Kibogo
Rwanda

Kibogo

by Scholastique Mukasonga

Spirituality & Faith Historical Fiction 2022

Summary

When drought devastates a Rwandan village during the 1940s, its people turn to an ancient legend: Kibogo, a mythical prince who sacrificed himself to bring rain to his suffering people. But the villagers now live under Belgian colonial rule, where Christian missionaries insist that salvation can come only through their faith. As famine deepens, traditional beliefs collide with European Christianity, and the boundaries between religious devotion, political power, and superstition become increasingly blurred. A young seminarian begins reinterpreting biblical stories through Rwandan mythology, while an elderly priestess preserves the spiritual traditions that missionaries seek to erase. Told through four interconnected stories, Scholastique Mukasonga’s novel combines folklore, sharp satire, and historical reflection to explore how a community protects its identity under colonial domination. Both playful and profound, Kibogo celebrates the resilience of oral storytelling and asks who has the authority to define truth, faith, and the stories a people pass on to future generations.

Reviews

Login to leave a review.

No reviews yet. Be the first!

You might also like

Say You're One of Them
Say You're One of Them
Uwem Akpan
Our Lady of the Nile
Our Lady of the Nile
Scholastique Mukasonga
Cockroaches
Cockroaches
Scholastique Mukasonga
Igifu
Igifu
Scholastique Mukasonga
Country
Rwanda
Africa
About the author
Scholastique Mukasonga
Scholastique Mukasonga

Scholastique Mukasonga (born in 1956) is a Rwandan novelist and memoirist who lives in France. Born in southern Rwanda, she experienced ethnic persecution from childhood. In 1960, her Tutsi family was forcibly displaced to the Bugesera region, and she later fled to Burundi before settling in France in 1992. Two years later, the Rwandan genocide claimed the lives of 37 members of her family, including her mother. Writing became a way to preserve their memories and recover the cultural world that violence had threatened to destroy. Her first book, Inyenzi ou les Cafards (2006), is a memoir of her childhood and the persecution of the Tutsi. Her acclaimed novel Our Lady of the Nile won France’s prestigious Prix Renaudot in 2012. Her other notable works include The Barefoot Woman and Kibogo. Through fiction, memoir, and folklore, Mukasonga explores memory, displacement, cultural identity, and resilience.

View author page
Details
Published
2022
Author
Scholastique Mukasonga