Left To Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust

by Immaculee Ilibagiza

Other authorsSteve Erwin (Contributor)
Hardcover, 2006

Barcode

2108

Call number

282.092 ILI

Status

Available

Call number

282.092 ILI

Pages

215

Description

Nonfiction. HTML: Immaculee Ilibagiza grew up in a country she loved, surrounded by a family she cherished. But in 1994 her idyllic world was ripped apart as Rwanda descended into a bloody genocide. Immaculee's family was brutally murdered during a killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives of nearly a million Rwandans. Incredibly, Immaculee survived the slaughter. For 91 days, she and seven other women huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor while hundreds of machete-wielding killers hunted for them. It was during those endless hours of unspeakable terror that Immaculee discovered the power of prayer, eventually shedding her fear of death and forging a profound and lasting relationship with God. She emerged from her bathroom hideout having discovered the meaning of truly unconditional loveâ??a love so strong she was able seek out and forgive her family's killers. The triumphant story of this remarkable young woman's journey through the darkness of genocide will inspire anyone whose life has been touched by fear, suffering, and loss.… (more)

Publication

Hay House (2006), Edition: First Edition, 215 pages

Original publication date

2006-02

ISBN

1401908969 / 9781401908966

Collection

Rating

(298 ratings; 4.4)

User reviews

LibraryThing member paulkid
To put this review in context: I tend to be pretty cynical, and I have to say for the most part that I don't believe in God. I read this book because I'm interested in Africa and Rwanda and why genocide happens. OK, now for the review: Of the books on Rwanda that I have read, this one scared me and
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saddened me the most. I've read the statistics and anecdotes from other books, like "We wish to inform you . . . " and "Ordinary Man", but this story has the most "up-close and personal" perspective. Like I said, Ilibagiza's narrative is frightening, and her story is incredible, but meanwhile she does a great job of describing how her faith in God, or as some may say "retreating into her religion", helped her through the crisis. I for one believe her, I have no doubt that her faith allowed her to survive this unimaginable tragedy with surprisingly little mental and, dare I say, spiritual scarring. That's relative of course, as she says there is certainly some long-term damage. The great thing is that Ilibagiza is a storyteller; not once does she proselytize or preach. That's refreshing, and I agree with other reviewers that the subtitle of the book "Discovering God . . ." is a bit misleading because she already has a strong relationship with God before the genocide, and this book is not really about how one "discovers God". Instead, it show how a personal relationship with your God can be protective. Don't get me wrong, I am not converted and will continue my cynical and secular lifestyle, but Ilibagiza's story will always live in my heart as an example of how a person's faith can have a strong, positive influence on their lives. I would definitely recommend this book even for the non-religious types out there.
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LibraryThing member lesvrolyk
Simply a fabulous book. I couldn't put it down. Immaculee's experience is heartbreaking, but she still manages to come out of it with a positive attitude. She has some uplifting messages to share in her story...even for the non-religious. It's also historically interesting to read about her
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experiences during the genocide in Rwanda. This is a fairly short book and totally worth an afternoon of reading!
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LibraryThing member b22johansen
Wonderful book about the Rwandan genocide. Immaculee shows how even in the hardest times, one can still trust in God and forgive those who commit even the most horrific crimes.
LibraryThing member aspotoft
I couldn't put this book down. It's almost impossible to believe such things could happen in the world today, yet they continue on even now. I have recommended this book to everyone I know.
LibraryThing member bethlea
The story of a Tutsi survivor of the Rwandan holocaust by Hutu's on Tutsis. Sadly, not as well written as it could have been.
Sad story of neighbors, and friends turning on each other because of artificial differences.
LibraryThing member jpogue
In 1994 nearly one million Rwandans were lost in one of our generation’s deadliest genocides. Immaculée Ilibagiza, a Tutsi survivor, intimately shares her story of grief, loss, and ultimately of hope, in Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. A dozen years after losing most
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of her family in the senseless massacre that swept through central Africa, Ilibagiza teams with author Steve Erwin in a powerful chronicle of faith in the midst of unimaginable evil. This winsome, feisty woman vulnerably shares not only her painful search for God and meaning, but also her life-or-death battle against the wickedness surrounding her.

Left to Tell can be counted among the incredible stories of people living out their faith in unfathomable circumstances such as Ten Boom’s The Hiding Place and Eareckson-Tada’s Joni. The author, a mere college student during the Rwanda Genocide, describes her experience of helplessly hiding—a hunted, despised minority—in a tiny bathroom with seven other women as they smelled the death of loved ones and listened to the atrocities occurring inches outside the bathroom’s window.

