Left to Tell : Immaculée Ilibagiza

Image Credit : Murray Library

I don't think I have read too many memoirs of late. I used to read at least 20 memoirs or so a year during one particularly fertile reading phase. Yet, a personal account of the Rwandan holocaust was hard not to.

Immaculée Ilibagiza's Left To Tell is a harrowing account. I cannot imagine the depth of horror that she must have experienced. To imagine the human mind as capable of such atrocities. Yet, the past that she recounts is no doubt true. Her story is one of courage. Immense courage. And her story is also of faith.

As a little girl in a village in Rwanda, Immaculée was just like anyone else. She knew little of the distinction of a Hutu and Tsutsi.  Her life is torn asunder when Rwanda in 1994 plunges into genocide after the death of the then Rwandan President. Separated from her family, and her brother, who she describes as her soulmate, she spends 91 days hidden inside the bathroom of the Pastor who agrees to hide her and seven other women in his house. It's a terrifying ordeal. What sustains her through this ordeal is her faith - unswerving faith. It's this part of the autobiography that may be a bit too thick for non-religious readers. Yet, it's important to understand that considering all that Immaculée lost, faith was something that she didn't lose.

Sometimes, it's hardest to love those who hate us. And hardest to find faith in a God who seems to have turned this world into an unforgiving battle of hate. But that's what Immaculée finds solace in. I was gripped by her account. And yet humbled by her survival. There is great courage to live through what she has, but greater still to forgive those who hunted for relentlessly. I remember there were chapters in the book that I were so descriptive - Hutu Interahamwe soldiers swarmed her village, carrying machetes and ready to slash to death anyone they suspect of being a Tsutsi or even a Hutu who is a sympathizer. It was madness of the sort that the world had not seen since perhaps the Jewish holocaust.

I have one query though of Immaculée. She owed her life to the Pastor. Yet, I find that in the end, when she embarks on her journey of forgiveness, curiously there is no mention of the Pastor. It's clear that she doesn't like him because he turned her brothers away and didn't give them shelter. Yet, he showed kindness in strange ways. But I never saw in the book Immaculée reaching out to him, and thanking him. I couldn't make out what happened in the end, and this is a strange lapse in what is generally an inspiring story.

Verdict : An unforgettable account of a grim and shameful period in the world's history

Rating : 4/5