Beauty from Ashes: Journeys of Recovery from the Rwandan Genocide by Callum Henderson
Personal stories of experiences in the genocide, along with insightful philosophical commentary on forgiveness and reconciliation from peope who were there. I've read it a couple times while being here. (blurb: "After outlining the background to the genocide and the church in Rwanda, author Callum Henderson of Comfort Rwanda, takes the reader through the horror and hope of 1994 and the subsequent years of recovery. The stories are intensely personal and deeply moving and give an insight, through the lives of those who lived through the genocide, of what life then and now is really like and the difference God is making to survivors.") Available online at http://www.solaceusa.org/usa_beauty_from_ashes.htm
Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza
I suspect the most widely read book about Rwanda. Great bedtime read, reads like a novel (except it really happened). (Dustjacket blurb: In 1994 Immaculee was 22 years old and home from college to spend Easter with her family when the death of Rwanda’s Hutu president sparked a three-month slaughter of nearly one million ethnic Tutsis. She survived by hiding in a Hutu pastor’s tiny bathroom with seven other starving women for 91 cramped, terrifying days. This searing firsthand accound of Ilibagiza’s experience cuts two ways: her description of the evil that was perpetrated, including the brutal murders of her family members, is soul-numbingly devastating, yet the story of her unquenchable faith and connection to God throughout the ordeal uplifts and inspires. This book is a precious addition to the literature that tries to make sense of humankind’s seemingly bottomless depravity and counterbalancing hope in an all-powerful, loving God.)
We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch
(blurb: "Hutus kill Tutsis, then Tutsis kill Hutus--if that's really all there is to it, then no wonder we can't be bothered with it," Philip Gourevitch writes, imagining the response of somebody in a country far from the ethnic strife and mass killings of Rwanda. But the situation is not so simple, and in this complex and wrenching book, he explains why the Rwandan genocide should not be written off as just another tribal dispute. The "stories" in this book's subtitle are both the author's, as he repeatedly visits this tiny country in an attempt to make sense of what has happened, and those of the people he interviews. These include a Tutsi doctor who has seen much of her family killed over decades of Tutsi oppression, a Schindleresque hotel manager who hid hundreds of refugees from certain death, and a Rwandan bishop who has been accused of supporting the slaughter of Tutsi schoolchildren, and can only answer these charges by saying, "What could I do?" Gourevitch, a staff writer for the New Yorker, describes Rwanda's history with remarkable clarity and documents the experience of tragedy with a sober grace. The reader will ask along with the author: Why does this happen? And why don't we bother to stop it?")
Other books about Rwanda and/or Africa in general that I have read and enjoyed:
African Friends and Money Matters: Observations from Africa by David Maranz (for anyone who's ever felt ripped off or turned off by bartering and money stuff in Africa, or any third world country for that matter. Great cultural tidbits and insights!)
Product Description:African Friends and Money Matters grew out of frustrations that Westerners experience when they travel and work in Africa. Africans have just as many frustrations relating to the Westerners in their midst. Each uses and manages money and other resources in very different ways, and these differences create many misunderstandings and frictions. The author deals with everyday life in Africa. He first introduces the very different goals of African and Western economic systems and then presents ninety observations of African behaviors related to money matters. Explanatory comments are given that show how each one works out in real life. He illustrates his and others' experiences with anecdotes from across the continent. Drawings by two African artists add further clarity to the text as they capture Africans and Westerners in authentic situations. The result is that the reader is able to make sense of customs that at first seem incomprehensible. This book will be of interest to Westerners living, working, or traveling in sub-Saharan Africa: business, government, diplomatic, and NGO personnel, religious workers, journalists, development sociologists, and tourists. The audience also includes professors and students in African studies. Africans will also be interested for what it reveals about Western culture and many of the significant ways Westerners react to Africa.
Conflict Mediation Across Cultures: Pathways and Patterns by David Augsberger.
Believing not only that conflict is inevitable in human life but that it is essential and can be quite constructive, Augsburger proposes a shift to an "international" approach in resolving conflict. Augsburger focuses on interpersonal and group conflicts and provides a comparison of conflict patterns within and among various cultures. Includes numerous stories and fables from different cultures on the various conflicts- myths which are highly illuminating, teaching about cultures and about the nature of conflict, as only parables can. Interspersed in each chapter are many other stories and sharings from real life.
Shake Hands with the Devil: the Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, Romeo Dallaire, UN Peace Keeping Mission Force Commander during the genocide. From Publishers Weekly:As former head of the late 1993 U.N. peacekeeping mission in Rwanda, Canadian general Dallaire's initial proposal called for 5,000 soldiers to permit orderly elections and the return of the refugees. Nothing like this number was supplied, and the result was an outright attempt at genocide against the Tutsis that nearly succeeded, with 800,000 dead over three months. The failure of the U.N.'s wealthier members to act as the tragedy unfolded obliged the author to leave military service to recover from PTSD (as well as the near breakdown of his family). While much of the account is a thickly described I-went-here, I went-there, I-met-X, I-said-this, one learns much more about the author's emotional states when making decisions than in a conventional military history, making this an important document of service—one that has been awarded Canada's Governor General's Award. And his descriptions of Rwanda's unraveling are disturbing, to say the least ("I then noticed large piles of blue-black bodies heaped on the creek banks"). Dallaire's argument that Rwanda-like situations are fires that can be put out with a small force if caught early enough will certainly draw debate, but the book documents in horrifying detail what happens when no serious effort is made.
With What Remains: A Widow’s Quest for Truth in Rwanda, Lesley Belinda (author of The Colour of Darkness). “In 1994 Scottish health worker Lesley Bilinda lost her Rwandan husband Charles in the horrific genocide which swept the country with little warning. Since then she has lived with no knowledge of how or where he died, or the identity of his killers. Over a decade later, she returned to Rwanda to uncover the truth. But over the course of a traumatic emotional journey, a very different truth emerged…”
After the Locusts: How costly forgiveness is restoring Rwanda’s stolen years. Meg Guilleband (haven't actually read it but it looked great)
1 comments:
Yay! More posts from Mary. Thanks so much for sharing your inspiring past couple of months. It sounds like you've been doing and learning amazing things. Thanks for the great updates (as always).
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