Left to Tell Highlights

Like I said before, "Left to Tell" was an amazing book, and it really gave me a personal perspective on the Rwandan Genocide. So I just thought I would share some of the portions that stuck out to me the most...


"Perhaps we should do as Damascene says," I urged my father. "Think of all the things we've been hearing on the radio. I haven't taken them seriously, but that might have been a mistake. They say that all Tutsis should be killed. Maybe Damascene is right - maybe we should leave now!"
"No, Immaculee, we shouldn't leave. Things are getting better with the government, and there will be peace soon. Those people on the radio are crazy; no one is taking them seriously! Don't worry. Let's just stay calm and enjoy the holidays. There is no death list, and no one is coming to kill us. I'm older and I know better," my father said, with a weak smile. "Now, for heaven's sake, let's sit down and eat dinner together."

This conversation between Immaculee and her father really saddened me. I truly believe that it illustrates the sentiments of many Rwandans at the beginning of the genocide. It is unbelievable that one day the reports on the radios were just distant news from other places, and the next, they were an awful reality for so many people. How quickly things change...


"I knew that my family was at peace, but that didn't ease the pain of missing them. And I couldn't shake the crippling sorrow that seized my heart whenever I envisioned how they'd been killed. Every night I prayed to be released from my private agony, from the nightmares that haunted my sleep and troubled my days. It took a while, but as always, God answered my prayers. This time, He did so by sending me a dream unlike any I've ever had."

Imaculee shares how in this dream, she saw her family members who had been killed. They spoke with her and encouraged her to move on and to forgive the people who had hurt her so deeply. She ends up going to visit the man who had killed her family in prison...

"Stand up, killer!" [The prison guard] shouted. "Stand up and explain to this girl why her family is dead. Explain to her why you murdered her mother and butchered her brother. Get up, I said! Get up and tell her!" [The prison guard] screamed even louder, but the battered man remained hunched and kneeling, too embarrassed to stand and face me..." "What do you have to say to her? What do you have to say to Immaculee?"
[He] was sobbing. I could feel his shame. He looked up at me for only a moment, but our eyes met. I reached out, touched his hands lightly, and quietly said what I'd come to say.
"I forgive you."
My heart eased immediately, and I saw the tension release in [his] shoulders before [the prison guard] pushed him out the door and into the courtyard...

This portion of the book touched me in a really special way. It speaks so profoundly of the power of forgiveness, both for those who need to forgive, and for those who need to be forgiven. It also reminds us of the lasting effects of a tragedy like the one that took place in Rwanda. The struggles do not stop once the immediate crisis is resolved. There are lasting emotional, psychological and cultural scars that remain. The rebuilding process takes a great deal of time and effort, and it it important to not overlook this issue when dealing with events like this.