How Dare the Sun Rise

Sandra Uwiringiyimana was ten years old when she found herself with a gun pointed at her head. The rebels had come at night—wielding weapons, torches, and machetes. She had watched as her mother and six-year-old sister were gunned down in a refugee camp, far from their home in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The rebels were killing people who weren’t from the same tribe. “Good-bye; life;” she said to the man ready to shoot her. Remarkably, the rebel didn’t pull the trigger, and Sandra escaped into the night. Thus began a new life for her and her surviving family members. With no home and no money, they struggled to stay alive. Eventually, through a United Nations refugee program, they moved to America, only to face yet another ethnic disconnect. Sandra may have crossed an ocean, but there was now a much wider divide she had to overcome. And it started with middle school in New York. In this profoundly moving memoir, Sandra tells the inspiring story of her survival, of finding her place in a new country, and of her hope for the future. How Dare the Sun Rise shows the unrelenting strength of one incredible young woman and her family, unveiling how she found a way to give voice to her people and begin the path to healing through art and activism.