LITERATURE

A Thousand Hills:

Rwanda’s Rebirth and the man who dreamed it (John Wiley and Sons 2008) by Stephen Kinzer The story of Paul Kagame, a refugee who, after a generation of exile, found his way home. Learn about President Kagame, who strives to make Rwanda the first middle-income country in Africa, in a single generation. In this adventurous tale, learn about Kagame’s early fascination with Che Guevara and James Bond, his years as an intelligence agent, his training in Cuba and the United States, the way he built his secret rebel army, his bloody rebellion, and his outsized ambitions for Rwanda.

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda

by Philip Gourevitch (Picador: September 1, 1999) – offers a concise and thorough picture of the history, the genocide and the immediate aftermath.

Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda

by Jean Hatzfield (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: June 15, 2005) This book features the testimony of 10 friends from the same village who spent day after day together, fulfilling orders to kill any Tutsi within their territory during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. While their anecdotes are shocking at first, they detail how an ordinary person with an everyday life in a farming village can be transformed into a killer.

When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda

by Mahmood Mamdani (Princeton University Press: August 12, 2002) – An influential Ugandan scholar details the colonial past, the regional issues and the political factors that gave rise to the Hutu Power movement and genocide.

A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide

by Samantha Power (Perennial: May 1, 2003) – from Armenia to Cambodia to Bosnia to Rwanda, Power examines why the words “never again” ring empty.

Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda

by Romeo A. Dallaire (Carroll and Graf: October 10, 2004) – Dallaire (played by Nick Nolte in the movie Hotel Rwanda), has continued to call the UN and other foreign governments to account for their abandonment of Rwanda. This book details the military picture from an insider’s point of view.

Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda

by Alison Des Forges (Human Rights Watch: March, 1999)

Justice on the Grass:

Three Rwandan Journalists, Their Trial for War Crimes and a Nation’s Quest for Redemption by Dina Temple-Raston (Free Press: March 1, 2005) Quickly tracing the history of Rwanda and the course of the 1994 genocide there, Temple-Raston focuses on the Hutu Radio Télévision Libre de Mille Collines (RTLM), and the resulting trial of the men who ran it.

Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust

by Immaculee Ilibagiza (Hay House: 2006). The true story of Ilibagiza’s survival of the genocide by hiding in a bathroom with seven other women for 91 days. From the jacket: “She emerged…having truly discovered the meaning of unconditional love.”

Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa

by Dambisa Moyo (Penguin Books – 2009) –Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary-General

“Dambisa Moyo makes a compelling case for a new approach in Africa. Her message is that “Africa’s time is now”. It is time for Africans to assume full control over their economic and political destiny. Africans should grasp the many means and opportunities available to them for improving the quality of life.

Dambisa is hard – perhaps too hard – on the role of aid. But her central point is indisputable. The determination of Africans, and genuine partnership between Africa and the rest of the world, is the basis for growth and development.”

MOVIES/DOCUMENTARIES

(all available on Amazon.com)

Hotel Rwanda (DVD)

Director: Terry George
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Release Date: April 12, 2005
Run Time: 122 minutes

Sometimes in April (DVD)

Director: Raoul Peck
Studio: Hbo Home Video
DVD Release Date: May 10, 2005
Run Time: 140 min

Ghosts of Rwanda (DVD)

Originally aired on PBS “Frontline”
Studio: PBS/Paramount
DVD Release Date: May 10, 2005
Run Time: 120 min

HELPFUL WEBSITES

Our own CIA with history and statistics
www.cia.gov

Rwanda’s English Newspaper
www.newtimes.co.rw

Official website for Movie Hotel Rwanda
www.unitedartists.com/hotelrwanda

Rwanda embassy, Washington DC
www.rwandaembassy.org

PBS Frontline
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/

Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/en/home

Rwanda: How the genocide happened; BBC World News
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1288230.stm