Scholastique Mukasonga; trans. Jordan Stump
Translated from the French by Jordan Stump, Scholastique Mukasonga’s Cockroaches is the author’s first-person account of growing up Tutsi in Hutu-dominated Rwanda.
Mukasonga begins with her childhood in the late 1950s. She was born in her family’s enclosure at Cyanika. She has no memories of her birth place, but she remembers well their home in Nyamata where her family lived in exile. She was raised with a strong sense of community and belonging in a loving home with her parents and siblings eking out a living as best they could with the little they had. A firm, loving bond held the family together in the face of formidable obstacles, with each one willing to risk life and limb to obtain much needed supplies for their survival.
Forced to relocate again, Mukasonga describes how her family lived under the growing threat of violence from soldiers and armed militias who terrorized Tutsis with threats, abuse, rape, torture, mutilation, dismemberment, and death. She is eventually sent to a boarding school where she experiences virulent racism by her Hutu class mates. Ostracized by the majority Hutus, she is constantly reminded of her status as an Inyenzi, a cockroach. She and her few Tutsi classmates escape from the school when Hutus come looking for them. She makes it back to her family only to be told it is no longer safe for her to stay. She escapes to Burundi with her brother, completes her education in social work, and marries a Frenchman. She visits her parents in 1986, after which time she loses contact with them. She later learns they were among nearly 40 of her family members tortured and murdered during the 1994 genocide.
In 2004, Mukasonga visits Rwanda with her husband and two sons. As she passes through familiar landmarks and homes, she names the individuals associated with the locations, providing a personal detail about each person. No one claims to know how her family, friends, and neighbors were killed or where they are buried. To ensure they are not erased, she writes their names in an old notebook to give voice to their existence, to guarantee they will not be forgotten.
I have nothing left of my family and all the others who died in Nyamata but that paper grave.
Using clear, unadorned diction, and written with an unflinching honesty, Mukasonga exposes the horrendous crimes committed against a people. The brutality is hard to stomach. She has understandably been traumatized by the experience and continues to be haunted by the faces of her family. Her very powerful, heart-wrenching memoir serves as a testament to the lives lost during a tragic, shameful, and bleak chapter in human history. It also serves as a painful reminder of how easily human beings can slip into barbarism.
Highly recommended.