Rain and Rwanda
Categories : Africa, Personal, books |
It’s a gloriously wet Sunday evening here in Perth. In fact it’s rained quite heavily all day – the first big wet day of the year. Usually I like to have music playing permanently no matter what I am doing, but on days like this I turn the stereo off and let the rain be my music – there’s few things more relaxing than listening to the rain falling outside. It’s not particularly cold so I’ve actually opened the window next to the couch here so I can hear it all the more – heavy rain, occaisional thunder, and a strong wind blowing in off the ocean.
This kind of environment seems perfect for the book I started reading tonight. I started it an hour ago and am already about half way through. 
Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza, subtitled ‘Discovering God amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.’ This book is a simply written yet powerful story of a young woman’s survival in the Rwandan genocide in 1994, sustained by her strong Catholic faith. Whilst thousands are brutally murdered by their former neighbours and friends, Immaculee and some other Tutsi women are sheltered inside a tiny hidden room by a kindly Hutu pastor. If you’ve seen Hotel Rwanda then you’ll have an idea of what this is about. So far I’ve found this book utterly compelling (aside from the pseudo-Christian new-agey spiritualistic babble by Wayne W. Dyer in his foreword to the book). She doesn’t go in depth into the politics of it all but to me it’s a reminder that at least part of the reason why this occurred is that the world turned a blind eye to this disaster. The only way to prevent catastrophes like this, and the similar troubles in Darfur, Chad and north Uganda, is for western countries and western individuals to actively engage with the people of Africa (and other similarly impoverished nations), to take an interest in their problems and show them that they really matter. Unfortunately it’s all too easy for the problems of the third world to slip off the radar, being buried by the latest political scandals, celebrity gossip and sports results. It takes work to keep pushing these issues towards the spotlight, not just in the media but also in our own awareness. Reading books like this one is just one way we can work at that awareness. And hopefully in some sort of way, big or small, that awareness will ultimately translate into action…
