Left to Tell

The book Left to Tell is the gripping story of Immaculee Ilibagiza, a women who spent three months hiding in the tiny bathroom of a local pastor's house along with 7 other women in 1994 during the Rwandan genocide. This autobiography describes Imaculee's experience leading up to, during, and following the holocaust.

Immaculee starts out the book explaining that she wasn't even aware of her own ethnicity as a Tutsi; her parents brought her up as a Rwandan, and never explained that there were Hutus and Tutsis. Besides, so many of these peoples had intermarried that it seemed like a false dichotomoy. She first found out she was a Tutsi when her elementary school teacher called her out in front of the class.

Immaculee went out to go to college at one of the best schools in Rwanda, achieving what many other women, much less minority (Tutsi) women had not been able to achieve in the country. That is when the violence began.

Something I appreciated about this book was that it gave me background information on the Rwandan political situation that gave rise to the war. Although I had seen the movie "Hotel Rwanda", I actually never really understood what precipitated the events of 1994. If you can forgive a little aside in this book report, I'll share what I learned.

The Belgians colonized Rwanda (thus French being the trade language there) and segregated the Hutus and the Tutsis, instituting the requirement that people carry around an identification card saying if they were Hutu or Tutsi. The Belgians elevated the Tutsi minority into a position of power over the majority Hutus. The Hutus got upset about this and, once the Belgians left, kicked the Tutsis out of the country. In the 90's, these exiled Tutsis formed an army to force their way back into Rwanda. The Hutus in the ruling government used this armed influx of Tutsi rebels as an excuse to carry out the genocide against the Tutsis.

History lesson aside, the genocide started quickly. Not only was the massacre horrific in brutality and scale, it was accomanied by deep betrayal as long time family friends became brutal murderers. All but one member of Immaculee's family were slaugtered. She managed to hide while the killings took place.

The book describes how Immculee clung to Jesus during the 3 months of fearful silence in that crowded bathroom and developed an intensely close relationship with God. It describes how she fought for forgiveness against those who had killed her family members because she was aware of God's command to forgive. I found her story inspiring. It makes me think, "if she could survive that, then surely my trials are nothing." It's also encouraging to read stories of God's power, grace, and protection.

The only minor thing I'd point out about the book is that the guy who got the book published seems to be into New Age stuff. I think Immaculee's English is not the greatest, so someone clearly helped her with the writing of the book, and I think that person took some liberties with her descriptions of things she experienced. There were a number of sections in the book that talked about God being "positive energy" and the devil being "negative energy", which was a little unusual; I'm not used to hearing Christians describe God in those terms. However, I suppose that at some level it's true, so it's not like there's anything wrong per se with that description. It just caught me off guard a bit.

I do recommend this book. I was able to read the whole book in a matter of hours (on a plane ride to North Carolina). I think it's a quick, positive read.

You can hear a recording of Immaculee speaking at the Calvin "January Series". You can also visit her Web site: Immaculee.com.