The Franco-Rwandan singer-songwriter, rapper and writer Gaël Faye was welcomed to l'Ombrière by the La place aux herbes bookstore association.
The room was full to listen to the man who has just received the Renaudot prize for his latest novel. Jacaranda. “Your success as an author began eight years ago with “Petit pays” which met with unparalleled success,” commented Michel Labro, who moderated the meeting.
Genocide in Rwanda
The author talks about the silence around the 1994 genocide in Rwandan families. “This silence is due to suffering, to pain but at the same time, it transmits anguish. Silence was a wall for me and writing allowed me to cross this wall”, analyzed Gaël Faye. At 17, he attended the play Rwanda 94 which changed his life because he finally understood his entire family history. He explained that the Hutus and Tutsis are a pure creation of Europeans, in 1894, and that little by little, the Rwandans integrated these “differences” which were the cause of the genocide. “Today in Rwanda, it is forbidden to define oneself as Hutu or Tutsi. There are only Rwandans and I think that is a good thing.” Since 2015, the author has lived in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, with his wife and children. “Living in Rwanda gives me a life lesson every day. The country is very small and we live with each other. The neighbor could be the one who killed or raped someone in our family. There were 2 million of trial. It allowed the executioners to be restored to their humanity and it allowed this new society.” When the host reads an extract on crossbreeding, Gaël Faye has fun: “Mixed race only exists for mixed race people. In Rwanda, I am white and in France, I am black. I see the opportunity to be a link.” He then did a musical reading with guitarist Samuel Kamanzi, who is his neighbor in Rwanda with a very similar story. “We are lucky to raise our children in this country which was an abstraction in our childhood, we did not think we would be able to return there one day.” He then had the audience sing along with him. A new album is in preparation.
Midi Libre correspondent: 06 84 21 23 91.
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