Inside Hotel Rwanda
by Edouard Kayihuru and Kerry Zukus
Hotel Rwanda, an academy Award-nominated movie, released in 2004, praised Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager for single-handedly saving the lives of people who sought shelter in the Hotel des Mille Collines during Rwanda’s genocide against the Tutsi in 1994.
Inside the Hotel Rwanda, tells the story of survivor Edouard Kayihura and what life was really like during those harrowing days in the infamous hotel. The book also offers testimonies of others who survived there, from UN peacekeepers to Hutu and Tutsi. Kayihura writes of a broken society, and his journey to the place he believed would be safe from slaughter. He gives a courageous and honest first-hand account of the reality of life inside the hotel, exposing Paul Rusesabagina, deemed a hero in the film, as a man who exploited refugees and casts much-needed light on the plight of his victims.
I’m not leaving
by Carl Wilkens
Carl came to Rwanda in 1990 with his family and worked as the Director of Adventist Development and Relief Agency. In 1994 after the plane crash assassination of the Presidents of Burundi and Rwanda, the Rwandan genocide began. Carl decided that his wife, Teresa and their children would evacuate and he would stay on to protect their Rwandan house staff; he would be the only American to remain in Rwanda. Using tapes he made for his family, chronicling the daily events, Carl recounts both political and personal events.
Left to Tell
by Immaculee Ilibagiza with Stevel Erwin
Growing up surrounded by a family she cherished in a country she loved Immaculee Ilibagiza world was ripped apart in 1994 as Rwanda plunged into a bloody genocide. During the killing spree that lasted three months and took the lives of close to a million Rwandans, Immaculee’s family were brutally murdered. Astonishingly, she survived the slaughter. She and seven other women huddled together in the small bathroom of a local pastor for 91 days, while hundreds of machete-wielding killers hunted for them.  During these endless hours of unimaginable terror, Immaculee learned the power of prayer, ultimately shedding her fear of death and forming a deep and enduring relationship with God.
A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali
by Gil Courtemanche
A moving love story, A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali, is set among the turbulence and horror of Rwanda’s genocide.
All sorts of residents of Kigali spend their time by the pool of the Mille-Collines hotel: UN peacekeepers, Rwandan bourgeoisie, aid workers, expatriates and prostitutes. Bernard Valcourt, a worn-out foreign journalist, keeps a close eye on them, but a hotel waitress named Gentille gets his closest attention. They fall into an intense affair, as the world around them explodes in genocide against the Tutsi people led by the Hutu. Valcourt’s tries to get Gentille to safety which ends in their separation. It is months before he discovers his lover’s shocking fate.
A Thousand Hills: Rwanda’s Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It
by Stephen Kinzer
A Thousand Hills is the story of a refugee, Paul Kagame, who found his way home after a generation of exile and later became the 4th president of Rwanda. An adventurous tale which follers Kagame and his early fascination with James Bon and Che Guevara, his time as an intelligence agent, his training in the United States and Cuba, the building of his secret rebel army, his bloody rebellion and his dreams to make Rwanda the first middle-income country in Africa, in a single generation.
An Ordinary Man
by Paul Rusesabagina
An Ordinary Man is an autobiography of Paul Rusesabagina life, the man who inspired the film Hotel Rwanda. In 1994 Rwanda was thrown into chaos during the genocide, Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, opened the opulent Hotel Milles Collines into a refuge for close to 1,200 Tutsi and moderate Hutu refugees and fended off their would-be murderers with a combination of deception and diplomacy. He tells the story of his childhood, recounts his unexpected path to heroism, and recalls how he stood as the only thing between his guests and their deaths for 100 days, and conveys his subsequent life as a refugee and activist.
Baking Cakes in Kigali
by Gaile Parkin
Angel Tungaraza is a cake baker, a mother, and a pillar of her community, she is the keeper of secrets big and small. Her kitchen in the heart of Rwanda is a haven. Visitors stop to order cakes but end up sharing their stories, transforming their lives and leaving with new hope.
