Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters the Horror in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel

By Alice Walker

In 2006, Alice Walker, working with Women for Women International, visited Rwanda and the eastern Congo to witness the aftermath of the genocide in Kigali. Invited by Code Pink, an antiwar group working to end the Iraq War, Walker traveled to Palestine/Israel three years later to view the devastation on the Gaza Strip. Here is her testimony.
Bearing witness to the depravity and cruelty, she presents the stories of the individuals who crossed her path and shared their tales of suffering and courage. Part of what has happened to human beings over the last century, she believes, is that we have been rendered speechless by unusually barbaric behavior that devalues human life. We have no words to describe what we witness. Self-imposed silence has slowed our response to the plight of those who most need us, often women and children, but also men of conscience who resist evil but are outnumbered by those around them who have fallen victim to a belief in weapons, male or ethnic dominance, and greed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 4, 2011
• ISBN: 9781609800789

Alice Walker

Alice Walker is an internationally celebrated writer, poet, and activist whose books include seven novels, four collections of short stories, five children’s books, and several volumes of essays and poetry. She has received the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and the National Book Award, and has been honored with the O. Henry Award, the Lillian Smith Award, and the Mahmoud Darwish Literary Prize for Fiction. She was inducted into the California Hall of Fame and received the Lennon Ono Peace Award. Her work has been published in forty languages worldwide.

Reviews for Overcoming Speechlessness

[hrabbit_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a very small book that packs a wallop. It is well written and an important book. Did I like it? Mixed feelings. It is upsetting to read and I had to put it aside at one point. Walker has taken a complicated issue and made it very simple by speaking of her own experiences on trips she has made to the Gaza, Rwanda and the Congo. She reflects on her own upbringing in the American South and draws comparisons. I do think that personal experiences are one of the most thoughtful ways to look at the effects of war. I will confess that as a Jew, it was hard to read this. Only one side is presented, but I have no doubt that what she saw and experienced in the Gaza Strip is truly happening. But Walker lost some credibility with me when I read her daughter's book Black White and Jewish. I think that if you read and like Alice Walker, you should also read her daughter's book.So with mixed feelings, I can't help but say that this book is worth reading. It won't take you long and it will surely have an impact in some way. I am glad that I read it, but it made me very sad in more ways than I thought it would.

[browngirl_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While those of us who sit comfortably in front of our televisions to learn of the devastation occurring in the areas of focus in Overcoming Speechlessness, Walker was on the front lines sharing in the pain and the healing of those affected. She believes "whatever is currently happening to humanity, it is happening o all of us." This is the essence of this very brief work. But its brevity reveals the real meaning of humanity. Walker allows her voice to be that of the survivors of these tragedies. Overcoming Speechlessness also gives us glimpses of humanity in persons like the woman she meets in Kigali who was a sex slave and claims that Women for Women International "saved" her or the sacrifice of life made by a young woman attempting to save the home of her Palestinian friends from demolish. It's a moving piece that should force any reader to re-think remaining silent about atrocities committed against our global mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and children.

[7sistersapphist · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very short, very righteous, and very much preaching to the choir. Although we all need to hear much more about crimes against humanity in Rwanda, the Congo, and Palestine/Israel, this book presents mostly individual stories and the author's reactions. Political horrors are made of individual horrors, to be sure, but without exploring a far greater context, we're left only with mysteriously occurring atrocities and brave survivors. Walker refers to herself as a poet several times, including in the book subtitle, but there is nothing whatsoever poetic in this volume. Speaking hard truths may be done poetically, but it is not poetic by default. Exhortations, while they may also be done poetically, are not poetic in themselves. Using lofty abstract nouns-- Hate, Justice, Healing-- does not make an essay poetic. Three stars for the topic and good intentions.

[5eva5 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is a very slim (too slim) volume about being able to speak about the atrocities that go on all over the world. After touching on the horrors of Rwanda and Eastern Congo, Walker turns her eyes to Gaza in order to reveal some of the stories of the people who live there. As she points out, these stories are not easy for Americans to come by and she wants to change that by her visit there. However, because I was looking forward to hearing these stories, I felt that Walker shortchanged her subjects by spending a large part of these very few pages talking about the Civil Rights movement. It's a somewhat apt comparison, but it doesn't really say much about current conditions in Gaza. Also, she spend even more pages talking about how much time she spent entering the area, filling out paperwork and waiting at the border. Again, an apt description - Israel is normally a hard country to enter for obvious reasons - but, again, it means that this thin volume is left with very few actual stories from the population of Gaza. Perhaps it would have been a successful attempt had it been longer than 80 pages, but as it is, this volume is severely lacking in detail and background information.

[monarchi_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a brief but beautiful memoir of Alice Walker's travels to various war-torn places over the past decades. It is not an explicitly political book, but rather a series of short pieces that reflect her experiences and the stories she encountered.I can't give it five stars because I felt it fell far short of the depth and meaning it could have had, but it was an enjoyable and interesting foray into Alice Walker's mind.