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thebrownbookbabe 's review for:
Our Lady of the Nile
by Scholastique Mukasonga
The elite all girls boarding school - ‘Our Lady Of The Nile’ - sits near the source of the river nile, high in the hills of Rwanda. The students are sent there to be moulded into respectable citizens of Rwanda, over the watchful eyes of colonial nuns. Set fifteen years prior to the 1994 Genocide, the school only permits two Tutsi students for every twenty Hutu, giving the reader an insight into the bubbling racial tensions of the country.
In the first half of the book, we learn more about each girl at the lycée. Whilst the conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi is not directly addressed at the beginning, the sinister dynamic is clear through the language and behaviour of the girls at the lycée.
“So what did you come to the lycée for? You should have stayed in the sticks munching bananas in the fields. You would have made room for a real Rwandan from the majority people.”
Mukasonga brilliantly weaves in the history of colonialism and the ideas that are created by white Europeans in reference to Africa as a whole, as well as the Hutu’s and the Tutsi. These ideas and beliefs are reinforced throughout the country and at the lycée.
“Africa had no history, because Africans could neither read nor write before the missionaries opened their schools. Besides, it was the Europeans who had discovered Africa and dragged it into history.”
The way these colonial beliefs are casually dropped in throughout the book, highlights the devastating impact white Europeans had on building & instigating this conflict.
As the novel moves forwards, the girls increasingly emulate the discrimination they see around them towards their fellow students. This belief system is subtly adopted by the teachers at the school, which further adds to the building tension. Without saying too much, whilst I was anticipating some form of violence, I was shocked at the ease of how it happened and the brutality of it. This was such a moving and eye opening read.
In the first half of the book, we learn more about each girl at the lycée. Whilst the conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi is not directly addressed at the beginning, the sinister dynamic is clear through the language and behaviour of the girls at the lycée.
“So what did you come to the lycée for? You should have stayed in the sticks munching bananas in the fields. You would have made room for a real Rwandan from the majority people.”
Mukasonga brilliantly weaves in the history of colonialism and the ideas that are created by white Europeans in reference to Africa as a whole, as well as the Hutu’s and the Tutsi. These ideas and beliefs are reinforced throughout the country and at the lycée.
“Africa had no history, because Africans could neither read nor write before the missionaries opened their schools. Besides, it was the Europeans who had discovered Africa and dragged it into history.”
The way these colonial beliefs are casually dropped in throughout the book, highlights the devastating impact white Europeans had on building & instigating this conflict.
As the novel moves forwards, the girls increasingly emulate the discrimination they see around them towards their fellow students. This belief system is subtly adopted by the teachers at the school, which further adds to the building tension. Without saying too much, whilst I was anticipating some form of violence, I was shocked at the ease of how it happened and the brutality of it. This was such a moving and eye opening read.