Immaculée Ilibagiza

Immaculée Ilibagiza was born in the small village of Mataba in Rwanda, where she was raised in a close-knit Roman Catholic family. Ilibagiza excelled in school and earned a place at the prestigious Lycée de Notre Dame d’Afrique and a scholarship to the National University in Butare. The final year of her studies were interrupted by the Rwandan genocide of 1994, during which all but one of Ilibagiza’s immediate family members were murdered. She escaped by a hiding out in a bathroom along with a group of other Tutsi women. Following the genocide, she worked for the United Nations and met her husband, Bryan Black, an American who travelled to Rwanda with the UN to work on the International Criminal Tribunal through which the perpetrators of the genocide were prosecuted. In 1998, Ilibagiza moved to New York with her husband, where she continued to work for the UN. She decided to share her story in the book Left to Tell, which became a New York Times bestseller and propelled her into a career as a leading speaker on issues of faith and forgiveness. She has two children and has written six additional books. She is also the recipient of multiple honorary doctorates and humanitarian awards.