A review by zinelib
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After by Clemantine Wamariya

5.0

The subtitle: "A Story of War and What Comes After" explains the memoir's structure. Each chapter has the year above it in a clever and effective timeline device, letting the reader know whether it's then or now. "Then" is the period where Clemantine and her older sister Claire are on the run from war, poverty, starvation, and violence beginning in Rwanda where Clemantine spent her first six years. The next seven see her walk hundreds, if not thousands of miles, from refugee camps and other temporary housing.

Between those chapters, where you think Clemantine might get some relief, bring Clemantine from the tween who landed in Chicago wearing her first winter coat, to a notable young adulthood that brought Clemantine to connect with Elie Wiesel, Oprah Winfrey, and Barack Obama. Clemantine's struggles as a survivor are nearly as fraught as her war years.

I don't know how to contextualize this, but I want to post it somewhere, so I can come back to it because it's so tender.

There's a lovely word in Swahili: nishauri. It means "advise me." When someone was mad at you, they would come to your house and sti down and talk and say, This is very disrespectful and I think we should consult each other on how to move forward. Let's make peace here and come to a conclusion that is beautiful.

40 pages later

It's not enough for outsiders to want to atone for their sins. They need to look at themselves, their history and biases, and make a plan for how not to repeat their crimes.

I don't know what else I meant to say when I paused writing this review last week. I do know that I wanted to comment on Wamariya's self-awareness and empathy for herself and those around her.