Product Description

When President Habyarimana’s jet was shot down in April 1994, Rwanda erupted into a hundred-day orgy of killing – which left up to a million dead. Fergal Keane travelled through the country as the genocide was continuing, and his powerful analysis reveals the terrible truth behind the headlines. ‘A tender, angry account … As well as being a scathing indictment – Keane says the genocide inflicted on the Tutsis was planned well in advance by Hutu leaders – this is a graphic view of news-gathering in extremis. It deserves to become a classic’ Independent.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41427 in Books
• Published on: 1996-04-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Reflections on the 1994 genocide
If you want to read about the most brutal and least disguised genocide since the Second World War, then this is the book for you. The opening chapter, consisting of a precis of Rwandan history leading up to the genocide, is the best such guide that I have read, and I doubt that it will ever be bettered. After this the book describes the journey that Keane, and his colleagues, took into the heart of the horror in 1994. I have worked on Rwanda for a little while now, and I have seen a little of that horror myself. But Keane's descriptions of the experiences of the Survivors (and of the far more numerous dead) made me feel that I was hearing the stories for the first time. We all become a little jaded from time to time, and a degree of mental toughness is good in life, but occasionally we need to be reminded of the extent of loss that events like this genocide involve. Not simply the loss of life, but the loss of trust, the loss of hope and the loss of "humanity" as a component of people's characters. 1994 was a bad year for humanity, in all its senses, and "Season of Blood" reminds us of that with evident anger, compassion and shame.

An excellent book
I've read several disparaging remarks about Fergal Keane, the author, and his works as a journalist and presenter. People have called him arrogant and narcissistic but I beg to differ. Keane's account of travelling through a country ungoing genocide and war; his visits to a UN refugee camp in Tanzania and their journey through Burundi to get to government-held areas in the South of Rwanada is written with honesty, sensitivity and insight. Far from "narcissistic", Keane asks questions of everyone around him and gives a fair amount of insight into the lives of the RPF soldier, Frank Ndore, who escorts them for much of their journey and the Ugandan drivers who risk everything to take them on their journeys. He also asks a fair amount of questions of Interahamwe and government soldiers, giving us a glimpse of their reasoning and the ways in which the evil was perpetuated.

This is the fourth book Ihave read on Rwanda and I have a fifth lined up already. I would start with Left To Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza or An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina but I would definitely say this is an important book to read.

A Handy Addition
This is an excellent beginner's guide to the story of the Rwandan genocide told in bite-sized chunks of elegant prose. For those that wish a deeper understanding of this awful footnote in humanity's history it musy be read in conjunction with other titles such as those by Daillaire and Gourevitch.

The author did witness the horiffic aftermath of the genocide but no real attempt is made to give the reader a deeper undestanding of these events. A beautifully written page turner but ultimately unenlightening. Like watching a CNN report of 9/11 - you will be glued to it but you won't learn much.