Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust

Left to Tell is join going to be an upcoming literature circle novel for our CP students.  The unit will focus on multicultural memoirs.  Multicultural meaning it's written about an experience outside the United States and memoir meaning it is told by the person who went through the experience.  I have to say that this book was the one I knew the least about when we started planning the unit.  I was 13 years old when the Rwandan Holocaust occurred and it was not something I knew much about.  Okay, anything.  At least at the time.

But I did know about Hotel Rwanda, a Hollywood film created in 2004 that depicts the Holocaust from the eyes of Paul Rusebagina, who attempts to shelter his own family and over a thousand other refugees at the hotel  he managed.  Though the movie was not real, the story of Paul was real.  And the event was real.  It's hard to believe that something so much like the Holocaust during WW2 could happen again.  More than 50 years later.  It's like the Rwandans didn't learn anything from that experience, nor the rest of the world, who failed to come to the aid of the Tutsi's being persecuted.  Here is a short clip from the film, showing the chaos in the streets, the fear of the citizens, and the brutality of the Holocaust.  (Don't worry…nothing too violent).

The whole purpose of talking about this film is that I had some background knowledge before I actually picked up the book and started reading.  And I'm glad.  Questions I had in the movie were easily explained by Immaculee in her memoir.  If you click on the hyperlink in the first paragraph, you can read a short summary of Immaculee's story.  Immaculee was a successful, smart young woman who had her entire life on the horizon.  She did well in school, earning a scholarship to University.  She had friends and aspirations, a loving family.  When the genocide began, her father begged her to come back from University for the Easter break.  Immaculee was so glad she did.   She was able to see her family one last time.  When the rebels started the attacks and began looking for her family, she escaped to a local pastor's house and was hidden with six other women in a bathroom for the three month duration.  Currently, I am at the part where she is hiding in the bathroom.  She must remain absolutely silent while hiding.

I love her word choice here, where she is describing what it was like when the rebels were actually at the pastor's house to start searching for her: "Hundreds of people surrounded the house, many of whom were dressed like devils, wearing skirts of tee bark and shirts of dried banana leaves, and some even had goat horns strapped onto their heads.  Despite their demonic costumes, their faces were easily recognizable, and there was murder in their eyes" (Ilibagiza 77).  You can only imagine the terror she felt at that moment.  During another attempt and finding the women at the pastor's house, Immaculee reflects, "Prayer became my armor, and I wrapped it tightly around my heart" (Ilibagiza 85).   I loved the personification used here.  Immaculee is a strong writer.  Combine that with a gripping story and you have a recipe for a you-can't-put-it-down book.  I hope some of you choose to read this during our multicultural memoir unit!