Unexpected things are starting to take place, an unusual wedding and a mystery that involves Angel’s family. The series of events that unfold change Angel’s life and lives of those around her in the most extraordinary ways.
Broken Memory: A Novel of Rwanda
by Élisabeth Combres
At five years old Emma was hiding behind a chair and didn’t see her mother murdered but she heard it. When the killers finally leave, motivated by her mother’s last words, “You must not die, Emma!”, Emma stumbles away from the scene. An old Hutu woman eventually takes her in, and the woman risks her life to hide the child. A bond forms between them. A long time after the war ends, Emma is still plagued by nightmares. She develops a friendship with a young torture victim and with the encouragement of an older man charged with helping child survivors, Emma finds the strength to begin the long journey to healing.
Gorillas in the Mist
by Dian Fossey
The gripping account of the thirteen years Dian Fossey spent in a remote African rain forest with the great apes. Her exceptional efforts to ensure the fate of the rainforest and its surviving mountain gorillas, this captivating endangered species is portrayed with candid photographs and in her own words. Fossey combines her personal adventure story with groundbreaking scientific reporting in an exceptional portrait of one of our nearest primate relatives. Her work ended tragically in her murder; however, this book continues to be a testament to one of the longest-running primate field studies and shows her eternal passion for her subject.
Land of Second Chances: The Impossible Rise of Rwanda’s Cycling Team
by Tim Lewis
The extraordinary true story of four men, Adrien Niyonshuti, Tom Ritchey, Jonathan Boyer, and Paul Kagame determined to rebuild the hopes of a broken nation. They confront impossible odds, in a land desperate for heroes, as they grapple with putting a cycling team on the map—and gain redemption in the eyes of the world. Adrien Niyonshuti is Rwanda’s best young cyclist and is obsessed with earning a place to compete in the London Olympic Games. Adrien is supported by his coach, Jonathan Boyer, the first American to race in the Tour de France, Tom Ritchey, an inventor of the mountain bike and Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda. Land of Second Chances is the incredible true story of hope, struggle and through the unifying power of sport the life-giving promise of redemption.
Life Laid Bare
by Jean Hatzfeld
Jean Hatzfeld, a French journalist and author, 1990s made several journeys, in the late 1990s, to the region of Bugesera, one of the most devasted areas of the Rwanda genocide of April 1994. Hatzfeld interviewed fourteen genocide survivors from the villages of N’tarama and Nyamata. Â They tell of the deaths of friends and family and their horrific stories of life that contrast with Hatzfeld’s own descriptions of Rwanda’s countryside and villages in peacetime. These are voices of resilience and courage that illustrate the unconquerable human spirit, and remind us of our ethical responsibility to never disregard what can come to pass again.
Running the Rift
by Jean Patrick Nkuba
Running the Rift, follows a talented boy from Rwanda, Jean Patrick Nkuba, over ten years from when he discovers his love of running too when he realises he must run to save his life. His country is falling apart from the Hutu-Tutsi tensions. Thrown into a world where being born Tutsi means the girl who used to flirt with you refuses to look at you, the man who once sold gifts to you for your family spews hatred, and your Hutu coach is secretly training the soldiers who will hunt down your family. Jean continues to hold onto his dream of becoming Rwanda’s first Olympic medal contender in track. His hope is this achievement will deliver him and his people from the violence. Forced to flee, when the killing begins, Jean Patrick, leaves behind the family, the country and the woman he loves. The race of his life will be finding them again.
Shake Hands with the Devil
by Roméo Dallaire
In 1993 Lieutenant General. Roméo Dallaire, from the Netherlands, was called to serve as force commander of the UN intervention in Rwanda. He thought he was going to be on a straightforward peacekeeping mission. However, thirteen months later he flew home from Africa, disillusioned, suicidal and broken. He had witnessed the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans in 100 days. Shake Hands with the Devil, takes readers on a return voyage into hell as Dallaire vividly recreates the events the international community turned its back on.
