Left to Tell by Immaculée Ilibagiza

694 Words2 Pages

In her book, Immaculée Ilibagiza shares the power of faith in God through her moving experience of the Rwandan genocide. God saved her life for a reason. “He left me to tell my story to others and show as many people as possible the leading power of his Love and Forgiveness” (208-09). Her book proves that “with God all things are possible”. Her objective is not to give a historical account of Rwanda and/or of the genocide. She gives her own story. She attests that through God’s help, forgiveness is possible – even to those who killed her parents. Her book is meant to help people to let go of the chains of hatred and anger, and be able to truly live in God who is love. Left to Tell is a breathtaking book that proves the fact that “the love of a single heart can make a world of difference” (210). The book is divided into three parts, and each part into eight chapters. The author recounts how God saved her from the shadows of death and helped her discover who He really Is.

The first part of the book gives an account of Immaculée’s family background. The love she experienced from her parents and her three brothers is illustrated. Her parents cared for everybody, particularly the poor. Because of the love with which she grew up, she never realised that she was living in a country where hatred against the Tutsi, her tribe, was rampant. It was not until she was asked to stand up in class by her teacher during an ethnic roll call that she realised that her neighbours were not what she thought them to be – good and friendly. After struggling to get into high school and university, not because she was not qualified but because of discrimination against her ethnic background, she worked hard to prove that if women are given opportunities to...

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...elatives were killed. She had to deal with fury and had no one to speak to, not even the other women as they were under strict orders not to utter a word. She could not stomach the pain of staying in the house of somebody who chased away her brother. Yet it is in Mulinzi’s bathroom that Immaculée discovered God amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. She discovered God after many temptations from the devil who wanted her soul to be imprisoned by vengeance. She prayed for thousands of Tutsi who had been murdered, and prayed for their killers to come into God’s powerful light and be changed by his love: “Touch them with your Divine Love, God. Only then will they drop their machetes and fall to their knees. Please, God move them to stop their slaughter. Forgive them” (105). After this prayer, things were never the same. Immaculée discovered God’s light and remained in it.

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