Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust

In Immaculée’s third year at university, the RTLM becomes “the new, ultra-popular radio station among extremist Hutus,” and it is “little more than a radical hate machine, spewing out anti-Tutsi venom” (37). Immaculée, still trying to stay positive, ignores the constant stream of hate speech from the RTLM to focus on her schooling. When Easter arrives, Immaculée leaves campus for a break, heading back home to spend the holiday with her family: “[W]e had a beautiful meal together. We thanked God for all that He had blessed us with and prayed for the well-being of everyone in our family and our village” (39). Despite the festivities, Damascene is not enjoying himself, and he expresses concern about “the killers” that are making themselves known in the village. Damascene describes seeing them en route to his friend’s house, carrying hand grenades and machetes. Damascene also heard that they have a “list of names of all the Tutsi families in the area, and our names are on the list. It’s a death list! They are planning to start killing everyone tonight!” (40). Damascene is so fearful he thinks it might be best that the family flee to Zaire that very night and tries to convince their father that this is what they should do.