Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak book by Jean Hatzfeld
By Jean HatzfeldMachete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak book by Jean Hatzfeld
In April-May 1994, 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis were massacred by their Hutu fellow citizens--about 10,000 a day, mostly being hacked to death by machete. In Machete Season, the veteran foreign correspondent Jean Hatzfeld reports on the results of his interviews with nine of the Hutu killers. They were all friends who came from a single region where they helped to kill 50,000 out of their 59,000 Tutsi neighbors, and all of them are now in prison, some awaiting execution. It is usually presumed that killers will not tell the truth about their brutal actions, but Hatzfeld elicited extraordinary testimony from these men about the genocide they had perpetrated. He rightly sees that their account raises as many questions as it answers.
Adabert, Alphonse, Ignace, and the others (most of them farmers) told Hatzfeld how the work was given to them, what they thought about it, how they did it, and what their responses were to the bloodbath. "Killing is easier than farming," one says. "I got into it, no problem," says another. Each describes what it was like the first time he killed someone, what he felt like when he killed a mother and child, how he reacted when he killed a cordial acquaintance, how 'cutting' a person with a machete differed from 'cutting' a calf or a sugarcane. And they had plenty of time to tell Hatzfeld, too, about whether and why they had reconsidered their motives, their moral responsibility, their guilt, remorse, or indifference to the crimes.
Hatzfeld's meditation on the banal, horrific testimony of the genocidaires and what it means is lucid, humane, and wise: he relates the Rwanda horror to war crimes and to other genocidal episodes in human history. Especially since the Holocaust, it has been conventional to presume that only depraved and monstrous evil incarnate could perpetrate such crimes, but it may be, he suggests, that such actions are within the realm of ordinary human conduct. To read this disturbing, enlightening and very brave book is to consider in a new light the foundation of human morality and ethics.
Book details
- Paperback
- 272 pages
- English
- 0312425031
- 9780312425036
About Jean Hatzfeld
jean hatzfeld, an international reporter for libération since 1973, is the author of many books, including machete season and the antelope's strateg Read More about Jean Hatzfeld
More Books By Jean Hatzfeld
Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak book by Jean Hatzfeld
New Book
People who bought this also bought
Seven Spiritual Laws of Success for Parents book by Deepak Chopra
New Book
Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment book by Deepak Chopra
New Book
How To Make Your Marriage Work: The Path to a Joyful and Fulfilling Life
New Book
From Cover Girl to Cookie Queen: Life Ingredients and Recipes to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth and Your Soul
Like New
Speak Like a CEO: Secrets for Commanding Attention and Getting Results book by Suzanne Bates
New Book
Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors book by Susan Sontag
New Book
A Mind of My Own: The Woman Who Was Known As Eve Tells the Story of Her Triumph over Multiple Personality Disorder book by Chris Costner Sizemore
Used Book
Warren Buffett's Ground Rules: Words of Wisdom from the Partnership Letters of the World's Greatest Investor book by Jeremy C. Miller
New Book
Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahl book by Hayden Herrera
New Book
Raise Your Game: High-Performance Secrets from the Best of the Best book by Alan Stein Jr.
New Book
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York book by Robert A. Caro
New Book
All-in On AI: How Smart Companies Win Big with Artificial Intelligence book by Thomas H. Davenport , Nitin Mittal
New Book
The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich book by Daniel Ammann
New Book
A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market book by Edward O. Thorp
New Book
The New Workplace: Transforming the Character and Culture of Our Organizations
Used Book
Thabo Mbeki & The Battle for the Soul of the ANC book by William Mervin Gumede
New Book
Africa: A Biography of the Continent book by John Reader
New Book
Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You--At Work And In Life book by Spencer Johnson
New Book
Kagame: Conversations with the President of Rwanda book by Francois Soudan
New Book
Move Fast and Break Things: How Facebook, Google and Amazon Have Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy book by Jonathan Taplin
New Book
Work with Me: The 8 Blind Spots Between Men and Women in Business book by Barbara Annis
New Book
Never Stop Learning: Stay Relevant, Reinvent Yourself, and Thrive book by Bradley R. Staats
New Book
Webster's New International Dictionary: Second Edition M-Z
Used Book
In God's Hands: The Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book book by Desmond Tutu
New Book
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life book by C.S. Lewis
New Book
Better Homes and Gardens Complete Quick and Easy Cookbook
Used Book
The Christian Mindset in a Secular Society : Promoting Evangelical Renewal and National Righteousness
Used Book
LBJ: Architect of American Ambition book by Randall B. Woods
New Book
It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens book by Danah Boyd
New Book