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48 pages 1 hour read

Philip Gourevitch

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

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1998

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Chapters 1-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Opening Summary

In 1994, the Hutu majority of Rwanda brutally murdered at least 800,000 Tutsis in 100 days. One year after the genocide, Philip Gourevitch travels to Rwanda to report and understand the state of the Rwandan people. He recounts a conversation with a self-declared Pygmy. While not Hutu or Tutsi, Pygmies were both enlisted to kill and victimized during the genocide. Although the genocide itself is not specifically mentioned, the conversation, like most conversations in Rwanda at the time, was about it. The Pygmy considers Africa to be “sick” and claims that its only hope is to unite in the struggle against nature. When Gourevitch points out that humans are a part of nature, the Pygmy agrees: “That is exactly the problem” (9). Gourevitch highlights this exchange to stress the significance of “how people imagine themselves and one another” (6). This exchange is critical to understanding why Hutu extremists believed the murder of the Tutsi minority would improve the world.

Chapter 1 Summary

In eastern Rwanda, Gourevitch visits Nyarubuye—one of its churches being where many Tutsis were murdered. 13 months later, their bodies remain as a memorial. Many of the victims are women, who were sexually assaulted before they were killed. Walking among the bones and severed limbs, Gourevitch ponders his own curiosity. He, like his guide, accidentally steps on a skull. Considering the Hutus used machetes to kill many of their victims, Gourevitch notes the hard work this butchery required (17). The genocide was clearly planned, with the Hutus enlisted to “Do your work” (17) and kill. Hutu Power’s ideology drove the perpetrators. Coercion was also at work, as Hutus who opposed this ideology were targeted first. The killings were often personal, as Hutus murdered friends, neighbors, and in-laws (18). The plan to kill all Tutsis was announced via radio; thus, victims had knowledge of what was to come. Victims sought places of refuge but in the end, many gave up and prepared for death. Gourevitch juxtaposes this horror with a description of the natural beauty of Rwanda, a beauty that Rwandans themselves can no longer see.

Chapter 2 Summary

At the opposite end of Rwanda, Gourevitch travels to the western village of Mugonero in the Kibuye province. Unlike much of Catholic Rwanda, “Mugonero is the headquarters of the Seventh-Day Adventist mission” (25), a Protestant denomination. The mission runs a church, school, and hospital complex. Approximately 2,000 Tutsis sought refuge at the hospital. Gourevitch interviews two survivors of the massacre that took place there, Samuel and Manase. Samuel explains that after the Hutu dictator—President Habyarimana—was assassinated on April 6, 1994, a small group of Hutu Power leaders took charge of the country and things immediately changed at the hospital. Dr. Gerard, the son of Pastor Ntakirutimana, “made no secret of his support for Hutu power” (26). When Tutsis initially took refuge at the hospital, two policemen said they would protect them.

However, after several days, the policemen left and reported to the refugees that they would be attacked the next day. Seven Tutsi pastors wrote a letter to Pastor Ntakirutimana asking him to intervene on their behalf. He responded that the Tutsis must die. Pastor Ntakirutimana and his son, Dr. Gerard, drove around with the Hutu militia. Samuel and Manase survived by hiding among the dead and emerged when the murderers left to loot the homes of victims (30). Separately, they made their way to Bisesero, the only place in Rwanda where the terrain enabled defense against the Hutu extremists. Yet, Hutus came and managed to kill many Tutsis. Samuel fled to Zaire, while Manase stayed in Bisesero to fight. Manase remarks on the number of dead in the water, whom he used as a bridge to escape the Hutu at night.

Chapter 3 Summary

The road to Mugonero is “an unpaved mess” (32) while others in Rwanda are in good condition. Mugonero houses a large population of Tutsis—which made it a low priority when it came to the Hutu government’s distribution of funds. Even before the assassination of President Habyarimana, Hutus referred to Tutsis as cockroaches. On the way to the village, Gourevitch’s convoy gets stuck. Two years after the genocide, Hutu militia are still actively “terrorizing Kibuye almost nightly” (33). Gourevitch hears a woman scream, which elicits a communal response. Just before cars arrive to escort his party, Gourevitch witnesses peasants with primitive weapons escorting a prisoner, the man who tried to assault the screaming woman. A Rwandan explains that all come running when a cry is heard. Gourevitch ponders the irony of the situation, as similar communal obligation was used to encourage assault and murder during the genocide.

