesses the reader sees a consistency in the horror of their stories. Three of the survivors are schoolteachers, one a social worker, the rest are made up of farmers, small time businesspeople and students. They all describe the incitement of the Hutus, the assassination of the Rwandan president by plane crash and the immediate commencement of the killing. Many ran to the Catholic Church but unlike those who stayed in the church and died they ran to the papyrus swamps or the forest. One schoolteacher Ignatius was among 20 of 5000 who ran to the forest who survived. The social worker made it to Burundi. One young girl became the ‘wife’ of one of the interhamwe killers to survive. They describe that the machetes were new, that the killers would come singing in the morning hunting for them and working diligently killing Tutsis until 4 or 430 pm then going home for the day. It is noted by several of these witnesses that if the ‘evil doers’ had not been fighting over the loot and property of the Tutsis they would have succeeded in killing all but because of these delays some survived until the arrival of the Rwandan Patriotic Front ended the genocide.
The experience of seeing their family and friends killed by neighbors is repeated. The involvement of the educated elite rather than the ignorant shocked them and none of the witnesses could understand the motivation of the genocide. The complicity of the French is mentioned twice but not emphasized. The 14 witnesses all complained about the failure of the west or the whites to intervene but one also complained that other Africans also did not intervene. The survivors do not believe they could forgive but they do accept the need for reconciliation.
They also note that the Hutus they know deny complicity or knowledge, but they do not believe them. This reminds me of the denial of knowledge of the holocaust in Germany. I visited a death camp in Dachau in Bavaria. The camp and the ovens are so close to the town of Dachau that it is unbelievable that the towns people did not know. I have been to Rwanda and taught interns who were both Hutu and Tutsi. I have visited on genocide memorial with the seemingly uncountable skulls and long bones. The community near the memorial near Butare that I visited had almost no phenotypic Tutsi. The Hutus had to know what happened there and that they families were involved.
I know one survivor of the genocide who lives in Canada who lost 9 first degree relatives. This book genuine reflects what I know about Rwanda through my observations and experience. I found it allowed me to empathize if not understand the psychological disturbances I recognize in my Rwandese friends and students (both Tutsi and Hutu). It also helps understand a part of our own humanity which is terrifying
October 21, 2022
📰 Told from the point of view of Tutsi survivors, this journalistic account of the 1994 Rwandan genocide is far too tragic to convey in an Instagram post. Although I normally read books written by local authors, Hatzfeld, a French author and war journalist, is one of the most noteworthy writers to have covered the genocide in Rwanda, having devoted two decades of his life to reporting the details of the tragedy. If you want a light, easy read, this book definitely isn't for you.
.........................................................................
Title: Into the Quick of Life by Jean Hatzfeld
Country: 🇷🇼 Rwanda 🇷🇼
........................................................................
📰 My favorite aspects about this book were the concepts relating to trauma and memory: namely collective memory, memory bias, reconstructive memory, memory distortion and generational trauma, all of which have played a big part in Hatzfeld's narration of the survivors' stories. As someone previously diagnosed with PTS symptoms, I find that one of the most captivating concepts in psychology is memory and its fluctuations or lack thereof with the passage of time.
📰 Hatzfeld's text, at least in the English version, was not transcendental, but then I believe that it may have been planned that way for authenticity. In any case, I still find myself wanting to read more titles by Hatzfeld.
📰 Favorite Quotes:
We will never forget a single scrap of truth about the genocide in Kibungo, because we share our memories... That said, because of time, I can feel that my memory is sorting out my memories as it pleases, without my being able to affect this; the same for my companions. There are certain episodes that are often retold, so they grow thanks to all the additions one person or another brings to them. Their transparency is maintained, if I can put it so, as if they happened yesterday or no more than last year. Other episodes are left behind and they grow obscure as in a dream...
To listen to them, I deduce that in time people will not remember the genocide in the same way. For example, a neighboring woman talks of how her maman died in the church; then, two years later, she explains that her maman died in the marsh. For me, there is no lie. The girl had an acceptable reason to wish for her mother's death to have taken place in the church. Perhaps because she abandoned her running full stretch through the marsh and was ashamed. Perhaps because it relieved her of an all too painful sorrow; to persuade herself that her maman in this way suffered less, one fatal blow on the first day. Then time offered the girl a little peace, so she could remember the truth, and she accepted it...
