We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families
by Philip Gourevitch · first published 1998
6mentions
3recommended by
5HN commenters
2011–2026first – last mentioned
60% recommend20% neutral20% critical
An unforgettable firsthand account of a people's response to genocide and what it tells us about humanity. This remarkable debut book chronicles what has happened in Rwanda and neighboring states since 1994, when the Rwandan government called on everyone in the Hutu majority to murder everyone in the Tutsi minority. Though the killing was low-tech--largely by machete--it was carried out at shocking speed: some 800,000 people were exterminated in a hundred days. A Tutsi pastor, in a letter to his church president, a Hutu, used the chilling phrase that gives Philip Gourevitch his title. Wi
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…less obvious, I'm a big fan of Philip Gourevitch. He's somewhere between a reporter and an essayist. A lot of his essays appeared in The New Yorker, and a group of them on Rwanda eventually became a book We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families. That is outstanding non-fiction writing.
on “Ask HN: Can you introduce me to contemporary state of essay art?” ↗…fails to address the complex political and social factors that led to the violence. To gain a deeper understanding of the Rwandan Genocide, it is important to turn to other resources. Books such as "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families" by Philip Gourevitch and "Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda" by Romeo Dallaire provide a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the conflict. These books offer firsthand…
on “The Lessons to Learn from Hotel Rwanda – Emmanuel Katto Uganda” ↗I'll mention it here because it's tangentially related to your comment. The book "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families" about the Rwandan genocide and aftermath helped me understand the country and it's current state much better. The book has the added benefit of being from 1999 so has far fewer of the culture war components…
on “We don't know why Malawi is poor” ↗…were genuinely fluid. Where did you read this? I’ve seen many people make this claim but I’ve never seen any evidence that it’s true. The only source I have found for it is Philip Gourevitch’s book “We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families” I could not find the actual page where this claim is ostensibly made, just an unsourced claim that the identity cards made such mobility impossible. A similar claim is often made about the caste system…
on “Hate Radio (2011)” ↗…Hey, just a million Rwandans. Did you ever hear about the Genocide Convention?" > I said I had. > "That convention," the American at the bar said, "makes a nice wrapping for a cheese sandwich." From "We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda" by Philip Gourevitch.
on “The American Grilled Cheese Sandwich Essay (2024)” ↗…to fail. Many people will follow straight-forward economic incentives. But a very large number won't, even to their extreme and readily foreseeable detriment. That makes failure inevitable. [1] See "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Wish_to_Inform_You_That_Tom...)
on “Why Don’t People Who Can’t Afford Housing Just Move Where It’s Cheaper?” ↗