Ilibagiza’s story has immense worth, not only as a moving recollection of Jesus’ amazing power in our lives, but also as a revealing historical narrative of one of Rwanda’s darkest times. Left to Tell was particularly fascinating to me, however, as a real-life picture of our brothers and sisters’ faith from across the globe. After reading Philip Jenkins’s The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, a must-read discourse on Christianity’s astounding expansion into Asia, Latin America and Africa, Ilibagiza brought this amazing statistical phenomenon down to a personal, human level. As a married woman with a two children now living in the United States, she still possesses a faith rich in culturally-relevant African Catholicism—her beloved rosary, her love for the Mother Mary—mixed with an ancient belief system including communicating with the spirit world via psychics. It struck me as endearingly amusing when the author confesses her father would rather she marry a Hutu, their “enemy” tribe, than a Protestant. And though her religious practices are vastly different from mine, her familiar yearning for Truth in a relationship with God through Jesus rings true page after page.

This book opened my eyes to consider Jesus’ work in our lives beyond my own Western experiences. I was compelled to consider the vast and wide road by which all humans may encounter Jesus. And Immaculée Ilibagiza truly is my sister in Christ. I am grateful for her poignant, life-changing example in becoming a vessel of God’s love and forgiveness.
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LibraryThing member shaunnas
This was a difficult book to read. What a horrific experience for this woman and her entire country. At the same time her story is one of the most inspiring I have read. I wonder if I could possibly have forgiven in the way she has forgiven. I put my family in their situation and can't imagine the
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anguish and despair. She overcame by turning her heart and her life over to her Heavenly Father and He healed her. Thankfully, we will never experience such a holocaust but we all need the healing offered by Him.
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LibraryThing member Lilac_Lily01
This book will bring tears to your eyes. It's the autobiography of Immaculee Ilibagiza who survived the Rwandan Holocaust.

Most of Immaculee's family is killed during the genocide but she survives hidden in a small bathroom with 8 other women. While in hiding she strengthens her relationship with
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God. Instead of breaking under the traumatic experience of a war and losing her loved ones, she never loses her optimism and faith.

This woman should be an inspiration to all of us. How often do we find ourselves complaining about trivial things? Yet Imaculee faced the worst of the worst and coped with it graciously without any complaint at all. It takes a very strong person to be able to do that. And I applaud her for sharing her story with us.
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LibraryThing member mmillet
Immacule has an amazing story and this is a must read especially for anyone struggling with forgiveness. The book details her early life and survival during the Rwandan holocaust in 1994, which the 'rich' nations basically did nothing while ovwe 1 million people were murdered. Amazing story of
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courage, finding the will to survive and hang on and on moving on later. brillant and life-changing.
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LibraryThing member SAtrium15
Did you ever sit with a big question for a good long time? Maybe you found the easy answer, or the glib answer, or the partial answer from an outsider. But the truth about motivation and outcomes still doesn’t fit.

I have puzzled over the big questions often, a pleasant way to spend the quiet
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time. Like, why does the Great Plains have no trees? The soil is deep and fertile, made verdant by centuries of buffalo dung deposits in the gazillions. So why are the Great Plains not called the Great Forest?

I actually found an answer for that question that sits well with me. A forest was burned away when the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off the Yucatan. There’s a petrified forest, in fact, in Arizona with tree trunks that were made into rock by the event. Then the grazing animals, eating all the seedlings, rose in great numbers before the trees could overtake the acreage.

One puzzle piece of my world fits snugly into place.

The cyclic massacres of the Tutzis and Hutus in Rwanda was another big question that came around in quiet moments. How could neighbors who were cousins indulge in widespread massacres every 12-18 years? What was the motivation? What were their explanations for the outcomes?

This is a heavy topic, not light banter for the dinner party. I could just ignore the question of relative motivations. Or I could explore the grievous actions and utilize some underlying truth to provide motivations for characters in my novels. The issue is relevant in many countries just now.

I read different partial answers that fit the rhetorical stance of the writer or organization more than the participants. I read much later the neo-Malthusian chapter by Jared Diamond in Collapse. His argument called for more trees and fewer babies, and the relative responsibilities of developed countries. But the example illustrates his articulated themes, rather than some open-ended investigation of inductive reasoning.

