Extending the Battlefield: Genocide and the Family in Goretti Kyomuhendo’s Secrets No More

Abstract

In Goretti Kyomuhendo’s Secrets No More, the faces of the individual figures often vividly emerge, and the artistically recreated events and situations of the Rwandan genocide can be precisely located and corroborated with historical evidence. However, despite its accessibility and its interconnection of history and fiction, most major studies of fictions on the Rwandan genocide seldom refer to it. Most narratives on the Rwandan genocide explore the historicity of the carnage with stark images of human bestiality and the debility of the victims. Kyomuhendo deals with the same experience and issues, but the vignettes that make up her narrative differ. She gives an eloquent account of the devastating blow the genocide wreaked on the family and by extension on the relationship between the woman’s body and the nation, especially if the body has ethnic pigmentation. The narrative captures the gory image of a total and unmitigated disaster, tinged with anger and disappointment over the violent destruction of lives and properties and the human folly in attempting to wipe out a group. I examine the violence inflicted upon a specific group in the Rwandan genocide, articulating how the latitude of the battlefield was extended beyond the physical space of engagement to the bodies and the psyche of vulnerable groups. This in turn will show how the relationship between gender and national identity is reconstructed during ethnic clashes.