Harvest of Skulls [Paperback]

In 1994, the akazu, Rwandans political elite, planned the genocidal mass slaughter of 500,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsi and Hutu who lived in the country. Given the failure of the international community to acknowledge the genocide, in 1998, ten African authors visited Rwanda in a writing initiative that was an attempt to make partial amends. In this multidimensional novel, Abdourahman A. Waberi claims, Language remains inadequate in accounting for the world and all its turpitudes, words can never be more than unstable crutches, staggering along... And yet, if we want to hold on to a glimmer of hope in the world, the only miraculous weapons we have at our disposal are these same clumsy supports. Shaped by the authors own experiences in Rwanda and by the stories shared by survivors, Harvest of Skulls stands twenty years after the genocide as an indisputable resource for discussions on testimony and witnessing, the complex relationship between victims and perpetrators, the power of the moral imagination, and how survivors can rebuild a society haunted by the ghost of its history.

Preface Post-Genocide Rwanda
Acknowledgments

FICTIONS
Terminus
Cavalcade
And the dogs feasted

STORIES
No, Kigali is not sad
Return to Kigali
Bujumbura Beach

Afterword
Note on translations

Harvest of Skulls describes peoples first hand experience with the Rwandan genocide through interviews that Waberi did with citizens whose family and friends were killed in the genocide. Although this read is emotionally taxing, at only 80 pages the book will help you understand what happened through the lens of personal stories.One of the main agendas of Abdourahman Waberis work is the subversion of stereotyped and hegemonic perceptions of the African continent. He employs sarcasm, irony and biting satire in his efforts to reclaim history, blur polarities and humanize the conceptual landscape.Waberi is equally at ease recounting the tragic fate and tumuls.