ABSTRACT
Participants in the commemorative project Rwanda: écrire par devoir de mémoire, initiated in 1998 by a transnational group of African intellectuals, expressed a desire to act as precursors, opening the way for Tutsi survivors to narrate the genocide themselves. At the time, few Rwandans appeared to have already obtained the necessary distance from this event to be able to write fictional or literary texts about it.
This chapter investigates this polyphonic literary project, undertaken by nine Francophone authors. The relation between narrative, memory, and restoration is explored through their contribution to the creation of a shared, plural narrative, an aspect which scholars have demonstrated to be an essential step toward reconciliation.
Here, art is not considered a tool that attempts to provide a comprehensive “truth” about the historical event, but rather as a means to provoke dialogue and reflection. This is done by comparing the various literary representations of certain recurring themes and tensions that are present in the project.
