In The News
The African Studies Centre Leiden is the only multidisciplinary academic knowledge institute in the Netherlands devoted entirely to the study of Africa. It has an excellent library that is open to the general public. The ASCL is an interfaculty institute of Leiden University.
Included in its Rwanda Genocide category is No Greater Love: How My Family Survived the Genocide in Rwanda by Tharcisse Seminega.
“Very often when the time comes to remember we forget to pay due diligence to the just of 1994 who refused to be partisans of mass murder and destruction when they very easily could have. This book is an account of courage and faith. An inspiring account of humanity and hope.”
“NewsDay Zimbabwe: Love Shines Through in Rwanda Genocide
This was the terrifying reality for Tharcisse Seminega, a Tutsi professor at the National University of Rwanda in Butare. He was targeted for slaughter, along with his wife Chantal and five children, with all hope of escape cut off — until help arrived in the form of Hutu rescuers who repeatedly put themselves in mortal danger to save the family from the machete-wielding assailants.
Thus, his captivating book No Greater Love is the true story of unwavering courage and extraordinary love shown by ordinary people who offered a ray of hope during one of humanity’s most horrific self-inflicted tragedies.”
“Heroism Science: An Interdisciplinary Journal Book Review:No Greater Love: How My Family Survived the Genocide in Rwanda
More than a story of survival, Seminega’s tale is one of heroic rescuers who risked their and their families’ lives to save his family. Many, but not all, of these rescuers were fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses, ethnic Hutu who could easily and safely have turned their backs on the Seminega family.”
“Most of the rescuers belonged to the Jehovah’s Witness community, of which Seminega was a part. His wife, a former nun, feared to join him, knowing that the Witnesses had long been oppressed for refusing to take up weapons or participate in politics.
Because of this apolitical teaching, writes genocide scholar Rhoda Howard-Hassmann, “Hutu Witnesses were impervious to calls for patriotic Hutu to take part in mass killings”; and yet “to do nothing was also against their Christian principles.””