On the one hand, we are no longer interested in recounting certain events, on the other hand, we now dare to speak of things we had kept hidden, like being raped, or having abandoned a baby in flight.
For me, in my memory, the genocide is yesterday, or last year rather; and it will always be last year, because I can detect no change which will allow time to restore herself to her rightful place.
#readrwanda #survivors #generationaltrauma #bookstagram #dailyreads #internationalreads #internationalbooks #bookvoyage #readingvoyage #readaroundtheworld #goodreads #libros #librosrecomendados #librosmiadiccion #librosdelmundo #livrestagram #livresaddict
.........................................................................
Title: Into the Quick of Life by Jean Hatzfeld
Country: 🇷🇼 Rwanda 🇷🇼
........................................................................
📰 My favorite aspects about this book were the concepts relating to trauma and memory: namely collective memory, memory bias, reconstructive memory, memory distortion and generational trauma, all of which have played a big part in Hatzfeld's narration of the survivors' stories. As someone previously diagnosed with PTS symptoms, I find that one of the most captivating concepts in psychology is memory and its fluctuations or lack thereof with the passage of time.
📰 Hatzfeld's text, at least in the English version, was not transcendental, but then I believe that it may have been planned that way for authenticity. In any case, I still find myself wanting to read more titles by Hatzfeld.
📰 Favorite Quotes:
We will never forget a single scrap of truth about the genocide in Kibungo, because we share our memories... That said, because of time, I can feel that my memory is sorting out my memories as it pleases, without my being able to affect this; the same for my companions. There are certain episodes that are often retold, so they grow thanks to all the additions one person or another brings to them. Their transparency is maintained, if I can put it so, as if they happened yesterday or no more than last year. Other episodes are left behind and they grow obscure as in a dream...
To listen to them, I deduce that in time people will not remember the genocide in the same way. For example, a neighboring woman talks of how her maman died in the church; then, two years later, she explains that her maman died in the marsh. For me, there is no lie. The girl had an acceptable reason to wish for her mother's death to have taken place in the church. Perhaps because she abandoned her running full stretch through the marsh and was ashamed. Perhaps because it relieved her of an all too painful sorrow; to persuade herself that her maman in this way suffered less, one fatal blow on the first day. Then time offered the girl a little peace, so she could remember the truth, and she accepted it...
On the one hand, we are no longer interested in recounting certain events, on the other hand, we now dare to speak of things we had kept hidden, like being raped, or having abandoned a baby in flight.
For me, in my memory, the genocide is yesterday, or last year rather; and it will always be last year, because I can detect no change which will allow time to restore herself to her rightful place.
#readrwanda #survivors #generationaltrauma #bookstagram #dailyreads #internationalreads #internationalbooks #bookvoyage #readingvoyage #readaroundtheworld #goodreads #libros #librosrecomendados #librosmiadiccion #librosdelmundo #livrestagram #livresaddict
May 26, 2017
Madagascar
"It's part of Rwandan custom to take refuge in God's houses when the massacres begin. Time let us have two days of quiet, then they rushed into the church and starting slicing people up..."
"I save how savagery can replace kindness in the heart of man, faster than a driving rain."
"We remember all the fearsome moments we personally lived through as if they had happened just last year."
"I hear no one asking for forgiveness. In any case, I know that there is nothing that can be forgiven."
"We must simply take up life again."
"To feel hate, you must be able to direct it at definite names and faces."
"If I were not stopped short by poverty, I would travel far from here, to a country where I would go to school all week long, and play soccer on a nice grassy field, and where no one would want to mistrust me and kill me, ever again."
"I live a life that no longer interests me."
"The Whites watched all these massacres with their arms crossed. I believe Whites take advantage of quarrels among Blacks to sow their own ideas afterwards."
"I suffer from begin tied to this present life, which is not the one I was supposed to have."
"If you go home, you will be killed. If you flee into the bush, you will be killed. If your remain here, you will be killed."
