This Voice in My Heart

This Voice in My Heart
Gilbert Tuhaboyne with Gary Borzek
Amistad
ISBN: 0060817518
Non-Fiction, Memoir
Reviewed by Pamela Crossland

The Hutu and Tutsi tribes have been in conflict in Africa for centuries. Gilbert Tuhaboyne relates his story with dignity, though it is filled with horror; with affection and pride, though we might mistakenly think his childhood lacked privilege; and with faith, the kind that passes all understanding. From the time he could walk, he loved to run and was gifted at it; winning competition after competition.
On the day that changed his world forever, Gilbert’s biggest concern was passing a chemistry test. The political climate of Burundi had changed over the summer: a Hutu now headed the government after years of Tutsi rule. Keenly aware of the state sponsored genocide in Rwanda in previous years, the Tutsis were justifiably on edge, even attempted a political coup to regain their power but failing. Gilbert writes: “By late October the fears of many Tutsis had proved unfounded, but I’d felt a subtle shift in my relationships with Hutu classmates. The school’s population was the inverse of the general population: Nearly 80 percent of the students and faculty were Tutsis. Tutsis have a tradition of securing an education. For that reason, we have dominated government and education positions – a sore point among the less-educated majority.”
In response to another coup, Hutu soldiers descended upon the school, hacked students to death with machetes, raped and killed others, and herded yet others into a building and burned its occupants. Gilbert Tuhaboyne was the sole survivor of his class.

His escape and subsequent healing from wounds that left doctors wondering if he would ever walk again is told without self pity. There is no need to embellish gruesome events. Gilbert not only recovers, but runs again in competition, and hopes to participate in the 2008 Olympic Games.
A voice in his heart told Gilbert he would survive. To have a belief in any supreme being after watching your schoolmates being hacked to death, after hiding under their burned bodies, the heat searing your own flesh, and come out alive and sane – that is a deeper faith than most people will ever know.