A. Apap, Writing the Unspeakable. The Rwandan Tragedy as Seen by the 'Writing by Duty of Memory' Collective - Francophone and Oral Literatures

French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Apap, Writing the Unspeakable. The Rwandan Tragedy as Seen by the 'Writing by Duty of Memory' Collective
Francophone and Oral Literatures

Anabel Apap

Writing the Unspeakable (The Rwandan Tragedy as Seen by the “Writing by Duty of Memory” Collective)

ISBN: 979-10-94898-55-0

Passage(s), Caen, 2018.

125 x 210 mm
180 pages
18 €

OVERVIEW

In 1998, four years after the Rwandan genocide, ten African artists—writers Véronique Tadjo, Koulsy Lamko, Nocky Djedanoum, Boubacar Boris Diop, Monique Ilboudo, Vénuste Kayimahé, Jean-Marie Vianney Rurangwa, Tierno Monénembo, Meja Mwangi, and Abdourahman A. Waberi, as well as sculptor Bruce Clark and filmmaker Samba Félix N’Diaye—who formed the collective “Writing by Duty of Memory,” traveled to the scene of the tragedy. For two months, they visited the sites of the crimes, spoke with survivors, and questioned perpetrators. Their goal was to transform the fragmented memories of the genocide into a collective memory, to put the unspeakable into words, and to find a form that transcends the boundaries between factual and fictional writing in order to capture the genocide in all its horror and human dimension. How do we write the unspeakable? This is the question this essay seeks to answer.

Anabel Apap, a specialist in Francophone literature and postcolonial theory, holds a PhD from Sorbonne University and the University of Malta. Her current research focuses on migration issues in Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan African literature and cinema.

This study situates the 1998 collective initiative within the broader landscape of postcolonial African literature and trauma studies. Following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, African intellectuals felt a profound urgency to respond to the catastrophe. By analyzing the works of writers such as Boubacar Boris Diop, Véronique Tadjo, and Tierno Monénembo, Apap highlights how these authors grappled with the ethical responsibility of witnessing. She examines how they attempted to bridge the gap between historical documentation and literary representation in the face of unspeakable violence.

Apap's work addresses central questions in contemporary literary theory: how can language convey absolute horror without aestheticizing suffering, and where does testimony end and fiction begin? The concept of the duty of memory is central here, serving as both an ethical imperative and a creative challenge. This volume is an invaluable resource for researchers and students of Francophone literature, postcolonial theory, and memory studies. It offers deep insights into how literature can engage with historical trauma and help construct a shared human memory.