Maison Rouge: Memories of a Childhood in War

by Liliane Leila Juma

Overview

Liliane Leila Juma was sixteen years old when her family home in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was destroyed by rebel soldiers. She gives an account of her life before and after her family was torn apart. Maison Rouge is a story of war and unspeakable loss. It is also the story of survival. Eventually, through the United Nations refugee program, Leila and her family were finally able to relocate to Canada.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781926890302
Publisher:	Tradewind Books
Publication date:	03/15/2020
Pages:	118
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Liliane Leila Juma grew up in Uvira, a city in the western Congo on the shore of Lake Tanganyika near the border with Burundi. Her life as a young girl was brutally disrupted by the wars in Burundi (1993), Rwanda (1994) and the Congo (1994–1997), finally forcing her family to flee to Tanzania. After some time in a refugee protection camp, Leila, her maman and her sisters and brothers immigrated to Canada. Leila now lives in Vancouver, where she works as a women’s support worker. She is fluent in three languages—Swahili, French and English.

Editorial Reviews

This memoir draws readers in, causing us to love the people she loved and rage at the ones who hurt her. There cannot be too many stories of the lives of displaced people in today’s world, and this one both blends in with and stands apart from this growing body of work.

Booklist

Juma’s heart-wrenching story of betrayal, war, and displacement is tantalizing and will no doubt captivate her target audience. Unraveling for her readers the often-convoluted ethnic unrest and vortex of war that have wreaked havoc in the Great Lakes Region, she succeeds in conveying the ways in which war tears apart the social fabric of vulnerable communities, displaces civilians, and indiscriminately destroys ordinary people’s lives.

Africa Access Reviews

Leolina's voice is that of a young person, (making) her experiences, unimaginable to some, feel very vivid and lived . . . (She) uses her voice to navigate conflict and convey hope to others still struggling, while also educating those lucky enough to not have to face the same kind of turmoil.

Quill & Quire

2020-03-11
Congolese Canadian author and storyteller Juma presents her memoir of fleeing armed conflict as a teen in the 1990s.

Her story begins with reminiscences about happier days in her multicultural, multifaith border town of Uvira in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where an abundance of nature, feasts, friendship, and community life prevailed. Slowly, events unfold—the arrival of refugees from Burundi and Rwanda, a civil war in Congo—climaxing with a harrowing hijacking and an escape via a perilous mountain trail. Juma, her mother, and siblings eventually make it to a United Nations refugee camp in Tanzania and then to Québec. The story builds momentum while maintaining key individuals’ storylines. Neither boastfulness nor bitterness shadow Juma’s narrative as she describes her family’s comfortable prewar status and subsequent losses. In a dignified tone she narrates her personal grief—a friendtaken as a child soldier, the death ofher beloved father, and the bombing of herchildhood home, Maison Rouge. This is no tragedy porn, however. Juma’s book serves, above all, as a reminder that refugees, though uprooted, have enduring cultural and spiritual roots. This slim volume is appealing for its rich descriptions of everyday social life and effortless weaving in of culture through the use of Baswahili words from the author’s native language and faith tradition.

A thoughtful, moving story of loss and triumph. (author’s note, introduction, map) (Memoir. 13-adult)

Kirkus Reviews