But what about the participants in the Rwandan massacres? A GoodReads friend suggested that I read Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza in which she describes her experience as a Tutsi hiding in a Hutu’s bathroom with six other women. To my surprise, this was a book of Catholicism and the power of faith, except the proofs of faith were thin.

Immaculee claims a Hutu killer turned away when he saw her face, I suppose like the visage of Moses could bring conviction in the spirit. She claims that God helped her onto a path of compassion and forgiveness so she could get past urges of revenge. The author was remarkable indeed, but what about the other Rwandans who participated, and will participate again in a decade or so?

The author claims that her prayers covered her friends so the killers didn’t attack the defenseless group while she hurried toward them with French peace-keepers. Except this scene happened late in the four-month-long massacre when passion was burned out and outside soldiers were armed with guns, not machetes.

I enjoyed the writer’s descriptions, and I thanked God more than once for my easy lifestyle. Her statement of faith seemed true but too glossy in print form. I’m certain Immaculee Ilibagiza is an inspiring motivational speaker, and I admire her work with orphans and raising international awareness through the UN.

One woman’s answer for how she survived the nightmare doesn’t speak to how we, the human race, can indulge this horror or how we prevent future massacres among neighbors and cousins.

Unfortunately, I’m still seeking that big answer for my big question.
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LibraryThing member pamdierickx
Amazing book of fear and forgiveness. page 190 - "I am the proof of the power of prayer and positive thinking. God is the source of all positive energy and prayer is the best way to tap in to HIs power."
LibraryThing member whitfour
This is an incredible story of a woman filled with faith and how he survives one of the wore cases of evil in our times.
LibraryThing member jessilouwho22
This is definitely the most powerful book that I have ever read. Reading this book brought me to tears so many times, and it truly takes a phenomenal woman to go through what she did and then forgive the perpetrators after all was said and done. I believe that this is a book that everyone needs to
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read at some point in his life. Not only will reading this book make you realize how much you may take for granted in your life, but it also shows you that if she can find forgiveness through God, so can you, no matter how big or small the trespass. This woman's relationship with God is remarkable and should be something that everyone should strive for. Be aware that this book will bring you to tears, but it will also open your eyes in the end. I had a feeling when my aunt bought me this book to read that it would change my life forever...and I have to say that it most certainly did.
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LibraryThing member seoulregina
The Rwandan genocide broke out when Immaculee was 18.She hid in the small bathroom with other 7 women for 91 days. Amid the constant and intense terror, she clung to the Lord as her only refugee. the whole journey with the Lord testified how one person's faith can move the mountain! very moving and
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sad story about the hatred and forgiving.
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LibraryThing member hamiltonpam
What incredible forgiveness we find in the pages of this story. Telling of the disturbing genocide of the Rwanda people. I am going to see Immaculee at a conference being held soon in our area, and I am anxious to see her in person.
LibraryThing member B.Mayaluna
This is an powerful personal narrative of Immaculee Ilibagiza's incredible faith in God during her odds-defying survival during the three month genocide in Rwanda and after. I find it stunning how she instinctively knew the necessity of granting forgiveness to her family's killer, a man who neither
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asked for forgiveness or extended an apology. She also practiced visualization techniques throughout her life and gives testimony time and again in this short book how she asks for the biggest things imaginable and then receives. It is a remarkable story with minimal yet accurate accounts of the colonial history, political situation of the time and roles played by international parties.
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LibraryThing member veronicalynne
Totally AWESOME! Changed my life. I've known God is present in my life but this woman actually lived God present in hers. My faith is enriched having read this book. I learned more about world history as well as sociology and psychology through the reading of this book. Highly recommended
LibraryThing member Agreatness100
This is an autobiographical account of how Catholic Tutsi Immaculee Ilbagiza, a 24 year old university student, survived the 1994 Hutu genocide which killed one million Tutsis in Rawanda by hiding in a 4' long by 3' wide masterbathroom with 7 other people for 91 days in the home of her father's
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friend Pastor Murinz During that time her weight dropped from 115 lbs to 65 lbs. Her father, mother, and two brothers, Damascene and Vianney were violently slaughtered during the genocide.

The house in which she and the others were hiding was searched numerous times by gangs of Hutu killers but they never found the bathroom in which they were hiding because its door was covered by a large wardrobe.

While she was hiding, Immaculee constantly prayed a red and white rosary given to her by her father, meditated on God and constantly expressed her faith in God and visualized the positive results which she sought.

