Description

In her debut memoir, Henriette Mutegwaraba recalls an idyllic childhood in 1970s Rwanda—idyllic until the day her fifth-year teacher called her out for being a “Tutsi cockroach.” She’d never heard that term, but as Mr. Wilson went on to explain, “We [Hutus] tried to kill them [Tutsis] in 1959, and they’re still around. Like cockroaches, the Tutsi are hard to exterminate.” It was Henriette’s first encounter with systematic discrimination, and her country’s deeply held belief that one tribe was superior to another. A decade later, that hate would manifest as the Rwandan genocide against Tutsis. Of her large and loving extended family, Henriette alone would survive to tell her story, which is really the story of Rwanda. A book for government leaders, peace and human rights activists, young people, and anyone else who has ever felt “different” because of how God created them, By Any Means Necessary follows Henriette on her harrowing journey to escape a violent death, help rebuild a broken people, and ultimately, learn to forgive those who killed everyone she loved.