From red earth : a Rwandan story of healing and forgiveness

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Title:

From red earth : a Rwandan story of healing and forgiveness

Author:

Uwimana, Denise, author.

ISBN:

9780874869842

Physical Description:

205 pages, 16 pages of unnumbered plates : color illustrations, map ; 22 cm.

Contents:

Plane crash -- Roots -- Refugee childhood -- Wakening -- Charles -- Trouble -- Tightening net -- April 16 -- Haven -- Alone -- Survivors -- Peace with Bugarama -- Mukoma -- The sisterhood -- Beata -- A time to heal -- Antoine -- Wellspring -- Cancilde and Emamanuel.

Personal Subject:

Uwimana, Denise.

Subject Term:

Genocide survivors -- Rwanda.

Tutsi (African people) -- Crimes against -- Rwanda -- History -- 20th century.

Reconciliation -- Social aspects -- Rwanda.

Reconciliation -- Political aspects -- Rwanda.

Geographic Term:

Rwanda -- History -- Civil War, 1994 -- Atrocities.

Rwanda -- History -- Civil War, 1994 -- Biography.

Rwanda -- Ethnic relations.

Genre:

Biographies

Summary:

In the space of a hundred days, a million Tutsi in Rwanda were slaughtered by their Hutu neighbors. At the height of the genocide, as men with bloody machetes ransacked her home, Denise Uwimana gave birth to her third son. With the unlikely help of Hutu Good Samaritans, she and her children survived. Her husband and other family members were not as lucky. If this were only a memoir of those chilling days and the long, hard road to personal healing and freedom from her past, it would be remarkable enough. But Uwimana didn't stop there. Leaving a secure job in business, she devoted the rest of her life to restoring her country by empowering other genocide widows to band together, tell their stories, find healing, and rebuild their lives. The stories she has uncovered through her work and recounted here illustrate the complex and unfinished work of truth-telling, recovery, and reconciliation that may be Rwanda's lasting legacy. Rising above their nation's past, Rwanda's genocide survivors are teaching the world the secret to healing the wound of war and ethnic conflict. Includes 16 pages of color photographs.

Holds:

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake)	967.5710431 UWI	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	967.5710431 UWI	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

A Hundred Days of Carnage, Twenty-Five Years of Rebirth

In the space of a hundred days, a million Tutsi in Rwanda were slaughtered by their Hutu neighbors. At the height of the genocide, as men with bloody machetes ransacked her home, Denise Uwimana gave birth to her third son. With the unlikely help of Hutu Good Samaritans, she and her children survived. Her husband and other family members were not as lucky.

If this were only a memoir of those chilling days and the long, hard road to personal healing and freedom from her past, it would be remarkable enough. But Uwimana didn't stop there. Leaving a secure job in business, she devoted the rest of her life to restoring her country by empowering other genocide widows to band together, tell their stories, find healing, and rebuild their lives. The stories she has uncovered through her work and recounted here illustrate the complex and unfinished work of truth-telling, recovery, and reconciliation that may be Rwanda's lasting legacy. Rising above their nation's past, Rwanda's genocide survivors are teaching the world the secret to healing the wound of war and ethnic conflict.

Includes 16 pages of color photographs.

Author Notes

Denise Uwimana is the founder of Iriba Shalom International, an organization that provides material and spiritual support to genocide survivors and their children. She now lives with her second husband, Dr. Wolfgang Reinhardt, in Germany. Together they continues to work for healing in Rwanda.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In this poignant memoir, Uwimana describes her extraordinary experience of survival during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, during which 800,000 Tutsi were slaughtered by their Hutu neighbors in 100 days. Hiding in terror under her bed, she heard: "We will exterminate every last cockroach, no matter where they hide!" But Uwimana was one of the lucky ones; her husband was killed, but she and her three children weren't found. She wonders: "How could ordinary people veer from a normal life-looking for work, studying at college, or earning a living-to butchering others?... I can only answer that demons from hell were unleashed like seething lava over our land." The bulk of the book recounts her efforts to rebuild her life, to learn to forgive her enemies, and to help other women struggling to reconcile in the aftermath. Hers was very much a spiritual journey; she believed God was directing her to help both Tutsi and Hutu "become human again." Remarried and living in Germany, the author continues to work for healing in Rwanda through her charity Iriba Shalom International. As Uwimana focuses on her own story, this account is mesmerizing on a human level, but is unfortunately short on historical context that would better explain the genocide for readers less familiar with it. Readers interested in faith-based perspectives will be particularly drawn to this tale of survival and redemption. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

In this piercing, devastating, and often horrifying memoir, Rwandan genocide survivor Uwimana recounts in painful detail the bloody tragedy of her country. A survivor who draws deeply on her Christian faith, Uwimana tells a story that is almost impossible to believe. As her murderous countrymen hunted her Tutsi family and friends, she entrusted her two young sons to a trusted Hutu ally and then climbed into a neighbor's crawlspace, where she gave birth at the height of the rampage. Through the kindness of others and no small amount of luck, she and her three children were able to escape with other women and their children and obtain safety at their former place of employment. From this tragic recounting, she moves forward to explain how forgiveness has become crucial in her life and the lives of others. Uwimana is certain that without her faith in God she could not survive what she witnessed or the weight of her losses, including her beloved husband. Gut-wrenching but undeniably compelling, this is a powerful look at Rwanda, then and now.--Colleen Mondor Copyright 2019 Booklist

1 Plane Crash	p. 1
2 Roots	p. 8
3 Refugee Childhood	p. 12
4 Wakening	p. 22
5 Charles	p. 29
6 Trouble	p. 40
7 Tightening Net	p. 52
8 April 16	p. 61
9 Haven	p. 78
10 Alone	p. 91
11 Survivors	p. 104
12 Peace with Bugarama	p. 120
13 Mukoma	p. 128
14 The Sisterhood	p. 135
15 Beata	p. 147
16 A Time to Heal	p. 158
17 Antoine	p. 171
18 A Wellspring	p. 183
19 Cancilde and Emmanuel	p. 191
Acknowledgements	p. 202
Iriba Shalom International	p. 205

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Booklist Review

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