Reading Excerpts for Grades 8-12 from
No Greater Love: How My Family Survived the Genocide in Rwanda
by Tharcisse Seminega
Copyright © 2019 GM&A Publishing
Excerpts by permission of Publisher
Introduction
As you read about the hundred-day plague that swept over my home country, you will encounter the ordinary people who became killers and accomplices of death. Coming face-to-face with machete-wielding génocidaires, it is natural to ask, “Who were they?” The troubling answer is: They were our neighbors, classmates, and colleagues. What madness invaded their minds and hearts? I still struggle to grasp it (xvii).
You will encounter some people in our story who did not seem sure of who they should be. Some carried the weapons of killers but performed spontaneous life-saving acts. Others did not act to save, but neither did they betray us. Some friends and strangers, upon seeing our desperation, were moved to help. Each of these deserves our gratitude for what they did or did not do. Finally, you will meet those ordinary people turned heroes, those who actively undertook to rescue us. In doing so, they showed a profound love, one that is greater than life itself. And I can say now that their courageous and selfless acts move me to ask myself every day, What kind of person am I, and how far will my love reach (xviii)?
Both Chantal and I had experienced hatred and persecution already, simply for being Tutsi. We each had to flee for our lives along with our parents and siblings back in 1961 and had spent years in exile, struggling for education and opportunity. Despite the disappointment and mistreatment we had already endured, I still hoped that the people in power would come to their senses, implement human rights for all citizens, and make Rwanda a haven of peace and unity, the way I remembered from when I was a boy. As it turned out I was kidding myself. The seeds of genocide were already being sown (xxii).
At this point you may wonder where the Hutu and Tutsi fit into this picture. They were there, in my village—living and working side-by-side … . I have fond memories of watching the grown-ups in my village work together in pleasant harmony (5).
Hutu and Tutsi … spoke the same language, Kinyarwanda, and shared the same cultural and religious traditions … . Only in recent history did the categories of Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa become hardened ethno-political labels, a tragic development that went from prejudice to oppression to genocide (6).
As I grew older, I became more conscious of the social layering of Rwandan society. I came to realize that the largest component of Rwandan traditional society was made up of servants and farmers who had few or no cattle. About 85 percent of these common people were of Hutu origin, the rest being Tutsi or Twa (7).
As wealth accumulated and political power became further concentrated in the lords, mostly of Tutsi origin, some exercised undue control over their servants (8).
[The] … colonial authorities used the Tutsi elite to dominate and exploit the Hutu majority. To the Tutsi belonged the best opportunities for education, jobs, and wealth. To secure a hold over the Rwandan leadership structure, Belgian authorities dismissed all Hutu chiefs, replacing them with Tutsi (10).
To seal the boundaries between the previously porous categories of Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa, each Rwandan had to carry an identity card. Officials gauged physical height and noses, compared skin color, and noted occupations. In schools, churches, and political institutions, notions of “ethnic” differences and inequality intensified. Then there was uburetwa, forced labor imposed by colonial authorities. [They] made Hutu laborers work without pay. The Belgians often used Tutsi to supervise the workers (11).
The misery and deprivation of the Hutu majority stirred their desire to throw off the shackles of … Tutsi power. In order to maintain their influence … leaders … shifted their support away from the old Tutsi leadership and toward the Hutu elite. New political parties formed along strict ethnic lines as … supremacist Hutu Power began taking shape (22).
In July 1959 … the Tutsi king of Rwanda, Charles Mutara III Rudahigwa, had suddenly died under mysterious circumstances … . [Hutu] and Tutsi nationalists wrestled for political power (23).
[It] led to a complete change in the way the country had been ruled for centuries. Many Tutsi went into exile. [The] Hutu turned suspicious of and hostile toward Tutsi virtually overnight (24).
It seemed that the country had no more room for Tutsi (25).
Chapter 5 – Stepping into the Maelstrom (1988-1994)
Chapter 6 – Open the Floodgates of Hate
Chapter 7 – Amidst Friend and Foe
Chapter 8 – A Mud Wall Between Us and Death
Chapter 9 – Alive in the Grave
Chapter 10 – Let There Be Light