DYING TO LIVE, the untold story of Rwandan refugees in the Congo — Baraka Books

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DYING TO LIVE, the untold story of Rwandan refugees in the Congo

April 12, 2013 | 0 Comments

Preface by Cynthia McKinney
Dying to Live, A Rwandan Family's Five-Year Flight Across the Congowill hit bookstores and online vendors by June 1.

Pierre-Claver Ndacyayisenga was a history teacher in Kigali when he was forced to flee to the neighbouring Congo (Zaïre) with his wife and three children. Thus began a harrowing five-year voyage of survival during which they travelled thousands of kilometers on foot from one refugee camp to another. Lacking food and water, they were often robbed, sometimes raped but were constantly pursued and bombed by shadowy Rwandan-backed armed soldiers with sophisticated weapons and aerial surveillance information. He and his family were among the more than three hundred thousand refugees who, for the most part, did not survive to tell their story.

Dying To Live, brilliantly translated by Casey Roberts, is an ode to the human capacity to survive against all odds. Pierre-Claver Ndacyayisenga touchingly tells a story that has been silenced for too long. It will help restore the humanity and the right to mourn to hundreds of thousands of Rwandans dispersed throughout the world.

Praise for Dying to Live

"The interest and power of his testimony resides in the story of an exodus, on foot, over thousands of kilometers, of wretchedly abandoned refugees,

Makeshift caomp at Amisi in the Lubutu area of Eastern Congo, some 60 km east of Tingi Tingi. The Rwandan Patriotic Army and rebels attacked the camp in Feb. 1997 and the refugees were forced west to Tingi Tingi. (Photo : UNHCR/C. Bowers)

denied water and food, robbed, bombed, raped, exploited by so-called liberators, reduced to slavery, and forced to cross dangerous rivers by their own means, hide in the snake and animal-infested jungle, with only their faith as their only source of shelter and comfort." Le Devoir, Montreal.

Dying to Live is a must for people who want to understand the war in the Congo, which began in 1996 and seems to never end and it casts light on helps what is happening today.

Pierre-Claver Ndacyayisenga was born in Rwanda in 1962. He taught primary school before earning a degree in history from the Université nationale du Rwanda. A history teacher in Kigali,  he was forced to flee with his family in 1994. Father of four children, he now lives in Montreal.

Cynthia McKinney was the first African American woman to represent Georgia in the US House of Representatives. A member of Congress for 14 years, she has written several books including Ain't Nothing Like Freedom (2008) and The Illegal War on Libya(2012).

Casey Roberts won the John Glassco Prize awarded by the Canadian Literary Translators Association for his translation of the YA novel Break Away, Jessie on My Mind. He lives in Montreal.

Dying to Live, A Rwandan Family's Five-Year Flight Across the Congo
Pierre-Claver Ndacyayisenga (translated by Casey Roberts)
9781926824789; 180 pp; 4 maps; 10 B&W photos; 6 X 9
Pub date:  June 1, 2013.

* To be available in ebook formats.