Book Review: Prince

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A few months ago we introduced you to Prince Kayigire, a local restauranteur with a bright and shining vision of bringing elegance and fine foods, coffees and teas to our part of Lakewood. We mentioned that he is from Rwanda. His life is a testament to the power of ingenuity, hard work, determination and persistence. Rwanda! The very word takes the mind to a troubled and violent past. One must wonder what it was like, and what it would take to bring healing and peace from such turmoil. The book that tells the story is Prince: Beauty for Ashes by Prince Kayigire. 

Aliens and Cockroaches

All the world knew what was happening. The world stood by as reports of outrageous atrocities piled up. The 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi followed a long series of sporadic and deadly outbursts going back at least to the 1950s, when Tutsi were driven out of the major population centers and subjected to systematic persecution and harassment. Then in 1994, precipitated by a string of coordinated assassinations, all hell broke loose. The government directed its forces to systematically hunt down and kill the Tutsi people. Civilians of the Hutu and Twa tribes, trained by the Army and armed with machetes, were encouraged to go after the Tutsi. Hunt them all down. Aliens. Cockroaches. Exterminate them. Others joined in, with neighbor turning against neighbor, childhood playmates and lifelong friends turning against each other, and even children of mixed-tribe families turning against their Tutsi mother or father and their whole side of the family.

Beauty for Ashes

A 15-year-old boy named Prince Kayigire was in the middle of that hell. This is his story. Through circumstances that seemed insurmountable, he lived to tell it. There were unbearable losses. To read his story of survival would be enough if that were all there was to it, but it is a well-researched history as well, with a scholarly thread of facts and perspective. With all that, Kayigire shares his heart with depth and feeling. The places of his early childhood are described with such soaring poetic beauty that the reader can almost see and feel the touch of paradise. The inevitable contrasting and horrifying story of the genocide is brimming with courage and fear, the stark energy of hiding and evading the real threat of being hacked or beaten to death. We read of unspeakable pain, a pain so deep and visceral, a dark abyss, silent screams of nightmares.

Isaiah 61:1 [The Lord] hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound… 3. to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…

Loss, love, and even forgiveness. Prince: Beauty for Ashes is a worthy and disturbing, beautiful and enlightening book.

Prince: Beauty for Ashes is available for purchase at Prince’s Cultivar Cafe, 7595 W Yale Ave, or at Amazon.com.

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