Philip Gourevitch - We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families

Decimation means the killing of every tenth person in a population, and in the spring and early summer of 1994 a program of massacres decimated the Republic of Rwanda. Although the killing was lowtech—performed largely by machete—it was carried out at dazzling speed: of an original population of about seven and a half million, at least eight hundred thousand people were killed in just a hundred days. Rwandans often speak of a million deaths, and they may be right. The dead of Rwanda accumulated at nearly three times the rate of Jewish dead during the Holocaust. It was the most efficient mass killing since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“Young Philip Gourevitch brings us a report from the killing fields of Africa that marks him as a major successor to the handful of great correspondents who have risked life and safety to bring dark truths to a world reluctant to know of them. Like the greatest war reporters, he raises the human banner in hell’s mouth, the insignia of common sense, of quiet moral authority, of blessed humor. He has the mind of a scholar along with the observative capacity of a good novelist, and he writes like an angel. This volume establishes him as the peer of Michael Herr, Ryszard Kapuscinski, and Tobias Wolff. I think there is no limit to what we may expect of him.”

“Remarkable… ardent and authoritative… Gourevitch stands alone in his ability to combine an impassioned and informed account of the Rwandan catastrophe with a meditation about what can only be called its spiritual significance.”

“A milestone of foreign reporting and a chronicle of evil rarely rivaled since Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness… [Gourevitch’s] compelling account should be required reading.”

“Stunning… After reading this unforgettable book, it is impossible ever to feel the same again about societies, about human beings, about oneself.”

“Gourevitch’s book ranks among the best examples of the journalism of moral witness.”

“Riveting.”

“A devastating analysis of the makings of genocide, of the inhuman horrors that can spring from political manipulation and perverted mythology. Gourevitch’s book is also a strong indictment of the aloofness, wrong-headedness, and pusillanimity of the so-called great powers, and the international organizations they lead, when dealing with genocide in a small country far away.”

“Shocking and important… clear and balanced… the voice in this book is meticulous and humane.”

“Astonishing… [Gourevitch] is masterful at placing the unspeakability of mass murder into actual peoples’ mouths and inhabiting it in actual peoples’ stories.”

“A harsh but elegant moral reckoning.”

“Thoughtful, beautifully written, and important… we want to pass it along to our friends, and to insist that they read it because the information it contains seems so profoundly essential.”

“Extraordinary… rich… Gourevitch is a morally serious writer, and he’s at his very best when listening to ordinary Rwandans, especially the survivors, and trying to make sense of their stories. These voices haunt the book, and they haunt the reader afterward.”

“Literary journalism at its very best.”

“[An] amazing chronicle… We Wish to Inform You takes the unimaginable and renders it disturbingly, unavoidably real. For that reason alone, this book should be widely read.”

I am indebted above all to the hundreds of Rwandans in all walks of private and public life who generously entrusted me with their stories.

To supplement my own reporting, I consulted a great variety of writings on Rwanda, published and unpublished. I wish to acknowledge the authors of some of the standard works, representing diverse perspectives, which helped to inform me: Colette Braeckmann, Jean-Pierre Chrétien, Alain Destexhe, Alison des Forges, André Guichaoua, René Lemarchand, Louis de Lacger, Catherine Newbury, Rakiya Omaar, Gérard Prunier, and Filip Reyntjens. I’m also grateful for the United Nations IRIN electronic news bulletins.

My reporting from Rwanda first appeared in The New Yorker, and the support of its editors has been essential in writing this book. I am especially grateful to Tina Brown for her unflagging commitment to this distant and difficult story, to Bill Buford, who first sent me to Rwanda, and to my superb editor, Jeffrey Frank, whose advice, friendship, and sanity have buoyed me through my work. Jennifer Bluestein, Jessica Green, and Valerie Steiker helped with research and as anchors during my long absences from home; Henry Finder, William Finnegan, and David Remnick gave good counsel; John Dorfman, Ted Katauskas, and Liesl Schillinger in the fact-checking department, along with Eleanor Gould and an army of back-up readers, saved me from many errors and infelicities.

Many thanks to the editors of The New York Review of Books, Transition, DoubleTake, The New York Times Magazine and its Op-Ed Page, for publishing pieces of my work from central Africa. And special thanks to Seth Lipsky, at The Forward, who first put me to work as a reporter.

Many thanks to Elisabeth Sifton, my editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Her intelligence, humor, and rigor—always invigorating—make it an honor to work with her.

Many thanks for the kindness and guidance of Sarah Chalfant at the Wylie Agency, whose commitment has been a boon to my writing life. And thanks also to Chris Calhoun for his dedication and friendship at the outset.

Many thanks to the Corporation of Yaddo, where part of this book was written; to the echoing green foundation and The United States Institute for Peace, for essential financial support; and to The World Policy Institute for institutional support.

Many thanks for the generous hospitality in Kigali of Richard Danziger, Aline Ndenzako and their daughter Daisy, and of Peter Whaley, Kate Crawford and their daughter Susan. On the road in Rwanda and Zaire, Alison Campbell, Thierry Cruvelier, and Annick van Lookeren Campagne were great company. At home, in New York, Vijay Balakrishnan provided a crucial pillar of friendship and a sharp ear for work in progress. I am especially fortunate to have wise parents, Jacqueline and Victor Gourevitch, and a true brother, Marc, who are my most demanding and rewarding readers, great companions, and a constant stimulus. I also thank my grandmother, Anna Moisievna Gourevitch; my memory of the stories she told me presides over this book. Finally, Elizabeth Rubin, by her example, her intelligence and her pluck, her wit and her warmth, has inspired and sustained me throughout this work. For her company, from near and from far, I am truly grateful.

WE WISH TO INFORM YOU THAT TOMORROW WE WILL BE KILLED WITH OUR FAMILIES. Copyright © 1998 by Philip Gourevitch. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address Picador, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

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