Running the Rift [Paperback]

Jean-Patrick Nkuba is a Tutsi boy growing up in rural Rwanda. He is a bright student and a gifted runner, fast enough to potentially qualify for the Olympics. He was named after an uncle who was killed in a 1973 massacre of the Tutsi people, but such violence between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples now seems long in the past.

The story takes place between 1984 and 1998. Over the years the tension gradually builds between the two groups as the Tutsi people become increasingly harrassed and the media inflames racial divisions. Jean-Patrick's brother joins the RPF, a Tutsi rebel group, but Jean-Patrick heads to university and trains to be an Olympic runner. He befriends an American geology professor and falls in love with a Hutu girl. Sporadically violence against Tutsis erupts, but Jean-Patrick chooses to believe that his high profile running talent (and his well connected coach) will protect him from persecution. Meanwhile we - the reader - have a sense of dread from the outset that grows ever stronger.

This book pulled me in immediately. The sense of place is palpable. You can almost feel, smell and taste Rwanda as you read it. While it is fiction, it feels so real that I found it hard to believe that this wasn't a true story and that Benaron isn't Rwandan (she's not). It takes you inside Jean-Patrick's head and you can understand why he ignores so many warning signs and warnings from friends about the tensions that are building. It's so much easier to stick to the beliefs that you were raised with, even when the evidence against them is so overwhelming. When the genocide comes, some Hutus turn on their friends and lovers, but others will risk and even sacrifice their own lives to save their countrymen.

While this story is set against the build up to the genocide in Rwanda, it's very much the story of an individual rather than the conflict itself. Parts are very difficult to read, but there is a sense of hope as well. It's a very powerful story, engrossing to read and hard to forget.

Nowadays we hear about so many tragedies on a daily basis that we have become almost inured to them. Modern life seems so rushed and pressurised that we don't have time to pause, take a breath and express gratitude for what we have. Running the Rift, Naomi Benaron's first novel, might very well have the power to stop you in your tracks.

Against the backdrop of The Rwandan Genocide of 1994, the author has created a character driven story which somehow highlights the positive attributes of humans in the midst of appalling crimes against humanity. The novel opens ten years before the genocide, with a young Tutsi boy, Jean Patrick Nkuba, dreaming of being the first Rwandan to run in the Olympics. Jean Patrick's parents have tried to shelter their children from Rwanda's troubled history but it is soon impossible to ignore the ethnic divisions which are bubbling over into acts of violence and discrimination and having an impact on their daily lives. Jean Patrick and his siblings have to secure the top marks in scholarship exams or they won't be allowed to attend the secondary school of their choice alongside the Hutu majority. As tensions run high, Jean Patrick finds himself manipulated by the Hutu-led government - it enhances their human-rights profile to have a Tutsi child as an Olympic hopeful, providing a smoke-screen for the increase in ethnic cleansing. He wants to survive, to win a gold medal but he might have to renounce his Tutsi heritage to achieve his goal.

Initially I was rather hesitant about reading this novel as I thought it would be emotionally draining but it turned out the opposite was true. The portrayal of Jean Patrick and his extended family and indeed Rwanda itself is engrossing. We see the strength of family ties, the bonds within communities where Hutu and Tutsi are friends and neighbours with the shared goal of scraping a living, securing a future for their children. Yes, there is the palpable tension that something evil is looming just on the horizon but still, the start of the genocide comes as a total shock, how folk could hack down their neighbours seems so unthinkable even as you are reading it in black and white, yet it seemed to be a case of kill or be killed with a prevailing wind of bloodlust thrown in for good measure. Benaron treads a middle path in presenting the violence, neither sugaring the pill nor salting the wound.

Running the Rift is an extremely readable story about a very difficult subject. The rest of the world stood by and watched as 20% of the population of Rwanda was annihilated in the space of 100 days. Here, Naomi Benaron has opened a window on the lives of the ordinary flesh and blood folk, showing us the human face behind the statistics - a compelling, important, accessible read - highly recommended.

"Even when I remember I am terrified,
And trembling takes hold of my flesh." -- Job 21:6 (NKJV)

To those who live in countries untouched by recent genocide, such events are all but inexplicable. Yet the hatred and division that contribute to genocide are apparent well in advance. From a book like Running the Rift, that draws so well on actual events in constructing a fictional life, much can be learned for what to look for in avoiding future awful events like this one.

While you may not think that a book about leading up to and experiencing mass murder could be beautiful, Naomi Benaron has transcended her subject matter to uplift the human spirit by describing her heroes and heroines. Even the villains will teach you valuable things about what it means to be human and to have compassion for others.

If you admire books that capture a whole history of a major event in one fictional narrative, you won't want to miss this book. It's remarkable!

So what's it all about?

Jean Patrick Nkuba was born with a special gift for running that led to him being groomed to compete internationally for Rwanda. In being so favored, life wasn't all sweetness and light. As an obvious member of the Tutsi (as defined by some physiological characteristics) group in Rwanda, he has difficult decisions to make about being loyal to his family, to others like himself, and to his nation at a time when many despised those like him. As a result, he straddles the Hutu and Tutsi worlds in a way that's wonderful for telling the story of the conflict between those who were identified with one group or the other at the time of the genocide.

In the course of the story, you'll also learn a lot about the day-to-day life of many people in Rwanda at the time, the educational system, politics, and the nation's social fabric.

One of the story's characters is also a well-meaning American, so you'll also get the perspective of those who weren't Rwandans but who were there.

Experiences like this one in Rwanda can all too easily be lost from public consciousness. That would be an even greater tragedy than what happened in Rwanda.

Please read this wonderful book and encourage others to do the same.

As a personal commitment to keeping Rwanda in my memory, I've been sponsoring a young orphan there through Compassion International. Perhaps you would like to do something for the people there as well.