Into the Quick of Life: The Rwandan Genocide--The Survivors Speak

By Jean Hatzfeld

Book Overview

Five out of six Tutsis were hacked to death with machetes and spears by their Hutu neighbours. In the villages of Nyamata and N'tarama, where, in the first two days of the genocide, over 10,000 Tutsis were massacred in the churches where they sought refuge, Jean Hatzfeld interviewed some of the survivors. to the local social worker, fourteen survivors talk of the genocide, the death of family and friends in the church and in the marshes of Bugesera to which they fled. They also talk of their present life and try to explain and understand the reasons behind the extermination. These horrific accounts of life at the very edge contrast with Hatzfeld's own sensitive and vivid descriptions of Rwanda's villages and countryside in peacetime. Into the quick of life brings us, in the author's own words, as close to the event as we can ever get.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 185242883X
• ISBN13: 9781852428839
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Trans-Atlantic Pubns
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.6" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Easy read but good

The author puts a lot of information concerning the attitudes, fears, and unrest still prevelant in Rwanda. Survivor's guilt is an understandable emotion of the Tsutsi's that remain. And, quite obviouly, trusting those Hutus who were complicit in the genocide is a serious problem even now.

Please, PLEASE Fix the summaries.

I would just like to note some mistakes in both publisher review summaries; (1) The killings took place over a 3 month period; not 3 days. The three month period was April - June 1994, though lesser violence continued into July and onwards. (2) The amount of Tutsi left dead at the end of the massacres totaled close to 1,000,000. There are 'neat' estimates around 500,000, but the most accurate place the victim toll at 800,000 to 937,000+. At least.

Life Laid Bare

How lucky one should consider oneself when one realizes the suffering these poor, innocent victims of racial hatred had to endure! Faith and God and love for each other were the saving factors for each of these individuals. Personal accounts of their suffering brought reality to this genocide which, like any other genocide, is created by jealously, envy and pure hatred for other human beings. May God forgive us for such evil.