Wednesday, August 7, 2019

What are two examples of verbal cruelty in Left to Tell?

Immaculée learns about her Tutsi heritage after an incident in her school classroom. One day the teacher takes “ethnic roll call”: he calls out for the children to stand when he says the name of their ethnic group. Her parents have not discussed ethnicity previously, so she does not know when to stand up. The teacher yells at her, “Get out!”; he sends her home, telling her not to return until she knows what she is.
More generally, as the extremist Hutus gain more influence, they increasingly use propaganda to foment anti-Tutsi sentiments. When Immaculée is attending the university, the extremists launch their own radio station. The broadcasts constantly broadcast their “anti-Tutsi venom,” repeating hat the Tutsis want only to kill them and takeover. The most typical insulting phrase they use is “Tutsi cockroaches.”
https://books.google.com/books?id=U0DzeifB9UAC&source=gbs_navlinks_s

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