Book Review – “This Voice in My Heart”

w/picCaption: “This Voice in My Heart” by Gilbert Tuhabonye, c.2006, Amistad, 260 pages.By Terri Schichenmeyer The headlines are horrifying, the pictures even more so. When one group of people rises up against another and bloodshed results, the stories are almost incomprehensible. How can anyone do that to their fellow man? How can anyone live through such terrible times? Gilbert Tuhabonye did. It took swift feet, bravery, and faith to get through the genocide in Burundi and in his new book “This Voice in My Heart”, you’ll read his story of survival, forgiveness, and afterward. From the time he could walk, Tuhabonye says he preferred to run. He ran everywhere he could; down to fetch water and back to his family’s house, watching his father’s cows, to school nearby. As a young boy, Tuhabonye gained a reputation as a swift runner and a good hunter. Others admired him for his skills. Tuhabonye is a member of the Tutsi people; specifically, his family is from the Batsinga tribe and the Abasafu clan. While these distinctions are important, Tuhabonye says that they never stopped him from making friends with other people who lived in Burundi. The Hutu people, in fact, lived in peace with Tutsis in Tuhabonye’s region. Because his father was an influential member of the area, Tuhabonye says that he enjoyed a more upper-class life, including higher education. When he reached his teens, he was sent to Lycee Kibimba, a prestigious school in a larger town. He settled in, eventually becoming a respected upper-classman. On the morning of an important science test, Tuhabonye woke to find that local radio stations were silent. Ominously, many of the Hutu students and teachers were off campus. Tuhabonye saw smoke from distant fires. Soon, Hutus showed up, carrying machetes. Tuhabonye and his fellow Tutsi classmates – the ones that hadn’t been massacred – were herded into an abandoned building, doused with gasoline, and set afire. Badly injured and trying to survive, Tuhabonye hid beneath the dead and dying. Before he crawled out of the carnage to make his escape, he says he heard a voice telling him he would be okay. Today, Tuhabonye says that his faith in God and strong friendships sustained him and allowed him to briefly return to his family in Burundi. While his ability to run has been hampered by scarring, his life is healed. Amazingly, he says that while he can never visit his homeland again, he forgives those who attacked him. “This Voice in My Heart” is a fascinating and horrifying book that will make you want to avert your eyes in some parts. Author Gilbert Tuhabonye tells of terror and innocence, of days spent playing at his family’s compound, and of the gleeful killing spree by Hutus with machetes. I was amazed by Tuhabonye’s quiet humbleness and the fact that he forgave his attackers. To forgive a transgression so terrible speaks of a strength and spirit that few possess. If you’re up for a book that is hard to fathom but will make your heart soar, “This Voice in My Heart” is the one to read. Run out and get it – soon.