Scholastique Mukasonga; translated by Jordan Stump
The Barefoot Woman by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated from the French by Jordan Stump, is a loving tribute to Mukasonga’s mother, Stefania. Mukasonga delivers this tribute in the form of a memoir. She describes her family’s life after they were forcibly deported from their homes in Rwanda by the Hutus in a horrific episode of ethnic cleansing. Forced to relocate, they had to eke out a living as best they could. Terrorized by Hutu militias because of their Tutsi ethnicity, their lives were frequently interrupted by Hutus clamoring into their homes, stealing their possessions, destroying their crops, raping their women, and killing their sons and husbands.
Through it all, Mukasonga’s mother tries to hold the family together. Her unwavering focus is on saving her children. She is ever on the alert for the sound of approaching soldiers. She hides food in the bush for her children in case they ever need to make a hasty getaway to Burundi to avoid being massacred. She trains them to be ready at a moment’s notice to hide and even runs practice drills for them to make sure they know where to go.
Mukasonga describes her mother’s efforts to create a loving environment for her children. She praises her ability to make do with little. From her mother, she learns housekeeping skills, cooking, the rituals involved in growing sorghum, which traditional medicines heal specific ailments, various beauty treatments, the ceremonies around birth and marriage, and the role of storytelling in the preservation and transmission of culture. Above all, she honors her mother for her toughness, her resilience, and her unflagging devotion to her family.
The memoir opens with Mukasonga’s mother reminding her daughters to cover her body when she dies since no one must see a mother’s corpse. Mukasonga regrets she wasn’t there to cover her mother’s body when she was killed because her body was never discovered. She does the next best thing. She gives voice to her mother’s indomitable nature and celebrates the traditions she embraced in the hope her words will be the shroud which enable her mother’s spirit to rest.
Recommended.