Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness, by Tracy Kidder is a biography of an African, Deo, and his remarkable journey, both in miles and achievements.
The story begins in Bujumbura, Burundi during the terrifying 1994 military coup d’ etat. Deo has been six months on the run, sick, and horrified by the inhumane treatment by the Hutu, an ethnic group primarily found in Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda. A Tutsi, Deo is of a smaller tribe and fears for his life, and that of his family. When the extreme violence and chaos began, he had been a medical student, but had to escape from the college with no provisions, no food nor adequate clothing. On the run, it seems the whole country is on fire. He sees groups of dead people stacked in fields, witnesses horrifying acts of cruelty. He travels on foot 70 kilometers, manages to board an airplane, and finally arrives in New York.
Deo is fluent in French as well as some tribal languages. In his home country, French was thought to be an international language. When Deo arrives in New York, he has two hundred dollars, speaks no English, and has no contacts. He manages to get a poor-paying job delivering groceries. He briefly sleeps in an abandoned building in New York slums, but soon realizes he is happier sleeping in the open at Central Park. He learns English by reading dictionaries in bookstores. Deo eventually meets people who will change his life. A dream comes true for him when he is accepted at Columbia University, learns English, becomes a doctor, and begins a life of healing.
Author Tracy Kidder and Deo later travel to Burundi and journey together through Deo’s previous turbulent life. Kidder witnesses the agony Deo still feels with the memory of the genocide he witnessed, but Kidder also sees Deo’s strength and determination to bring healing to his home country.
My husband and I served with the Peace Corps in The Gambia, West Africa, 1979 – 1981. Toward the end of our service, we experienced a coup d’etat attempt carried out by members of the Gambia Socialist Revolutionary Party. We sought shelter in the American Ambassador’s home, together with 116 other people from several different countries. The house often shook from close-sounding explosions. We managed to survive on short rations, including water, until we were liberated by Senegalese military intervention. It was estimated that 1,000 people died in the coup attempt. What we endured in ten days was mild compared to Deo’s journey, but when I read this account of the suffering in Burundi, it brought back memories of the terror we experienced.
Strength in What Remains is a remarkable and memorable account of one man’s determination to help his countrymen. It isn’t a pretty story; in fact it is quite gruesome in places. But it is a true story of courage and goodness of not only one man’s journey, but of the many people who helped him along the way.