The Memory of Rwandan Genocide from a Multidirectional Perspective in Murambi, The Book of Bones by Boubacar Boris Diop

Abstract

This articles questions the extent of Holocaust universalization or the emergence of a Shoá global memory as universal historic trauma (Huyssen, Jinks, Levy and Sznaider) and whether it is possible to articulate other memories through “ongoing negotiation, cross-referencing, and borrowing” from a mutidirectional memory, as Michael Rothberg proposes when he studies the links between Holocaust memory studies and postcolonial studies. Departing from the question about Africa’s importance in memory studies in line with the Shoa paradigm, I analyze Boubacar Boris Diop’s Murambi, the book of bones on Rwandan genocide following two lines of reading. The first addresses the question of representation of horror as in Shoá debates (it is the result of the project Rwanda: Ecrire par devoir de mémoire 1998, and it can be read together with other cultural interventions such as Alfredo Jaar’ The Rwanda project 1994-2000). Second, as the focus of the novel is Murambi, other rites for commemorating appear; different from West practices institutionalized by Holocaust. Murambi technical school poses many questions about the uses of memory and institutionalization policies of the past as well as diverse forms of mourning.