myAfrica BETA

User Guidelines | Account/Register | Get Help
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families

More by user: B4nafter
Created: 5th Nov 2008
Modified: 6th Nov 2008
Location(s):
Rwanda, Burundi
Type:
Rwanda
Publisher:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Creator:
Philip Gourevitch
The book is a compelling narrative of survivor stories compiled from Gourevitch's travels in a Rwanda after the conflict. Gourevitch doesn't only retell the stories of the survivors but reflects on the meaning of the genocide.

The book's title comes from a letter written by 7 Tutsi pastors (Ezekiel Semugeshi, Isaka Rucondo, Seth Rwanyabuto, Eliezer Seromba, Seth Sebihe, Jerome Gakway, and Ezekias Zigirinshuti) to the leader of their flock, asking for his help:

April 15, 1994,
Our dear leader, Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana,
How are you! We wish to be strong in all these problems we are facing. We wish to inform you that we have heard that tomorrown we will all be killed with our families. We therefore request you to intervean on our behalf and talk with the Mayor. We believe that with the help of God who entrusted you the leadership of this flock, which is going to be destroyed, your intervention will be highly appreciated, the same way as the Jews were save by Esther.
We give honor to you.

This book won numerous awards, including the 1998 National Book Critics Circle award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the 1999 Guardian First Book Award and the George K. Polk Award for Foreign Reporting.