Jean Hatzfeld, back in Rwanda, in memory of the righteous

Audio 29:00

Writer Jean Hatzfeld in studio at RFI (January 2021).

© Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint / RFI

By: Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint

31 min

Journalist and writer, Jean Hatzfeld devoted several years and several books to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. And so since “Dans le nu de la vie” in 2001, followed by “A season of machetes”, “The antelope strategy” , “Englebert of the hills”, “Un papa de sang” until today “Where everything is silent” at Gallimard, six volumes come back from different angles on what the Rwandans went through.

Today, it highlights the place of the Righteous, those who saved the lives of others regardless of their ethnicity.

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Cover of Jean Hatzfeld's book © gallimard

"On the hills of Nyamata, Jean Hatzfeld sets out this time in search of the very rare Hutus who have resisted genocidal madness at the risk of their lives. In Rwanda, they are called abarinzi w'igihango, the guardians of the blood pact, or sometimes the Just. But twenty-five years later, they remain silent characters, surrounded by mistrust; because in the eyes of the Hutus, they embody treason, or reflect back to them the image of what they could have been, while that the Tutsis have irreducible suspicions about them and most often refuse to admit that there were deserving Hutus.

Many rescuers were shot dead by the killers, leaving no trace.

Some of those who have survived tell their extraordinary stories here.

Everyone finds the words to relate this chaos in a strange language, familiar and nourished by metaphors, recognizable among all for those who have read the author's previous books. "

(Presentation of Gallimard editions)

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