Boubacar Boris Diop

Fiona Mc Laughlin

"[W]hat is true of Rwanda is true in each of us; we all share in Africa." -- L'Harmattan "[This novel] comes closer than have many political scientists or historians to trying to understand why this small country... sank in such appalling violence." -- Radio France International In April of 1994, nearly a million Rwandans were killed in what would prove to be one of the swiftest, most terrifying killing sprees of the 20th century. In Murambi, The Book of Bones, Boubacar Boris Diop comes face to face with the chilling horror and overwhelming sadness of the tragedy. Now, the power of Diop's acclaimed novel is available to English-speaking readers through Fiona Mc Laughlin's crisp translation. The novel recounts the story of a Rwandan history teacher, Cornelius Uvimana, who was living and working in Djibouti at the time of the massacre. He returns to Rwanda to try to comprehend the death of his family and to write a play about the events that took place there. As the novel unfolds, Cornelius begins to understand that it is only our humanity that will save us, and that as a writer, he must bear witness to the atrocities of the genocide. From the novel: "If only by the way people are walking, you can see that tension is mounting by the minute. I can feel it almost physically. Everyone is running or at least hurrying about. I meet more and more passersby who seem to be walking around in circles. There seems to be another light in their eyes. I think of the fathers who have to face the anguished eyes of their children and who can't tell them anything. For them, the country has become an immense trap in the space of just a few hours. Death is on the prowl. They can't even dream of defending themselves. Everything has been meticulously prepared for a long time: the administration, the army, and the [militia] are going to combine forces to kill, if possible, every last one of them."

Murambi, The Book of Bones

Marion

Banal scenes in a city like any other It was astounding to Cornelius to note that the events of 1994 had left no visible traces anywhere. 

"That depends on each one of us. The genocide didn't begin on the sixth of April 1994, but in 1959 through little massacres that no-one paid attention to. If there are politically motivated murders today, they need to punish the culprits straightaway. Otherwise, all that blood will be visited upon us again one day or another."

I tried to explain it to her patiently. I told her that it wasn't true and especially that the first massacres dated from 1959 and not from the beginning of time."

"After all, Rwanda is an imaginary country. If it's so difficult to talk about in a rational way, maybe it's because it doesn't really exist.

Everyone has his own Rwanda in his head and it has nothing to do with the Rwanda of others.

Now, his return from exile could no longer have the same meaning. From now on, the only story he had to tell was his own. The story of his family. He had suddenly discovered that he had become the perfect Rwandan: both guilty and a victim.

 I want to tell you this: you have suffered, but that doesn't make you any better than those who made you suffer.

They are people like you and me. Evil is within each one of us. 

 He would tirelessly recount the horror. With machete words, club words, words studded with nails, naked words and-despite Gérard-words covered with blood and shit. That he could do, because he saw in the genocide of Rwandan Tutsis a great lesson in simplicity. Every chronicler could at least learn-something essential to his art-to call a monster by its name.)

Murambi, The Book of Bones quotes

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