Prosa der Verhältnisse #29

The acclaimed Rwandan author Scholastique Mukasonga is our next guest in the Prosa der Verhältnisse literary series with her novel Kibogos Himmelfahrt. With humour and depth, this poetic novel addresses the conflict between traditional beliefs and colonial Christianisation and opens up the Western canon to Rwanda’s oral tradition. Deniz Utlu speaks with Mukasonga about saints and spirits, history and stories, collective memory, language and colonialism and about what all that has to do with the king’s son Kibogo, who used to be able to invoke the rains.

Prosa der Verhältnisse is a literary series organised by the Maxim Gorki Theatre and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

Illustration: Leyla Sehar