A Dreaming Child: In the Life Concerning the Genocide Consequences, We Grew Up in Darkness but the World Will Be Illuminated by Our Own Light.

Since 1994, many books on the Genocide against the Tutsi have been published, each one highlighting some new facet of that period. Among them, only very few give the exact testimony of Tutsi survivors of the Genocide. And among these, not so many have been written by the youth. This is the most unique quality in this book by Dieudonné Gakire, entitled A Dreaming Child. Dieudonné Gakire was two years and eight months old at the time of the Genocide. To sum up the content of the book, one can split it into three parts: the savageness that characterized the Genocide, the many difficulties that children who survived the Genocide have encountered, and their courage to fight for life.

In this book, the author Dieudonné Gakire has given voice to some of the former members of the Hutu militia “Interahamwe” who committed Genocide, and to the Tutsi who were hunted down, and has gone on highlighting the efforts being made by youth in fighting for their dignity. This is a book that depicts the crimes committed against children.

The book talks about things that are rarely spoken of, such as the fact that Genocide perpetrators thought they would never be held accountable for their misdeeds during the Genocide, oblivious to the concept that it would have such an impact on their lives as to cause their wives to live alone while their spouses were imprisoned, their children to miss out on the education they should normally receive from both parents, and the inescapable feelings of shame and guilt that must plague the killers for their misdeeds.

This book describes the Genocide as it was, showing how young survivors of the Genocide are dealing with a very difficult situation that does not befit their age. It kindly describes the Genocide, providing pieces of advice, showing that the Genocide left its survivors with a very deep sorrow, that it spoiled the children’s futures, but that it did not prevail as its perpetrators were defeated and had to flee. Life triumphed over hatred and abhorrence. Nowadays, babies and toddlers are not and will no longer be killed in Rwanda. Dieudonné Gakire highlights how grateful the young Genocide survivors are towards the former RPA that saved them and showed them love and light. Though this book of Dieudonne Gakire shows the bitterness of genocide and the sorrow it caused the youth, and focuses on the fact that the Genocide caused them, in a sense, to age beyond their years, the author shows his own efforts and that of his fellows in building their futures. He states that he wrote the book because he felt responsible for helping his friends and making them love Rwanda and its culture. The book shows the youth’s heroism, integrity, and strength, as well as the restoration of moral values of which they had been deprived by the killers. It also conveys a message to the killers, encouraging them to ask for forgiveness, to tell the truth, and to show where they have put the bodies of the Tutsi they killed during the Genocide. The French author Albert Camus once said, “To name things wrongly is to add to the misfortune of the world.”

A Kinyarwanda saying goes, “The dancer’s lamentations do not prevent him from performing,” and another adds, “Misfortune breeds blessings.” Read through this book, and you will find in it a message and advice channeling these sayings.

Dr Jean-Damascène Bizimana