Running the Rift

Running the Rift is a novel by Naomi Benaron which was published in 2010 by Algonquin Books. It tells the story of a young boy, living in a Rwanda torn apart by tensions, who wants to become his country’s first Olympic medalist before war erupts. The book is very popular with general reads for its compelling and sympathetic character and vivid storytelling. It received the 2010 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Benaron works with genocide survivor groups in Rwanda and teaches online through the Afghan Women’s Writing Project.

The novel’s protagonist is Jean Patrick Nkuba. He’s a young boy who is very gifted at running and track sports. He believes from a young age that running will play a huge part in his life, and he dreams about becoming a track runner to make his country proud. He hopes the wealth generated by a Rwandan Olympian can pull his people out of poverty and the growing conflict.

The conflict in Rwanda between the Hutus and Tutsis grows each day, but Jean wants to stay neutral. When his father, who’s also his schoolmaster, dies, he goes to stay with his uncle. The rest of his family go with him. To try to heal from losing his father, he puts all his energy into getting stronger, so that he can run faster. Much of the first half of Running the Rift focuses on building Jean’s backstory and showing us how he grows up. This is important because the reader knows the horrors which are coming for Rwanda, even if Jean can’t see any of it yet.



The narrative then moves forward a few years to when Jean meets Bea, a journalism student at the local university. She’s a Hutu, but Jean can’t help falling for her. It’s difficult for him to appreciate the differences between them—his father always brought him up to see everyone as equal, so he can’t understand why she has any reservations because he’s a Tutsi.

When the tension between Hutus and Tutsis erupts, the violence escalates. All Hutus brutally turn against Tutsis, including those who were once friends. Jean’s running coach, who is a Hutu, stops wanting anything to do with him, even if he pretends to care. Jean got into a private school despite being a Tutsi because he’s so talented, but that doesn’t mean the Hutus make it easy for him.

While he’s training, the other Hutu athletes try to injure him and torment him. Jean ends up torn between wanting to run, and get better at it, and leaving it all behind to stay safe from the bullies and violence. His goal is to make the 800m event. The coach does get him a Hutu identity card, so he can get past security checkpoints, but this is only because the government starts using him as a symbol of unity.



The Hutus only continue to gain power. They want the Tutsis exterminated altogether. The president, President Habyarimana, seizes power and surrounds himself by those who support the mass executions of Tutsis, even if he pretends to condemn it. Jean, like so many, notice that UN troops in the region are powerless to do anything without the unequivocal support of the government.

He despairs and wonders if he’ll ever achieve his dream, because it seems more and more unrealistic. He can’t imagine ever leaving Rwanda. By the last third of the book, Jean is in genuine physical danger, and so is what remains of his family. He must flee to stay alive, abandoning all his dreams, and must choose between saving and leaving others.

He can’t save every Tutsi he comes across when he’s running, but he helps as many as he can. For example, he sees a Tutsi woman he knows while she’s sprinting across a college campus to get away from a Hutu mob. He can’t help her, because there are too many after her, and it pains him to know she won’t live much longer. He meets others, who used to be friends, who try to kill him, and these scenes are depicted in detail.



At the end of Running the Rift, Bea and Jean meet again. She’s already had a child who we never get to meet. The pair rekindle their relationship and we never find out what happens to the child, but there’s a sense of Rwanda being rebuilt and the rival groups working for peace.

Jean was right, however, in one respect—running did become a major part of his life, which is a cruel twist of irony. He stands out to everyone, because he’s so talented, and this makes him a special target for Hutu hatred and violence. They don’t want to believe in him, and because they have the government influence, they control his fate. We’re left wondering if Jean will ever get the chance to become an Olympian, which is still ultimately what he wants.