Bang For Your Buck from ShootingPoverty on Vimeo.
Reading this book was a frustrating experience. Any story about surviving the Rwandan genocide and learning how to forgive should be both deeply shocking, moving, challenging. In some ways this book is, but it falls short in so many ways.
First the positives. It is a compelling story, Eric Irivuzumugabe and his uncles spent nearly two weeks hiding high up in some cypress trees while all around them the genocide raged. Their survival was amazing and in some cases miraculous, the stories of those that died horrific. Eric’s testimony of how God saved him, taught him to forgive and then help others do the same is wonderful.
However, the writing is of fairly poor quality. It is possible that Eric did indeed narrate the story as you read it in the book. The book may be in effect a transcript. In which case it needed some editing. But (in my personal opinion) when dealing with something as inherently dramatic as Rwanda in 1994 when it comes to adjectives less is definitely more. Phrases such as ‘brutish guns’ or ‘the militia like rabid wolves’, ‘peering into the black atmosphere’ just get stuck in your throat. Why not just ‘peering into the dark/night’?
So I just found it irritating, the writing got in the way of a good story. The task of the writer is to be invisible so that the power of the story shines through. This wasn’t the case here.
Secondly, it lacked sufficient context – the map was inadequate (not worth including) and the history and background limited – the glossary at the back is just about adequate with some basic errors (it mistakes population of Kigali for population of Rwanda). It doesn’t even mention neighbouring Burundi Sadly, for many we need educating about what happened and this did barely enough to set the scene across the nation so that as we listened to Eric tell his story, it all made sense. The description of the RPF (the current government) as heroic is not exactly nuanced.
I won’t go on, I just felt disappointed. The story deserved better.
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HT: Peter Ould
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It also makes me wonder about the effectiveness of disciple-making in Africa. No question there’s some great work going on by some great organisations (I support Great Lakes Outreach and Tearfund) but there’s also no doubt in my mind that corruption exists. One of the biggest problems I encountered nearly ten years in Burundi was staff stealing from aid agencies.
But here’s my question, 51.5% of Africa are in some way aligned to Christianity with more than 380 million Christians, yet corruption has neither been stemmed or dealt with. The implication should be fairly obvious. But how do you live in a society where corruption is endemic? It’s not easy at all.
A couple of observations: firstly we mustn’t be as arrogant to think that corruption is their problem. No question that corruption exists in the UK, it’s just better hidden and higher up and we’re still rated pretty poorly at doing anything about it. No place to be proud of being British when it comes to corruption I’m afraid.
Secondly, as churches we must take seriously the issue because if we can demonstrate that Churches in Africa are leading the fight against corruption and genuinely have higher standards of integrity then truly they could become salt and light.
“The church confesses that it has witnessed the arbitrary use of brutal force, the suffering in body and soul of countless innocent people, that it has witnessed oppression, hatred, and murder without raising its voice for the victims and without finding ways of rushing to help them. It has become guilty of the lives of the weakest and most defenseless brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ….The church confesses that it has looked on silently as the poor were exploited and robbed, while the strong were enriched and corrupted. The church confesses its guilt toward the countless people whose lives have been destroyed by slander, denunciation and defamation. It has not condemned the slanderers for their wrongs and has thereby left the slandered to their fate. The church confesses that it has coveted security, tranquility, peace, property and honour to which it had no claim, and therefore has not bridled human covetousness, but promoted it.”
From “Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Daily Meditations from His Letters…”
I believe Jesus when he said 'life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions'. I believe he offers something better. This blog is mostly about that search.
I'm also a husband, a father, church planter, keen runner, reader, and motorcyclist. These and a few other things make guest appearances from time to time.
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