We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families

We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families
Phillip Gourevitch

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the terrible events in Rwanda in 1994. This book explores the complexity of the genocide in Rwanda with insight and sensitivity. Until I read this book I didn’t fully appreciate how little I knew about what had happened in Rwanda, nor did I appreciate the response of the rest of the world to those events.

In 1994 I was still in high school and knew nothing about the genocide in Rwanda. Like many 17 year olds, I was self-obsessed and apathetic about world politics. What astonished me most about this book was that the rest of the world seems to have shared my teenaged-attitude towards Rwanda in 1994.

Gourevitch also writes at length about the huge refugee camps in the countries bordering Rwanda that were a product of the genocide. His discussion of the significant and complex role that international humanitarian aid agencies played in the creation and survival of these camps is fascinating.