Rwanda Genocide Stories

Abstract

This book provides an in-depth analysis of fictional responses written in response to the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Through the course of the book, the reader is taken on a journey from the events leading up to the genocide, the horrific massacres that were carried out against the Tutsi population, and finally to modern-day Rwanda, where the country comes to terms with a brutal episode in its recent past. Nicki Hitchcott focuses her analytic study on a group of African authors, including Rwandans, who were brought together as part of the Rwanda: écrire par devoir de mémoire initiative in 1998 to write a variety of works to commemorate and reflect on the genocide. Hitchcott organises her analysis of each imagined work in to the context of tourists, witnesses, survivors, victims and perpetrators, whilst carefully examining the effects that an author’s positionality has on their response to the genocide. In addition to this, Hitchcott calls in to question the ethical issues raised when writing fiction based on the genocide, and how the reader becomes implicated by studying the works of fiction based on it. Above all, this work serves as a testimony to the range and diversity of genocide fiction written by African authors, and how the works they have produced enables a country to move forward.