Rat Roads: One Man’s Incredible Journey

'My whole life I had to travel on panya roads,' Kennedy says. 'It's a Swahili word that means "rat roads", and they are those little paths that you take in order not to be seen and to stay alive. That's how I've survived.' In this extraordinary book, celebrated journalist Jacques Pauw gives a human face to some of the most tumultuous events in recent African history. Rat Roads chronicles the remarkable journey of Kennedy Gihana, a young Tutsi man who fought against the genocidaires in Rwanda, but was part of an army that committed horrifying atrocities in Africa's bloodiest conflict. Seeking education instead of war, he walked thousands of kilometres to South Africa, where he slept in parks, lived on the street and worked as a low-paid security guard until he had saved enough money to enrol for a law degree. In 2011 he took the podium at the University of Pretoria to receive a master's degree in international law. Rat Roads combines many strands of life in Africa. Besides being the chronicle of one man's incredible journey, it addresses issues such as civil conflict, xenophobia and the plight of refugees. It also explores the nature of war crimes and guilt, and gives insight into present-day Rwanda, showing how one tyranny has replaced another. Rat Roads is a searing story of hardship and survival, and an unforgettable tale of courage and triumph.

About the Author :
Jacques Pauw is one of South Africa's most decorated journalists. He was a founder member and assistant editor of the anti-apartheid Afrikaans newspaper Vrye Weekblad, where he exposed the existence of police death squads. After a stint at The Star and Sunday Star, he became a current affairs television producer and documentary maker. He reported on the genocide in Rwanda, the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and civil strife in Algeria, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Liberia and the DRC. He was a founder member of both the SABC's Special Report on the Truth Commission and the Special Assignment current affairs programme. He was director of the Wits Justice Project at Wits University before joining Media24 as their chief investigative reporter. He has received a host of national and international awards and is the author of four books, including Dances with Devils published by Zebra Press in 2006.

Review :
"Rat Roads: One Man's Incredible Journey" by Jacques Pauw is a book you cannot put down, written by a well known, award winning South African journalist who has written about the people and experiences all over Africa for years. An excellent writer, he says this is the story he has been searching for and the crowning one of his career. He was fortunate enough to come into the confidence of a Tutsi man from Rwanda who is now a master of International Law in South Africa, Kennedy Gihana. Kennedy's jouney over two decades is chronicled in unforgettable ways as the reader experiences his life as a yound boy in Rwanda who at age 11 is allowed to go to school for the first time, only two days a week, and he is very smart. But he is coming of age during the most horrifying and bloodiest genocide of African history during the 1990's in Rwanda. He fought against the genocide but as a part of the army that was committing terrible atrocities. He wanted only education instead of war so he escaped and walked thousands of kilometers all the way from Rwanda to South Africa, where he was homeless and worked for a very small wage as a guard and saved enough to enter the University of Pretoria, where he received his Master's degree last year. Within the story of this amazing man the author tells about life in conflicted Africa, the pitiful way refugees have to live, the war crimes and the guilt that never leaves the heart, and the way the struggle to enter the 21st century in Rwanda sees the tyrany of one group replace another. This book about unfathomable hardships and the iron will to survive and rise above will replay in your mind for a long time after reading. Great courage triumphs over huge despair. An INSPIRING and INFORMATIVE READ!