"Surviving with the memory of your wife and child, when you don't know how they were killed, when you have not seen them dead, and when you have not buried them, is what takes the most heart out of you."
"If you will jot be dying first, if you will hear the cries of your papa, your mama, the screams of your wife or child, and if you cannot lift a hand to save them, or even to help them die easier, you in turn will die in the wreckage of the feelings you shared in the good times, because you will feel guilty for a situation that is utterly beyond you."
"For us, there is before, during, and after, but they are three different lives, and they have been broken apart forever."
"I yearn for the past."
"We breathed deeply of death."
"If you linger too long with the fear of genocide, you lose hope. You lose what you have managed to salvage from life. You risk contamination from a different madness. When I think about the genocide,, in a moment of calm, I mull over where to put it properly away in life, but I find no place. I simply mean that it is no longer anything human."
"It's part of Rwandan custom to take refuge in God's houses when the massacres begin. Time let us have two days of quiet, then they rushed into the church and starting slicing people up..."
"I save how savagery can replace kindness in the heart of man, faster than a driving rain."
"We remember all the fearsome moments we personally lived through as if they had happened just last year."
"I hear no one asking for forgiveness. In any case, I know that there is nothing that can be forgiven."
"We must simply take up life again."
"To feel hate, you must be able to direct it at definite names and faces."
"If I were not stopped short by poverty, I would travel far from here, to a country where I would go to school all week long, and play soccer on a nice grassy field, and where no one would want to mistrust me and kill me, ever again."
"I live a life that no longer interests me."
"The Whites watched all these massacres with their arms crossed. I believe Whites take advantage of quarrels among Blacks to sow their own ideas afterwards."
"I suffer from begin tied to this present life, which is not the one I was supposed to have."
"If you go home, you will be killed. If you flee into the bush, you will be killed. If your remain here, you will be killed."
"Surviving with the memory of your wife and child, when you don't know how they were killed, when you have not seen them dead, and when you have not buried them, is what takes the most heart out of you."
"If you will jot be dying first, if you will hear the cries of your papa, your mama, the screams of your wife or child, and if you cannot lift a hand to save them, or even to help them die easier, you in turn will die in the wreckage of the feelings you shared in the good times, because you will feel guilty for a situation that is utterly beyond you."
"For us, there is before, during, and after, but they are three different lives, and they have been broken apart forever."
"I yearn for the past."
"We breathed deeply of death."
"If you linger too long with the fear of genocide, you lose hope. You lose what you have managed to salvage from life. You risk contamination from a different madness. When I think about the genocide,, in a moment of calm, I mull over where to put it properly away in life, but I find no place. I simply mean that it is no longer anything human."
July 6, 2019
One of the most important books that no one reads.
The genocide of the "elite" Tutsi minority through the 85% Hutu majority was one of the worst and most unpredictable in history. In 1994, the airplane of then-president Habyarimana crashed, his death triggering the long-festering resentment of the Hutu against the Tutsi. Tutsi and Hutu lived mostly peacefully together as neighbors at that time, even though their had been several instances of violent pogroms against the Tutsi before. Still, when the genocide began, Hutu had long since overtaken politics and other important places such as the military, essentially ruling all of Rwanda, making the claim of their oppression under the Tutsi "elite" quite inaccurate.
From one day in April 94 to the next, Hutu who had been friends with Tutsi refused to talk to them and even threatened them. Next came the murders. Armed mostly with machetes, roughly half a million Tutsi were bludgeoned to death, their bodies often mutilated so they would die slowly.
The massacres lasted 100 days, and the western nations knew what was happening. Shortly before the genocide began, the French army left Rwanda, and so did all the catholic orders stationed there. Next, western authorities and the media closed their eyes to the atrocities, for more than three months. In the end, it was a Tutsi led army that delivered its people from the terrible suffering.
This book highlights several eyewitness account. Many of the survivors shown here are very young, the youbgest just 12 years old. All of them lost family members, many lost everyone in their families. While in 1993, the population of the region shown in this book was 200000, after the genocide it was only 60000, including no less than 14000 orphaned children without parents or an adult to rely on.
This book is hard to read but very important. It is short (only 250 pages) but packs a mighty punch. Recommended for everyone.
