Not a happy blog post

2 of the books I've read recently have been set in Africa (the first in Zimbabwe at the beginning of Robert Mugabe's reign) and the book I'm now reading is set in Rwanda 1994. I was born in 1994, so although I have watched programmes and read articles on the Rwandan genocide, I never really thought about it. To be honest, I always thought the Apartheid was horrific and completely unnecessary. I wanted to put up an extract of the book I'm reading to put into context the (generally) minimalistic sufferings of people in the Western world and of 1st world countries. (Although this is not to say that I don't realised there is suffering)

This extract is spoken by a 10yr old girl, Clementine, who has escaped Rwanda after seeing all her family murdered because her mother was Tutsi and her Hutu father refused to kill her or any other Tutsi. It is told as a fairy tale because this is the only way Clementine can bear to repeat the events. Pio is her brother.

The Go-Away Bird.
Warren Fitzgerald.

'Keep his arms still!' bellowed Pastor Bernard, annoyed as Prince Pio grabbed at his trousers.
  Without another word, the goblin at Pio's head chopped off both the boy's arms. The forest froze with the sound of Pio's scream, but it only lasted a second before his face was shoved into the earth. As the birds cautiously started calling each other again, Princess Clementine remembered the pillow fights she used to have with her brother. His muffled cried then sounded like they did now, except they never tore her heart in two when they came from beneath a pillow.
   'Give me that!' Bernard said impatiently. It seemed he was upset he had not been allowed the first blow and he grabbed the machete. 'It is only a shame your little sister is not here on my other side to complete my little re-enactment,' and with a quick glance down at Pio's back he plunged the machete between his shoulders and with it pushed himself up from his rotting seat,
   When she was sure that the evil creatures had gone away, Princess Clementine crept from her hiding place. She knelt by the body of her brother and opened her mouth wide. The great cry of grief she expected stuck in her throat, too big for the little girl's windpipe, and the only thing she could say was said by her arms stretched wide, palms to the heavens. After a while she scratched at the earth until her fingers bled. The grave she had tried to make was very shallow indeed, but she pulled her brother into it, all three pieces of him, laying the arms by his side as if they were still attached. She took the prince's watch from the left arm, not because she wanted it for herself, but because that way it would feel like he was still travelling with her on their great journey to deliver the treasure in the golden bag to the king's soldiers. To Clementine, her brother's watch itself was treasure, so she put it in the golden bag the quickly covered the body with a blanket of earth and leaves and set off southwards.


When I was at school, we learnt about the Apartheid, and how black people were treated horrifically, but we never learnt about the Rwandan Genocide. Maybe because it was so recent. But I feel it is important that everybody should learn about the genocide. How neighbours and friends were killed, just because they were of a slightly different ethnicity. From what I understand, people were even killed if they had the stereotypical appearance of Tutsi.

I'm sorry if I upset people who read this post. I feel that I don't know enough about Rwandan history (why would I?!) and that everybody should know, and understand what happened and for what reasons.