Author: Scholastique Mukasonga
The Barefoot Woman is a moving, unforgettable tribute to a Tutsi woman who did everything to protect her children from the Rwandan genocide, by the daughter who refuses to let her family’s story be forgotten.
Author Scholastique Mukasonga focuses her authorial lens on a historical segment isolated from within a kaleidoscope of major events.
She brings forth the history lived and suffered by her people who are forced to abandon their homes.
They endure the process of relocation and invest their energy into new places with fewer resources and the fear of death knocking at their door.
In The Barefoot Woman, translated from the French into English by Jordan Stump, Mukasonga attempts to fulfill her daughterly duty: “Mama, I wasn’t there to cover your body, and all I have left is words — words in a language you did not understand — to do as you asked. And I’m all alone with my feeble words, and on the pages of my notebook, over and over, my sentences weave a shroud for your missing body.”
Born in Rwanda in 1956, Mukasonga experienced from childhood the violence and humiliation of the ethnic conflicts that shook her country.