The genocide of the "elite" Tutsi minority through the 85% Hutu majority was one of the worst and most unpredictable in history. In 1994, the airplane of then-president Habyarimana crashed, his death triggering the long-festering resentment of the Hutu against the Tutsi. Tutsi and Hutu lived mostly peacefully together as neighbors at that time, even though their had been several instances of violent pogroms against the Tutsi before. Still, when the genocide began, Hutu had long since overtaken politics and other important places such as the military, essentially ruling all of Rwanda, making the claim of their oppression under the Tutsi "elite" quite inaccurate.
From one day in April 94 to the next, Hutu who had been friends with Tutsi refused to talk to them and even threatened them. Next came the murders. Armed mostly with machetes, roughly half a million Tutsi were bludgeoned to death, their bodies often mutilated so they would die slowly.
The massacres lasted 100 days, and the western nations knew what was happening. Shortly before the genocide began, the French army left Rwanda, and so did all the catholic orders stationed there. Next, western authorities and the media closed their eyes to the atrocities, for more than three months. In the end, it was a Tutsi led army that delivered its people from the terrible suffering.
This book highlights several eyewitness account. Many of the survivors shown here are very young, the youbgest just 12 years old. All of them lost family members, many lost everyone in their families. While in 1993, the population of the region shown in this book was 200000, after the genocide it was only 60000, including no less than 14000 orphaned children without parents or an adult to rely on.
This book is hard to read but very important. It is short (only 250 pages) but packs a mighty punch. Recommended for everyone.
April 14, 2024
Jean Hatzfeld spisuje relacje osób, które przeżyły ludobójstwo w Rwandzie, ukrywając się w bagnach, każdego dnia uciekając przed sąsiadami z maczetami, pozostawiając za sobą zmasakrowane trupy bliskich. spotyka ludzi z różnych środowisk i rodzin, których połączył ten sam los i którzy muszą żyć dalej - bez rodziny i bliskich, perspektyw, szans i spokoju. z ich wspomnień czuć głównie niezrozumienie i rozgoryczenie nie tylko na sam fakt, że do tak wielkiej zbrodni doszło niemal z dnia na dzień, ale też na to, że przyszłość straciła dla nich sens. jednak wśród tych spotkań niektóre dają nadzieję, którą pozostaje mi tylko podziwiać.
nie można oceniać wspomnień i w przypadku takich reportaży pozostaje mi doceniać podejście autora, któremu udało się wzbudzić zaufanie rozmówców, pozwolić im mówić bez wtrącania swoich europejskich mądrości, hamując wszelkie próby wyjaśniania i tłumaczenia mieszkańcom Rwandy, co tak naprawdę przeżyli. kontekst historyczny i społeczny przewija się w wypowiedziach ocalałych, jest też naznaczony w tekstach poprzedzających ich relacje, jednak jeśli ktoś nie wie absolutnie nic o tych wydarzeniach, to nie polecam zaczynać od tego tytułu. jedno jest pewne - rację mają ci, którzy twierdzą, że to, co ich spotkało, jest dosłownie niewiarygodne, nie do uwierzenia. czytam o tych wydarzeniach od paru lat, ale zawsze, gdy próbuję je sobie wyobrazić, zwyczajnie nie mieści mi się w głowie takie okrucieństwo, bestialstwo.
bardzo wartościowa, choć z oczywistych względów brutalna i dosadna książka.
nie można oceniać wspomnień i w przypadku takich reportaży pozostaje mi doceniać podejście autora, któremu udało się wzbudzić zaufanie rozmówców, pozwolić im mówić bez wtrącania swoich europejskich mądrości, hamując wszelkie próby wyjaśniania i tłumaczenia mieszkańcom Rwandy, co tak naprawdę przeżyli. kontekst historyczny i społeczny przewija się w wypowiedziach ocalałych, jest też naznaczony w tekstach poprzedzających ich relacje, jednak jeśli ktoś nie wie absolutnie nic o tych wydarzeniach, to nie polecam zaczynać od tego tytułu. jedno jest pewne - rację mają ci, którzy twierdzą, że to, co ich spotkało, jest dosłownie niewiarygodne, nie do uwierzenia. czytam o tych wydarzeniach od paru lat, ale zawsze, gdy próbuję je sobie wyobrazić, zwyczajnie nie mieści mi się w głowie takie okrucieństwo, bestialstwo.
bardzo wartościowa, choć z oczywistych względów brutalna i dosadna książka.
