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The Scar (Lydia Ininahazwe-Sentamo)
A testimony, not a novel. At nine years old, Lydia watched her father and two of her brothers massacred before her eyes, in October 1993. This book tells how she survived — and forgave.
Some books aren't invented, they're survived. In October 1993, Lydia Ininahazwe-Sentamo was nine years old when genocidal violence struck her family: her father, Englebert Sentamo, a provincial governor in Karuzi, and two of her brothers were killed in front of her. She survived — but carries, in her own words, 'a terrible scar on her head. And in her soul!'
A journey, then a rebuilding
The account follows a child turned refugee: from Burundi to Congo, to Tanzania, then Rwanda and back to Burundi, before leaving for Belgium in 2005 to study accounting. She has lived in the United States since 2018. For a long time, she hid her scar. Today, she wears it with dignity.
This isn't a book about the ethnic hatred that tore her family apart — it's a book about what remains possible afterward: marrying, rebuilding, and forgiving 'through a peace she draws from the depths of her own being.'
A testimony worth actually reading, not just knowing by reputation — order your copy.
- Author: Lydia Ininahazwe-Sentamo
- Genre: testimony
- Publisher: Éditions Iwacu, Collection Témoins
- Language: French
- Pages: 196
- Weight: 255 g
