On seeing Immaculée Ilibagiza in person, what strikes one first is the warmth of her smile, which seems to take in most of the 700-plus people who gathered to hear her speak last month in Bishop O'Dowd High School's gymnasium. Charismatic and funny, she bubbles with enthusiasm and a lively rapid-fire manner of speaking, though it's almost impossible to imagine where that smile can come from, given the horrifying events she's lived through.
Ilibagiza is the author of "Left to Tell" and a survivor of the genocide that swept Rwanda from April to July 1994, when Hutu citizens rose up to slaughter their ethnic rivals, the Tutsi people. Neighbors, classmates, old friends, fellow workers - between 800,000 and 1 million people were killed, often by people they had known all their lives. Nearly all of Ilibagiza's family - including her father, mother and two brothers - perished in those months.
Read more on the SF Chronicle site.
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