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Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak
(Rwanda #2)
by
During the spring of 1994, in a tiny country called Rwanda, some 800,000 people were hacked to death, one by one, by their neighbors in a gruesome civil war. Several years later, journalist Jean Hatzfeld traveled to Rwanda to interview ten participants in the killings, eliciting extraordinary testimony from these men about the genocide they perpetrated. As Susan Sontag wro
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Paperback, 253 pages
Published
April 18th 2006
by Picador USA
(first published 2003)
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Start your review of Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak

Nov 04, 2012
Mariel
rated it
liked it
Recommends it for:
the farmer kills the cheese
Recommended to Mariel by:
the farmer kills the mouse
"This gentleman I killed at the marketplace, I can tell you the exact memory of it because he was the first. For others, it's murky- I cannot keep track anymore in my memory. I considered them unimportant; at the time of those murders I didn't even notice the tiny thing that would change me into a killer."
Susan Sontag wrote the preface for Jean Hatzfeld's book Machete Season. She says: To make the effort to understand what happened in Rwanda is a painful task that we have no right to shirk- it i ...more
Susan Sontag wrote the preface for Jean Hatzfeld's book Machete Season. She says: To make the effort to understand what happened in Rwanda is a painful task that we have no right to shirk- it i ...more

With some books you get exactly what you expected, which in this case, was a bunch of ordinary guys from Rwanda talking about killing people with machetes, a lot. They were all interviewed at length in prison.
During the killings I no longer considered anything in the Tutsi except the person has to be done away with. I want to make clear that from the first gentleman I killed to the last, I was not sorry about a single one.
For anyone who needs reminding, the events described in this so easy to re ...more
During the killings I no longer considered anything in the Tutsi except the person has to be done away with. I want to make clear that from the first gentleman I killed to the last, I was not sorry about a single one.
For anyone who needs reminding, the events described in this so easy to re ...more

In 1897, the Germans conquered Rwanda. They brought their burgeoning racial discrimination theories to the country and started applying them to the local population. What for centuries had been not an issue suddenly divided into ethnic differences. The Tutsis, believed to have descended from the biblical Ham, and thus more "Europeanised" than the Hutu population, became the natural favourites to rule Rwanda on behalf of the Germans. The Germans sowed the seeds of racism in Rwanda.
In 1916, German ...more
In 1916, German ...more

"Ours is appallingly, an age of genocide, but even so, what happened in Rwanda in the spring of 1994 stands out in several ways. In a tiny, landlocked African country smaller than the state of Maryland, some 800,000 people were hacked to death, one by one, by their neighbors. The women, men, and children who were slaughtered were of the same race and shared the same language, customs, and confession (Roman Catholic) as those who eagerly slaughtered them." (pg 5) All this in twelve weeks.
Hatzfie ...more
Hatzfie ...more

Amazement. That`s my reaction to this book. So this journalist visits a Ruwandan prison and gets six of the Hutu executioners during the 1994 genocide to speak freely about their crimes. This time it is not a novel writer doing his best to sound spooky, this time it is not some sane, decent person like Primo Levy describing mass murder from the victim`s side. This time you get to the other side, as close as you can get to the real core of horror. What these men did goes so far beyond my experien
...more

I noticed that one of my Goodreads friends who is a Holocaust librarian was reading this book, so I decided to follow his lead. Words cannot begin to convey the depth and complexity of emotions which this book elicits. More than anything else, it is devastating, and insightful: giving the reader a glimpse into the minds of the Hutu killers during the Rwandan genocide.
All I can do is provide you with one small, chilling example of what one Hutu farmer thought when asked about the word genocide:
All I can do is provide you with one small, chilling example of what one Hutu farmer thought when asked about the word genocide:
Pi...more

Note: This review is for the full four-part series.
French reporter and longtime resident of the African continent, Jean Hatzfeld, documents the Rwandan Genocide in more detail than any other historian or journalist. But don't look to his series for a complete historical context or a full examination of the motives of the killers or the previous crimes of the Tutsi people and the colonialists. Other books, like Philip Gourevitch's excellent We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed wi ...more
French reporter and longtime resident of the African continent, Jean Hatzfeld, documents the Rwandan Genocide in more detail than any other historian or journalist. But don't look to his series for a complete historical context or a full examination of the motives of the killers or the previous crimes of the Tutsi people and the colonialists. Other books, like Philip Gourevitch's excellent We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed wi ...more

This book is absolutely horrifying as it deals with first hand accounts of several killers from Rwanda during the genocide. I think I was looking for some kind of insight into the mentality of these killers, and how seemingly normal people could commit such acts of evil. Ultimately the complete banality and lack of remorse these killers felt, both during and after, the atricious murders of babies, neighbours, pregnant women etc., just left me feeling devasted.

