The Lances Were Looking Down

The night of April 6, 1994, in Rwanda was like many others for Hadidja Nyiransekuye and her family. Yet the next morning when they awakened, turned on Radio Rwanda, and heard nothing but dead air, Hadidja’s husband had a premonition—something was wrong. It turns out, he was right. Overnight, the Rwandan President had died in a plane crash, Prime Minister Agathe had been shot, and the killing of innocent people had already begun.
In her memoir, The Lances Were Looking Down, Hadidja shares her incredible journey before, during, and after the one hundreds days of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Nothing had prepared Hadidja, her family, and other Rwandans for the magnitude of the carnage and the barbarism that followed the death of
the president. When all was said and done, more than eight hundred thousand people would lie dead in the streets; their country would never be the same.

As Hadidja leads others through the heartbreaking, shocking, and disturbing events that caused the self-destruction of a beautiful country and its people, she also shares her hopes and fears for her fellow Rwandans, proving that no matter what the tragedy, an unyielding love for family, friends, and country
will always triumph over evil.