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Question answered by Verena Denk, Program Associate and European Youth Director at PTPI’s European Office

6. Discrimination is a prevalent topic  within this book.  Cite some examples that Deo experienced.  Have you experienced any similar actions where you find you can relate?

When Deo was a little boy, he tried to understand what “Hutu” and “Tutsi” meant, but nobody really wanted to answer him. He repeated a definition of “Tutsi” he had heard, but his further scolded him “This is prejudice. Shut up! Who is teaching you this?” Deo discovered that it was quite difficult to distinguish Tutsi from Hutu. None of the stereotypes seemed to work. Regardless, Tutsis were slaughtered by Hutus and Hutus by Tutsis in Burundi and Rwanda a few years later. Deo managed to escape the genocide, but in New York, he also faced discrimination in different forms and from different groups of people. Among his co-workers in the store, he was discriminated against because of his poor English and his “weakness.” Since he was obviously poor and had a low social status, he was discriminated against by the clients he made deliveries to. Later as a student, he was threatened for being a Tutsi, apparently by Hutus.

Like New York City, Berlin is a multicultural city. Stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination are definitely present here. Only last week, I organized a workshop in a high school here in Berlin. When I asked the students about own experiences with discrimination, I was surprised about the great number of shocking stories they had to tell. In multicultural societies, the problems are probably more obvious. In more homogeneous societies, the problems might be more subtle. Nevertheless, discrimination occurs everywhere and in every age group because it is always possible to find people who are “different” from the majority. To fight discrimination, we can only start with ourselves, monitoring our own thoughts, words and deeds. When we have the chance, we should protect others from discrimination. In my opinion, the key is to think of differences as enriching and not as threatening. What a party if we managed to celebrate diversity!

The opinions expressed by PTPI staff and other book club members are entirely their own and are not necessarily the views of  People to People International or that of PTPI’s Officers, Board of Directors and Board of Trustees.

Congratulations to K.Saroja, winner of a copy of the next Global Book Club book!  Your comments and insights are greatly appreciated – thank you for participating.

Question answered by Rebecca Nunn, Assistant Director of Administration at PTPI

5. How would you compare Deo’s experiences in New York City compared to his years growing up in Burundi?  How about his return visits to Burundi?

In the first half of the book it goes back and forth between New York and when Deo was a child in Burundi.  It surprised me how his experiences in New York were much more dire than they were as a child in Burundi.  He was confronted by a culture that he knew nothing about, could not speak English and was battling sickness.  Growing up, Deo’s family was well off by local standards; they had land, a home, and a nice herd of cattle.  Deo worked very hard as a child, but he had a good support system of family and friends and was able to go to school.

In New York he had to fend for himself and did not have anyone but strangers to help him.  I can imagine it was quite a shock for him to come to America, which was supposed to be a land of promise, only to find himself living on the street and relying on others to survive.  When he started going to school and working for Partners in Health he found a better quality of life, but still felt that loneliness and guilt for leaving Burundi behind.  When Deo returns to Burundi, he was outraged and embarrassed at what had become of Bujumbura and the disorganization of the city.  On his long trip through the city and countryside, it was hard to read at times because you know he is reliving the terrible experiences of his past.  When he gets to Kayanza, his adopted hometown, he seems at peace and realizes what he needs to do to start a clinic there.  I found it so inspirational that Deo felt he needed to get back to New York right away after his trip to Burundi so he could start fundraising and speaking about starting the clinic.

The opinions expressed by PTPI staff and other book club members are entirely their own and are not necessarily the views of  People to People International or that of PTPI’s Officers, Board of Directors and Board of Trustees.

Question answered by Verena Denk, Program Associate and European Youth Director at PTPI’s European Office

4. Kidder refers to the genocide memorials as representing “Never Again” yet questions if there could be such a thing as too much remembering:  ”…too much of it could suffocate a person, and indeed a culture.”

What do you think about genocide memorials and their usefulness to prevent massacres in the future?  Has your view of genocide changed after reading this book?

Genocide was for me always linked to the Holocaust. Deo’s experiences happened in a different country under different circumstances. Still, horror is horror. For me the idea of “gusimbura” was completely new. Deo explains that in Burundi, the names of the deceased must not be mentioned. It is like “reminding people of something bad.” Nevertheless, there are genocide memorials in Burundi and Rwanda, which Deo visits together with Tracy Kidder. At first this struck me as paradox. But the longer I thought about it, the more sense it made.

In Germany, my grandparents had witnessed another type of genocide, the Holocaust. When I was in high school, we visited the site of the concentration camp in Dachau. I remember standing in front of a building with big furnaces. A black-and-white photograph hung next to the door. The photo showed a huge pile of dead bodies right at the spot where I was standing. I can’t describe the feelings I had in that moment, but whenever I remember it, I still feel the same way. I think that genocide memorials are important to make history more real and allow us to learn from past mistakes. When a new Holocaust memorial was constructed in Berlin a few years ago right next to the Brandenburg Gate, I was very much in favor. I couldn’t understand why some people proclaimed enough was enough.

When I was studying in France, I shared an apartment with a girl whose grandfather had survived Auschwitz because he knew how to play the piano. At first, I really wondered why the girl talked to me at all, but she did. We spent entire evenings comparing the stories of our families, knowing that our grandfathers had been enemies. The more we talked about the subject the easier it seemed to live together, at least for me. Still, my friend’s grandfather had never talked about his experiences with his family. He would certainly have understood what Deo meant by “gusimbura.” For the victims of genocide, there is definitely “such a thing as too much remembering” as Tracy Kidder puts it. There must be horrors that you can only live with if you don’t talk about it.

I am very grateful that I could become friends with this girl in France regardless of the history of our countries and even our families. Still, I also understand that it was easier for us to talk than it would have been for our grandparents. I sincerely hope that Deo’s children or grandchildren will have Hutu friends at school or during studies. For them, the memorials will be as important as they were for me.

The opinions expressed by PTPI staff and other book club members are entirely their own and are not necessarily the views of  People to People International or that of PTPI’s Officers, Board of Directors and Board of Trustees.