Unless you were directly affected by it because of your profession or your family ties, you probably don’t know the significance of that date, twenty years ago.
Bombs detonated simultaneously at U.S. embassies in East Africa: Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. That day, 213 were killed in Nairobi. Around 5,000 were injured. Most of the dead and injured were Kenyans, either working at the embassy or in nearby buildings. Twelve Americans were killed.
In Dar es Salaam, eleven Tanzanians were killed. Eighty-five Tanzanians and Americans were wounded.
The July/August 2018 issue of The Foreign Service Journal is dedicated to the “remembrance, reflection and resilience” of the American, Kenyan, and Tanzanian survivors.
Among the personal stories:
The information systems manager in the Nairobi embassy, a Kenyan, almost buried under debris, realized he was still alive and crawled out to rescue others. A picture shows him on one side of a bloodied survivor helping him walk to safety.
One American remembers planning to meet his wife for lunch at the embassy, then, at the end of that day, having to tell his daughters that their mother had been killed.
Another remembers leaving for a meeting in a part of the embassy that was less damaged, then returning to his office, moments after the blast, to find all his colleagues dead.
The survivors remind us: no one ever gets over this kind of experience.
They dealt with grief and with post traumatic stress.. Some struggled with getting their minds around the utter evil of an act which devastated the lives of so many innocent people.
They learned the vital importance of community. Many mentioned an overwhelming realization of love for their family that influenced them the rest of their lives.
Over and over, survivors stressed how grateful they were for the leadership of the ambassador, Prudence Bushnell. She strived to bring the community together to get through the horrible nightmare.
In her recounting, Bushnell said, “I discovered a depth of sadness and breadth of anger I did not know I had. I also learned I could not take away anyone else’s pain, trauma, anger or sadness, but I could accompany them.”
Another lesson from survivors is the healing many found in turning their experience into service for others. One said, “From that moment on, my life’s purpose has been to promote understanding between people of differing backgrounds.”
Lessons learned: Family, community, and service were priceless weapons in surviving August 7, 1998. They remain so in all the senseless tragedies since then, from September 11, 2001, to the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida this year.