Gourevitch tracks down Pastor Ntakirutimana—now Ntaki—in Laredo, Texas. Because his second son was born a naturalized US citizen, Ntaki was able to obtain a green card or “permanent resident alien status” (35). Gourevitch is ultimately granted an interview. Denying all wrongdoing, Ntaki claims that he tried to help the Tutsi refugees at his church upon receiving the seven pastors’ letter. He shares the letter, dated April 15, 1994. In it, the seven pastors wrote, “We wish to inform you that we have heard that tomorrow we will be killed with our families” (42). Ntaki’s story is not credible. The UN International Criminal Tribunal indicted him and his son, Dr. Gerard, for genocide and crimes against humanity. While Dr. Gerard was extradited, a US court spared Ntaki from the same fate.

Chapter 4 Summary

While there is “no reliable record of the precolonial state” (48) of Rwanda, it is believed that Hutus, a Bantu people from the south and west, settled there after the Pygmies. Tutsis came later from the north and east. They have physical differences: Hutus are described as “stocky and round-faced, dark-skinned, flat-nosed, thick-lipped, and square-jawed” (50), and Tutsis, “lanky and long-faced, not so dark-skinned, narrow-nosed, thin-lipped, and narrow-chinned” (50). However, given generations of intermarriage, the two groups are no longer ethnically distinct and often cannot be told apart. Historically, Tutsis were herdsmen and Hutus, cultivators. As a result, Tutsis were wealthier and akin to aristocrats, while Hutus were akin to serfs. Still, prior to colonization, the “lines between Hutu and Tutsi remained porous” (49). This changed with European colonization. Employing racist and unscientific assumptions, English explorer John Hanning Speke claimed that lighter-skinned Africans were of Ethiopian heritage and responsible for the introduction of civilization in Rwanda and the rest of the region. This thinking, the Hamitic Hypothesis, caused German colonizers to extend protections to Tutsi elites, who in turn exploited Hutus. Colonization divided a people who once had one faith, language, and law.

When Belgium replaced Germany as a post-World War I colonizer, it reinforced this ethnic distinction. Belgium issued ethnic identity cards, which eliminated the ease with which one could change classes. Tutsis, who comprised 14 percent of the population, had desirable jobs; Hutus, making up 85 percent of the population, were exploited. In 1957, a group of Hutu intellectuals called for majority rule. When a group of Tutsis beat a Hutu political activist in 1959, rumors of his death caused Hutus to attack Tutsis and burn their homes. Rwanda established a Hutu dictatorship, not a democracy, when it gained its full independence in 1962.

Chapter 5 Summary

Gourevitch interviews Odette Nyiramilimo, a Tutsi born in 1956. In asking her to share her life story, Gourevitch notices that Odette, like other Tutsis, recounts the years of terror, not those in peace. Odette was three years old when the first genocide took place in 1959. While she does not remember the details, her home was burned to the ground. Whenever exiled Tutsis engaged in guerilla warfare—albeit ineffectively—the Hutus would retaliate against civilian Tutsis. In December of 1963, “well-organized massacres left as many as fourteen thousand Tutsis dead” (65) in one province alone. Tutsis fled the country in droves, but Odette’s family stayed. The Tutsis who remained were discriminated against, with restricted access to “education, public employment, and the military” (66). The few educational positions available to Tutsis went to those with the lowest scores, as high achievers were threatening.

In 1973, Odette won a position at a teachers’ college, but was subsequently expelled because of her Tutsi identity. Other Tutsi students encountered a similar fate. The violence in 1973 was precipitated by events in neighboring Burundi the year before: A Tutsi government crushed a Hutu rebellion, murdering at least 100,000 Hutus (67). 200,000 more fled, mostly to Rwanda, putting strain on resources. Odette did not explicitly speak of this context, but of her own experiences. Walking 50 miles after her expulsion from school to a relative who married a Hutu, Odette was denied accommodation. Upon returning home, she attended medical school. Protected by a Belgian headmistress, Odette was able to complete her studies and become a physician. Her husband Jean-Baptiste, the son of a Tutsi father and Hutu mother, was also a physician. For a time, they lived among the Kigali elite. However, President Habyarimana himself expelled Odette from the hospital because of her ethnic identity.

