BOOK REVIEW: By Reverien Rurangwa and translated by Anna Brown

Fifteen years down the road and still haunted by the unspeakable horrors that unfolded in front of his 15 year old eyes Reverien Rurangwa pens Genocide; My Stolen Rwanda. He lost 43 members of his family in the Genocide and is the sole survivor of the family. Rurangwa chronicles a numbing and heart-wrenching tale of how a once blissful and humble life on a small village hill of Mugina, experienced a bizarre twist where their Hutu neighbors turned against them and massacred all his family with him surviving narrowly. The book starts with the author describing the nostalgic memories ignited by the only reminder of his family. That is an old photo taken during the wedding of a relative named Appolinalie. That was before he was born. The book goes back to a time when all Rurangwa’s family members had locked themselves in a small hut, where they were hiding from the marauding Interahamwe and their blood thirsty Hutu neighbors who were hunting them. The author describes the fatal moment; a moment which he says will never cease to haunt him. That’s the moment when the first killer to enter their hut craned his neck into the hut before he slashed Rurangwa’s uncle Jean by the neck and blood gushed up to the hut ceiling. This is Simon Sibomana the author’s Hutu neighbor whose bar was near that of his Jean in their village of Mugina. Without any known grudge, Sibomana like a rabid dog entered the hut and started slaughtering the Rurangwa’s relatives including his God fearing mother who was first stripped naked in front of his eyes before she was disemboweled. He describes the black pupils of Sibomana the killer during the time he struck a machete blow on the authors head.The climax of the book comes when in his quest for justice; Rurangwa finally comes face to face with the man who killed his family. On their first meeting since the Genocide, Sibomana pulls a pretentious display by asking “For pity’s sake is! Is that what they did to you?” There by prompting the Rurangwa to confront him by making the record straight “Lets not forget that it was you who did this!” The machete blows left the author with one hand, one eye and bizarre scars across his face which he likens with the look of the psychopath in the Texas Chain saw movie. According to Rurangwa, the man who cut his face intended to disfigure his Tutsi facial features.The book ends with the Rurwangwa’s struggles in seeking to forgive with the help of his mentor and friend Luc Dupraz who with a dash into the spiritual world paints a prudent picture of forgiveness to Runrangwa which slowly melts his tormented heart. He currently lives in Switzerland. Ends