Comment sauver son enfant d’une mort certaine ? Faut-il, comme le croit le père de l’auteur, faire confiance à l’école afin qu’elle obtienne un «beau diplôme»?
—Un si beau diplôme !, Scholastique Mukasonga
Un si beau diplôme !
Scholastique Mukasonga
Éditions Gallimard, 2018
Rwandese author Scholastique Mukasonga has a new book out this month—Un si beau diplôme !
The book continues the autobiographical narrative that has been central to much of Mukasonga’s career, with another episode from her fascinating and at times tragic life.
Mukasonga narrowly escaped the Rwandan genocide, and detailed its horrors, the climate that preceded it, and the effect on her Tutsi family—twenty-seven of whom were killed—in her first literary outing, Inyenzi ou les Cafards (Cockroaches), published in 2006. Her debut novel, Notre-Dame du Nil (Our Lady of the Nile), was highly lauded, winning the 2012 Ahmadou Kourouma Prize, the 2012 Prix Renaudot, as well as the French Voices Award in 2014.
Un si beau diplôme ! follows Mukasonga’s journey to different countries, including Burundi, Djibouti and France, in search of an education. Her father believed that being well educated would insulate her from prejudice, protect her from the vulnerability that came along with being born Tutsi, and make for a ticket to a good life. Mukasonga reflects on her journey, interrogates this idea and shares her adventures.