The Antelope’s Strategy: Living in Rwanda After the Genocide
by Jean Hatzfeld
Noted French journalist, Jean Hatzfeld, previously wrote about the Rwanda genocide by combining interviews and his analysis to portray the horror in the mass killings, returns to Rwanda seven years later. In The Antelope’s Strategy, he speaks with both Tutsis and Hutus people again. He looks at how they are managing reconciliation and whether it is possible. This book looks at the pain of memory, the nature of hope and how difficult it can be to eradicate grief. One of Hatzfeld’s previous works in Life Laid Bare.
Rwanda Conflict
by Dixon Kamukama
Most African countries’ fight for independence has been characterised by uprisings of the local population against the colonial power. Rwanda however, is different; the anger of the rebels was directed towards another group of the same population, which resulted in thousands of people fleeing and becoming refugees. A historian at Makerere University and author, Dixon Kamukama, outlines the origins of the conflict up to the time of the invasion and subsequently the Kigali Government and Rwanda Patriotic Front signing a peace pact.
Rwanda Inc
by Patricia Crisafulli and Andrea Redmond
Eighteen years after the genocide that saw Rwanda abandoned by the West, the country has accomplished an extraordinary turnaround. From complete devastation of a broken state, Rwanda has emerged on the world stage again- but this time with a unique model for economic development and governance under the leadership of its decisive and strong president, Paul Kagame. Â Patricia Crisafulli and Andrea Redmond look at the command of Kagame and how the progress Rwanda has made offers an example of other nations that are developing to lift themselves out of poverty without relying heavily on foreign aid.
When the Hills Ask for Your Blood
by David Belton
The plane of the president of Rwanda, Juvenal Habyarimana, was shot down on 6 April 1994. Vjeko Ćurić, a missionary priest in the chapel in the hillside village of Kivumu, prepares himself to save thousands. Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre, near Kigali, holds onto his family, fearing for their lives. One of the bloodiest chapters in history follows with mass slaughter, neighbours against neighbours and friends against friends. David Belton, a BBC Newsnight producer who was one of the first journalists into Rwanda, twenty years on, recounts his horrific experiences first-hand. He follows the stories of Jean-Pierre and Vjeko Ćurić and revisits Rwanda in search for those who survived and the legacy of those who did not. This book is a personal quest for the limits of forgiveness and bravery.
Season of Blood
by Fergal Keane
In April 1994, President Habyarimana of Rwanda’s jet was shot down. A 100-day killing spree erupted in Rwanda leaving up to a million dead. Irish Foreign correspondent, Fergal Keane, was travelling through the country with his BBC colleagues as the genocide continued. He recounts how he and his colleagues escaped murder by Hutu extremists and how they tracked down of the most notorious mass murder of the conflict. He exposes the shocking truth behind the headlines in his powerful analysis.
We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families
by Philip Gourevitch
The Rwandan government instructed everyone from the Hutu majority to kill every one of the Tutsi majority in April of 1994. The next three months saw 800,000 Tutsis murdered in the most shocking case of genocide since Hitler’s war against the Jews. Philip Gourevitch’s book is a haunting analysis of the slayings in Rwanda. He provides a memorable account of what it means to survive the aftermath and the vivid history of the background of the genocide.
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After
by Clemantine Wamariya
In 1994, at six years old, Clemantine Wamariya’s father and mother began to speak in whispers. Then neighbours began to disappear, and she heard the loud sounds that her brother said were “thunder.”
Over 100 days more than 800,000 people were murdered in Rwanda, and millions were displaced. Clemantine and Claire, her fifteen-year-old sister, ran away and spent six years wandering through seven countries in Africa looking for safety. They hid under beds, foraged for food, survived and fled refugee camps, found unexpected kindness and witnessed unimaginable cruelty. They never knew if their parents were still alive. When Clemantine turned 12 years old, she and her sister were granted asylum in the United States. This story follows their attempts at starting their new lives.
