Postcolony within the Shadows of Its Past: Genocide in Rwanda through the Works of Scholastique Mukasonga

This article interrogates representations of sovereignty in Scholastique Mukasonga's two novels Inyezi ou les Cafards (2006) and Notre-Dame du Nil (2012) to explore the manner in which its performances have been reproduced in postcolonial Rwanda. Mired in a cycle of transformation of relations and identity creation, questions surrounding sovereignty in these novels track the contrived nature of postcolonial realities as a product of colonial politics. Drawing on the work of Achille Mbembe, this article argues that these novels effectively expose the political implications of colonial policies in a postcolonial context and elucidate how the composition of new identities is inseparable from the violence of genocide. Through the judicious use of historical background, Mukasonga lays bare the causes of the genocide, linking it to the relationship between minoritization as a process in nation-state formation and modernity's conception of politics that permeates cultural and racial issues in Rwanda.