Gaël Faye

Already an international sensation and prize-winning bestseller in France, an evocative coming-of-age story of a young boy, a lost childhood and a shattered homeland. SHORTLISTED FOR THE ALBERTINE PRIZE * NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE * LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION * LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE Burundi, 1992. For ten-year-old Gabriel, life in his comfortable expatriate neighborhood of Bujumbura with his French father, Rwandan mother and little sister Ana, is something close to paradise. These are carefree days of laughter and adventure - sneaking Supermatch cigarettes and gorging on stolen mangoes - as he and his mischievous gang of friends transform their tiny cul-de-sac into their kingdom. But dark clouds are gathering over this small country, and soon their peaceful existence will shatter when Burundi, and neighboring Rwanda, are brutally hit by civil war and genocide. A novel of extraordinary power and beauty, Small Country describes an end of innocence as seen through the eyes of a child caught in the maelstrom of history. Shot through with shadows and light, tragedy and humor, it is a stirring tribute not only to a dark chapter in Africa's past, but also to the bright days that preceded it.

A Novel

Small Country

Marion

War always takes it upon itself, unsolicited, to find us an enemy. I wanted to remain neutral, but I couldn't. I was born with this story. It ran in my blood. I belonged to it.

'Oh no, no, no, no, no... My country is Rwanda! Over there, right in front of you. Rwanda. I'm a refugee, Michel.

And I always have been, in Burundian eyes. They make it very clear, with their insults and insinuations, their quotas for foreigners and restricted intakes in schools. So allow me to have my own opinion on Burundi!'

Mamie berated Maman for not speaking to us in Kinyarwanda. She believed that the language would allow us to hold onto our identity, despite living in exile, otherwise we would never become good Banyarwandas ('those who come from Rwanda'). Maman didn't buy those arguments: in her eyes we were white kids, with skin the colour of pale caramel, but white all the same.

Whenever we spoke a few words of Kinyarwanda, she immediately made fun of our accent. So it's hardly surprising I showed little interest in Rwanda, its monarchy, its cows, its mountains, its moons, its milk, its honey and its rotten mead.

Faye captures the physical, social and political reality of Burundi as seen through the eyes of a boy who wants to maintain his innocence..

The book is mostly centered on the lives of upper middle class expat families in Burundi during the genocide. I found this interesting because even while they are surrounded by tragedy they still try to maintain their lifestyles with maids, drivers and safari holidays to national parks. Their only contact with violence is through their staff and eventually in their neighborhoods when they decide to flee.

I think one of the unknown elements of the Rwandese genocide is how it affected the people of Burundi as they are also made up of Hutus and Tutsis that are the same ethnic groups found in Rwanda due to both colonialism and the recursive ethnic tensions that have seen millions of Rwandese people migrate to various part of East Africa over the 7 decades. (see Mamdani: When Victims Become Killers). I would go as far as to call this an erasure as this genocide spilled over into Burundi.

The Rwandese recurring ethnic tensions have seen millions of people from Rwanda migrate to other parts of east Africa in the last 70 years, in Congo they are called Bayamulenga, in Uganda they are tribes south and central of Uganda that are direct descendants of these forced migrations. More information about this can be found in Mahmood Mamdani “When victims become killers”

Gaël Faye book touches on the lives of the immigrants from 1950s Rwandese civil war in Burundi where they experience xenophobia and exclusion. I found this exploration of Rwandese migrants lives in Burundi profound to show the lasting effects of colonialism.

Faye captures the physical, social and political reality of Burundi as seen through the eyes of a boy who wants to maintain his innocence..

The book is mostly centered on the lives of upper middle class expat families in Burundi during the genocide. I found this interesting because even while they are surrounded by tragedy they still try to maintain their lifestyles with maids, drivers and safari holidays to national parks. Their only contact with violence is through their staff and eventually in their neighborhoods when they decide to flee.

I think one of the unknown elements of the Rwandese genocide is how it affected the people of Burundi as they are also made up of Hutus and Tutsis that are the same ethnic groups found in Rwanda due to both colonialism and the recursive ethnic tensions that have seen millions of Rwandese people migrate to various part of East Africa over the 7 decades. (see Mamdani: When Victims Become Killers). I would go as far as to call this an erasure as this genocide spilled over into Burundi.

The Rwandese recurring ethnic tensions have seen millions of people from Rwanda migrate to other parts of east Africa in the last 70 years, in Congo they are called Bayamulenga, in Uganda they are tribes south and central of Uganda that are direct descendants of these forced migrations. More information about this can be found in Mahmood Mamdani “When victims become killers”

Gaël Faye book touches on the lives of the immigrants from 1950s Rwandese civil war in Burundi where they experience xenophobia and exclusion. I found this exploration of Rwandese migrants lives in Burundi profound to show the lasting effects of colonialism.

Moray Lyle McIntosh

A heartbreaking story of a young boy and his French-Rwandan family caught up in the Rwanadan genocide of 1993 and the war in Burundi.

Faye’s own childhood experience (half-French, half-Rwandan) mirrors that of his narrator allowing him to construct a wonderful evocation of life in Burundi. The happy days are brought to full, colourful life with common childhood experiences of friendship, family and the dramas of more usual adult conflicts. But beneath it all are the hints of the coming tragedy, always subtle and seemingly trivial as they must have seemed to a child with no real reason to expect the terrible events to come. The complexity of his identity is the crux of the story but Gaby’s accepts it with the enviable ease of a child but they are delicately explored through his interactions with others; the old-fashioned colonial friend of his French father, his mother, a Rwandan Tutsi, who feels herself a stranger in Burundi, relatives and his own friends, most of whom are of mixed parentage.

When Gaby’s family in Rwanda is caught up in the growing violence and the repercussions spread into conflict and war in Burundi Faye’s prose retains its lyrical simplicity and is utterly heart-breaking. He manages that difficult task of convincingly relaying the horror of violence through a child’s eyes, neither losing his character’s voice nor avoiding the terrible reality of the events he describes and so manages to reveal the absurdity of adult violence in all its horrible glory.

The framing device of the present-day narrative cast fresh light onto the events and the repercussions of living through such suffering, particularly in a world that was not touched by it, the problems of settling and integrating and coming to terms with a past so alien to those around you. The yearning for home even when home has served you so poorly. This aspect of the story could perhaps have been utilised a little more, it would have been good to see the adult Gabriel break in more often to question the thoughts and experiences of his younger self and to know more how he understands everything that happened with the experience of an adult for a (slightly) more powerful contrast.

Already an international sensation and prize-winning bestseller in France, an evocative coming-of-age story of a young boy, a lost childhood and a shattered homeland. SHORTLISTED FOR THE ALBERTINE PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE • LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION • LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE Burundi, 1992. For ten-year-old Gabriel, life in his comfortable expatriate neighborhood of Bujumbura with his French father, Rwandan mother and little sister Ana, is something close to paradise. These are carefree days of laughter and adventure – sneaking Supermatch cigarettes and gorging on stolen mangoes – as he and his mischievous gang of friends transform their tiny cul-de-sac into their kingdom. But dark clouds are gathering over this small country, and soon their peaceful existence will shatter when Burundi, and neighboring Rwanda, are brutally hit by civil war and genocide. A novel of extraordinary power and beauty, Small Country describes an end of innocence as seen through the eyes of a child caught in the maelstrom of history. Shot through with shadows and light, tragedy and humor, it is a stirring tribute not only to a dark chapter in Africa’s past, but also to the bright days that preceded it.

Small Country A Novel

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