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Transforming fear into hope
As a 14-year-old boy in Rwanda, Pie-Pacifique Kabalira-Uwase (Pie pronounced ‘P’) survived war atrocities. For his safety and future, he prepared to flee to Canada, but ended up in South Africa after being scammed and losing all his money. He worked as a car guard in Durban city centre, studying between shifts, dreaming of university. Despite a tsunami of obstacles, he completed a degree in physics and was awarded the prestigious Mandela Rhodes Scholarship.
Words: Laura Jones. Source: Kwela Books, and imprint of NB Publishers Images: Hanneri De Wet
Ideology. It’s the stuff the biggest wars are made of: Arabs and Jews, Protestants and Catholics, Americans and Mexicans, Blacks and Whites, Coloureds, Indians and Chinese. South Africans know a lot about this.
Pie-Pacifique’s book is a stark reminder of the realities of segregation, labelling others and war, written at a vital time in the darkness of our current days and the history of the world. He details not only the grim realities of the Rwandan war and its effects on the psyche, but also on the consequent process of his healing:
“It was a safe space to share, openly and fully, what was burdening me, primarily so that I could do something about it. Instead of feeling sorry for myself and seeking sympathy – a trap I had fallen into before – it was a place where the substance of my life experiences could be used to help me grow and develop greater resilience.
But first, I had to recognise the trauma and work with transforming the debilitating effect it was having on me.”
While many stories focus on the despair of, say, a murder, issues around forgiveness or a sexual assault or discrimination, this one is different. Pie- Pacifique’s story transcends all of that.
It’s a true-life exploration of deus ex machina (God in the machine), dissolving the murky soup of self-reflection and hopelessness, turning human suffering into significant personal evolution. From it, we understand how adversity can strengthen a person when they choose to abandon self-pity, and pity for others.
The book is written with visceral awareness, and lucid clarity. The scenes are crystal-clear. We travel with Pie-Pacifique through his life, which we can ‘see’ from his descriptions in our mind’s eye. For those who have experienced even the slightest trauma, which is most of the population, this book is a reminder to remain open, to share and to know that there are trustworthy people in the world who care enough to assist with letting go of anger, resentment and hate.
There is magic in this book, and proof that if you seek and persist in your own life, you will find it.
