Harvest of Skulls

by Abdourahman A. Waberi, Dominic Thomas (Translator)

Overview

In 1994, the akazu, Rwandan's 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 author's 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253024329
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	02/20/2017
Series:	Global African Voices Series
Pages:	78
Sales rank:	709,700
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Abdourahman A. Waberi is a novelist, essayist, poet, and short-story writer. Born in Djibouti, he is Professor of French and Francophone literature at George Washington University. The author of Transit, In the United States of Africa, Passage of Tears, and La Divine Chanson, he has been awarded the Stefan-Georg-Preis, the Grand Prix Littéraire d'Afrique noire, and the Prix biennal "Mandat pour la liberté." He was named one of the "50 Writers of the Future" by the French literary magazine Lire.
 
Dominic Thomas is Madeleine L. Letessier Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

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

What People are Saying About This

"Waberi is equally at ease recounting the tragic fate and tumultuous nature of current events in Africa as he is evoking the pulsating beauty of its landscape and the luminous memory."

Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD

Abdourahman Waberi is a land surveyor who assembles his stories from glittering kaleidoscopic beads: modern in form, schooled on the writing of authors such as Nurrudin Farah, Sole Woyinka or Derek Walcott, poetic and ironic in tone – and mercilessly direct when it comes to pointing out the African traumas of colonisation, the struggle for independence, civil war, dictatorship and catastrophic famine . . . Harvest of Skulls is a book opposing forgetfulness.

Télérama

Waberi is equally at ease recounting the tragic fate and tumultuous nature of current events in Africa as he is evoking the pulsating beauty of its landscape and the luminous memory.

RFI Voices of the World

An elegant writer-novelist.

contributor to Vanity Fair and Words without Borders - Anderson Tepper

One of the more inventive of a new wave of African writers, Waberi is also unique in the range of his influences.

Kate Kelsall

One of the main agendas of Abdourahman Waberi's 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.

Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD

Abdourahman Waberi is a land surveyor who assembles his stories from glittering kaleidoscopic beads: modern in form, schooled on the writing of authors such as Nurrudin Farah, Sole Woyinka or Derek Walcott, poetic and ironic in tone – and mercilessly direct when it comes to pointing out the African traumas of colonisation, the struggle for independence, civil war, dictatorship and catastrophic famine . . . Harvest of Skulls is a book opposing forgetfulness.

Kate Kelsall]]>

One of the main agendas of Abdourahman Waberi's 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.

Télérama

Waberi is equally at ease recounting the tragic fate and tumultuous nature of current events in Africa as he is evoking the pulsating beauty of its landscape and the luminous memory.

Editorial Reviews

01/23/2017
Waberi (In the United States of Africa), professor of French and Francophone literature at George Washington University, places this short, intricate novel in 1998 Rwanda, four years after the genocide, weaving horrific memories and allusions to the atrocity into stories of dealing with the trauma. Divided into “Fictions” and “Stories,” the book is broadly categorized as fiction but maintains a heavy autobiographical bent. In his preface, Waberi asks, “How many bodies are we talking about? Falling, stumbling, caught by the ends of the hair, finished off, emasculated, defiled, raped, incinerated?” The novel’s fractured form lends the subject matter depth and scale; while the stories are each personal and intimate, the collective pain is vast. In the standout chapter “And the Dogs Feasted,” an old woman has renamed her dog Minuar, after the French name for the UN peacekeeping mission she says “failed to protect us.” She explains that her own dog “fattened up on human flesh during the genocide,” even feasting on the bodies of some of her family members: “We all know each other around here, so he probably did eat people he knew.” Though brief, the novel poses large questions and insinuates itself into an ongoing literary discussion about how to record the horrific acts of the genocide. From the first line, Waberi’s stunning book pays testimony to his delicate dilemma: “One almost feels like opening with an apology for the very existence of this work.” (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"'Harvest of Skulls' describes people's 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."—The GW Hatchet

"The novel's fractured form lends the subject matter depth and scale; while the stories are each personal and intimate, the collective pain is vast. . . . Though brief, the novel poses large questions and insinuates itself into an ongoing literary discussion about how to record the horrific acts of the genocide. From the first line, Waberi's stunning book pays testimony to his delicate dilemma: 'One almost feels like opening with an apology for the very existence of this work.'"—Publishers Weekly

"An elegant writer-novelist."—RFI Voices of the World

"One of the more inventive of a new wave of African writers, Waberi is also unique in the range of his influences."—Anderson Tepper, contributor to Vanity Fair and Words without Borders

"One of the main agendas of Abdourahman Waberi's 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."—Kate Kelsall, author of The Culture Trip

"Waberi is equally at ease recounting the tragic fate and tumultuous nature of current events in Africa as he is evoking the pulsating beauty of its landscape and the luminous memory."—Télérama

"Abdourahman Waberi is a land surveyor who assembles his stories from glittering kaleidoscopic beads: modern in form, schooled on the writing of authors such as Nurrudin Farah, Sole Woyinka or Derek Walcott, poetic and ironic in tone – and mercilessly direct when it comes to pointing out the African traumas of colonisation, the struggle for independence, civil war, dictatorship and catastrophic famine . . . Harvest of Skulls is a book opposing forgetfulness."—Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD

From the Publisher

'Harvest of Skulls' describes people's 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.

The GW Hatchet