Earlier this year, I noticed a book on a kiosk by my library’s checkout desk. All I can say is that I defy anyone with ovaries to walk by a book titled A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to be a Woman and not give pause. I suspect it can’t be done. I grabbed it.
In early 2005, Lisa Shannon, a Portland-based photographer, caught a story on Oprah about the ongoing fighting between the often-changing government and various militia groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to journalist Lisa Ling, a guest on the show, four million people had died. Oprah highlighted the ongoing nature of the violence, which included staggering numbers of Congolese women being raped.
In the book, Lisa chronicles her journey following the show that takes her deeper and deeper into the lives of these women. It begins with a pledge to sponsor two women, expands to include creating marathons for the purpose of raising money and awareness, and ultimately results in two trips to the Congo to visit many of the women she sponsors, to see first-hand the conditions, and to document people’s stories.
In many ways, it’s a difficult read. Throughout her travels, she seems to unravel stories from victims of just about every imaginable atrocious crime, from brutal gang rapes and mutilations of young girls to villages massacred by Interahamwe boys, also known as “Those Who Kill Together.†Perhaps the most difficult part about the book is the fact that the conditions are not just recent, but ongoing.
She has an agenda, but it’s not veiled. She’s forthright in ways I think writers “with a cause†sometimes avoid out of a fear of coming across as too dogmatic. I didn’t find her style to be preachy, and at points her willingness to acknowledge criticisms of certain individuals increased her credibility in my mind. She tells, for instance, of struggling women from Uganda who saw her largely as a source of money and who sometimes played to that attribute, and admits to both frustration and understanding over such exchanges. These were not exactly women hoping for funds to expand their Christian Louboutin collections, after all.
In the end, it’s one of those books I’m glad to have read. A Thousand Sisters is a book that grew in my estimation after I had time to let it settle a bit. She really challenged my too-frequent complacency toward injustices outside my small world.
I saw this book at the library, but I didn’t check it out. I was definitely intrigued, but wondered if I could handle the “weight” of it, right now. I am continually baffled/horrified when I read of what seem like primitive atrocities that are still happening today. I may have to pick it up.
Yes, it’s certainly a dark read, so you have to be in the right state of mind to read it. I’m really glad I did read it, however, because it really was informative and deeply moving.