Redemption in Left to Tell by Immaculée Ilibagiza Annmicha Blugh College

Left to Tell by Immaculée Ilibagiza narrates her painful autobiographical account of the Rwandan Genocide in April 1994. She gives a personal testimony of her traumatic confrontation with a national carnage and the hurt of losing her entire family to the reign of terror. During this entire ordeal, prayer becomes her divine nourishment and spiritual support. Her agonies in the bathroom of a Pastor Murinzi causes her to discover God amidst the Rwandan holocaust. Immaculée realizes that she can never achieve true peace and freedom, without forgiving her enemies as the oft-repeated proverb maintains, To err is human, (but) to forgive is divine. As a devout Catholic, she prays her rosary, for her family and their protection but one unavoidable hurdle protrudes in her own life – the necessity to forgive. In her own life experience, the forgiveness, redemption and restoration themes stand out as God directs her to peace, personal freedom and new purpose.

Torn by anguish and tormented by fear, Immaculée awakens to her need for freedom from retaliatory rage and victimhood. In the bathroom, as she utters the Lord’s Prayer “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” she can distinctly hear God’s voice gently...