• Home
  • Bio
  • Books
  • Reviews
  • Contact
  • FR

The Official Website of Scholastique Mukasonga

Tin House offers a excerpt from ” Cockroaches ”

News - Scholastique - September 29, 2016

Tin House offers a excerpt from Cockroaches - scholastique mukasonga - Rwanda, Genocide, 1994, Archipelago books

Tin House offers you a excerpt from my upcoming book ” Cockroaches ” translated
from French by Jordan Stump and published on Archipelago Books coming October 4th, 2016.

Pre-order ‘Cockroaches’ on Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Librairie

Arriving at the Lycée Notre-Dame-de-Cîteaux with the little card-board suitcase once used by my brother André, and then by Alexia, I was filled with hope and apprehension at the same time. My apprehensions were more than justified, but I never lost hope.

I’d seen violent and even deadly persecution in Nyamata, but the solidarity of the ghetto gave us the strength to endure it. At school, I would know the solitude of humiliation and rejection.

I hadn’t shed my Tutsi status when I crossed the Nyabarongo – anything but. And in any case, there was no way to hide it. Every student was issued an ID card marked with their so-called ethnic group, like a brand on a cow. When I was forced to show it to one of the sisters, her look and her attitude changed immediately: wariness, disdain, or hatred? I didn’t want to know. They also discovered that I came from Nyamata. I wasn’t only a Tutsi: I was an Inyenzi, one of those cockroaches they’d expelled from the livable part of Rwanda, and perhaps from the human race. Among my schoolmates, too, I soon came to feel different. Or rather, it was they who made that dif-ference cruelly clear to me. They made me ashamed of the color of my skin (not dark enough for their tastes), of my nose (too straight, they said), and of my hair (too much of it). It was my hair that caused me the most trouble. Evidently it was Ethiopian hair, irende, the sup-posed mark of the Inyenzi. I spent my time putting water on that Inyenzi hair so it would shrink down to a little ball, tight as a sponge. Most often, I resigned myself to shaving it off. That hurt me: in spite of the mockery, I was fond of my hair.

Read the whole excerpt sur le site de Tin House

Tags | 1994, archipelago books, Cockroaches, memoir, Rwanda, Tin House
 0 0

Share This Post!

About Author / Scholastique

You Might Also Like

Translationista - What I'm Reading by Susan Bernofsky

Translationista – What I’m Reading

March 21, 2017
“Our Lady of the Nile” is adapted for the screen by Rahimi and Ramata Sy from the award-winning novel by Scholastique Mukasonga and unfolds in Rwanda in 1973.

Variety : Indie Sales Acquires ‘Our Lady of the Nile’

March 15, 2019
My dears readers, I have the pleasure to announce that my new book "Inyenzi ou as Baratas" is out on Livros do Brasil my editor in Portugal. Rwanda - Scholastique Mukasonga genocie 1994

In Store : Inyenzi ou as Baratas – Livros do Brasil

September 22, 2024

No Comment

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous Post
Next Post

Books

 Igifu by Scholastique Mukasonga - Rwanda Genocide

Purchase the book

Amazon | Barnes & Noble. | Local Bookseller

 The Barefoot Woman by Scholastique Mukasonga - Rwanda Genocide

Purchase the book

Amazon | Barnes & Noble. | Local Bookseller

Cockroaches - Scholastique Mukasonga

Purchase the book

Amazon | Barnes & Noble. | Local Bookseller

Our Lady of the Nile - Scholastique Mukasonga

Purchase the book

Amazon | Barnes & Noble. | Archipelago

Categories

  • Awards
  • Books
  • Events
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Uncategorized
  • Videos

About Me

About Me

Scholastique Mukasonga is a Rwandan author living in France. She was born in Gikongoro Province in 1956. Mukasonga left Rwanda before the Rwandan genocide, which killed 37 members of her family, her mother being one of them.

Read More

Newsletter

Follow Me

Design by Joe Art