Blog Post #8

Grace and I are reading Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza. This memoir takes place during the Rwandan Holocaust. This Holocaust is between two Rwandan tribes, the Hutus and the Tutsis. There are a lot more Hutus in Rwanda, and they feel superior to the Tutsis. There are no differences between the two tribes, except for the fact that the Tutsi's tend to be taller and have broader noses. One day, the Hutu government feels threatened by the Tutsis and declares that all Tutsis are seeking to kill the Hutus and regain power. As a result of this, many Extremist Hutus band together and start killing innocent Tutsis. Neighbors would turn against neighbors, just because they were Tutsi. The government also declared that the Tutsi population must be destroyed at all costs. Even Tutsi babies and the elderly were brutally murdered by this genocide.
This memoir taught me that anything is possible with faith in God. Immaculee was always very religious and prayed frequently. When she and 7 other women hid in a bathroom for three months, only about 4 feet long and 3 feet wide. She would pray from sun rise to midnight. She would pray her father's rosary that he gave her before she went away, and pray for everyone to be okay after the genocide. There were many instances when the killers were in the room right beside her, and she would pray to God to blind them with His love, and not to let them see the bathroom door. It worked. It always worked. Towards the end of the genocide, she didn't want her killers to die a painful death like she used to want, she prayed for God to forgive them for their sins, and for them to see what mistakes they've made before they die so they can go to Heaven. After the three months in the bathroom, the French soldiers protected many Tutsis in their camp. After approximately a month of protection, the French were transporting Tutsis to a church, where they could take a more permanent refuge. The French were told by their captain to drop them off about a mile away from the church, which was a problem because there were still hundreds of killers in that distance. Immaculee and a few of the other refugees walked confidently in the direction of the church with killers at their heels. Immaculee prayed for God to blind the killers one last time, that was all she needed. She didn't even pray to live anymore, she just prayed for her new friends to be okay and for the killers to see the errors that they had made before it was too late. The killers eventually walked away from her group and she was able to get to the church to send back help for the others.

Immaculee with her father's rosary.

This video shows how Immaculee had faith in God and that helped her forgive her killers.

 

Our realization can be seen in another genocide survivors story as well. Jason Nshimye was 15 when the Rwandan genocide started and he, like many others thought that the killers would not murder in a church. He was wrong and barely escaped, but not before he saw his whole family die. He lived in a brush for many weeks with another young girl. Her whole family had also been killed. Another wrong assumption he made was that the killers wouldn't murder young children. One day when Jason was walking with a group of small kids they ran into a soldier. He assumed that they would be ok but the soldier told them to lay down so he could shoot them. He had to watch the other kids be shot and he knew he would be too. But god saved him, when the soldier pulled the trigger nothing happened. The gun was out of bullets. Remembering those times were very hard for him but he knows that it was his faith in god that saved him. ' "Even speaking about it today," he says, "it's hard to explain the tragedy. It was horrible." Rather than forget, he chooses to forgive. He credits his unwavering faith. "During this time," he says, "I was terrified and horrified, but I kept my hope in the everlasting God. He looked down upon me." '

 

http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/inside-story/articles/2014/4/8/experts-weigh-inhastheworldlearnedfromtherwandagenocide.html

 

Jason at the church where his family was killed.