June 24, 2020
First off, this is not an easy read. It is not an enjoyable read. In fact, I have a hard time recommending it at all, as it is deeply disturbing. But, like books of the Shoah, I think that it is important history to not forget.
This book is told from the point of view of survivors of the Rwandan genocide in a very specific region of the country, an area where 4 out of 5 Tutsi residents were slaughtered. If you watched Hotel Rwanda, let me say - this is nothing like that. It is much worse, and even worse than HBO's great film Sometimes in April. This book is much more graphic, infinitely sad, and remarkable in the insights of the victims. They have a much more honest view of the genocide than is reported by sources outside the country.
One of the things I found very unusual was the manner in which the survivors describe their plight, their neighbors who committed the genocide, and their possible motivations, etc. The author notes that the text has been translated a number of times, from the native language (Kinyarwandan) to French or sometimes a French dialect, then finally to English. The result is some unexpected language that seemed to make me think more about the meaning and what the speaker was trying to convey of an event that is almost indescribable.
Don't read this book if you are sensitive to horrific information. Believe me, this genocide - though smaller in scope - involved cruelties as bad if not worse than the Nazis.
This book is told from the point of view of survivors of the Rwandan genocide in a very specific region of the country, an area where 4 out of 5 Tutsi residents were slaughtered. If you watched Hotel Rwanda, let me say - this is nothing like that. It is much worse, and even worse than HBO's great film Sometimes in April. This book is much more graphic, infinitely sad, and remarkable in the insights of the victims. They have a much more honest view of the genocide than is reported by sources outside the country.
One of the things I found very unusual was the manner in which the survivors describe their plight, their neighbors who committed the genocide, and their possible motivations, etc. The author notes that the text has been translated a number of times, from the native language (Kinyarwandan) to French or sometimes a French dialect, then finally to English. The result is some unexpected language that seemed to make me think more about the meaning and what the speaker was trying to convey of an event that is almost indescribable.
Don't read this book if you are sensitive to horrific information. Believe me, this genocide - though smaller in scope - involved cruelties as bad if not worse than the Nazis.
March 16, 2018
This is a heartbreaking must read book. The charm of the book lies in how a simple story telling can couch one of the deepest questions that humankind has wrestled with - the depravity of what one human being can inflict on another. More so when its one's own neighbours that want to annihilate you - that you go from sharing a drink one day to being hacked the very next day is beyond the realm of understanding.
The stories are told in a direct manner with little theorising. There is little definitive or clear about why the genocide happened and or how it was possible to nearly exterminate a race in just under a month. Yet, it is a reality that survivors still grapple with. As many of the survivors repeatedly say - for all the empathy one can summon, one can never truly understand what they went through. Because one has to feel it. We cannot think it.
This is a story that the world should hear, reflect on.
The stories are told in a direct manner with little theorising. There is little definitive or clear about why the genocide happened and or how it was possible to nearly exterminate a race in just under a month. Yet, it is a reality that survivors still grapple with. As many of the survivors repeatedly say - for all the empathy one can summon, one can never truly understand what they went through. Because one has to feel it. We cannot think it.
This is a story that the world should hear, reflect on.
January 18, 2018
Amazing and terrifying. We get stories from the time of the massacre. People who survived hiding in the bush, in swamps and fields. The book poses a question that has appeared many times - why over the years there are still people who, in the name of insane ideas, unspecified motivations or collective madness, are able to hunt other people for cockroaches? Dehumanization is a means to an end. There are no words for it.
The Holocaust, Kosovo and Rwanda - it's strange that it all repeats against the warnings of history, regardless of latitude. If it was not, it is not so to speak. There is no explanation and I doubt that it will be like the evil of genocide was coming from beyond the horizon of phenomena that are to be covered by small human reason.
I will not write that I recommend.