Chapter 6 Summary

Rwanda’s republic “calcified into a mature totalitarian order” (75), with President Habyarimana running unopposed. The vast majority of Rwandans, including southern Hutus (Habyarimana’s inner circle hail from the northwest), lived in extreme poverty. In the 1970s, Rwanda benefitted economically from international aid, as it was stable compared to other countries in the area. When Rwanda’s chief exports of coffee and tea dropped in prices in the 1980s, the ruling class turned to “scamming foreign-aid projects” (76). Habyarimana’s wife, Agathe Kanzinga, had an impressive pedigree—her family and friends influencing and keeping the president in power. Agathe— Madame Habyarimana—believed in sorcery and demonstrated a willingness to have enemies killed. Her inner circle, known as the akazu, consisted of webs of “political, economic and military muscle and patronage that came to be known as Hutu power” (81). No one could challenge the akazu.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 (and with it, the end of the Cold War), western countries pressured Habyarimana to introduce democratic reforms. When he pledged to a multiparty system, the internal reaction from the akazu was swift; reformers fled the country. Then, on October 1, 1990, a rebel army—the Rwandan Patriotic Force (RPF)—invaded northeast Rwanda and declared war on the regime (82). Habyarimana’s government exaggerated the RPF’s threat and used it as pretext to arrest internal enemies, namely Tutsis. Odette’s husband was called in, but mysteriously left alone; Odette herself was returned to her hospital job as authorities mistakenly arrested another woman with the same name. Hutus were told to fight their Tutsi neighbors—with one village seeing to the murders of 350 Tutsis.

Chapter 7 Summary

In 1990, Madame Habyarimana and her circle planned to suppress an opposition newspaper criticizing ethnic conflict with a publication promoting hatred of Tutsis, Kangura—albeit from behind the scenes. To hide the government’s involvement, editor Hassan Ngeze was arrested, as were the editors of the opposition press. However, Ngeze was released to resume his populist rants against the Tutsis, “writing the script for the coming Hutu crusade” (87). In December of 1990, Ngeze published the “Hutu Ten Commandments” (87), promoting Hutu purity and calling for Hutus to show no mercy to Tutsis. At the same time, France was fighting alongside Rwandan government forces to repel an RPF attack. Gourevitch argues that had it not been for France’s military support, which violated a 1975 treaty between France and Rwanda, the RPF might have defeated Habyarimana’s government.

Given French assistance, the RPF did not pose a threat to the government. Yet, the government staged fake attacks and exaggerated the RPF’s threat so as to blame and slaughter Tutsis. The government arrested Tutsis as well, accusing them of treason. One of the arrested, Bonaventure Nyibize, reported that prisoners were tortured and killed every night. In prison, Bonaventure befriended Froduald Karamira, a Tutsi man with Hutu identity papers. To Bonaventure’s shock, the kind Karamira accepted the notion of Hutu superiority post-release and created the name of “Hutu Power” (92).

In 1992, well-organized extremists Interahamwe, “those who attack together” (93), massacred Tutsis while western countries continued to supply arms and money to the government. Yet, no prosecutions for these crimes took place. Habyarimana made a mockery of his pledge to establish a multiparty system via the creation of multiple parties supporting Hutu Power. However, when Habyarimana signed the Arusha Accords in August of 1993, “Hutu Power leaders cried treason” (100). The agreement established UNAMIR, ensured a right of return for refugees, promised integration of the warring armies, and a more representative government (99). Ngeze identified UNAMIR as an enemy in his populist publication.

Chapter 8 Summary

In neighboring Burundi, Hutus and Tutsis more or less coexisted peacefully—with a Hutu president sworn in as the first “popularly elected president” (101) in August of 1993. When Tutsi military assassinated him the following November, Rwanda’s Hutu Power used the incident to highlight “Tutsi treachery” (101). Odette, who was working in Burundi for the Peace Corps at the time, was left unemployed as a result. With UN Blue Helmets in Kigali reassuring her and her husband, they returned to Rwanda with their family. She soon discovered, however, that the UNAMIR force would not protect Tutsis after it failed to respond to her call for help when an Interahamwe group threw grenades into her car.

