The Strategy of Antelopes: Rwanda After the Genocide

256 Pages·2009·1.21 MB·English

by  Jean Hatzfeld

Jean Hatzfeld was born in Madagascar in 1949. A novelist and
journalist, he worked for several years as foreign correspondent
for the French daily newspaper Liberation, covering both the
conflict in Yugoslavia and the Rwandan genocide. Since 2000,
hehaslivedinParis and Rwanda.
Jean Hatzfeld hasreceivedtheMedici Prize forhislatest book
onRwanda,TheStrategyofAntelopes. Serpent’sTailhaspublished
histwo earlierbooks,Intothe Quick of Life: TheRwandan Genocide
– The Survivors Speak and A Time for Machetes: The Rwandan
Genocide– The KillersSpeak.
Praise for TheStrategyofAntelopes
“Skirtingthe trapofsensationalism, thisengrossingaccountofa
scarredsociety’sattemptstorecoverfroma genocidebrimswith
compassion. JeanHatzfeldhas emergedasthe ultimate chronicler
of the tortured Rwandan soul. The Strategy of Antelopes is not
just for Africanists, it should be read by anyone interested in
what explosions of mass violence do to communities” Michela
Wrong
A TimeforMachetes
“Hatzfeld has harvested a unique set of avowals that forces us
to confront the unthinkable, the unimaginable . . . To make
the effort to understand what happened in Rwanda is a painful
task thatwehavenorighttoshirk– partofbeinga moral adult.
Everyone should read Hatzfeld’s book” Susan Sontag, from her
Preface toA TimeForMachetes
“Hatzfeld brilliantly organises his subjects’ stories for maximum
effect. Hismethodcapturesthe rhythmofa genocide– thecold,
workmanlike,fiercenature of itsrepetition”Guardian
“Hatzfeld’sharrowingdocumentationofthevoices of Rwandan
killers reminds us once again how perfectly human it can be to
beperfectlyinhumane”PhilipGourevitch
“The shock of personal understanding is what makes A Time
for Machetes important, bringing home the rude realisation that
thesepeopledid not start outasevil ideologuesortrainedkilling
machines. They were simply told to go and kill – and they did”
IrishIndependent
“Weaving in concise background detail to the massacre, his
writing never strays into cheap polemic. The matter-of-fact
detailofthe slayings threaded intothe cadenceand minutiae of a
normal day in the life of the killers is sufficient to empower this
chillingreportage”Herald
Into the QuickofLife
“Very rarely does journalism transform itself into a work of
literature, that reportage and the investigation transcend the
subject of the investigation: Jean Hatzfeld has achieved this
miracle.Hissecret is hisprofoundhumanity,his persistentalmost
desperate desire to find and hear all words of the human being
– victim or killer. In this way, he discovers what they have in
common: like us they are ordinary human beings . . . A decade
on, victim and perpetrator are still frozen in those 100 days the
worldignored”IrishIndependent
“This harrowing work in its entirety is surely among the most
powerfulpiecesofjournalismofourgeneration”Herald
“Humanises the witness to the Rwanda genocide in a way that
almostnobookorfilmhas yetdone . . . I truly believethereisno
betterway to understandthoseunspeakablemonths in 1994 than
byhearing the Rwandan’s themselves”DaveEggers
“The terrorsofthisgenocidemust be known in order to prevent
a repetitionoftheinternationalcommunity’s failuretointervene.
Thisbookshouldbeon everyschool’sreadinglist”Ecologist

THE STRATEGY OF ANTELOPES
LIVING IN RWANDA AFTER THE GENOCIDE
(cid:102)
A REPORT BY
JEAN HATZFE LD
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY
LINDA COVERDALE
A complete catalogue record forthis book can
be obtained from the British Library on request
The right of JeanHatzfeld to be identified as the author
of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with
the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act1988
Copyright©2007 by Editions du Seuil
Translation copyright©2009 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux,LLC
All rights reserved.No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored ina retrieval system or transmitted in any form orby
any means,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording or
otherwise, without the priorpermission of the publisher.
Firstpublished asLa Stratégie des antilopesin 2007 by Editions du Seuil,Paris
Firstpublished in the USA in 2009 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Firstpublished in the UK in 2009 by Serpent’sTail,
an imprint of Profile Books Ltd
3AExmouth House
Pine Street
London EC1R 0JH
website:www.serpentstail.com
Designed by GretchenAchilles
ISBN 978 1 84668 686 3
Printed by Printed in Great Britain by CPI Bookmarque, Croydon,CR0 4TD
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on FSC certified paper
Cert no. TT-COC-002227
CONTENTS
MORE QUESTIONS? (cid:115) 3
A LONG LINE OF HALLELUJAHS (cid:115) 8
A FATAL REVELATION (cid:115) 22
IN KAYUMBA (cid:115) 33
FOREST EXPLOITS (cid:115) 37
A SURVIVOR’S HAPPINESS (cid:115) 54
A LITTLE GIRL IN THE WRONG COLUMN (cid:115) 58
ON MAIN STREET (cid:115) 67
WHAT DO YOU SAY? (cid:115) 77
A DIABOLICAL TRUTH (cid:115) 92
WHO CAN TAKE A PICTURE OF FEAR? (cid:115) 96
WITH DEATH AND THE DEAD (cid:115) 101
THE NOISY SERENADE OF LITTLE BIRDS (cid:115) 113
IT’S NOT FAIR (cid:115) 124
SOME SORCERY (cid:115) 132
CONSOLÉE, DISGUSTED (cid:115) 137
DARK VISIONS OF AFRICA (cid:115) 142
A SCAR IMPOSSIBLE TO HIDE (cid:115) 155
A STARRY SKY (cid:115) 161
GOD NEVER LEFT (cid:115) 174
PIO AND JOSIANE (cid:115) 187
A POLICY OF RECONCILIATION (cid:115) 199
THE GOOD OLD DAYS (cid:115) 213
WHAT HAVE WE BROUGHT BACK FROM OUT THERE? (cid:115) 222
Chronology of Events in Rwanda
and Especially in Nyamata (cid:115) 237
Maps appear on pages 29 and 39
THE STRATEGY OF ANTELOPES