She states:

"I was living proof of the power of prayer and positive thinking which really are almost the same thing. God is the source of all positive energy, and prayer is the best way to tap into this power." Id. p. 190.

She visited in prison the leader of the Hutu gang who killed her mother and brother Damascene and told him that she forgave him.

Through the power of visualization she obtained a job at the United Nations after "...visualizing that I was already working at the UN, taking notes, answering phones and making important decisions." Id. p. 185.

Immaculee wanted to find a good man for a husband so she drew a picture of the man she wanted to marry, described his physical features, height, weight etc, and his moral character . She states:

"Once I was clear on exactly what I wanted, I began to visualize it, believing it in my heart that it had already come to pass. I'd put it all in God's hands and knew it was only a matter of time before he would bless me with my wish....But to hurry things along, I took out my father's red and white rosary and began praying for my husband to show up. Three months later he did." Id. p. 207

This book is a superb example of the power of prayer, faith, visualization and forgiveness.
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LibraryThing member herdingcats
The book Left To Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza is a very touching story. This book does not go into the politics of what happened in Rwanda and why, rather it tells Imaculee's story. She tells about her childhood in Rwanda and how idyllic it seemed. She
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tells how as a child, she began learning of the discord between the Hutus and the Tutsis.
She tells how she prayed and relied on God and how He helped her to survive the horrific genocide in Rwanda where her Hutu friends and neighbors killed her Tutsi family and friends and tried to find and kill her as well. She tells of the Hutu pastor who hid her and several other Tutsi women in a small bathroom in his house which put him and his family at risk of also being killed. She tells of her love for her family and how horrified she was to learn that her Hutu neighbors had shot them and chopped them to pieces with machetes.
And she tells how she prayed and was able to forgive her Hutu friends and neighbors who had turned against her and her Tutsi family and friends and called them snakes and cockroaches and killed them like they were those vermin.
She shares her faith and how the Lord helped her to forgive and love her enemies.
Her faith is touching, but the whole story of the holocaust there is horrifying and disturbing.
What on earth is wrong with people? Why do they treat one another that way? Why did the rest of the world allow it to happen?
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LibraryThing member mojomomma
Immaculee is just a little too good to believe. She went through hell and seems to be awfully full of forgiveness. An amazing story with a remarkable outcome. My universities common reader for Fall 2012 with the author coming to campus in September.
LibraryThing member goosecap
Two points for modern thought—progress and intellect.

Progress. It’s easy to be a liberal because you think that the world’s getting better, but this is a slippery justification. People have different experiences, and in places the world is not improving. There’s still violence, even crimes
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against humanity. If you have to hide in your bathroom from ethnic killers, do you think that economics has the answers to life? Better to support justice, and to do it because it’s right, and because it was always right, not because of any changes.

Intellect. Intellectuals, whether they tend more towards change and justice or “pure reason”, look mostly to the intellect by default. But if you’re hiding in your bathroom from killers, you’re out of the debate. You can’t study as much as someone in prison or under house arrest, let alone even an average student, let alone an affluent one, so pure reason is somebody else’s job. You also can’t bring about political or social change, and getting angry about that is essentially self-punishment. But if you surrender your anger, you do what is possible for you, which is actually the prerequisite both of a just society, and the pursuit of reason.

…. The only problem with the above paragraphs is that I did such a job tidying up, and I. had such an untidy life. I can think of a few untidy, undeveloped, half-baked points, but it’s such a dicey subject, I feel like the only prudent thing is to spare you the half-baked ideas; otherwise I’d be cruising for a bruising, y’all.

…. Then again, maybe I can make one thing tidy, almost. Both the French captain and the Tutsi rebel major, who reject forgiveness out of hand—“I’ll forgive them when they’re dead”—also express self-doubt, express guilt for not having stopped the genocide, and want revenge as false penance, which I think says something about vengeance.

…. But maybe there’s hope in this world, too.
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LibraryThing member nmele
Why read this thirty years after the genocide she survived? Because there are crimes against humanity being committed as I write, and because Ms. Ilibagiza offers insight into the effort needed to forgive those who murdered her family and friends. This is not an easy book to read, but it seems to
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me a necessary one in the present moment.
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LibraryThing member Beth.Clarke
My sister-in-law, Colleen, recommended I read this many years ago. I finally read it and was very moved by Immaculee's story. It's a haunting tale, but how she survived through her faith was incredibly inspiring.
LibraryThing member lisatrotterjones
Amazing book!
LibraryThing member seoulregina
heart aching story of genocide survivor. great faith

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