Scholastique Mukasonga and Pere Ortín

Scholastique Mukasonga's work has always revolved around the narration of the genocide and colonialism in Rwanda throughout the 20th century. With a literature that draws from the oral tradition, her books explore themes such as mourning and remembrance, the role of the female community and education or the legacy of the Christianization of Rwanda. The author, exiled in France since the 1990s, began her literary career with the autobiographical story Inyenzi ou les Cafards, in which she reflects all the humiliations and terror she experienced during her childhood, still in colonial times.

With Our Lady of the Nile, Mukasonga narrates the rise of hatred against the Tutsis that later led to the 1994 tragedy in which the author lost her entire family. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the genocide and with the publication for the first time in Catalan and Spanish of this work by the publishing house Minúscula, Scholastique Mukasonga speaks with journalist Pere Ortín about her literary career and how she can evoke today the tragic events that have marked the lives of the Rwandan people.