The Shadow of Imana

Véronique Tadjo writes about post-genocide Rwanda with a poet's senses and a journalist's grasp of detail. She witnesses gangs of orphans rummaging through the Kigali town dump, searching for anything hopeful. She discovers a new plague of AIDS, exacerbated by the epidemic of rapes during the troubles. She even visits Rilissa Prison, a place filled with accused génocidaires. Within the prison are seven thousand prisoners, isolated in sections, including Section 15, which houses two hundred and fifty-three women accused of crimes. A male prisoner in the Section For Those Condemned to Death or Life Imprisonment pleads, "Write it down. Tell everybody. And if you can, send us some notebooks and pens to write with" (100). While Tadjo offers a thin shred of hope that truth, that words, that justice might heal the situation that she saw in Rwanda, she also admits, "I have not recovered from Rwanda...We need to understand, to analyse the mechanisms of hatred, the words that create division, the deeds that put the seal on treason, the actions that unleash terror. We need to understand. Our humanity is in peril" (118). This volume is a significant witness, part of the Fest-Afrique project to examine and broadcast the aftermath of genocide in this small central African nation.