This book is largely comprised of interviews from the men who perpetrated the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. I definitely enjoyed the authenticity of hearing from e men themselves. The author also inserts some background information and occasional observations about the nature of genocide.
I enjoyed several things about this book:
1. It gave me a great understanding of the historical background for the events in Rwanda.
2. It gave me a small sense of what it would have been like to be there during the ev ...more
I enjoyed several things about this book:
1. It gave me a great understanding of the historical background for the events in Rwanda.
2. It gave me a small sense of what it would have been like to be there during the ev ...more

"If killers come to church to pray to God on their knees, to show us their remorse, I cannot pray either with them or against them. Real regrets are said eye to eye, not to statues of God. The accommodation of killers is not my concern." - Gaspard, a survivor.
This book opens up a real big historical and philosophical can of worms. Hatzfeld interviews a group of friends in prison who actively participated in the Rwandan genocide. The most anti-Tutsi of them killed the least. The man who had never ...more
This book opens up a real big historical and philosophical can of worms. Hatzfeld interviews a group of friends in prison who actively participated in the Rwandan genocide. The most anti-Tutsi of them killed the least. The man who had never ...more

The author first wrote a book where he interviewed 14 survivors of the genocide in Rwanda. I haven’t read it, though I've read plenty of other books about it. It was only later that he thought to interview some of those who killed during the genocide. In this book, the interviews were interspersed with history, sometimes a description of interview process and how it came about that the author decided to write this one, sometimes the voices of some of the survivors are included.
The killers just c ...more
The killers just c ...more

Since
"In a tiny, landlocked African country smaller than the state of Maryland, some 800,000 people were hacked to death, one by one, by their neighbors. The women, men, and children who were slaughtered were of the same race and shared the same language, customs, and confession (Roman Catholic) as those who eagerly slaughtered them." (p.vii)
and
"When there has been one genocide there can be another, at any time in the future, anywhere -- if the cause is still there and no one knows what it is"...more

Writer Philip Gourevitch has chosen to discuss Jean Hatzfeld’s
Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak
on FiveBooks as one of the top five on his subject - Rwanda, saying that:
Hatzfeld wound up going back to Rwanda and the whole group of killers who had been pursuing the survivors he’d been writing about in his first book were all in one prison nearby. And he arranged to meet with them on a regular basis, individually and collectively, to hear their stories. And it’s the most direct (I ...more
Hatzfeld wound up going back to Rwanda and the whole group of killers who had been pursuing the survivors he’d been writing about in his first book were all in one prison nearby. And he arranged to meet with them on a regular basis, individually and collectively, to hear their stories. And it’s the most direct (I ...more

A very disturbing book that should be read by everyone. It is amazing to see these people try to excuse their behavior. Of course they were not responsible for their behavior and of course the people they slaughtered were some how at fault in their deaths. Two things that really stand out in this book. These murderers actually are a bit put off that their victims families did not forgive their transgressions and a few of these shit stains are actually walking around free today. Read this book fo
...more

The layout of this book was awful, and the stories got repetitive. I feel like the author stayed away from the tough questions with regard to the men who killed, instead allowing them to tell only what they wished with no real challenge as to their frames of minds.
I may have learned a little more of the how, but I still don't really understand the WHY.
The tidbits related to culture were what kept me reading, but in the end they couldn't save this book, and I can't really recommend it, as there a ...more
I may have learned a little more of the how, but I still don't really understand the WHY.
The tidbits related to culture were what kept me reading, but in the end they couldn't save this book, and I can't really recommend it, as there a ...more

Difficult to read, but a narrative that everyone should. The stories and perspectives of Rwanda's worst were not at all what I expected. The realities this novel depicts are ones we all should face in order to prevent history from repeating itself.
...more

Rwanda has always been close to my heart. Back in 1994, I wondered and asked my dad, why are there so many refugees walking on a narrow, lonely, long road to Congo? Back than I was too young to understand the tragedy that had gripped the people there.
"Machete Season by Jean Hatzfeld" is a tough book to read!, it lets the killers speak for themselves, why they did what they did. Reading their stories, made me angry towards them, but sometimes helpless.
There are two extremes that live within us, ...more
"Machete Season by Jean Hatzfeld" is a tough book to read!, it lets the killers speak for themselves, why they did what they did. Reading their stories, made me angry towards them, but sometimes helpless.
There are two extremes that live within us, ...more

We are such a wonderful species... Jesus. The most shocking thing about this book is how nonchalantly the killers refer to their role in the genocide as just another job...similar to that of farming but with greater reward and less work. Sickening. Be wary all who enter this book. It might be one of the most hopeless things I've ever read.
...more