The Holocaust, Kosovo and Rwanda - it's strange that it all repeats against the warnings of history, regardless of latitude. If it was not, it is not so to speak. There is no explanation and I doubt that it will be like the evil of genocide was coming from beyond the horizon of phenomena that are to be covered by small human reason.
I will not write that I recommend.
July 31, 2020
14 survivors of the Rwandan genocide provide first-hand, eyewitness accounts in Life Laid Bare, a heart-rending book by French journalist, Jean Hatzfeld.
French journalist and war correspondent, Jean Hatzfeld, brings a gut-wrenching work that is bound to leave you feeling disturbed. I spent many sleepless nights after reading this book. Unlike Philip Gourevitch’s We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, this book is not about an examination of the genocide and will give you little context or history about what led to the events of 1994 in Rwanda. Life Laid Bare instead contains firsthand accounts of 14 survivors, told in their own voices.
Every survivor’s story is preceded by Hatzfeld’s vivid description of the place he is in – the quiet streets, the quaint shops, the silent people. In peacetime, the villages of Rwanda feel like any other countryside. But these are the places where, in 1994, over 100 days, an average of five out of six Tutsis were killed by their Hutu neighbours with machetes and other weapons. It was only when the Tutsi army, led by Paul Kagame (who was a rebel commander at the time and is today the President of Rwanda) liberated the country that the killings stopped and the survivors could come out from their hiding places.
Hatzfeld made several journeys through the area of Bugesera and talked to the people – from orphans to farmers to social workers. Their narratives are not easy to read. During those horrific weeks, there were men, women and children hiding in papyrus marshes, dealing with mosquitoes and snakes, but most of all, hoping that hidden between the fronds and covered with mud, they would remain disguised and live to see another day. Some ran to the safety of the churches, believing that the house of God would be immune from attacks and Western missionaries would intervene on their behalf. A few ran through the hills or became dependent on other’s charity hiding under beds or crossed international borders on foot. Families got separated as each member ran for his or her own life; new groups formed out of camaraderie to survive. Mothers clutched young ones to their breasts, were slowed down and cut down mercilessly. There was no safe haven – no home was spared, massacres took place in churches, and in the marshes killers came singing every morning, working till dusk, to slash anyone they could find – the infirm, the old, the newborn, it didn’t matter.
What the voices of these survivors show is the moral responsibility we as an international community bear to such atrocities. Every survivor’s story comes with their photograph – these black and white pictures will continue to haunt you long after you have finished reading their account. That’s how heart-breaking these stories are.
French journalist and war correspondent, Jean Hatzfeld, brings a gut-wrenching work that is bound to leave you feeling disturbed. I spent many sleepless nights after reading this book. Unlike Philip Gourevitch’s We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, this book is not about an examination of the genocide and will give you little context or history about what led to the events of 1994 in Rwanda. Life Laid Bare instead contains firsthand accounts of 14 survivors, told in their own voices.
Every survivor’s story is preceded by Hatzfeld’s vivid description of the place he is in – the quiet streets, the quaint shops, the silent people. In peacetime, the villages of Rwanda feel like any other countryside. But these are the places where, in 1994, over 100 days, an average of five out of six Tutsis were killed by their Hutu neighbours with machetes and other weapons. It was only when the Tutsi army, led by Paul Kagame (who was a rebel commander at the time and is today the President of Rwanda) liberated the country that the killings stopped and the survivors could come out from their hiding places.
Hatzfeld made several journeys through the area of Bugesera and talked to the people – from orphans to farmers to social workers. Their narratives are not easy to read. During those horrific weeks, there were men, women and children hiding in papyrus marshes, dealing with mosquitoes and snakes, but most of all, hoping that hidden between the fronds and covered with mud, they would remain disguised and live to see another day. Some ran to the safety of the churches, believing that the house of God would be immune from attacks and Western missionaries would intervene on their behalf. A few ran through the hills or became dependent on other’s charity hiding under beds or crossed international borders on foot. Families got separated as each member ran for his or her own life; new groups formed out of camaraderie to survive. Mothers clutched young ones to their breasts, were slowed down and cut down mercilessly. There was no safe haven – no home was spared, massacres took place in churches, and in the marshes killers came singing every morning, working till dusk, to slash anyone they could find – the infirm, the old, the newborn, it didn’t matter.
