How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child

by Sandra Uwiringiyimana

I could also see that American kids had a hard time understanding that I was American. Kids at school would ask, “What are you?” What am I? “I’m an American,” I would say. They would look at me skeptically. “Come on, what are you?” When you hear questions like that, it makes you feel like you don’t belong, like you have no right to claim American citizenship. I think it’s why refugee kids often develop low expectations for their lives. Even as citizens, they feel like outsiders. “Are you asking where I was born?” I would say. “If so, I was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But now, I am an American.” What I often wanted to say was, “I’m a human being. What are you?”

How Dare the Sun Rise is a testament to the failure of Agathon Rwasa and FNL. These men have ended the lives of 166 people, but they started a fire in me. As long as I am still alive, they have failed. As long as people hear my story, they have failed. As long as I keep fighting, they have failed! This book is a declaration of my independence. It is a story of how hatred failed and love and justice prevailed. My hope is that my story serves as inspiration for those who have been harmed by the very institutions that were meant to protect them. There is power in our voices. The more of us speak up, the more likely we are to be heard. Our communities cannot thrive if some of us are made to feel like we do not matter. I hope this book inspires more people to stand up for the voiceless. Don’t let your silence be another person’s death. Fighting for each other is the only way we all win.