This book is a compilation of interviews with Rwanda Hutus who participated in the genocidal killings of the Tutsis. At times it was chilling to read, but I pressed on as I was curious to see what drives average people to become crazed genocidal killers. There are no easy answers. What frightens me is the possibility that all of us have this darkness lurking deep down in our hearts.
"To kill so many human beings without wavering, we had to hate with no second thoughts. Hatred was the only emotion ...more
"To kill so many human beings without wavering, we had to hate with no second thoughts. Hatred was the only emotion ...more

In order of publication, the books I am reviewing are:
Life Laid Bare: The Survivors in Rwanda Speak (2000) by Jean Hatzfeld, trans. Linda Coverdale
Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak (2003) by Jean Hatzfeld, trans. Linda Coverdale
The Democratic Republic of Congo: Between Hope and Despair (2013) by Michael Deibert
This review is about three books at once because: 1) the topics of all three books are related to the 1994 Rwandan genocide and its aftermath, and 2) writing about the books indi ...more

"Some struck slowly from wickedness. Some struck quickly so as to finish up and go home early to do something else. It was not important. It was each to his own technique and personality."
In The Act of Killing , my top film of 2013, genocidal gangsters stage a musical to celebrate their butchery. The raw joy of justified murder also permeates Machete Season, a series of interviews with Rwandan killers.
Jean Hatzfield, the author, had written a book of stories from survivors. Why, then, ...more

Jean Hatzfeld interviews ten Hutus who participated in the Rwandan genocide while serving their terms in jail. The book is divided into sections of direct quotes made by the killers and some survivors and Hatzfeld's own challenge to understand how the killers' explanations fit into a larger context of genocides, politics and human nature. The killer's discussion about why and how the genocide happened and how they came to participate in it, and what they think of it now is nothing short of astou
...more

Because of the subject matter, it's impossible to say this is a "good" book. But it is insightful, disturbing, confusing, and important. Although I was somewhat curious to hear from these men why they did what they did, I wasn't sure there was really much to learn that you didn't already know from the survivors and scholars. But the psychology surrounding these men plays a much bigger role than imagined. The possible motives were much more complex than what you may initially think. It's importan
...more

A very good read on the collective psychopathy of the mob mentality. It takes care to emphasize that, contrary to more popular portrayals, the genocide did not spring out of nowhere, but had been decades of pogroms in the making. Also compelling to note how it had much less to do with Hutu vs. Tutsi at the root and much more to do with general poverty and a lack of very basic resources, leaving one to wonder how much would have taken place at all if the country were better off financially in the
...more

The educated people were certainly the ones who drove the farmers on, out in the marshes. Today they're the ones who juggle with the words or turn close-mouthed. Many sit quietly in their same places as before. Some have become ministers or bishops; they aren't much in the public eye, but they still wear their fancy clothes and fold framed glasses. While suffering keeps us in prison. Adalbert, a Hutu farmer turned killer in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
What a book. Its a book which is unlike any ot ...more
What a book. Its a book which is unlike any ot ...more

Tough read. Any by that I mean, there are passages of darkness that few humans have ever encountered. That said, and regardless of your thoughts of Susan Sontag, I offer you this excerpt from her foreword. I concur wholeheartedly. There are many parts of this book I was going to offer as an enticement to read it, but her comments sum it up far better than I could:
"Our obligation, and it is an obligation, is to take in what human beings are capable of doing to one another, not spontaneously (crim ...more
"Our obligation, and it is an obligation, is to take in what human beings are capable of doing to one another, not spontaneously (crim ...more

Reading this book, I was reminded of a Holocaust survivor who was asked how something like the Holocaust could happen. The survivor said (I'm paraphrasing here), "Fifteen percent of the people are merciful no matter what, and fifteen percent of the people are cruel no matter what. The rest are open to suggestion." Here are the accounts of ten people who were open to suggestion--or maybe they were cruel. Hard to say at this point; they're murderers.
If you've ever wondered how ordinary people coul ...more
If you've ever wondered how ordinary people coul ...more

This book is abhorrent. You may think you can handle it, that you can read it, but you are wrong: you cannot. You will want to read more slowly, because you fear the words, and you will want to read more quickly, because you desperately want it to end. If you read it, as I did, to learn, to try to understand, you will come away disappointed, and more confused. The only thing I came to understand through the reading was the depth of evil which seemingly ordinary humans can contain and express, wi
...more

I think it would be exceptionally hard to convince convicted killers to share their stories, yet Hatzfeld manages to persuade a group of friends who participated in the Rwandan genocide to open up and provide some horrific insights into their involvement. An important read for anyone interested in a deeper understanding about the genocide.
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