Can a society, a culture, a country, be trapped by its own memories? The question is not easy to answer, but it would not be a bad idea to cautiously say: 'It depends'. This book is about one society - Rwanda - and its culture, traditions, identities, and memories. More specifically, it discusses some of the ways in which ethnic identities and related memories constitute a deadly trap that needs to be torn apart if mass violence is to be eradicated in that country. It looks into everyday cult...

In the last 20 years or so, the 1994 genocide in Rwanda has inspired a number of creative writers who were eager to represent that genocide itself, its aftermath and, in some cases, the situation that they perceived as paving the way for it decades before it occurred. Unlike other parts of Africa, where the novel already had a deeply rooted tradition, the Rwandan novel is a recent phenomenon that dates back to the late 1990s. In this book, the author focuses on 10 Rwandan-authored novels of g...

In the last 20 years or so, the 1994 genocide in Rwanda has inspired a number of creative writers who were eager to represent that genocide itself, its aftermath and, in some cases, the situation that they perceived as paving the way for it decades before it occurred. Unlike other parts of Africa, where the novel already had a deeply rooted tradition, the Rwandan novel is a recent phenomenon that dates back to the late 1990s. In this book, the author focuses on 10 Rwandan-authored novels of g...