Evidences of our inhumanity: Representations of evil and the quest for postcolonial healing in Tadjo’s The Shadows of Imana: Travels in the heart of Rwanda

Abstract

In spite of Tadjo‘s evident references to the concept of evil and its ramifications in post-genocide Rwanda, it still remains peripheral in the literature. This gap distorts our understanding of traumatogenic experiences and the diagnostics that is required. Drawing on Immanuel Kant‘s conceptions of evil and postcolonial literary theory, this paper explores the literary representations of evil in relation to the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda while simultaneously looking at therapeutic strategies in healing the wounds of the past as depicted in Veronique Tadjo‘s The Shadows of Imana: Travels in the heart of Rwanda. Such a reading, as the paper argues, creates new conversations for understanding travel writings and historical violence.