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In this final chapter, I illustrate the power of the collaborative nature of the project by discussing some of the recurring elements as they appear in the different texts. I consider the collective depiction of the representation of the erosion of Rwandan traditional belief systems and the creative reinsertion/subversion of cultural frames of reference and storytelling devices, with a focus on the interconnectedness with nature and the figure of the sage.

This chapter introduces the project Rwanda: ecrire par devoir de memoire (Rwanda: Writing by Duty of Memory) and the genesis and aims of the monograph which deals with literary representations of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. It underlines the plural, participatory nature of the project and the value of such a mode of writing for the representation of collective trauma.

Various writers and survivors have offered literary responses to the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda. In 1998, a group of African intellectuals, mostly non-Rwandans, of whom two were female authors, participated in a collective writing project, Rwanda: ecrire par devoir de memoire, tasked to tell the story of the genocide. Genocide survivor, sociologist and psychotherapist, Esther Mujawayo, has since narrated her own story. Although critics have explored the portrayal of trauma in literature in other texts and contexts, a comparative study between these three texts of female authors; one survivor and two intellectuals, focusing on the experience of female survivors and in particular that of being raped has not yet been conducted. This article examines how trauma is made visible to the reader by exploring the characteristics of the ‘death experience’ and their mediated form, as offered by the three authors. This comparative study furthermore highlights the elements in the lives of survivors which influence their ability to move from a position of mere survival to that of embracing life after the genocide. Keywords: devoir de memoire, Esther Mujawayo, female survivor, Monique Ilboudo, rape, representation of trauma, Rwandan genocide, testimony, Veronique Tadjo.