What the voices of these survivors show is the moral responsibility we as an international community bear to such atrocities. Every survivor’s story comes with their photograph – these black and white pictures will continue to haunt you long after you have finished reading their account. That’s how heart-breaking these stories are.
July 28, 2017
The Rwandan genocide is important to know about, if not entirely possible to understand, as explained by the survivors in this book. First-hand accounts of horrors, which happened to real people like you and me. I am now eager to read The Machete Season, if only because what could the aggressors possibly have to say? I would like to find out and am impressed with the author's approach and handling of this incredibly intense and nearly incomprehensible topic. I recommend everyone to read this book.
December 4, 2018
The first of three books by this author I intend to read now that I've returned from my first visit to Rwanda. This one compiles testimonies from survivors with interludes describing their lives years later. Most of the subjects of this book spent every day for a month burying themselves in the mud and foliage of marshes, hiding from their neighbors' machetes as their families were hacked to pieces.
This is not easy reading. But considering that nearly all foreigners ignored the genocide while it was occurring, it seems vital that we pay attention even as nearly 25 years have passed.
This is not easy reading. But considering that nearly all foreigners ignored the genocide while it was occurring, it seems vital that we pay attention even as nearly 25 years have passed.
January 4, 2019
First-hand accounts of what Tutsie survivors endured during the Rwanda genocide. Haztfeld takes his readers to a specific region and from one house or shop to the next, lets the inhabitants speak their story. If you're reading in French, you'll notice he's left a lot of local terms and expressions in his translations and transcriptions, so that linguistically, the result is quite beautiful.
To a certain extent, this approach reminds me of Nobel Litterature Svetlana Alexievitch's works of literature: real life is already full of literature if you can find and unveil it.
To a certain extent, this approach reminds me of Nobel Litterature Svetlana Alexievitch's works of literature: real life is already full of literature if you can find and unveil it.
May 9, 2021
Nous sommes en 2000, six ans après le terrible génocide des Tutsis au Rwanda. Sur les collines de Nyamata, Jean Hatzfeld va à la rencontre des survivants et recueille les témoignages poignants des rescapés de cette tragédie. Avec beaucoup de dignité, ils racontent la terreur, la fuite, la chasse à l'homme dans les marais, les vies brisées, l'incompréhension face à l' horreur.
"Un génocide n'est pas une mauvaise broussaille qui s'élève sur deux ou trois racines; mais sur un nœud de racines qui on moisi sous terre sans personne pour le remarquer".
Un livre bouleversant et necessaire.
"Un génocide n'est pas une mauvaise broussaille qui s'élève sur deux ou trois racines; mais sur un nœud de racines qui on moisi sous terre sans personne pour le remarquer".
Un livre bouleversant et necessaire.
August 22, 2024
Trylogia autorstwa wybitnego reportażysty, który z narażeniem życia wyrusza
w najbardziej niebezpieczne rejony świata. Tym razem udał się do Rwandy.
Trzy obszerne reportaże, w których spotkamy najpierw ofiary ludobójstwa,
następnie głos zabiorą ich oprawcy, a na koniec dowiemy się,
jak wygląda ich życie po wielu latach od tych koszmarnych wydarzeń.
Poznamy osobiste losy ludzi, którzy kiedyś byli sąsiadami, chodzili do tych samych knajp
i pomagali sobie nawzajem w codziennym życiu.
A potem nadszedł czas rzezi...
Dziś znów muszą żyć obok siebie...
Czy potrafią?
w najbardziej niebezpieczne rejony świata. Tym razem udał się do Rwandy.
Trzy obszerne reportaże, w których spotkamy najpierw ofiary ludobójstwa,
następnie głos zabiorą ich oprawcy, a na koniec dowiemy się,
jak wygląda ich życie po wielu latach od tych koszmarnych wydarzeń.
Poznamy osobiste losy ludzi, którzy kiedyś byli sąsiadami, chodzili do tych samych knajp
i pomagali sobie nawzajem w codziennym życiu.
A potem nadszedł czas rzezi...
Dziś znów muszą żyć obok siebie...
Czy potrafią?
Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews