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 | Book Description |
| About the Author |
| Tracy's Review |
SPEAK RWANDA marks the arrival of one of the most mesmerizing and unforgettable novels of the year. It is the story of ten people - Hutu and Tutsi, civilians and soldiers, mothers, nurses, politicians, herdsmen, and orphaned children - as they attempt to survive one of the most violent and deeply disturbing massacres since the Second World War. It is the story of the Land of a Thousand Hills, an area of lush beauty where tribespeople called to one another from forested mountaintops, but also a land where a complex system of class codes, discontent, and political unrest lurked beneath the surface.
Through the heartwrenching voices of these ordinary people, we come to see how humans can be driven to commit or tolerate genocide, and finally how the survivors may come to live with such an experience. From the villages to the ravaged cities to the plagued humanitarian camps, SPEAK RWANDA opens a window to a world that few of us fully understand.
Julian R. Pierce is an American who has worked and traveled throughout Africa, where he maintains close ties with friends and loved ones in Rwanda. SPEAK RWANDA is his first novel.
I found this to be an excellent novel written by someone who obviously understands the country and people of Rwanda at the time of the genocide as well as any westerner could. Pierce creates 10 characters, each with their own individual but overlapping stories, and together they tell the story of the genocide. Many of these characters were familiar to me - they were the people we interacted with and sometimes treated in our wards. However the book gave me a fresh insight into their stories and made me realise again how we had but scratched the surface in our knowledge of these people and their suffering.
Even the names of these characters had a familiar ring - they were the names we saw on our ward rounds every day. They included Immaculee, a proud Tutsi woman with a husband who owns many cattle. Her story clearly annunciates the differences in social standing between the two tribes, and the terror as she waits with her children for the impending horrors. One of her children, Innocent, survives the massacre of the rest of his family and then endures things that no pre-teenager should, ending up a thief and a glue sniffer on the streets of Kigali. He reminded me of one of our patients, Max. If Max suffered through even some of what Innocent did, then I am awfully sorry that I just saw him as a pest!
Silas is a corrupt Hutu official who has been plotting for years for a chance to strike against the priviliged Tutsi land owners and obtain true power. When the time comes, he seizes his chance with a gusto.
Agnes is a Hutu nurse whose only concern is for peace and normality. She sees little real difference between the two tribes and just tries to maintain her humanity, even though this sometimes means debasing herself completely. This is in contrast to her brother Augustin, a callow youth who joins in the slaughter of Tutsis just for the sport of it.
Stephen is a Tutsi in exile in Uganda who sweeps into the country as a Captain in the RPA. He is intelligent and a great leader, focussed on reclaiming "his country" and making it great, even though the invasion was the first time he had set foot on Rwandan soil.
Another RPA soldier is Emmanuel, a Tutsi cattle owner whose family was massacred in the genocide. He is a man proud of his family traditions as Tutsi warriors but finds the reality of war quite different. He mourns for his son Pacifique, who has unbeknownst to him survived the massacre and has been temporarily "adopted" by a Hutu neighbour, Pauline. Pauline's husband was one of the people who killed Emmanuel and Pacifique's family, and Pauline eventually abandons him in order to save her new family.
Finally Prosper, an old man befriended by Pauline in a Zairean refugee camp, is a Hutu who remembers the Hutu uprising of 1959, and believes the Hutu cause is just, but keeps his head low just to survive.
These individual stories entwine and mingle to create a horrifying but ultimately accurate whole, allowing the diversity of the people of Rwanda to truly speak and tell their tale. A must read for any of us who were involved in this country during this time. But beware - it will stir the emotions.
My partner has also read the book and highly recommends it for those who have had no previous involvement with Rwanda. In fact, this may be a great book for your family members or friends to read to help them understand the country a little better.
My rating 
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