Yolande Mukagasana - women writers to put back on the bookshelf

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2020

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

New Generation Thinker Zoe Norridge describes translating the testimony of a nurse who survived the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

In Rwanda, Yolande Mukagasana is a well-known writer, public figure and campaigner for remembrance of the genocide. She has authored three testimonies, a collection of interviews with survivors and perpetrators and two volumes of Rwandan stories. Her work has received numerous international prizes, including an Honorable Mention for the UNESCO Education for Peace Prize.

Zoe Norridge, from King’s College London, argues there should be a place for Mukagasana on our shelves in UK, alongside works from the Holocaust and other genocides. Why? Because listening to survivor voices helps us to understand the human cost of mass violence.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps
0:21.2	it. It's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream
0:26.1	van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.
0:33.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Zoe Norwich is a new generation thinker on a scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council
0:43.2	to turn academic research into radio programmes.
0:47.0	She studies African literature at King's College London.
0:50.1	Her essay draws on the work she's been doing as a translator.
0:53.2	The Rwandan writer Yolande Mukagasana lives in a house surrounded by mango trees
0:59.2	and spiky-leaved euphobia bushes in the quiet town of Neumata.
1:05.3	She gets up at 4 or 5 a.m. in search of some writing time to herself
1:10.5	and sits at her desk drinking coffee
1:13.1	and tapping out emails to admirers around the world. She sends me WhatsApp videos of President
1:20.0	Paul Kagami, who she loves even more than the average Rwandan, which is to say a very great deal.
1:30.4	She tells me he saved her life.
1:37.4	His army, the armed forces of the RPF, rescued her from the Hotel de Milikoline during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. If she hadn't been saved, she would have died. She's written five books about her experiences in the 90s, and they include some of the most gripping and poignant descriptions of genocide I've ever read.
1:54.5	When I was a child, I learned about the Holocaust through family stories and Judith Kerr's autobiographical book for young readers
2:02.0	when Hitler stole pink rabbit. I could identify with the agony of a child who leaves a beloved
2:09.0	toy behind, taking a newer present instead, thinking that she's only going on a short trip
2:14.6	and will soon be able to return home. Of course, Kerr never returned home
2:20.0	as such. She eventually settled here in London, where she wrote brilliant children's books
2:26.0	like Mogg and the tiger who came to tea. Her account of fleeing Germany shaped the way I think
2:32.2	about the world. Years later, when I arrived in
	...

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