Major General Roméo Dallaire, the leader of UNAMIR, had an informant who warned him that Habyarimana was not in full control of his party and suspected that the registration of Tutsis was for the sake of extermination. The informant, “a former member of the President’s security staff” (103), was willing to identify the locations of weapons caches. Dallaire took this warning seriously and passed it on to his superiors in New York. But instead of heeding the warning, Dallaire’s superiors told him to share the information with Habyarimana. As a result, the UN Security Council was not alerted to the looming threat of genocide. Several Tutsis, including Odette and Bonaventure, mention to Gourevitch a sense of foreboding in March of 1994. Ngeze predicted that Habyarimana would die in March.

Chapters 1-8 Analysis

Visiting Rwanda one year after the brutal genocide of 1994—during which Hutus murdered at least 800,000 Tutsis in a matter of months—Gourevitch wants to not only observe the country’s current state but understand what led to the tragedy. He interviews Hutus and Tutsis, ordinary people and those in positions of power alike. Using the words of witnesses, he provides the reader with firsthand accounts of the genocide. He encourages several people to tell him their life stories. In retelling these stories, Gourevitch informs the reader a bit about Rwandan history and the events leading up to the genocide.

Prior to the start of colonial rule in 1890, Tutsis and Hutus were somewhat porous socioeconomic groupings. Tutsis were wealthier and akin to an aristocratic class, but Hutus could move into this class and intermarriage was not uncommon. Because the Tutsi minority governed the country and was lighter in skin color, Europeans deemed the Hutus an indigenous and inferior group. When Belgium replaced Germany as Rwanda’s colonizer in 1916, it governed through Tutsi mwamis (or kings) and racialized the distinction between Hutus and Tutsis. No longer could one move from one socioeconomic grouping to the other depending on occupation. Hutus and Tutsis were declared distinct races, with identity cards issued in 1935. These racial categories were social constructions of the colonial power, as the two are not even considered distinct ethnicities. Nonetheless, Tutsis were the face of an exploitive power that used Hutus as forced labor until 1954. When Hutus sought to change this system of discrimination, Belgium did not protect the Tutsis. Prior to Rwanda winning its official independence in 1962, Hutus began exercising power and seeking revenge on Tutsis. In 1959, the Tutsi mwami and thousands of Tutsis were forced into exile in neighboring Uganda.

With its independence, Rwanda empowered the Hutu majority (about 85 percent of the population) and did not create a constitution protecting minority rights. With Hutu President Kayibanda in power, many more Tutsis left the country in 1962. The following year, approximately 20,000 Tutsis were killed in retaliation for a Tutsi rebel incursion. Demonstrative of living under majority tyranny, Tutsis were openly discriminated against, denied positions and schooling. President Habyarimana came to power in a coup in 1973 and remained president until his assassination in 1994. Although he was elected in 1978, there was no fair competition at the time as dissent was crushed. The regime was wary of those challenging the economic elite and urging Hutus and Tutsis to unite in favor of redistributive policies. The governing forces distracted Hutus from economic injustice with tribal hatred. Given the lack of cosmopolitanism in Rwanda, with three-quarters of the population from rural backgrounds, such appeals were effective.

While factors such as colonialism, a history of discrimination, and elite greed helped create an environment conducive to genocide, Gourevitch is careful to highlight the role of humans in organizing and planning the mass slaughter. Using dehumanizing terms—such as cockroaches—to describe Tutsis, there was a sophisticated media plan to encourage all Hutus to participate in the murder of Tutsis. Hutus courageous enough to resist were potentially victimized. Gourevitch sympathizes with the victims’ desire to hold these perpetrators accountable. Leaders, including those of Christian churches, succumbed to hatred and violence. While Rwanda shared a common culture, language, and religion, the organizers of the genocide were able to motivate people to kill their friends, neighbors, and co-workers in the name of racial hatred.

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