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Forum for Modern Language Studies Advance Access originally published online on March 2, 2009
Forum for Modern Language Studies 2009 45(2):162-175; doi:10.1093/fmls/cqp008
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© The Author (2009). Published by Oxford University Press for the Court of the University of St Andrews. All rights reserved. The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland: No. SC013532.

This article appears in the following Forum for Modern Language Studies issue: SPECIAL ISSUE: Global Francophone Africa [View the issue table of contents]

Itsembabwoko "à la française"? – Rwanda, Fiction and the Franco-African Imaginary

Madelaine Hron

English & Film Department
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo
Ontario N2L 3C5
Canada

mhron{at}wlu.ca and madlahron{at}gmail.com

  Abstract

This article explores the literary representation of the genocide in Rwanda, and by extension, that of the Franco-African imaginary. Since the horrific events in 1994, "Rwanda" has become a discursive epiphenomenon, be it in global human rights, African or francophone contexts. Literary works about itsembabwoko, mostly published in France, now represent both a varied and a substantial corpus in Francophone literature. Problematically, however, France played a critical, if not insidious, role in the 1994 Tutsi genocide. This paper therefore examines to what extent Francophone literature about Rwanda is shaped by French politics. Specifically, it contrasts Franco-African texts produced as part of the Écrire par devoir de mémoire initiative with novels by first-time Rwandan authors Joseph Ndwaniye, Aimé Yann Mbabazi and Gilbert Gatoré. It investigates how these diverse texts represent Rwanda post-genocide, and in so doing, how they work to reflect or resist circulating cultural discourses about African francophonie.

Key Words: Tutsi genocide • France–Rwanda relations • postcolonial criticism • globalisation • African francophonie • itsembabwoko


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